Archive for year: 2017

This last month has been a devastating time on our side of the planet.  Two Large Cat4/5 Hurricanes in Texas and Florida along with am 8.1 Earth quake along the Mexican Coast.  Like so many, you may want to help give to Charities and Organizations that can help so many displaced people get back on their feet… But some things you need to know when you give.

When giving to Charitable Organizations, please be aware that in order for those donations to be tax deductible, an organization much be an Eligible Organization registered with the IRS.   Just because an organization is asking for funds, does not mean that they are deductible for tax purposes.  But don’t necessarily let that stop you from donating either, just be careful the donation is not a scam.  Giving to registered organizations protects you more than giving to just anyone who pops up a GoFund me campaign.  That doesn’t mean that these aren’t registered, just be careful that your money is going where you want it to go.  If you donate, you should be aware of what you can and can not deduct on your Income tax returns.

There are essentially 2 kinds of donations – Cash donations and Goods donated.

• The Cash Donations are pretty straight forward. So long as you do not get any benefit from the donation, the donation is 100% includable on your tax returns (see below on those rules).
• Then there’s the Cash contributions where you donate but you get something in return – a Trip, a Dinner, 2 tickets to a sporting event – these donations are limited to the amount that EXCEEDS the Value of what you received. Example, you go onto an online auction that is benefiting a charity you like – let’s say the Humane Society – They have 2 tickets to your favorite sports team up and you bid and you win.  Your bid was $500, the Fair Market Value of those tickets was $400 – your deduction is limited to $100 (Your $500 less the value of $400).  Now let’s say your bid was $300 and you still won – you would have no donation value as the tickets FMV was more than what you purchased them for.  Now that doesn’t mean that your $300 didn’t go to the Charity, someone bought the tickets and someone donated them and your purchase goes to the charity – however the person who donated the tickets gets the donation, but not you – you get to go see your favorite team win 🙂
• The other side of this then is the person who donates the goods for the event. If you are donating something of value that you can’t prove the FMV, get an appraisal before you donate the antique, painting or other tangible good.   There are more rules on this, but that is not the topic of this blog so I’m going to stop here on this for now, just know that you can’t just give that item to a Charity and claim it to be a famous Picaso.
• Maybe you just want to go and help clean up.  First get yourself registered with an Organization that can coordinate where and if they need you.  If they do need you, Only your Out of Pocket Costs can be deducted.  You can not deduct for your time or lost wages.

So how do you know who is and isn’t eligible?   The IRS has an online Exempt Organization Search Tool where you can search the database or download the Extensive (yes, over 900,000 entities) list.

IRS Tool:  https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organizations-select-check

Master List:  https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organizations-business-master-file-extract-eo-bmf

Keep in mind, even if the Organization qualifies, you may not be able to take advantage of the donation you make.  Here are some general rules:

1. First you must be able to Itemize your deductions vs taking the Standard Deduction. Donations are only deductible on your personal tax return if you can itemize.
2. If you are an LLC or S-Corp, these contributions will pass thru to the Owners on their respective K-1 forms and are NOT business Deductions. Only C-Corps (entities that are considered independent from the Stockholders) may claim the deductions on their returns.
3. Be sure you have written proof from the Charitable Organization for any Contributions totaling over $250 in a calendar year. The Organization is required to provide this to you and you must keep this with your tax records
4. If you donate Non-Cash Property (ie Antiques, Paintings, Jewelry) be sure you get an appraisal if your donation has a value of over $5,000.
5. You may also donate vehicles but keep in mind, there are special rules that limit you to a deduction for the value that the Organization receives for that donation if/when they sell it.
6. Also, it’s important to understand that if you charitable donation is more than 20% of your adjusted gross income, your deductions may be limited.

First and foremost – DO YOUR HOMEWORK before you donate.  If  you are not donating to a long standing organization like Red Cross or United way, be sure that the organization is legitimate.  When these catastrophes happen, scammers also surface to take advantage of the situation.  For additional information, below is the link IRS Publication 526 for detailed information.   Or feel give us a call too.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p526.pdf

Ok, so this tax seemed to be getting an awful lot of bad press lately.  Certain VERY Wealthy Think Tanks have been doing their best to get you to believe that this tax is unfair and needs to be abolished.  But does it really?

First, you need to understand exactly who and how this tax is calculated.  I’m going to be throwing a lot of numbers at you to help show how this works so try to stick with me.  Now I admit, when I was younger and not doing this for a living, I thought this was a horrible tax too, but then I learned how it worked.

The Estate Tax, intentionally misnamed the Death Tax by it’s opponents, only affects about 0.2% of the population.  Most American’s (and their heirs) will NEVER, EVER pay this tax so long as the current exemption limit stays where it is at.    In December 2010, President Obama signed the “Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act” which permanently (well, permanently until congress changes it) set the Personal Estate Tax Exclusion amount to $5,450,000 if the taxpayer is Single or $10,900,000 if married.  When a spouse passes, the spouses exemption can pass to the surviving spouse allowing the surviving spouse to take the entire $10.9M exemption in his/her estate upon their passing.

So how does this work then?  Ok… let’s say you are a single person with 1 child (this is also an important piece).  You own a house which you bought for $25,000 (it was your childhood home).   When you passed, your home was worth $200,000.  You also had the following additional assets:  Stocks worth $1,000,000 (which you paid $100,000 over your lifetime); Land purchased for $50,000 now has a Fair Market Value (FMV) of $2,000,000.

When her final tax return is completed, her Assets are Revalued at the FMV at the Date of Death.  In this example, this person’s Assets are valued at $3,200,000 with a cost of $175,000 – not too bad right.  Her assets have a GAIN of $3,025,000.   When her final tax return is done (form 1041) she will report $3,200,000 of Asset Value less the cost of $175,000 and the Capital Gain on those assets is $3,200,000 LESS the $5,490,000 exemption leaving NOTHING to tax for the Estate Tax.   Why because the FMV of those Assets is LESS than the Exemption.   Her child will inherit these assets at the FMV of those assets at the date of death and His/Her Gain on these assets (for their Final Return) starts upon their parent’s death or the date they inherited the property.

So far, this all seems fair and makes sense right.  The parent never really used or touched those assets they just stayed in some account or the parent used the home and land like they have since they purchased it.  Now let’s look at why the Anti-Estate tax people want to eliminate this.  Simply put – because they will end up paying taxes on any Gain on those assets over the Exemption Amount (remember that’s upto $11 Million).  So you’re probably saying well that’s not fair.  But wait.. here’s why it’s important.

Let’s say you are an uber wealthy Real Estate developer who has Buildings all over the world.   One building in particular you bought for only $500,000 but it’s now worth an FMV of $5,000,000.  A couple years ago you decided you wanted the Equity from that building (Equity is defined as FMV Less any loans on that Asset).   You go to the bank and take out $3,000,000 and enter into Mortgage on that building – Cash in Hand – NO TAX IMPACT ON YOUR TAX RETURN THAT YEAR but you just got $3,000,000 to spend any way you want to!!  So why no tax impact?  Because you still own the building and it’s a LOAN, something you contract to pay back.   Unexpectedly you pass away before you pay back the loan.   Now, here is why estate tax is so important.  Remember this person already received the cash equity from this building, maybe even gave some to their children but NEVER paid taxes on that $3,000,000.  By eliminating the Estate tax they never would pay taxes on it either!!  They have literally just received $3,000,000 in FREE MONEY!   Their kids could just stop paying the Mortgage and the bank takes the property… but the money, it’s gone.   The Tax Code says their children inherit the Building at the $5,000,000 FMV at the date of their parent’s death.   And let’s say they decide to just sell the building for $4,950,000 – which represents a LOSS on their taxes; the children would still end up with another $1,450,000 of TAX FREE MONEY because they sold the building at a loss and that free money, well that was part of their parent’s estate.

So what the Estate tax actually does is RECOGNIZE the PASSIVE INCOME (or Appreciation) that was locked up in ASSETS during the Taxpayers lifetime.  Think of it as a “GAP” Tax rather than an Estate or Death Tax. As this tax catches all the Passive Earnings that you’ve never been taxed on.  Most of us only get paychecks or maybe we run a small business and get Earnings from that business but that money is literally taxed every year on our tax returns.   If we are among those fortunate enough to buy Investment Assets, we still get an Exemption on that value but only when we exceed that Exemption do we pay taxes on those Investments.   Everyone gets the same exemption – EVERYONE GETS $5,490,000.

So, have I convinced you yet why having the Estate tax is Fairer than NOT having the estate tax?  And don’t take to the argument that the money was worked for…  it’s not, that money has already been taxed.  This is a tax on the PASSIVE or better yet, APPRECIATION of the asset that each of us would recognize if we sold it BEFORE we passed away… only then, it’s called CAPITAL GAIN!

I hope this helps shed some light on how this tax works.  I hope it helps explain how eliminating this allows only those seriously wealthy people to avoid paying taxes while the vast majority of us will pay tax on almost every dime we make.