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Disaster Relief

Dear Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

On September 29, President Trump signed into law P.L. 115-63, the “Disaster Tax Relief and Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2017.” The Act, which provides temporary tax relief to victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

  • Businesses that qualify for relief may claim a new “employee retention tax credit” of up to $2,400 for qualified wages paid per eligible employee.
  •  Relief for individuals includes, among other things:
  • Personal casualty losses WILL NOT be subject to the phaseout of 10% of adjusted gross income
  • tax-favored withdrawals from retirement plans
  • the option of using current or prior year’s income for purposes of claiming the earned income and child tax credits.

Please contact our offices to schedule an appointment should you wish to discuss how any of these provisions may be of benefit to you or your business.

How Hurricane Irma Impacts Your 2016 Income Taxes

Dear Clients and Friends;

We hope you and your families are safe and sound after hurricane Irma. As our neighborhoods and communities recover, we’d like to remind you of a few income tax considerations related to some of the hardships and losses you may be facing because of the storm;

• Taxpayer’s affected by Hurricane Irma will have until January 31, 2018, to file their 2016 returns.

• Damage to your personal residence and personal property is deductible as an itemized.
deduction, subject to certain limits, to the extent it is not reimbursed by insurance.

• Damage to business assets is deductible to the extent it is not reimbursed by insurance AND taxpayer’s have two years to reinvest insurance proceeds to defer any gains realized because of insurance proceeds received in excess of the adjusted basis of the business property.

• Taxpayer’s may have the option of deducting the hurricane losses on their 2016 or 2017 tax returns which would allow for the deduction to be taken in the year in which the taxpayer would get the most benefit.

• Be careful of solicitations from organizations regarding charitable donations towards hurricane relief and/or companies offering to do repair work on your property. There will be a lot of imposters out there attempting to scam you out of your money.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have regarding these or any other hurricane related issues.

Thank you
Davidson and Nick, CPA’s

Claiming the New Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit (NQPEDMV)

IRC Sec. 30D
Form 8936 (Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit)
Internal Revenue Code Section 30D provides a credit for Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor
Vehicles including passenger vehicles and light trucks.
• Maximum credit is $7,500
• Nonrefundable personal tax credit
• The credit begins to phase out after 200,000 vehicles are sold
• Golf carts do not qualify
• Can be used to offset both regular tax and AMT
• Not available to offset the 3.8% net investment income tax
• Not phased out for high income taxpayers
• No formal election is required if taxpayers choose not to claim it
• Purchasers may rely on the manufacturer’s certification of a vehicle and the amount of
the credit allowable with respect to that vehicle
• Credit is recaptured if the vehicle ceases to be eligible for the credit
Motor vehicle
– any vehicle which is manufactured primarily for use on public streets, roads, and
highways (not including a vehicle operated exclusively on a rail or rails) and which has at
least 4 wheels.
New qualified plug-in electric drive motor vehicle
– the original use of which commences with the taxpayer,
– which is acquired for use or lease to others by the taxpayer and not for resale,
– which is made by a manufacturer,
– which is treated as a motor vehicle for purposes of title II of the Clean Air Act,
– which has a gross vehicle weight rating of less than 14,000 pounds, and
– which is propelled to a significant extent by an electric motor which draws electricity from
a battery which—has a capacity of not less than 4 kilowatt hours, and
– is capable of being recharged from an external source of electricity.

Battery capacity
– with respect to any battery, the quantity of electricity which the battery is capable of
storing, expressed in kilowatt hours, as measured from a 100 percent state of charge to
a 0 percent state of charge.

 

 

Written by: Rimma Tinel – Davidson & Nick CPA Accountant

Five Easy Ways to Spot a Scam Phone Call

The IRS continues to warn the public to be alert for telephone scams and offers five tell-tale warning signs to tip you off if you get such a call. These callers claim to be with the IRS. The scammers often demand money to pay taxes. Some may try to con you by saying that you’re due a refund. The refund is a fake lure so you’ll give them your banking or other private financial information.

These con artists can sound convincing when they call. They may even know a lot about you. They may alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling. They use fake names and bogus IRS badge numbers. If you don’t answer, they often leave an “urgent” callback request.

The IRS respects taxpayer rights when working out payment of your taxes. So, it’s pretty easy to tell when a supposed IRS caller is a fake. Here are five things the scammers often do but the IRS will not do. Any one of these five things is a sign of a scam. The IRS will never:

1. Call you about taxes you owe without first mailing you an official notice.
2. Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the chance to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
3. Require you to use a certain payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
4. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
5. Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement to have you arrested for not paying.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here’s what to do:

  • If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 800-829-1040 to talk about payment options. You also may be able to set up a payment plan online at IRS.gov.
  • If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to TIGTA at 1.800.366.4484 or at www.tigta.gov.
  • If phone scammers target you, also contact the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov. Use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” to report the scam. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.

Remember, the IRS currently does not use unsolicited email, text messages or any social media to discuss your personal tax issues. For more information on reporting tax scams, go to www.irs.gov and type “scam” in the search box. 

IRS Reiterates Warning of Pervasive Telephone Scam

The Internal Revenue Service issued another strong warning for consumers to guard against sophisticated and aggressive phone scams targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, as reported incidents of this crime continue to rise nationwide. These scams won’t likely end with the filing season so the IRS urges everyone to remain on guard.

The IRS will always send taxpayers a written notification of any tax due via the U.S. mail. The IRS never asks for credit card, debit card or prepaid card information over the telephone. For more information or to report a scam, go to www.irs.gov and type “scam” in the search box.

People have reported a particularly aggressive phone scam in the last several months. Immigrants are frequently targeted. Potential victims are threatened with deportation, arrest, having their utilities shut off, or having their driver’s licenses revoked. Callers are frequently insulting or hostile – apparently to scare their potential victims.

Potential victims may be told they are entitled to big refunds, or that they owe money that must be paid immediately to the IRS. When unsuccessful the first time, sometimes phone scammers call back trying a new strategy.

Other characteristics of this scam include:

  • Scammers use fake names and IRS badge numbers. They generally use common names and surnames to identify themselves.
  • Scammers may be able to recite the last four digits of a victim’s Social Security number.
  • Scammers spoof the IRS toll-free number on caller ID to make it appear that it’s the IRS calling.
  • Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS emails to some victims to support their bogus calls.
  • Victims hear background noise of other calls being conducted to mimic a call site.
  • After threatening victims with jail time or driver’s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here’s what you should do:

  • If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue, if there really is such an issue.
  • If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes (for example, you’ve never received a bill or the caller made some bogus threats as described above), then call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.
  • If you’ve been targeted by this scam, you should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.

Taxpayers should be aware that there are other unrelated scams (such as a lottery sweepstakes) and solicitations (such as debt relief) that fraudulently claim to be from the IRS.

The IRS encourages taxpayers to be vigilant against phone and email scams that use the IRS as a lure. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels. The IRS also does not ask for PINs, passwords or similar confidential access information for credit card, bank or other financial accounts. Recipients should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the message. Instead, forward the e-mail to phishing@irs.gov.

More information on how to report phishing scams involving the IRS is available on the genuine IRS website, IRS.gov.