The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that the maximum amount of wages subject to the old age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) tax will increase to $132,900 for 2019. The OASDI tax rate is 6.2%, so an employee with wages up to or above the maximum in 2019 would pay $8,239.80 in tax and the employer would pay an equal amount. Self-employed individuals pay tax at a 12.4% rate up to the limit. The 2018 wage base is $128,400, for a $7,960.80 maximum amount of OASDI tax.
The Medicare hospital insurance tax of 1.45% each for employees and employers, or 2.9% for the self-employed, has no wage limit.
The SSA also announced that recipients of Social Security benefits would get a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment and that the earnings test for the amount of income that benefit recipients can receive without their benefits being reduced each year is $17,640 before full retirement age, and the limit taxpayers can earn in the year they reach full retirement age is $46,920.
Consider conducting a final tax planning review now to see if you can still take actions to minimize your taxes this year. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Assess your income. Begin by determining how your income this year will compare to last year. Then apply any tax implications this income change may cause. Be sure to account for the lower tax rates and the elimination of exemptions. Remember, if your income is rising, more of your income could be subject to a higher tax rate. Your higher income could also trigger a phase out that will prevent you from taking advantage of a deduction or tax credit formerly available to you.
Examine life changes. Review any key events over the past year that may have potential tax implications. Here are some examples:
Purchasing or selling a new home
Refinancing or adding a new mortgage
Getting married or divorced
Incurring large medical expenses
Changing jobs
Having a baby
Identify what tax changes may impact you. Tax changes for the current year are expected to be more impactful than we’ve seen in 30 years. Determine which of these changes will affect you. With these changes in mind, review your past income tax return to estimate what the impact may be on your upcoming tax bill. Please keep in mind that Congress has a habit of making last-minute changes, so you will want to plan accordingly.
Manage your retirement. One of the best ways to reduce your taxable income is to use tax beneficial retirement programs. Now is a good time to review your retirement account funding. Are you taking full advantage of your employer’s retirement plans? Are you saving money to invest in your future through various retirement savings options?
Look into credits. There are a variety of tax credits available to most taxpayers. Spend some time reviewing the most common ones to ensure your tax plan takes advantage of them. Here are some worth reviewing:
Child Tax Credit
Earned Income Tax Credit
Premium Tax Credit
Adoption Credit
Elderly and Disabled Credit
Educational Credits (Lifetime Learning Credit and American Opportunity Tax Credit)
Avoid surprises. Conducting a final tax planning review now allows you time to try to reduce your tax obligation. This is especially true if you are unsure of the specific changes made to the tax code. Remember some tax-saving ideas may require funding on your part. It is best to identify them now so you can save cash to take advantage of them prior to the end of the year.
Your credit score is one of the most important aspects of your financial health. It is used by potential lenders, landlords and even employers to analyze your financial situation in one way or another. Here are some tips that might help you improve your score:
Review your credit report and, if necessary, fix errors. You are entitled to one free credit report from each credit reporting company per year at Annual Credit Report. It is important to check for reporting errors that could be negatively affecting your score. If you find an error, contact the company reporting the information and the credit reporting company to challenge the report. Common errors include closed accounts showing as open, incorrect balances or limits and accounts opened by someone else due to identity fraud.
Pay off your credit card each month. By making purchases on a credit card and paying the entire balance each period, you are developing a positive credit history and displaying sound financial management skills. This will increase your credit score. To meet this goal you will need to keep your spending under control. If you are unable to pay off the card, you will start to accumulate revolving debt that will hurt your credit score.
Make your payments on time. Late payments, even by one day, can be one of the most damaging hits to your score. If possible, set up automatic payments for as many bills as possible to lower the risk of forgetting to make a payment. The longer your history of paying on time, the more your score will improve.
Pay down your debt. Another large chunk of your credit score is calculated based on the amount of debt outstanding. Mortgage lenders specifically use a debt-to-income ratio to determine loan eligibility. In addition to the amount of debt you have, you also need to pay attention to the debt limits you have on your accounts. The closer your debt is to the limit, the worse your score will be.
Don’t allow an account to go to collection. Collections will stay on your credit report for seven years! Avoid having any of your accounts go to collections if at all possible. Medical bills and other one-time expenses are often the types of accounts that find themselves in collections. If you are unable to pay a bill in full by the due date, call the company and see if they have payment plans or other programs to get the bill paid without going to a collection company.
Regardless of where you are on the credit score spectrum, you should actively monitor your credit. Implementing these ideas will improve your credit score as well as your long-term financial well-being.
As students gear up to head back to school, there are some changes to education deductions that could save or cost you more in taxes and even raise college tuition costs. Here is what you need to know to get up to speed:
What is gone
Continuing Education as an itemized deduction: In previous years, you could deduct expenses paid for job-related continuing education as a miscellaneous itemized deduction. This deduction has been eliminated. However, if your employer will pay for the education, they can cover up to $5,250 tax-free.
Home equity line of credit (HELOC) interest for education expenses: A popular method of generating cash to pay for school expenses is taking out a HELOC. Beginning in 2018, you can only deduct HELOC interest if you use the loan proceeds to buy, build or substantially improve your home. This means that if you plan to obtain HELOC for purposes of paying for education expenses, the interest will not be deductible.
What’s new
529 plans cover K-12 tuition: Funds from Section 529 savings plans can now be used tax-free to pay for up to $10,000 in K-12 private school tuition per year. Books, supplies or other K-12 expenses are not included in this change, but they are still eligible as legitimate college expenses. Be careful – not all states have adopted the K-12 inclusion, so they might still be taxable at the state level.
Endowment tax of 1.4 percent on certain private colleges: Congress added an investment income tax on private colleges that have large endowments. The tax is expected to impact roughly 30 schools, including Stanford, Harvard and Notre Dame. The effects of the new tax are yet to be determined. However, tuition may increase or reduced financial aid award amounts may be implemented to offset the cost.
What stays the same
Student loan interest deduction: You may deduct up to $2,500 in student loan interest in 2018 as an adjustment to income. To qualify, your adjusted gross income must be below $80,000 ($165,000 for married couples). Phaseouts start to apply at $65,000 ($135,000 for married couples).
American Opportunity Tax Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit: All three of these educational tax benefits are available once again. Here’s a chart with basic information on these options:
American Opportunity
Tax Credit
(AOPC)
Lifetime
Learning Credit
(LLC)
Max Amount
$2,500 credit
$2,000 credit
Refundable?
Yes – $1,000
No
Max Years
4
Unlimited
Eligible Education
Undergraduate
Undergraduate
& graduate
As a reminder, when you make payments for any education expenses, make sure to keep your receipts and retain any Forms 1098T sent to you from qualifying schools.
Often lost in the excitement of large-scale tax change is how they can negatively impact some individual situations. Check out the questions below to see if you might be in for a tax surprise this year.
Will you pay more than $10,000 in state and local taxes?
Previously, you could take a full deduction for all state income, sales and property taxes as an itemized deduction. That deduction is now capped at $10,000 per year. Take a look at your 2017 itemized deductions to see if your state and local taxes were greater than the new cap. If so, you will now lose any excess amount over $10,000 as a deduction.
Do you pay for work expenses?
Before this year, employees were able to deduct work expenses (business mileage, uniforms, continuing education and other non-reimbursed expenses) as an itemized deduction. These deductions are now gone. If you typically pay for job related expenses, you might be on the hook for more taxes. Employees who deduct business use of their homes may be impacted even more.
Do you own a small business?
There are many business tax changes for 2018. Bonus depreciation and Section 179 expensing are expanded, the domestic production activities deduction (DPAD) is eliminated, and there is a new qualified business income deduction for pass-through entities. It is a near certainty that one or more of these changes will affect your business taxes.
Did you adjust your withholding allowances?
When the tax cuts were finalized, the IRS adjusted the withholding tables as best they could to fit with your current allowances. As a result, your take-home pay likely increased earlier this year. However, based on a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), as many as 21 percent of taxpayers will unknowingly under withhold their taxes throughout the year. If you are one of these people, you will have a tax bill and maybe some penalties to pay next April. It would be time well spent to double-check your withholding for 2018.
Do you have children?
Some good news! The Child Tax Credit is now double to $2,000 per child versus $1,000 last year. The income limits for the credit are also raised significantly to $200,000 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) for single status and $400,000 AGI for married couples. In many cases, the additional credit will actually offset the loss of the personal exemption that you could take for yourself, your spouse and children in the past.
Now is a great time to do an assessment of your situation in light of the new tax changes.
