With the end of the year approaching, it’s time to make some moves to lower your 2013 tax bill. This is the second installment of our two-part series on that subject (also see: Tax moves to make before Christmas). Strategy: Prepay Deductible Expenditures If you itemize deductions, accelerating some deductible expenditures into this year to produce higher 2013 write-offs makes sense if you expect to be in the same or lower tax bracket next year. (See the tables at the end of this column for the 2013 and 2014 federal income tax brackets.) January House Payment: Accelerating the house payment that’s due in January will give you 13 months’ worth of deductible interest in 2013 (unless youve already been following the prepayment drill). You can use the same strategy with a vacation home. State and Local Taxes: Prepaying state and local income and property taxes that are due early next year can reduce your 2013 federal income tax bill, because your total itemized deductions will be that much higher. Charitable Donations: Prepaying charitable donations that you would otherwise make next year can reduce your 2013 federal income tax bill, because your total itemized deductions will be that much higher. Donations charged to credit cards before year-end will count as 2013 contributions. Medical Expenses and Miscellaneous Deduction Items: Consider prepaying expenses that are subject to deduction limits based on your AGI. The two prime candidates are medical expenses and miscellaneous itemized deductions. As explained earlier, medical costs are deductible only to the extent they exceed 10% of AGI for most people. However, if you or your spouse will be 65 or older as of year-end, the deduction threshold is a more-manageable 7.5% of AGI. Miscellaneous deductions—for investment expenses, job-hunting expenses, fees for tax preparation and advice, and unreimbursed employee business expenses—count only to the extent they exceed 2% of AGI. If you can bunch these kinds of expenditures into a single calendar year, you’ll have a fighting chance of clearing the 2%-of-AGI hurdle and getting some tax savings. Warning: Prepaying Is Not a No-Brainer: The prepayment strategy can backfire if you will owe the alternative minimum tax (AMT) for this year. That’s because write-offs for state and local income and property taxes are completely disallowed under the AMT rules and so are miscellaneous itemized deductions. So prepaying these expenses may do little or no tax-saving good for AMT victims. Solution: ask your tax adviser if you’re in the AMT mode before prepaying taxes or miscellaneous deduction items. Strategy: Make Major Year-end Purchases and Deduct Sales Taxes If you live in a state with low or no personal income taxes, consider making the choice to deduct state and local general sales taxes instead of state and local income taxes on your 2013 return. Most people who choose the sales tax option will use an IRS-provided table to calculate their allowable sales tax deduction. However, if youve hoarded receipts from your 2013 purchases, you can use your actual sales tax amounts if that results in a bigger write-off. Even if you’re stuck with using the IRS table, you can still deduct actual sales taxes on a major purchase such as a motor vehicle (car, truck, SUV, van, motorcycle, off-road vehicle, motor home, or recreational vehicle), a boat, an aircraft, a home (including a mobile prefabricated home), or a substantial addition to or major renovation of a home. You can also include state and local general sales taxes paid for a leased motor vehicle. So making a major purchase (or motor vehicle lease) between now and year-end could give you a bigger sales tax deduction and cut this year’s federal income tax bill. Remember: the sales tax write-off only helps if you itemize. And if you’re hit with the AMT, you’ll lose some or all of the tax-saving benefit. Strategy: Prepay College Tuition If your 2013 AGI allows you to qualify for the American Opportunity college credit (maximum of $2,500) or the Lifetime Learning higher education credit (maximum of $2,000), consider prepaying college tuition bills that are not due until early 2014 if that would result in a bigger credit on this year’s Form 1040. Specifically, you can claim a 2013 credit based on prepaying tuition for academic periods that begin in January through March of next year. The American Opportunity credit is phased out (reduced or completely eliminated) if your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is too high. The phase-out range for unmarried individuals is between MAGI of $80,000 and $90,000. The range for married joint filers is between MAGI of $160,000 and $180,000. MAGI means “regular” AGI, from the last line on page 1 of your Form 1040, increased by certain tax-exempt income from outside the U.S. which you probably don’t have.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 20:05:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015