- The Finance Gourmet

HSA Contributions

September 27, 2025September 15, 2025 by Finance Gourmet

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 …

Procedure for Using HSA Account To Pay Medical Expenses

September 27, 2025August 23, 2025 by Finance Gourmet

I’ve written a bit lately about Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs, how HSAs work with state taxes, and the difference between Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts. But, the one question I keep getting is how exactly to use a HSA account. The Health Savings Account Theory The idea behind a Health Savings Account, or HSA, is a little bit like a 401k account, or even a 529 college savings plan account. You save money for future expenses like college or retirement, but in the case of an HSA, you are saving for medical expenses. Like with a 401k plan, or an IRA, you get a tax deduction benefit for making contributions. Also, like the other accounts, your money grows inside the account tax free. And, finally, like a Roth IRA, or a 529, you withdrawals for approved expenses are also tax free. So, theoretically, assuming the world around you proceeded in an orderly and predictable manner, and your budget contained plenty of room for all appropriate spending and savings, then you would contribute regularly to your HSA account, and invest that money, so it could grow over time, into a big reserve that is available to you when you …

Tax Forms for Filing Taxes 2025

September 27, 2025August 9, 2025 by Finance Gourmet

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 …

Tax Loss Harvesting for Regular Investors

September 9, 2024 by 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 …

Tax Brackets Tax Tables 2023

February 5, 2024November 24, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

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 …

How Long To Keep Tax Returns

February 15, 2023January 18, 2023 by Finance Gourmet

Tax Day is today. Hope you are ready! If you have already filed, there is one more piece of tax business you can attend to before you run off into your summer. Time to shred some old tax returns and documents. IRS Rule For How Long to Keep Taxes The general rule for how long you have to keep your tax returns and other tax records is three years. HOWEVER, this is the IRS we are talking about, so there are some exceptions, and sub-rules to the general rule. First, you need to know when to count from. The 3-year rule counts three years from the date you FILED them. So, if you filed early, you don’t technically have to wait until April 15 (I always do. Better safe than sorry.) On the other hand, if you filed late, whether with an extension or not, you need to keep them for three years from that date. Also, the IRS says you should keep your returns for two years after you paid the tax, so if you ended up paying late, or on some sort of payment plan, be sure to keep them for two years after that tax bill has been …

Not Cashing Savings Bonds to Avoid Taxes

February 8, 2023November 6, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

There is a common misconception about avoiding taxes by not cashing savings bonds. While there are no penalties for not cashing mature savings bonds, there is no benefit to holding them for tax purposes, either. Sometimes people wonder, “Do savings bonds expire?” For the most part, I typically assume that people who have misinformation came by it honestly. Usually, they didn’t quite understand fully what they read or were told. After all, one of the trickiest things about achieving financial independence and personal finance is that there are so many exceptions and nuances. In a lot of cases, what is absolutely true for one person is not true for someone else because of their individual circumstances. Tax Consequences of Cashing In Savings Bonds Unfortunately, while the internet has given people easy access to vast amounts of information, it does so without any verification that the information published is true. The problem is compounded by those who read something inaccurate and then repeat it elsewhere. This makes the false information seem more valid because it is corroborated by another source, which, in fact, is just repeating something that was wrong. That is why it is so important to verify financial planning …

Free TurboTax Software Online – Deals on Tax Programs

December 6, 2022March 24, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

Here comes tax time for that huge group of Americans who wait until the proverbial last minute to file their income taxes. For them, crunch time is approaching, and they need to find all those tax receipts and records that they will need to file Federal Income Taxes. Fortunately, one of the best tax tricks for 2022 is getting tax preparation software. The best part is that there is no real downside if you are smart and keep an eye out for optional add-ons, upgrades, and online tax filing options that might shatter your free tax software deals. Many of the deals websites out there (check out Slickdeals.net and Gottadeal.com as well as Dealnews.com for starters) will notify you when companies like Intuit offer cheap online TurboTax applications for users who show up within a certain time frame. The HR Block guys similarly offer free TaxCut software signups from time to time. If you are wondering what the catch is, because obviously these companies can’t make money by giving their programs away online, then good for you. The first step to avoid being a sucker who gets scammed is to be aware of what makes sense, what motivates people and …

How To File Colorado Income Tax

January 23, 2023February 16, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

Colorado Income Tax Is Easy These days, the major tax preparation software companies, like Turbo Tax and Tax Cut offer people with easier federal income taxes a way to file for free. They do this for two reasons. First, and foremost, despite the millions of dollars they spend lobbying to keep the IRS itself from providing a free, easy way to file basic income taxes, people are starting to expect such things in the internet age. By getting ahead of the IRS and offering free(ish) tax filing, they can keep a damper on any move to making tax filing without them easier. The other reason is that most people with very easy taxes probably won’t bother with their software anyway. Filing income taxes isn’t hard when you work a single job and just deduct a couple of kids and a mortgage. But there are ways to upsell, or otherwise encourage people to buy, or pay for other services like audit defense. The most common upsell is filing your state income taxes. Colorado State Income Tax Is it worth paying TurboTax to file state returns in Colorado? Probably, not. Colorado State Tax is not that complicated for most Colorado taxpayers. While …

Credit Karma Tax Review Free Scam or Good Filing?

September 26, 2022January 3, 2022 by Finance Gourmet

Has it really been five years since Credit Karma started Credit Karma Tax? Credit Karma tax is a free-ish way to file your taxes for free. While Credit Karma tax started out with some bumps it is now old enough to have chased out a lot of the bugs. And it is time to update our Credit Karma tax review. Credit Karma Tax Reviews Complaints CreditKarma.com offers a free tax return service, so it’s time for a Credit Karma tax review. The Credit Karma tax scam concerns are pretty much the same as with the original Credit Karma. You are handing over a lot of personal and financial data. The company has been around long enough to have earned some trust, but concerns about all online financial offerings are real. One main difference between Credit Karma and TurboTax, or other offerings, is that you cannot buy and download an offline version. You will fill out all tax forms online and the hidden Credit Karma tax calculator will perform all the calculations online, behind the scenes. Initial Credit Karma tax reviews are mixed, so let’s take a look. (Make sure you are not on CreditCarma, KreditKarma, or any other variations which …