Individual Tax

As we approach the end of 2020, we hope the attached year-end tax planning information will prove helpful. As always, R&A is here to assist you. From all of us at R&A, thank you for your business and your loyalty, and wishing you and your family a good holiday and New Year. With a new…

When you sell a capital asset—property owned and used for personal or investment purposes, let’s say—the sale will result in either a capital gain or a capital loss. You report that gain or loss on Schedule D of Form 1040. The capital assets you’ll most likely report on Schedule D are stocks, bonds, and homes…

Contrary to rumors, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) allows taxpayers who buy, build, or substantially improve their homes using either a home equity loan, home equity lines of credit (HELOC), or second mortgages to deduct interest on the loans. That’s the good news. But if you take out the loan to…

March 24, 2020 – President Trump has signed the Families First Coronavirus Act (HR 6201, the “Act”) intended to ease the economic consequences stemming from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak by providing family and medical leave, and sick leave, to employees and providing tax credits to employers and the self-employed providing the leave. Here…

Can you deduct medical and dental expenses? That’s a complicated question. To start with, your deductions must exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. And they must fall into an IRS-approved category. Deductible medical expenses may include, but aren’t limited to, the following: Payments of fees to doctors, dentists, surgeons, chiropractors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and…

The IRS has updated some rules for deductible expenses, as guidance in areas that may have been murky as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The rules being updated involve using optional standard mileage rates when figuring the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, or moving expense purposes, among…

The IRS can now assign eligible taxpayers an “IP PIN,” a six-digit code to help prevent the misuse of Social Security numbers on fraudulent federal income tax returns. As the IRS explains, this PIN helps the agency verify a taxpayer’s identity and accept his or her electronic or paper tax return. Not everyone can get…

In order to help taxpayers avoid scams in which criminals impersonate IRS employees, IRS has issued a Fact Sheet in which it sets out the ways that it does and does not contact taxpayers. Here are various ways that legitimate IRS employees contact taxpayers. IRS initiates most contacts with taxpayers through regular mail delivered by…