Montgomery Community Media

Key tax provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 could affect your tax situation. Here’s what you need to know: Child and Dependent Care Credit Increased for 2021 Only The new tax law affected taxpayers in several ways. First, it increased the dollar amount of the credit and the amount of eligible expenses […]

While the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) tends to affect wealthier individuals most often, in certain circumstances, it can also affect moderate-income taxpayers whose income increases significantly in a given tax year. Here’s what you need to know. What is the Net Investment Income Tax? The Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) is a 3.8 percent […]

If you’ve given money or property to someone as a gift, you may owe federal gift tax, but in many cases, you will not. For example, there is usually no tax if you make a gift to your spouse or a charity. If you make a gift to someone else, the gift tax usually does […]

Apps like Robinhood make it easy for everyone to play the stock market. If you’re a retail investor who made money last year buying and selling stocks, you may owe capital gains tax when you file your tax return this year. If you lost money, you may be able to deduct that loss and reduce […]

Many people assume tax planning is the same as tax preparation, but the two are quite different. Let’s take a closer look: What is Tax Preparation? Tax preparation is the process of preparing and filing a tax return. Generally, it is a one-time event that culminates in signing your return and finding out whether you […]

The “Dirty Dozen” is a list of common tax scams that target taxpayers. Compiled and issued annually every year by the IRS, this year it includes many aggressive and evolving schemes related to coronavirus tax relief, including Economic Impact Payments. The criminals behind these bogus schemes view everyone as potentially easy prey and everyone should […]

Individuals with significant assets who want to transfer wealth to heirs tax-free, as well as minimize estate taxes, should take advantage of proven tax strategies such as gifting and direct payments to educational institutions; however low interest rates and a volatile stock market are creating additional opportunities. Let’s take a look at some of the […]

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the stimulus bill that was signed into law on March 27, 2020, contains legislation to stabilize the economy during the coronavirus pandemic. These measures include economic recovery checks for taxpayers, as well as several other tax provisions affecting individuals. Let’s take a look at a few […]

January 27 marked the start of this year’s tax filing season. Complicating matters is a newly revised Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. With more than 150 million individual tax returns expected to be filed for the 2019 tax year, here’s what individual taxpayers can expect: Another New Design for Form 1040 The new […]

While the 2020 tax filing season promises to be less confusing than 2019, there are still a number of changes that taxpayers should be aware of. New, Revised or Updated Tax Forms Form 1040: Revised and Redesigned The IRS released a draft Form 1040 for 2019 tax returns that has been updated from the 2018 […]