Individual Estimated Tax Rules

Sometimes, it can be helpful to look back at basic things and review the rules and requirements.

Individual Estimated Tax

Individuals must pay 25% of a “required annual payment” by Apr. 15, June 15, Sept. 15, and Jan. 15, to avoid an underpayment penalty. When that date falls on a weekend or holiday, the payment is due on the next business day.

The required annual payment for most individuals is the lower of 90% of the tax shown on the current year’s return or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the previous year. However, if the adjusted gross income on your previous year’s return was over $150,000 (over $75,000 if you are married filing separately), you must pay the lower of 90% of the tax shown on the current year’s return or 110% of the tax shown on the return for the previous year.

Most people who receive the bulk of their income in the form of wages satisfy these payment requirements through the tax withheld by their employer from their paycheck. Those who make estimated tax payments generally do so in four installments. After determining the required annual payment, they divide that number by four and make four equal payments by the due dates.

But you may be able to use the annualized income method to make smaller payments. This method is useful to people whose income flow is not uniform over the year, perhaps because of a seasonal business. For example, if your income comes exclusively from a business that you operate in a resort area during June, July, and August, no estimated payment is required before Sept. 15. You may also want to use the annualized income method if a significant portion of your income comes from sales of securities that are made at various times during the year.

If you fail to make the required payments, you may be subject to an underpayment penalty. The penalty equals the product of the interest rate charged by IRS on deficiencies, times the amount of the underpayment for the period of the underpayment.

However, the underpayment penalty doesn’t apply to you:

• (1) if the total tax shown on your return is less than $1,000 after subtracting withholding tax paid;
• (2) if you had no tax liability for the preceding year, you were a U.S. citizen or resident for that entire year, and that year was 12 months;
• (3) for the fourth (Jan. 15) installment, if you file your return by that Jan. 31 and pay your tax in full; or
• (4) if you are a farmer or fisherman and pay your entire estimated tax by Jan. 15, or pay your entire estimated tax and file your tax return by Mar. 1

In addition, IRS may waive the penalty if the failure was due to casualty, disaster, or other unusual circumstances and it would be inequitable or against good conscience to impose the penalty. The penalty can also be waived for reasonable cause during the first two years after you retire (after reaching age 62) or become disabled.

If you think you may be eligible to determine your estimated tax payments under the annualized income method, or you have any other specific questions about how the estimated tax rules apply to you, please contact your tax advisor.  If you are a customer, we would be happy to meet with you.

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If you want to talk to us about your personal tax situation, please email us via our contact page and visit our website at www.ablonco.com.

© 2020, all rights reserved.

Environmental Cleanup Costs

If your company faces the need to “remediate” or clean up environmental contamination, the money you spend can be deductible on your tax return as ordinary and necessary business expenses. Of course, you want to claim the maximum immediate income tax benefits possible for the expenses you incur.

These expenses may include the actual cleanup costs, as well as expenses for environmental studies, surveys and investigations, fees for consulting and environmental engineering, legal and professional fees, environmental “audit” and monitoring costs, and other expenses.

Current deductions vs. capitalized costs

Unfortunately, every type of environmental cleanup expense cannot be currently deducted. Some cleanup costs must be capitalized. But, generally, cleanup costs are currently deductible to the extent they cover:

• “Incidental repairs” (for example, encapsulating exposed asbestos insulation); or
• Cleaning up contamination that your business caused on your own property (for example, removing soil contaminated by dumping wastes from your own manufacturing processes, and replacing it with clean soil) — if you acquired that property in an uncontaminated state.

On the other hand, remediation costs generally have to be capitalized if the remediation:

• Adds significantly to the value of the cleaned-up property,
• Prolongs the useful life of the property,
• Adapts the property to a new or different use,
• Makes up for depreciation, amortization or depletion that’s been claimed for tax purposes, or
• Creates a separate capital asset that’s useful beyond the current tax year.

However, parts of these types of remediation costs may qualify for a current deduction. It depends on the facts and circumstances of your situation. For example, in one case, the IRS required a taxpayer to capitalize the costs of surveying for contamination various sites that proved to be contaminated, but allowed a current deduction for the costs of surveying the sites that proved to be uncontaminated.

Maximize the tax breaks

In addition to federal tax deductions, there may be state or local tax incentives involved in cleaning up contaminated property. The tax treatment for the expenses can be complex. If you have environmental cleanup expenses, we can help plan your efforts to maximize the deductions available.

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If you want to talk to us about your personal tax situation, please email us via our contact page and visit our website at www.ablonco.com.

© 2020, all rights reserved.

 

Tax Limit Changes for 2020

An array of tax-related limits that affect businesses are annually indexed for inflation, and many have increased for 2020. Here are some that may be important to you and your business.

Social Security tax

The amount of employees’ earnings that are subject to Social Security tax is capped for 2020 at $137,700 (up from $132,900 for 2019).

Deductions

• Section 179 expensing:
  • Limit: $1.04 million (up from $1.02 million for 2019)
• • Phaseout: $2.59 million (up from $2.55 million)

• Income-based phase-out for certain limits on the Sec. 199A qualified business income deduction begins at:
  • Married filing jointly: $326,600 (up from $321,400)
• • Married filing separately: $163,300 (up from $160,725)
  • Other filers: $163,300 (up from $160,700)

Retirement plans

• Employee contributions to 401(k) plans: $19,500 (up from $19,000)
• Catch-up contributions to 401(k) plans: $6,500 (up from $6,000)
• Employee contributions to SIMPLEs: $13,500 (up from $13,000)
• Catch-up contributions to SIMPLEs: $3,000 (no change)
• Combined employer/employee contributions to defined contribution plans (not including catch-ups): $57,000 (up from $56,000)
• Maximum compensation used to determine contributions: $285,000 (up from $280,000)
• Annual benefit for defined benefit plans: $230,000 (up from $225,000)
• Compensation defining a highly compensated employee: $130,000 (up from $125,000)
• Compensation defining a “key” employee: $185,000 (up from $180,000)

Other employee benefits

• Qualified transportation fringe-benefits employee income exclusion: $270 per month (up from $265)
• Health Savings Account contributions:
  • Individual coverage: $3,550 (up from $3,500)
  • Family coverage: $7,100 (up from $7,000)
  • Catch-up contribution: $1,000 (no change)
• Flexible Spending Account contributions:
  • Health care: $2,750 (no change)
  • Dependent care: $5,000 (no change)

These are only some of the tax limits that may affect your business and additional rules may apply. If you have questions, please contact us.

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If you want to talk to us about your personal tax situation, please email us via our contact page and visit our website at www.ablonco.com.

© 2020, all rights reserved.

 

Multi-state Seller News

In its 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld South Dakota’s “economic nexus” statute, expanding the power of states to collect sales tax from remote sellers. Today, nearly every state with a sales tax has enacted a similar law, so if your company does business across state lines, it’s a good idea to reexamine your sales tax obligations.

What’s nexus?

A state is constitutionally prohibited from taxing business activities unless those activities have a substantial “nexus,” or connection, with the state. Before Wayfair, simply selling to customers in a state wasn’t enough to establish nexus. The business also had to have a physical presence in the state, such as offices, retail stores, manufacturing or distribution facilities, or sales reps.

In Wayfair, the Supreme Court ruled that a business could establish nexus through economic or virtual contacts with a state, even if it didn’t have a physical presence. The Court didn’t create a bright-line test for determining whether contacts are “substantial,” but found that the thresholds established by South Dakota’s law are sufficient: Out-of-state businesses must collect and remit South Dakota sales taxes if, in the current or previous calendar year, they have 1) more than $100,000 in gross sales of products or services delivered into the state, or 2) 200 or more separate transactions for the delivery of goods or services into the state.

Nexus steps

The vast majority of states now have economic nexus laws, although the specifics vary:Many states adopted the same sales and transaction thresholds accepted in Wayfair, but a number of states apply different thresholds. And some chose not to impose transaction thresholds, which many view as unfair to smaller sellers (an example of a threshold might be 200 sales of $5 each would create nexus).

If your business makes online, telephone or mail-order sales in states where it lacks a physical presence, it’s critical to find out whether those states have economic nexus laws and determine whether your activities are sufficient to trigger them. If you have nexus with a state, you’ll need to register with the state and collect state and applicable local taxes on your taxable sales there. Even if some or all of your sales are tax-exempt, you’ll need to secure exemption certifications for each jurisdiction where you do business. Alternatively, you might decide to reduce or eliminate your activities in a state if the benefits don’t justify the compliance costs.

Need help?

Note: If you make sales through a “marketplace facilitator,” such as Amazon or Ebay, be aware that an increasing number of states have passed laws that require such providers to collect taxes on sales they facilitate for vendors using their platforms.

If you need assistance in setting up processes to collect sales tax or you have questions about your responsibilities, contact us.

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If you want to talk to us about your personal tax situation, please email us via our contact page and visit our website at www.ablonco.com.

© 2020, all rights reserved.

 

More Provisions of the SECURE Act

As you’ve probably heard, a new law was recently passed with a wide range of retirement plan changes for employers and individuals. One of the provisions of the SECURE Act involves a new requirement for employers that sponsor tax-favored defined contribution retirement plans that are subject to ERISA.

What is the SECURE Act?

A significant law was recently passed that adds tax breaks and makes changes to employer-provided retirement plans. If your small business has a current plan for employees or if you’re thinking about adding one, you should familiarize yourself with the new rules.

Gift and Estate Tax Update

Recap of recent changes

As a result of the large estate tax exemption amount that was set in 2011 at $5 million (increased to $10 million for estates of decedent’s dying in 2018 through 2025), which increases annually for inflation (the amount is $11,180,000 in 2018, and $11,400,000 in 2019), many estates no longer need to be concerned with federal estate tax. Before 2011, the smaller estate tax exemption amount resulted in estate plans that attempted to avoid the estate tax, but were not concerned with minimizing income tax. Now, because many estates will not be subject to estate tax (thanks to that large exemption amount), planning for such estates can be devoted almost exclusively to saving income taxes. While saving both income and transfer taxes has always been a goal of estate planning, it was more difficult to succeed at both when the estate and gift tax exemption level was much lower. Below are some tax planning strategies you may want to revisit in light of the large exemption amount and other recent changes in the law.