Finance Tax Time

They say the world works on a concept known as balance. To counterbalance the joys of your honeymoon, you get the misery of filing a joint tax return with your spouse.

If you have recently married, you are hopefully living a blissful life of humor and happiness. The birds are singing, everyday is sunny and so on. Alas, there is one event each year that brings the joy of newlyweds to a screeching halt. That event occurs when you must sit down and file a joint tax return. Somewhere, a divorce attorney is smiling.

Before you and the spouse start shouting at each other, it probably makes sense to figure out how you will file. Essentially, you have two choices. The first is known as married filing jointly and it usually the best way to go. The second is married filing separately and often results in higher taxes being paid. Yes, this all takes into account the “marriage penalty” for taxes. The media has the problems backwards.

There is, however, one instance when going with married filing separately may definitely make sense. The situation occurs where there is a serious imbalance in the earnings of each spouse, to wit, one is making a lot more than the other. Mentioning the issue alone can be a test on a relationship, but taxes are all about saving money. Essentially, the situation boils down to deductions. If you itemize, but lose deductions under the joint filing, it is time to file separately. The only way to tell [groan] is to actually prepare the tax returns for each situation. Hey, nobody said taxes were fun.

If you really want to tackle a tough issue, there is one other time when you should definitely file separately. Since you can’t slap me through the computer, I can tell you it is when your marriage is on the rocks. The reason has to do with joint liability. You and your spouse are jointly liable for all taxes you owe the government. If one of you does not pay, the IRS will look to either of you to get its money. When marriages go bad, the failure to pay taxes is often used by a disgruntled spouse for revenge. While filing separately makes logical sense, marriage problems are not logical. Give a lot of thought to the process before bringing this issue up.

In general, filing jointly is the way to go in most marriages. There are instances that call for filing separately, just be very careful about how you approach them!

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While the middle of January may seem a bit early to begin
thinking about taxes, 1099-MISC filing deadlines are looming
for businesses. Generally speaking, IRS 1099-MISC is the
form used to report miscellaneous income that you paid to
persons during 2004 in the course of your trade or business.

Does This Apply To My Business?

The 1099-MISC forms must be issued to any person that you
have paid at least $600 in rents, services or other income
payments. Typically, you should issue the form to any
independent contractor that you paid $600 to during 2004.
For example, if you paid a designer $1,500 to build and
maintain a website in 2004 for your business, a 1099-MISC
filing would be required. As with practically any IRS
filing, there are additional situations that require a 1099
filing [ex: any fishing boat proceeds], so make sure you
cover your bases by looking at the relevant instructions.
Generally, you are not required to report payments to a
corporation.

When and What Must Be Filed?

The 1099-MISC form is a multi-layered carbon form, so make
sure the information you provide appears clearly on all of
the copies. Once you have filled out the form, you must
provide Copy B to the person that you are reporting to the
IRS by January 31, 2005. Using our previous example, you
would mail Copy B to your website designer before the end of
January.

Copy A of the 1099-MISC form is intended for the IRS. You
are required to file it by February 28, 2005 if you are
sending the form by mail. If you prefer to file
electronically, you have until March 31, 2005 to file the
form.

Revealing a particular flair for red tape, the IRS requires
you to file an additional form if you are filing Copy A of
the 1099-MISC by mail. In such a situation, you must file an
“Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns”
form. This summary is better known as Form 1096 and you
should have already received a copy of it in the mail from
the IRS.

Where To Find These Forms

To the surprise of many people, the IRS has an excellent
website containing information and tax forms. Unfortunately,
the site is fairly useless when it comes to obtaining tax
forms that you can actually file. You cannot download and
use any 1099 form from the website. If you try to print
forms from the site and use them, you run into two problems.
First, the IRS computers will not be able to read the forms
and will reject them. Second, it is doubtful that you will
be printing on multi-layered carbon paper, which means you
will have no Copy B of the 1099. Obviously, either situation
can attract unwanted attention from the IRS.

You can order forms from the IRS by calling 1-800-tax-form
or ordering them off of the IRS website [do not download].
The IRS suggests it typically takes at least two weeks for
the forms to be delivered, but keep in mind that it may take
longer. If you need the forms sooner, you usually can find
them at libraries and post offices.

Richard A. Chapo is with BusinessTaxRecovery.com - providing information on tax and taxes. Visit us to read more tax articles and our new tax credits page.

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You just got done paying taxes or filing an extension and are grumpy. If you are smart, you will use this miserable event to save some cash for next year.

Using This Years Taxes to Save On Next Years Taxes

For most people, preparing and filing taxes is the equivalent of sticking a pin in a body part. It simply is not fun. Heck, it is not even amusing. One of the reasons is you inevitably find some part of the process where you wonder how you could possible not have more deductions or credits. You fully realize you should tweak your finances to maximize certain expense areas and, by God, you are definitely going to do it for next year. This admirable goal, much like a New Years Resolution, fades into antiquity after about a month. You should not let this happen!

There is no better time than now to proactively plan for savings on next year’s taxes. Having just completed your taxes, you inherently know where you got hurt. Even if you do not, you inevitably felt like you paid more than your fair share. To avoid this, you need to do some tax planning.

Stop groaning. Tax planning may sound boring, but it actually very exciting if you think about it the right way. If I told you a trip to Vegas would definitely result in $2,000 in your pocket, would you be excited to go? Of course you would. Well, tax planning has the same the result. You need to focus on the amount of money you will save.

The best way to go about tax planning is with a proactive accountant. Yes, they cost money, but they will save you far more than you spend and you can write off their fees. A win-win if ever there was one.

When selecting a CPA, you want a proactive one. You want them to look at your tax return and tell you where money can be saved. Then you want to know exactly how much you would have saved last year if you had taken the recommended steps. Yes, it will be painful, but it will also motivate you to get on board with their plan and stick with it.

Paying taxes this year was undoubtedly a painful experience. Analyze the specific areas that caused you pain, and next year will be blissful.

Richard A. Chapo is with BusinessTaxRecovery.com - providing information on taxes. Visit us to read more articles about tax deductions and our new tax help page.

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