Beginning January 1, 2020, Illinois has a new Minimum Wage Credit. Employers with 50 or less full-time equivalent employees and that have employees that had been earning less than the required minimum wage but are now being paid the required minimum wage.

Because so many fraudulent tax returns are filed right after e-filing opens up in January, the IRS requires 1099-MISCs for NEC to be filed by January 31st and will not release refunds for individual income tax returns that include the earned income tax credit until the NEC amounts can be verified.

Tax debt can quickly snowball from interest, penalties, late fees, and the amount of the taxes due. And if you have unpaid taxes that you haven’t yet been making payments toward, it might make you fearful that the IRS will come knocking one day. However, a lot of the scaremongering surrounding the IRS is largely sensationalized in media and daily conversation. Rest assured, agents won’t come bursting through your door just because you have tax debt.

With the year soon coming to an end, it’s time to think about year-end tax compliance, including W-2 reporting. While your outside payroll provider can report usual salary and wages without any issues, we often see errors in which employers don’t provide the W-2 preparer with taxable non-cash fringe benefits. Fringe benefits must be computed and included in employees’ wages prior to December 31 in order to allow for the timely withholding and depositing of payroll taxes.

As you fill your shopping cart this holiday season you might be wincing at the price tag of some of the presents for your family and friends. But did you know that certain holiday gifts can yield tax benefits? While your online shopping won’t help minimize your taxes, larger gifts can go a long way in bringing you benefits in 2020. Here are a few examples:

Although you can’t avoid taxes, you can take steps to minimize them. This requires proactive tax planning – estimating your tax liability, looking for ways to reduce it and taking timely action. To help you identify strategies that might work for you, we’re pleased to present the 2019 – 2020 Tax Planning Guide.

Over the last few decades, Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) have gone mainstream. But what are MLPs? They are companies structured as partnerships and traded on the stock exchanges. You can buy units of the partnership as easily as you can buy common stock.

You may want to call us crazy when we tell you that taxes are right around the corner! It might seem like you just filed your 2018 return (especially if you requested an extension), but it’s already time to begin preparing for filing in 2020.