The Iowa Legislature's decision on whether or not to couple federal tax law changes will have a major impact on many people's tax returns this year. Here's a previous Tax Tip Tuesday blog on this issue. And this has left many Iowans wondering if they should wait to file. Unfortunately, at this time, there has not been any conclusion to this issue. The good news is that the Senate and governor are now willing to discuss how to pass this for 2015 tax returns. The bad news is t

You may want to wait to file your tax return. In the January 19th Tax Tip Tuesday, I indicated that the 2016 tax season was now open. That was correct for federal returns. Unfortunately, as we noted in last week’s edition, some state returns are still in limbo of when they should be filed. Because the Iowa Legislature has not passed the bill that couples the Iowa tax law with the federal tax code, it might be wise to wait to file for any return that contains any of the item

As you open this email, you are probably saying to yourself, wait a minute, it’s not Tuesday! You are correct, but the content this week is very time sensitive so we are here early. The first item today is the Iowa Caucus tonight. We have a great opportunity to influence who will be on the ballot for president this November. There are many different approaches to tax policy from the various candidates so this is going to be very important. Please be sure to participate to

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

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

Today we will revisit an important topic that affects many of our clients — the current status of the tax extender legislation. Unfortunately, it is still in limbo. The New Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady was called on by major industry groups to address tax extenders less than a day after he won the position, which was recently vacated by new House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-W). This year, like last, these temporary tax provisions have been expired for almost a year.

Now that Congress has acted, we want to break down the key issues of the American Taxpayer Relief Act, which is also referred to as the Fiscal Cliff Bill. Here's a breakdown of the key issues. Individual Tax Rates All the prior individual marginal tax rates are retained (10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, and 35%). For single filers with taxable income of over $400,000 and married couples filing jointly with over $450,000, a new top rate of 39.6% is imposed. Phaseout of Itemized D