Jeffrey Anton Tax & Business Services

You save on taxes by planning properly, and reacting wisely to financial anxiety

Here’s what you get at your first free meeting: Review of your past and current tax situation Discussion of ways to minimize taxes going forward Warning signs that you may be facing financial anxiety Review of your past tax returns You get a second opinion of what your returns look like It also helps me to figure out any areas of potential tax savings

Your current tax situation could include answering questions such as: Where is the best place to find the money to exercise stock options or stock purchase program shares? How much should you save in your 401k, IRA, or SEP IRA? If you’re in your own business, do you operate in the right business entity? Do you control how much you pay into Social Security? Do you maximize the deduction for insurance? Are your beneficiary designations on financial accounts designed for the best tax strategy long into the future? You’re thinking, “What does he mean by ‘financial anxiety?’ Here’s what it means to you: I try to convince you that when you encounter a strange situation regarding your money, your kneejerk reaction should be to pick up the phone or send me an email before you do anything

When you’re my client, you’ve got somebody to call! Doing taxes is typically a frustrating exercise which many people put off Once you start working with us, we’ll input your current year returns into our system, so we can send you a new tax organizer in January That way, we’ll help you stay on track It’s easy to be on time when you are working with somebody who will remind you what you have to do

In addition to being a CPA, Mr Anton is a California life and health insurance agent license number 0C06035

"Tax legislation is not a promise, and a taxpayer has no vested right in the Internal Revenue Code " The United States Supreme Court "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush " Your parents and grandparents

The Stretch IRA Snaps Back to 10 Years

A tax planning strategy that has been around for many years,  the stretch IRA, suddenly disappeared with new legislation passed in December

Now when your children inherit your IRA and other pension plans they have to pay taxes on all that money within 10 years And all it took was one vote of Congress

So what’s the lesson for you? When some salesman or radio huckster is trying to get you to move all your retirement money to Roth IRA’s or life insurance policies, so that you and your family will save tremendous amounts of taxes in the next 50 years, you must stop and call me first (My cell phone number is 650-576-7047 )  These schemes involve paying tax on all that money today, so that you may save more taxes later

As we have just seen, Congress is free to change the rules and tax both Roth IRA’s and the cash build up in insurance policies And with the deficit at $22 trillion, all that Roth IRA and insurance money is ripe for the picking Once again, “Tax legislation is not a promise…” You may want to take your tax breaks now, including deducting all your 401(k) plan contributions Then invest those tax savings elsewhere We can meet to go over how the new rules apply to your situation

In addition there are two other changes You don't have to take your IRA money out until you turn 72 There is no longer a maximum age to contribute to a traditional IRA

Of course, these and more changes complicate everything, punching more holes in the tax simplification postcard

You may be able to save thousands on your federal income taxes by increasing your premium tax credit under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Please continue reading

Careful financial planning may help early retirees drive down the high cost health insurance Decisions you make before you retire could save you thousands every year until you reach age 65 Don’t try this at home!  Help is available to figure this out

Many folks, especially those over 50, experience sticker shock over health insurance These plans are required to have certain minimum benefits, thus driving up premium costs What can you do? The answer is to manage your taxable income to legally obtain the largest possible subsidy under Covered California Arrange your assets to have enough cash flow, while keeping your modified adjusted gross income within the range to get a subsidy For example, you are offered early retirement, and have the choice to take monthly payments for life, or roll a lump sum into an Individual Retirement Account If you choose monthly payments for life, that may cause your adjusted gross income to rise to a level which will rule out a subsidy The same holds true for your decision when to take social security, as well as many other decisions

The challenge is to have cash flow to live on that is not part of modified adjusted gross income, which means adjusted gross income with tax free interest and social security added back in Maybe you would consider doing things you not ordinarily do to save the $15,000 a year And depending on how old you are now, you could save $150,000 over ten years!  Of course, your savings could be more or less, depending on your situation

Beware of driving your income too low If your modified adjusted gross income is below 138 percent of the poverty level, then you will be directed to apply for Medi-Cal