Blog | WM. F. Horne & Company, PLLC

You know the old line about the inevitability of death and taxes? It’s still true. What isn’t inevitable, however, is the need to pay penalties to the IRS. It happens, but it doesn’t have to, and the main reason that it does is because taxpayers don’t educate themselves about the rules. When you get hit with an IRS penalty, it adds on to a number that you already wish you didn’t…

Article Highlights:

• Home never rented
• Home rented for fewer than 15 days
• Home rented for at least 15 days with minor personal use
• Home rented for at least 15 days with major personal use
• Vacation home sales

If you have a second home in a resort area, or if you have been considering acquiring a second home or vacation home, you may have questions about how rental income is taxed for a part-time vacation-home rental….

Entrepreneurs often shrug off the idea of obtaining an employer identification number, or EIN, believing that their small business really doesn’t need one. Though there are some cases where a solo business can get away with merely utilizing the business owner’s Social Security Number, doing so is not necessarily the best idea, even if you don’t…

February 2019 Individual Due Dates

February 11 – Report Tips to Employer

If you are an employee who works for tips and received more than $20 in tips during January, you are required to report them to your employer on IRS Form 4070 no later than February 11.

Your employer is required to withhold FICA taxes and income tax withholding for these tips from your regular wages. If your regular wages are insufficient…

Article Highlights:

• Tax Reform
• Prepayments
• W-4
• Safe Harbor Payments
• Penalty Waivers & Exceptions
• Mitigating the Penalty

Taxpayers are required to pre-pay their taxes for any tax year through payroll withholding, estimated tax payments or a combination of the two. Employees and retirees generally accomplish this through withholding, and self-employed individuals and those with investment income by paying quarterly estimated payments.

The late-2017 passage of tax reform that became effective for 2018 and its radical changes added considerable confusion…

Article Highlights:

• 199A 20% Pass-Through Deduction
• Rental Safe Harbor Qualifications
• Books & Records
• 250 Hours
• Contemporaneous Record
• Triple Net Leases
• Vacation Home Rentals
• Double-Edged Sword

Ever since tax reform was passed, over a year ago, taxpayers have been uncertain whether rental property will be classified as a trade or business for purposes of qualifying for the new IRC Sec 199A 20% pass-through deduction (commonly referred to as the 199A deduction).

Finally, on January 18, 2019, the IRS issued a…

Article Highlights:

• W-4 Complications
• Working Spouse
• Adjusting Refund
• Other Income and Tax Issues

As they do at the beginning of every year, employers will be requesting employees to complete the IRS Form W-4. Its purpose is to provide employers with the information they need to determine the amount of federal income taxes to withhold from an employee’s paycheck. So, it is very important that the form be completed correctly.

The problem is that as simple as…

Article Highlights:

• Time to gather your information for your tax appointment
• New for 2018
• Choosing your alternatives
• Tips for pulling your information together

Tax time is just around the corner, and if you are like most taxpayers, you are finding yourself with the ominous chore of pulling together the records for your tax appointment. The difficultly of this task depends upon how well you maintained your tax records throughout the year. No matter how good…

Article Highlights:

• Pre-2019 Alimony
• Post-2018 Alimony
• Definition of Alimony
• Alimony and IRA Contributions
• State Treatment of Alimony

Welcome to 2019 and a delayed provision of the tax reform, also known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). For divorce agreements entered into after December 31, 2018, or pre-existing agreements that are modified after that date to expressly provide that alimony received is not included in the recipient’s income, alimony will no longer be…

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued patronage of our firm and wish you and yours a very happy New Year. We look forward to working with you on the preparation of your 2018 returns this tax season.

If you have questions related to income, deductions, credits, or preparing for your appointment, please call.