Phoenix Accounting Firm | Year End Tax Planning
Now that we have gotten through Thanksgiving and December has arrived, it is time to being serious tax planning for yourself or your business. Before you make any kind of tax planning decisions, you need to figure out where you stand for your 2014 income taxes. If you make decisions without looking at where you stand, you could actually waste money that could have been used for other, more productive, things. For example, many of the Arizona tax credits are non-refundable. Meaning, if you don’t owe enough or any state income tax, the money is lost and not given as a credit. The best place to begin your forecast would be with your 2013 income tax return. You can then review your most recent paycheck stub and see how your income and withholding compares with last years. The next step is to figure out if anything is different from last year that would effect your income tax bill. Once you have done all of that, you can see how you are trending as the year comes to a close and see if you have withheld enough to cover this year’s tax bill. If not, you can adjust your withholding or send in a tax estimate. You can check out the current income tax brackets, deduction and exemption amounts at www.irs.gov. If you have a business, you would need to forecast your income and expenses for the remainder of the year to see how your taxable income will end up. It might make more sense to put off purchasing that piece of equipment until January. It also might make sense to stock up on supplies for next year now instead of waiting. Don’t hesitate to contact us at Dusseau & Makris, PC, your Phoenix CPA firm, to set up an appointment to go through all of these steps and help identify ways to plan for your 2014 income tax returns.