#5 Helpful Tax Tips
- FBAR : Do you have a Foreign bank account? If yes, then you need to check out this helpful Tax Tip! Message us @Mathews CPA Inc. to find out, how we can help you with your FBAR Filing!
2. Education Credit: You can save even more money on the cost of higher education. Make sure you have received the Form 1098-T from the College/University to file for the Education credit. This year you cannot get Education credit without Form 1098 -T
3. Business Tax Deductions: Take the Section 179 deduction.
This deduction allows you to recover the full cost of equipment or property up to $500,000 that you purchased for your business in the same year that you purchased it. This beats recovering the cost over a period of time like 5 or 10 years through depreciation deductions.
4. Home Office Deductions: If you use part of your home for business, you may be able to deduct expenses for the business use of your home. The home office deduction is available for homeowners and renters, and applies to all types of homes. If your office space takes up 20% of the house, you can deduct 20% of your bills for utilities, homeowners insurance, homeowners association fees, security, and general repairs and maintenance. Mortgage interest and property taxes are deductible expenses if you qualify for home office deductions.
5. Maximize your 401K Contributions: Many employers will match at least a portion of the money you contribute to your plan, and that money goes right into your 401k — it immediately boosts your account’s value, and you don’t have to pay tax on it.
The best way to maximize your 401k account is to contribute the annual limit.
A simple trick to help maximize your 401k savings is to automatically increase your contribution rate every month, quarter or year. If you can increase your contribution by 1 percent every year, you’ll be significantly increasing your contributions over time — and you’ll likely not even notice the increase.
