Taxes

Tax Day 2026

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tax extension 2019 form 4868

After a few years of tax day jumping around thanks to holidays in Washington D.C., tax day once again on April 15th. That’s a Wednesday, so don’t expect any weird holidays to save you. To avoid penalties, most Americans will need to file either their tax return or an request for extension by April 15 this year. Tax Extension 2026 The IRS grants an automatic, no questions asked, extension to any filer who requests one by April 15 using Form 4868. Filing for a tax extension moves the due date for your taxes to October 15th. However, there is a catch. If you OWE money on your taxes — that is, if you are not getting a refund — the amount you owe is still due on April 15. Filing an extension does not give you extra time to pay, only extra time to file. What happens if I don’t file my taxes on time? How does this work? On Form 4868, you’ll see a place to estimate how much taxes you are going to owe in 2026, for your 2025tax return. You have to make a payment for this amount along with your extension form. If you overestimate how …

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Car Loan Tax Deduction New for 2025

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Alright, this is new to me too, so let’s dig in. Consider this a first run at the new tax deduction in Trump’s big tax bill for 2025. I’m sure there is a lot of nuance, but this is a first whack. Proceed accordingly as we examine the new way to deduct car loan interest from taxes. No Tax on Car Loan Interest No tax on car loan interest is dumb. There was never any tax on car loan interest. Car loan interest is an expense, not income. So, you don’t pay tax on car loan interest already. Even if you did pay taxes on car loan interest, a deduction for that wouldn’t be “no tax” it would be less tax. So, now that we’ve dispensed with the marketing, let’s do this. How To Deduct Car Loan Interest Trump pumps out the headlines, congressmen write up the bills so it comes close to what Trump said. Actually, congressional staffers experienced in writing legislation write the bills, or so we hope. In this case, no tax on car loan interest comes with some important limitations. What is a Qualified Vehicle for Deductible Car Interest? People are always complaining about how long …

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HSA Contributions

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medical-taxes

A quick reminder not to forget to use your HSA account to pay for ALL of your qualified medical expenses. Remember, you get the deduction based upon CONTRIBUTIONS, and your contributions do NOT have to be made before your expenses are incurred. In other words, if you go to the doctor and get a $180 bill, you can (EVEN AFTER) contribute $180 to your HSA account. Pay the $180 doctor bill (maybe using a rewards credit card), and THEN reimburse yourself the $180 expense. This is the best way to deduct medical expenses if you qualify. Otherwise, remember that you can only deduct medical expenses that are 10% above your adjusted gross income. With an HSA account, every contribution is deductible, regardless of when you use the money to pay medical bills. Also, any medical bills you pay with your HSA cannot be deducted as medical expenses. Also, HSA paid expenses do not count toward the 7.5% floor needed to deduct medical expenses. Remember, the contribution is deductible, not the expense. Contribute money for every qualified medical expense you have, and the net effect is the same as deducting all of your medical expenses. Remember, unlike a FSA, you can …

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Tax Forms for Filing Taxes 2025

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tax forms for filing taxes

It’s Federal Income Tax Time, here in America. The due date for filing your income taxes, and the dreaded Form 1040 is, as usual, April 15th. (No extra days to file taxes in 2025. Those pesky Washington D.C. holidays have moved on to other days..) But, before you can file your income taxes, you’ll need all the forms and information you need to file. For most taxpayers, the main document you need is a Form W2 from your employer. The W2 form reports not only your wages, but also the amounts that were withheld from your paycheck during the year. If you worked for more than one employer, you would need to get a W2 from each one. If you don’t have a traditional employer, or if you do paid work on the side, you’ll need to collect Form 1099-MISC from all of your clients that paid you more than $600 during 2025. Unfortunately, for people like freelance writers, that means you may have to track down some former clients, especially if you moved and didn’t notify them of your new address. Unlike regular employee types. There are usually no withholdings to report on a 1099 form. Many clients will …

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Deduct Small Business Expenses

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Can I deduct my small business? How do I deduct my sole proprietorship business? That’s a question I get a lot from sole proprietors and other small business owners. The trick is that most information about small business taxes reads like it aimed at larger businesses, specifically, those that have employees. However, the same IRS tax rules that apply to those small businesses apply to entrepreneurs running their own single person business or small family business. It’s an important question because small business expense deductions can lower your overall tax rates and move you down a bracket on the tax tables. When Can You Deduct a Business? There is really one simple test that a business must pass to be tax deductible: Is there a profit motive? For the IRS, the sole determination of whether something is a hobby, or a legitimate, tax-deductible business, is whether or not you are doing it for profit, instead of for fun. Of course, it wouldn’t be the IRS without hundreds of pages of rules, regulations, and numerous publications sorting out just what is a deductible profit motive. There is a somewhat legendary tax law case where a man claimed his golf expenses as …

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IRS Standard Deduction 2024 and 2025

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taxes 2020 personal deduction

What is the standard deduction amount for 2025, and what about 2023 and 2024? (That way I don’t have to go through and delete that data 🙂 The IRS updated the standard deduction number and it’s a little bit higher this year again. When filing income taxes, taxpayers can choose to either itemize tax deductions, or take the standard tax deduction amount. The IRS adjusts how much the standard deduction is each year based upon inflation. The 2025 standard tax deduction amount is a bit higher than the 2024 deduction amount for most taxpayers because of inflation. Capital One Rewards Catalog 2023 Remember, even though you will be filling your taxes in early 2025, those tax returns are for the year 2024, so use the 2024 standard deduction amount on taxes you work on in the first quarter of 2025. When you file your taxes in early 2025, those taxes are for your income and deductions in 2024. Alright, now that we’ve beaten that horse to death, let’s get to some numbers. 2024 Standard Tax Deduction Amount For use when filing your taxes in early 2025. As usual, there are different deduction values depending upon how you file your income …

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Tax Loss Harvesting for Regular Investors

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tax loss harvesting at finance gourmet

Every so often, tax loss harvesting seems to show up in various marketing literature like it was just invented. The funny part is that tax loss harvesting has been around for a long time. In fact, it’s less important today than it was before Bush the Second cut long-term capital gains tax rates to 15 percent. So, what is tax loss harvesting, and how is it important to the average investor? Understanding Tax-Loss Harvesting and Capital Gains To understand tax loss harvesting, you first have to understand capital gains taxes. Income taxes apply to most forms of income. However, the profits made from the sale of certain types of investments — for our purposes, stocks, bonds, and other equities — are taxed differently. These taxes are known as capital gains taxes. The easiest way to understand it is by example. Capital Gains Example If you buy $10,000 worth of Apple stock and then sell it a few years later for $20,000, then you have made a $10,000 profit. This profit is a form of income known as capital gains. The original investment amount, or purchase price, is known as the basis. The basis may be adjusted depending on several factors, but …

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Basic Taxes Overview 2024

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taxes

As June 2024 comes to a close Americans everywhere have stopped thinking about taxes, but the real key to paying less in taxes like the rich do is year-round tax planning. So, let’s do a quick overview of tax law in 2024 and how that will affect filing 2024 taxes in 2025. Tax Basics Form 1040 Let’s begin by kicking out anyone who has unusual scenarios of income or assets. This is going to be a basic tax overview for taxpayers that get W-2 forms, or 1099 forms, or own their own small business. If your income comes from something else like royalties, or mining rights, or whatever, this will not apply to you. This is also true if a trust, or other tax situation drives your income or expenses. Frankly, people in this category probably already have accountants, attorneys, or financial managers. Let’s not clog this up with “But what if…” about situations that don’t apply to “average” scenarios. The basic tax form is Form 1040. For the most basic scenarios, that form is the only thing a taxpayer needed to file. For others, a variety of Schedules are required, the results of those schedules are then added in …

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Child Tax Credit 2024

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child tax credit

When you file your 2024 taxes in 2025, you may get a tax credit for each child. The Child Tax Credit for 2024 is $2,000 for each qualifying child. However, the Child Tax Credit phases out for higher incomes. You can claim the Child Tax Credit in addition to the Standard Deduction, even if you do not itemize your deductions. You can take the full Child Tax Credit if you are married filing jointly with a modified adjusted gross income under $200,000. For others the threshold is $100,000. Once you make more money than that, the credit starts phasing out. Any biological children aged 16 or younger are eligible if you are married filing jointly. If you are divorced, then who gets to claim the child tax credit was likely part of your final divorce settlement. If your child is 17, be prepared to be screwed over. You get just $500 for your 17-year-olds no matter how childish they act, or the fact that most of them are still in high school. Beyond that, there are a lot of different rules that I’m not going to cover here, but the IRS has a useful tool to determine if your child …

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Tax Brackets Tax Tables 2023

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irs taxes tax form

The tax tables for 2023, which determine the tax brackets for 2023, used by most people in Spring of 2024, while filing their 2023 taxes, have been set by the IRS. As always, there are seven different tax brackets based upon the taxpayer’s filing status. The different brackets are the Single tax bracket, the Married filing jointly tax bracket (also used by Qualifying widows or widowers), Married filing separately, and Head of household. All the tax filing types have the same tiers of tax rates, 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. As you can see, the biggest tax bracket rate jump occurs between the 12% and 22% tax level. So those under $41,775 (single) or $83,550 (married) are the “low” taxpayers, and those above are the “higher” taxpayers. There is another big jump between the 24% tax bracket and the 32% tax bracket. You can consider this the “upper class” or “upper income” portion of the U.S. population, at least when speaking about taxes and the rates each class, or tier pays. As always, your actual percentage of taxes paid varies based upon various factors including tax deductions. Typically, taxes begin based upon the taxpayer’s Adjusted Gross Income …

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