The knowledge you need

At the end of last year, President Trump signed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which made changes to retirement saving opportunities and benefits for employees and other individuals. There has been a significant concern for some time that American’s are not saving nearly enough to fund their retirement. This is attributed to limited access to retirement plans, plans that lack automatic enrollment, poor plan education, and other saving restrictions.

The start of a new year is a time of renewed vigor, increased energy and broad optimism. Capitalizing on this, many businesses have carefully reviewed strategy, established tactics, set the budget and are now focused on execution. While specific opportunities vary by company size and industry, the goal is almost always the same – to increase growth and revenue. 

The construction industry is still looking for ways to solve the worker shortage puzzle, an issue plaguing the industry. The problem started when the recession hit the industry hard resulting in large scale layoffs leaving qualified workers with no future job prospects. When the economy changed when the demand for new residential, commercial and other projects increased there were far fewer workers available. This has left many looking for new ways to fill the gap through more aggressive compensation and recruiting, as well as, the introduction of enhanced technology.

When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed in late 2017 many significant changes to the tax code were made. These changes were designed to make the U.S. more business-friendly by lowering business taxes and offering new saving opportunities. One such opportunity was the introduction of Qualified Opportunity Zones investment. In late December, the IRS issued final regulations covering a variety of investment details.

When suffering comes it can be a challenge to manage through it. Finding processes and methods for dealing with even the most challenging of circumstances, cancer, is not easy. Not only do patients often need complex medications to fight the disease, support and encouragement of friends and loved ones, but also medical supplies for the journey.

As Georgia nonprofits and other tax-exempt entities return from the holidays, it’s time to settle in and get re-focused on managing various service programs and delivering needed assistance. While the last few months may have been focused on year-end financial reporting, tax planning and budget preparation for 2020, there was an important change made in 2019 impacting how nonprofits file their tax returns.

Saving for retirement is something that every individual needs to tackle especially during the prime earning years. Ensuring there is enough money available to fund spending in retirement is a necessity since the benefits offered through social security are simply insufficient to the task. While it sounds logical, there are several obstacles that have made it more difficult for retirement savings to occur.

Section 199A, also called the qualified business income (QBI) deduction, gives owners of pass-through entities a deduction on their personal income tax returns for up to 20% of business income. This deduction can significantly reduce income tax burdens for those who qualify. Unfortunately, taxpayers’ deductions will be reduced if their taxable incomes are too high, and those who work in certain service industries may lose their deductions altogether. There is no perfect technique for avoiding this taxable income limitation but making additional charitable contributions may help.

Self-employed physicians, like many other business owners, are well into their second tax season following the principles outlined in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The qualified business income deduction (QBI deduction) – also known as Section 199A – continues to play an important role in year-end planning discussions. As the year ends, it is a good time to revise prior year’s QBI deduction strategies.

This is a special distribution taken from a 401(k) (or other plan types) to help the participant with an immediate and heavy financial need. The need can be directly attributed to the participant or be a need of the participant’s spouse, dependent, or in some cases non-spouse or non-dependent. A hardship distribution may not exceed the amount of the participant’s need but may include the amount needed to pay for penalties and taxes which may arise.