After falling for two consecutive years, interest rates on federal student loans are now rising. The following table shows the interest rates for new Direct Loans first disbursed on or after July 1, 2017, and before July 1, 2018. The rate is fixed for the life of the loan.

On September 7, 2017, Equifax, one of the three main credit reporting agencies, announced a massive data security breach that exposed vital personal identification data — including names, addresses, birth dates, and Social Security numbers — on as many as 143 million consumers, roughly 55% of Americans age 18 and older. (1)

Do you work at home or have a home-based business? If so, you should be aware that the IRS has created a simpler option for calculating the deduction for the business use of your home. The new option makes recordkeeping easier because, instead of maintaining records of specific home office expenses, you can use a standard rate per square foot. The rate is $5 per square foot (up to a maximum of 300 sq. feet or $1,500) for qualifying business use space in place of taking a pro rata percentage of items such as mortgage interest, taxes and repairs.

If your business falls behind in paying its payroll taxes, you may be contacted sooner rather than later by an Internal Revenue Service revenue officer. This may even be the case if you are using a third-party payroll service or if the deposits you are making have simply decreased over time. The contacts, which may include visits to your business, are part of the IRS Federal Tax Deposit Alert process, which aims to spot payroll tax problems before they become insurmountable—and incur significant interest and penalties.

If your business is a partnership, new audit and adjustment rules passed by Congress have significantly increased the chances that it could be audited. Your partnership operating agreement should be reviewed and possibly revised to address the rules and the new tax terms and concepts that they introduce. It is possible for some partnerships to opt out of the rules’ provisions, but careful consideration should be given to this decision and to other concerns.

Have you made building improvements recently or are you planning any in the near term? Then you may qualify to take advantage of new rules for “qualified improvement property.” This category is broader than the former “qualified leasehold improvement property” category. Businesses may now be eligible to use bonus depreciation for improvements to the interiors of nonresidential real property made after the building was placed in service. There are limitations, but we can help you determine which property or improvements will or won’t qualify. 

Many people make donations to charities whose work they support, but if you are planning to take a tax deduction for your gift, you must have the proper paperwork. Assembling the right documentation can also be tricky because the requirements vary based on whether the donation is cash and on the value of your gift. If you donate less than $250 in cash, for example, a canceled check, credit card statement or similar record may be sufficient, but if you give more, you will need a written acknowledgement from the charity. An additional tax form—and possibly an appraisal—may be needed for non-cash donations, depending on their value. Of course, the organization itself must also qualify as a charity under IRS rules.

Year-end planning for your business is more important than ever since change is likely. Be sure that your books and records are in good order so we can review planning opportunities.

Changes to Tax Breaks

• Bonus Depreciation — Businesses have historically been able to deduct 50% of the adjusted basis of qualifying property in the first year the asset is placed into service, with any remaining basis subject to regular depreciation rules. Now businesses can plan to use it through 2019. However, the percent that can be deducted declines in 2018.
• Section 179 — Small businesses can immediately write off up to $500,000 of tangible business property (computers, office furniture, etc.) placed in service during the tax year. Both the $500,000 expensing limit and the $2 million phase-out are indexed to inflation and expanded to include qualified real property. Also, businesses can now expense air conditioning and heating units placed in service after 2015.
• Self-Employed (SE) Income Tax Rates:  
  • 12.4% Social Security tax on income up to $127,200
  • 2.9% Medicare tax — all SE income
  • 0.9% additional Medicare tax on earnings over $200,000 (single)

People are sometimes surprised to learn that the IRS regulates gifts over a certain size.  As a donor, you are responsible for reporting the gift if it exceeds $14,000 and paying the gift tax if you have given more than $5.45 million in cash or property (over a lifetime). Regardless of the amount, you cannot deduct a gift as you could with a charitable donation.  As a recipient, you do not need to include the gift as part of your taxable income. However, if you receive property other than cash, you will need to determine the cost basis at the time of the transfer to have the proper value in case you dispose of it later. 

Did you know that con artists posing as Internal Revenue Service representatives frequently try to scam people out of their money? While this is a long-standing problem, the IRS has issued a new warning against thieves who may contact people on the phone or via email or a letter and try to trick them into divulging personal financial information, such as their Social Security or bank account numbers, or sending cash. And the scams can be tough to spot. Potential victims may see a fake caller ID that identifies the call as coming from the IRS or receive mail or email that appears to have the IRS letterhead or one like this that resembles the IRS website. The scammers typically try to intimidate victims into acting quickly—by, say, sending a payment to what they claim is an IRS address—by threatening arrest or some other consequence.