Better Financial Counseling Network
Better Finances. Better Living.
Better Financial Counseling Network
Better Finances. Better Living.
For 2021 Congress made a big change to the Child Care and Dependent Credit, which helps families cover child care costs -usually a little, but now maybe a lot more. The child care credit typically applies for a child under 13 or a disabled dependent. Also, the taxpayer (and spouse, if filing Married Filing Jointly(MFJ) …
Here’s Four Alternatives: to stop that and start this… Many taxpayers say they like having more money withheld for Federal income taxes than needed, so that they’re forced to save. They “cash out” that savings when they get their refund. Unfortunately, letting the government hold onto your money: Means you’re not using it to meet …
The advance child tax credit payments have a deadline of June 28th to opt out of all the payments if taxpayers desire. In most cases the advance payments are helpful, but in some they could actually end up causing financial hardship, so I’ve been actively letting people know about it. If you claimed children on your …
Many taxpayers like to get a big tax refund. It feels good to get that big bank deposit. But is that really a good idea? In my opinion not if you can avoid it. Sometimes a big refund is unavoidable. For some, in particular relatively low income taxpayers or large family taxpayers who qualify for …
In a prior blog post, Do the 2021 Changes to the Child Tax Credit Impact You? – Better Financial Counseling Network, I talked about some tax changes from The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 which many families and many taxpayers will find helpful. However, some should do a bit of analysis to avoid …
I don’t normally write about taxes much this time of year, but one of the tax changes from The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 may require taxpayers with children to put some extra thought into their tax planning and their budgeting. So, I plan to talk about it frequently. The Child Tax Credit …
Why should I be careful when choosing a tax professional? The tax professional will have access to key personal and financial information, such as your social security number, income and investment information. You need someone knowledgeable and trustworthy. You are still responsible. IRS Criminal Investigation (CI), notes, “Taxpayers are responsible for the accuracy of all …
Military Life is full of adventures and if we’re honest, complications. In addition to normal life changes: marriage, a baby, divorce, sending a kid to college, you may have taken on moving, deployments, or become an accidental landlord. In 2020, COVID added many new complications to all our lives including taxes. Read more in 2020 …
Tax season is upon us. Like nearly every facet of our lives, 2020 taxes have been impacted by COVID. Warning 1: E-File may be your best friend this year, as there is a backlog in processing Paper returns. It’s been widely reported and confirmed by the IRS, that there are still millions of 2019 tax …
We all know the year we just finished up. But many of us aren’t certain of some of the tax impacts we’ll see when we file our tax return. I will discuss a few of those. Many taxpayers received an economic impact payment earlier in 2020 and many received a stimulus payment late December and …