Tuesday, June 7, 2011

New Tax Laws for 2012

It can be a tough game keeping up with taxes. Every year many tax laws and new inheritance tax laws are signed into existence and many are also signed out of existence. Taxes are like an evolving, ever changing monster, and keeping up with all these changes can get pretty tiresome.

One of the biggest reasons they change so much is because so many people look for loopholes to get out of paying taxes, so the laws have to become more and more complicated to cover the loopholes people are constantly exploiting. However, for the rest of us who pay our taxes responsibly, it means more work come tax season. Whether it's new car tax laws or federal gift tax laws, there's always a long list of changes. Here are a few of the new tax laws you can expect next year and the coming years:

  • Firstly, there's the popular First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, which the Obama Administration has chosen to expand. The income limits for qualification have been widened as well, making it so even more people are eligible for the credit!
  • Another of the new tax law changes is the Payroll Tax Credit, where workers gain 6.2 percent credit of their income. It stops at $400 for single filers and $800 for married filers. Employees don't receive it as a rebate check, but instead as credit in advance through lower income tax withholding in each paycheck.
  • Standard Deductions will be $11,400 for married couples filing jointly, like it was in 2009. It's $5,700 for single filers filing standard tax deductions, which is up by $250 over last year, and it's $8,400 for heads of households, which is up $50 from last year. Also if you lived in a presidential declared disaster area, non itemizers can add causality losses.
  • Usually the amount of personal exemptions and itemized deductions you can take are phased out as your income level rises. For 2010, another new tax law repeals those limits on income levels, and that repeal is extended for two years by a recent tax relief act.
  • Business can now expense up to $500,000 for equipment placed in service, and the annual investment limit was raised to $2,000,000! This New Tax Law for 2010 and 2011 will make it so you wont lose the ability to expense unitl you place more than $2,000,000 of assets in service. For 2012, it drops to $120,000.
  • The Hope Credit will be replaced by a new credit: the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which provides $2,500 per year for four years of college, books included. For single filers, it begins to phase out at an income of about $80,000, and for joint filers it's at $160,000. 40% of it is refundable if the credit is more than your income tax liability.
  • If you're age 70 1/2 or older, you can donate $100,000 of your IRAs to charity throughout 2012 and you can deduct the donation as a charitable contribution. The Adjusted Gross Income cap on charitable contributions will not limit your deductions.
  • If your Adjusted Gross Income is $89,000 or less (married filing jointly) or $56,000 (head of household or single) and if you're covered by a retirement plan at work you can take a full IRA deduction in 2010. If your Adjusted Gross Income reaches $109,000, you can take a partial IRA deductions.
There are many more new tax laws being signed into existence this coming year, like the new child tax law and the new insulation tax law. If you go to TurboTax Online, you can find out about all of them. TurboTax Deluxe also searches a database of over 300 deductions that you may qualify for, including all the new ones!

New Tax Laws

New Tax Laws

There are so few constants in life in anymore, maybe there never were, but it’s possible that technology may be largely responsible for teaching us that from time to time it’s our duty to make sure that we have the most updated information in order to perform any task in life to the fullest. New federal income tax laws are especially important because of their obvious potential to redefine how you plan on managing your finances.

Not only will we see new tax laws from year to year, but new information on tax forms, renewed tax programs with different rates and limits, and wholly new programs which might call for a small celebration for some green-thinking or home-based business person.

But you won’t be getting any letters in the mail that will explicitly relay the updates on new tax laws just because you’re a tax payer, no, it’s your job to know.

Are the new federal standard income tax deductions going up or down this year? What about the new tax laws for married couples? Will you qualify for the earned income tax credit or any tuition related tax breaks? What about the gift tax exclusion or mileage deduction amount? Much of this information will actually be handy and even necessary to know before you sit down to file you taxes.

As you’re already finding out the internet can in fact be a wonderful source of information in regards to any hobby, process, institution, chore, legal obligations, finances, etc etc, the list goes on and on.

New Federal Income Tax Standard Deductions

However there is a way in which you can have access to the new tax laws without having to do nearly any sleuthing at all. Surprised? You shouldn’t be, the internet has come a long way since 56k dial up emailing. Online tax software like TurboTax Online will actually pair you up with all of the deductions and credits and breaks that are applicable to you automatically!

Of course you could still do things the old fashioned way, make a phone call, get an appointment, show up to someone’s office, but then you’re relying on human error or even slight fatigue which can both easily get in the way of you getting the most out of your money.

Not only are there many credits and new federal income tax standard deductions you might miss out on under new tax laws, but most tax returns experience delays and even audits (yikes) simply because of incorrectly entered information even if it’s just your address or personal information.

With online tax software your work is checked and double-checked and won’t be filed until all information is correct and you’ve gone over the choices that the software will offer up to you in regards to the new federal income tax laws.

Life has only gotten busier during this last decade, so why make yourself work harder and longer when the real work can be completed along with a 100% guarantee of getting the most money back possible?
The calculations and tax law sleuthing are no longer necessary!

TurboTax Online's safe and secure network has and will continue to win awards and the allegiance of tax payers every year. Between a notoriously secure network in a dangerous online world, their hundreds of free access tax articles and comprehensive and streamlined support system it’s becoming hard for any other service to out-do them.

For instance, if you had a specific question about a particular new federal income tax law, then all you would have to do is get onto their site, either use the search bar to look for the information, or pose a question to what’s called their “live community” .

The live community is made up of tax professionals and experienced taxpayers who do their best to answer questions like most other question forums. The thing is, if you need to know something specific about a complicated tax situation like tax liens, then this would be the place to go.
Like mentioned above, it’s your job to know what the new tax laws are going to look like so that you can take the right steps towards to managing your finances, property, and miscellaneous resources because many of us play things in a way where we may only be breaking even for a little while until we get over that financial hump, and changing that one little thing which might afford you hundreds of dollars back according to any new tax laws just might end being that one thing that gets you ahead!