Month: November 2013

If you’re selling your main home this year, we have some helpful tips for you. Even if you make a profit from the sale of your home, you may not have to report it as income.

1. If you sell your home at a gain, you may be able to exclude part or all of the profit from your income. This rule generally applies if you’ve owned and used the property as your main home for at least two out of the five years before the date of sale.

2. You normally can exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income ($500,000 on a joint return). This excluded gain is also not subject to the new Net Investment Income Tax, which is effective in 2013.

3. If you can exclude all of the gain, you probably don’t need to report the sale of your home on your tax return.

4. If you can’t exclude all of the gain, or you choose not to exclude it, you’ll need to report the sale of your home on your tax return. You’ll also have to report the sale if you received a Form 1099-S, Proceeds From Real Estate Transactions. Please call us if you need assistance with this.

5. Generally, you can exclude a gain from the sale of only one main home per two-year period.

6. If you have more than one home, you can exclude a gain only from the sale of your main home. You must pay tax on the gain from selling any other home. If you have two homes and live in both of them, your main home is usually the one you live in most of the time.

7. Special rules may apply when you sell a home for which you received the first-time homebuyer credit. Please call us if you need additional information about this topic.

8. You cannot deduct a loss from the sale of your main home.

9. When you sell your home and move, be sure to update your address with the IRS and the U.S. Postal Service. File Form 8822, Change of Address, to notify the IRS.

10. If you have any questions about the tax implications of selling your home, please give us a call.

• By Leon Clinton
• November 27, 2013

The 2014 filing season is likely to be delayed one to two weeks to allow adequate time to program and test tax processing systems following the 16-day federal government closure.

A final decision will be announced in December, Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said.

The original start date of the 2014 filing season was Jan. 21, and with a one- to two-week delay, the IRS would start accepting and processing 2013 individual tax returns no earlier than January 28 and no later than February 4.

Programming, testing, and deployment of more than 50 IRS systems is needed to handle processing of nearly 150 million tax returns. Updating these core systems is a complex, year-round process with the majority of the work beginning in the fall of each year.

The government closure came during the peak period for preparing IRS systems for the 2014 filing season. About 90 percent of IRS operations were closed during the shutdown, with some major workstreams closed entirely during this period, putting the IRS nearly three weeks behind its tight timetable for being ready to start the 2014 filing season.

IRS processes, applications and databases must be updated annually to reflect tax law updates, business process changes, and programming updates in time for the start of the filing season.

Additional training, programming and testing demands on IRS systems are also taking place this year in order to provide additional refund fraud and identity theft detection and prevention.

Following the 16-day closure, the IRS has experienced heavy demand on its toll-free telephone lines, walk-in sites and other services from taxpayers and tax practitioners; however, as is always the case, we are available to answer any tax questions you may have. Don’t hesitate to call us.

• By Leon Clinton
• November 19, 2013

If you are living or working outside the United States, you generally must file and pay your tax in the same way as people living in the U.S. This includes people with dual citizenship. If you’re a taxpayer with foreign income, here’s what you should know:

1. Report Worldwide Income. The law requires U.S. citizens and resident aliens to report any worldwide income. This includes income from foreign trusts, and foreign bank and securities accounts.

2. Review the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. Many Americans who live and work abroad qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion. This means taxpayers who qualify will not pay taxes on up to $97,600 of their wages and other foreign earned income they received in 2013. Please contact us if you have any questions about foreign earned income exclusion.

3. Don’t Overlook Credits and Deductions. Taxpayers may be able to take either a credit or a deduction for income taxes paid to a foreign country. This benefit reduces the taxes these taxpayers pay in situations where both the U.S. and another country tax the same income.

4. File Required Tax Forms. In most cases, affected taxpayers need to file Schedule B, Interest and Ordinary Dividends, with their tax returns. Some taxpayers may need to file additional forms with the Treasury Department such as Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets or Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. Please contact us if you’re not sure which forms you need to file.

5. Report Foreign Accounts and Assets. Federal law requires U.S. citizens and resident aliens to report any worldwide income, including income from foreign trusts and foreign bank and securities accounts. In most cases, affected taxpayers need to fill out and attach Schedule B to their tax return. Certain taxpayers may also have to fill out and attach to their return Form 8938, Statement of Foreign Financial Assets.

Part III of Schedule B asks about the existence of foreign accounts, such as bank and securities accounts, and usually requires U.S. citizens to report the country in which each account is located.

Generally, U.S. citizens, resident aliens and certain nonresident aliens must report specified foreign financial assets on Form 8938 if the aggregate value of those assets exceeds certain thresholds.

Please contact us if you need additional information about thresholds for reporting, what constitutes a specified foreign financial asset, how to determine the total value of relevant assets, what assets are exempted and what information must be provided.

Separately, taxpayers with foreign accounts whose aggregate value exceeded $10,000 at any time during 2013 must file Treasury Department Form TD F 90-22.1. This is not a tax form and is due to the Treasury Department by June 30, 2014. If you need help with this, please don’t hesitate to call us.

6. Consider the Automatic Extension. U.S. citizens and resident aliens living abroad on April 15, 2014, may qualify for an automatic two-month extension to file their 2013 federal income tax returns. The extension of time to file also applies to those serving in the military outside the U.S. Taxpayers must attach a statement to their returns explaining why they qualify for the extension.

7. Get Tax Help. If you’re a taxpayer or resident alien living abroad that needs help with tax filing issues, IRS notices, and tax bills, or have questions about foreign earned income and offshore financial assets in a bank or brokerage account, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

• By Leon Clinton
• November 18, 2013