IRA owners in mandatory distribution status need not take their Required Minimum Distributions for tax year 2020. The waiver is part of last week’s legislative action taken by Congress and signed into law by the President to provide fiscal stimulus during the COVID-19 crisis. Governmental logic (not meant as an oxymoron but…) is that without [...]
The current COVID-19-induced economic and financial shocks aside there are some fascinating trends developing in the United States with equally fascinating socioeconomic implications. OBSERVATIONS People are angry. It isn’t hyperbole to suggest the country has never been more divided at any other point in time but for the issues of slavery and states’ rights in [...]
Now that the noise has died down (a bit) we've opted to say a few words.
As follow up to the March 17th announcement of a three-month reprieve to pay 2019 income taxes the IRS has issued Notice 2020-18 extending the deadline for the filing of returns. Previously returns were due on/before April 15th despite the additional time allowed for payment.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Tuesday that taxpayers will get a three-month reprieve to pay their 2019 income taxes as part of the federal government’s coronavirus response. Returns, however, must still be filed by the traditional April 15th deadline. Filers will have 90 days to pay income taxes due on up to $1 million in [...]
Americans love sports. Why? The reasons are seemingly endless. A popular feature is certainty. At the end of the game there’s a clear winner and loser. Along with certainty comes fairness. We want what’s “right.” What else explains instant replay? Americans loves politics. Why? The reasons are seemingly endless. A popular feature is certainty. At [...]
In today’s hypersensitive PC culture everything is a personal affront. Should Phil Jackson refer to LeBron James’ business partners as a posse Reverend Al will call for a boycott of all things NY. Posse after all is code for all things racist. Even pointing this out will get us in hot water with the Twitterverse. [...]
On Wednesday the Internal Revenue Service announced tax year 2020 annual inflation adjustments. Impacts are negligible as if often the case. A detailed description of all adjustments is available in Revenue Procedure 2019-44. Those impacting the majority of taxpayers include: The standard deduction for taxpayers filing MFJ increases from $24,400 (tax year 2019) to $24,800. [...]
Today the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) announced that the cost of living adjustment (“COLA”) for 2020 will be 1.6%. The 2019 and 2018 COLAs were 2.8% and 2.0% respectively marking the 2020 change as a slowing of the rate of increase. Conversely it’s an improvement over years such as 2010, 2011 and 2016 when the [...]
In a surprise to no one (except the grandstanding politicians who brought legal action and did this and this) the four states (CT, MD, NJ and NY) challenging the $10,000 cap on the federal state and local tax (SALT) deduction created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lost their argument. On September 30th a [...]