Today we will address some improvements to 529 college savings plans. The first change came about as a result of the recently passed tax bill. The new bill expands what the money in a 529 can be used for to include computer equipment and other technology as part of a qualified higher education expense. The second change applies to College Savings Iowa 529 plans. Effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2015, Iowa taxpayers may now elect to treat contributions

The IRS has issued the 2016 standard mileage rates. These are used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical, and moving purposes. Beginning on January 1, 2016, the standard mileage rate for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be: 54 cents per mile for business miles driven, which is a decrease of 3.5 cents from the 2015 rate. 19 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, which is also a decrease of

Today’s special edition will address the tax package that the House passed yesterday, the Senate is expected to pass today, and the president has indicated he will sign. In the recently passed “Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015” Congress has once again dealt with the expired or expiring provisions commonly known as “extenders”. These are the 50 or so temporary tax provisions that are routinely extended by Congress on a one or two year basis and have been

Unfortunately, the problem of scammers pretending to be the IRS continues to grow. This is a topic that we have addressed before, but it is serious enough that it is important that we discuss it again. An aggressive and sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers has been making the rounds throughout the country. Callers claim to be employees of the IRS, but are not. These con artists can sound convincing when they call. They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badg

Today we will discuss the status of the annual tax extenders bill. Once again, Congress needs to pass legislation to extend over 50 different items that expired at the end of 2014. Unless Congress acts, taxpayers will be unable to use these provisions on their 2015 returns. Historically, they have extended these items for one or two years at a time. They are trying to make some of the provisions permanent, but have not had any success yet. The Senate plans to adjourn for Chr

Congress has yet to pass the extenders legislation so we still do not know if bonus depreciation or section 179 will go above its current limit of $25,000 for 2015. However the IRS released a notice last week that does offer some relief in this area going forward. As an alternative to the general capitalization rule, the final regulations permits businesses to elect to expense their outlays for “de minimis” business expenses. The IRS has announced an increase, from $500 to $2