Author Archives: Janice

Maximizing the Benefits of Accelerated Depreciation

Posted on February 28th, by Janice in Business Taxes Wealth No Comments

calculator1Depreciation can seem like magic. When done properly, it can take rental real estate with positive cash flow and turn it into a loss for tax purposes.

It is common to break out land and building in a rental property for depreciation purposes, but there are many more components to consider. These additional components may include appliances, parking structures, landscaping, furniture, fixtures, and much more. Most importantly, these additional components can be depreciated much faster than land and building.

The result is accelerated depreciation which means more depreciation can be taken sooner.

Keep this in mind: Accelerated depreciation is a long-term strategy.

The decision to accelerate depreciation should be part of a long-term tax strategy. While the tax benefits can come immediately, there needs to be a focus on the future to truly maximize the benefits.

Accelerated depreciation often results in more gain when the property is sold.

On top of that, the depreciation taken may be recaptured when the property is sold, which means a portion of the gain (the portion attributable to the depreciation) may be taxed at ordinary tax rates.

So how is any of this good news for accelerated depreciation?

Here’s how. The worst case scenario with accelerated depreciation is that the tax is deferred to a later year. You take the bigger deductions now, enjoy the tax savings now and then pay tax on it later in the form of more gain.

If you’ve heard me speak, then you probably know deferral is my least favorite type of tax planning, so you may be wondering why I think accelerated depreciation is so important in a tax strategy.

The reason is that deferral is the worst case outcome, and as far as tax planning goes, while deferral isn’t my favorite, it can still help minimize taxes. So even the worst case scenario is still good for tax planning.

But even better, there are other possible outcomes that can reduce or eliminate the future tax impact of accelerated depreciation.

A long-term strategy is the solution to minimizing or eliminating the future tax impact of accelerated depreciation. Here are a few examples.

Strategy #1 – Depreciation Recapture
Not all depreciation recapture is taxed as ordinary income. Some depreciation recapture has a lower tax rate. This means you take the deduction at a higher rate and report the income at a lower rate – this results in permanent tax savings.

The key is making sure you are in the right tax brackets now and in the future.

Strategy #2 – Like-Kind Exchanges
Another example is using like-kind exchanges in your long term tax strategy. With like-kind exchanges, it is possible to avoid depreciation recapture entirely.

Strategy #3 – Hold Property to Pass to Heirs
If your long-term strategy is to hold the property and pass it to your heirs, then that can work to avoid depreciation recapture.

Strategy #4 – Rental Property
A plan to regularly buy rental property can provide a steady source of accelerated depreciation and compensate for lower depreciation on properties entering the older stages of their depreciable lives.

While there can be many traps with accelerated depreciation, these strategies are some ways to plan around them with a long-term strategy.

Think You Don’t Need an Estate Plan? Think Again!

Posted on February 15th, by Janice in Taxes Wealth No Comments

dollar house percentA key part of a wealth strategy is to protect the wealth you build. Estate planning plays an important role in protecting your wealth by making sure your wealth is distributed in the way you want after your death. What better way to protect your wealth than to be in control of it – even after you are no longer living.

Even with all these great benefits of estate planning, it often gets pushed to the back burner. This happens most often due to bad information.

That bad information is this:
I do not need to do estate planning right now because my estate is not taxable.

Many countries have an estate tax that is levied against the value of your assets after your death. Most countries have a threshold that if an estate falls under that threshold, it is not subject to estate tax. Many people think they don’t need to do estate planning if their estate is under that threshold.

This is not true! While it’s true their estate may not be in urgent need of estate tax planning (although estate tax planning is best done when the value of your estate is low), there is still a need for basic estate planning.

Estate planning is not just about the estate tax. In fact, some of the most important reasons to do estate planning have nothing to do with estate tax. Here are just a few reasons why estate planning applies to just about everyone – regardless of their income, wealth or age.

Protect Your Wealth
As I mentioned, estate planning is an absolute necessity in order for you to dictate how your wealth is distributed after your death. Without this in place, the law will make that decision for you. This is a powerful way to protect the wealth you build.

Protect Your Health
Proper estate planning is not just about what happens after your death, it also addresses what happens in the event you are unable to make your own decisions – this includes medical decisions.

Addressing what medical treatments you do or don’t want while you are able to make and communicate these decisions is crucial. Part of proper estate planning includes discussing your decisions with your physician and your family.

Protect Your Family
As I mentioned above, a big part of the basics of estate planning is addressing what happens if you become incapacitated.

Think about this: If you became incapacitated tomorrow:
Would your mortgage be paid on time?
Would your bills be paid on time?
Would your family be able to maintain the lifestyle they are accustomed to during your incapacitation?

Proper estate planning addresses not only what happens with your wealth after your death, but also how your wealth is managed during any period of incapacitation. Planning for this in advance as part of your basic estate plan is a wonderful way to take care of your family. It’s also an effective way to protect your wealth.

No Estate Tax Doesn’t Mean No Estate Plan
Remember, just because you don’t have an estate tax issue doesn’t mean you don’t need estate planning now. Some of the most important reasons to do estate planning have nothing to do with estate tax.

Why Everyone Needs a Wealth Strategy

Posted on January 30th, by Janice in Uncategorized No Comments

dollarOne of the most common scenarios I come across is the struggle many people have to create permanent wealth.  And most times it is not for lack of hard work.  When I dig into the situation, I find that many of the people fit into the following:

– They spend most of their time at work.

– They go to work in hopes they can “get ahead.”

– They spend 8, 10, or even 12 hours each day working hard for money.

– They spent anywhere from 12 to 20 years or more in school preparing for their profession.

And yet, the bottom line is they are not ahead at all.  

They may have a few dollars set aside for a rainy day, and have an investment here and there, but they aren’t creating any permanent wealth or making significant strides towards their dreams …even though they are working hard enough that they deserve to create some wealth.

Why Everyone Needs a Wealth Strategy
A wealth strategy puts you on the right path to building wealth – one that creates permanent wealth.  This is the purpose of a wealth strategy – it connects the action needed today in order to achieve the desired results in the future.  

Wealth creation is not solely about hard work. It’s also a matter of knowing how to make money. A wealth strategy is heavily focused on increasing your knowledge about how to make money in assets that will work for you.

What Action Will You Take?
Taking action is great, but it needs to be the right action – otherwise the results will be disappointing.  The wrong action is what creates the scenario shared at the beginning.

If you did something every day that positively impacted your wealth, how much wealth could you build in the next 30 days? In the next 60 days? In the next year?

Set aside an hour to identify the action you should take.  And if you aren’t sure what action you should take, then your first action should be to develop your wealth strategy.

Build Wealth By Making Time to Work ON Your Business

Posted on January 15th, by Janice in Wealth No Comments

wristwatchPeople share with me on a regularly basis that they are simply too busy to focus on their wealth. They tell me that dedicating a few hours every week or month to focus on their wealth is simply just too much time. 

Creating a wealth strategy and implementing it doesn’t have to be a full-time job, but it does require focus and some time and effort.  Many people struggle with focusing on their wealth, not because they don’t know what to do, but because it is more comfortable to keep things the same.

Let’s look at two very different wealth strategies. Both involve an operating business with a business owner who wants to move from working “in” the business to working “on” the business in order to build wealth.

Wealth Strategy #1
The business owner is:

  – Working 60 hours per week.

  – Thinking about being able to get out of the day-to-day operations, but can’t imagine how the business would run without him there.

Wealth Strategy #2
The business owner is:

– Establishing a wealth team that includes key employees who manage the business.

– Using formal and informal agreements with team members to improve communication.

– Putting systems in place, including internal controls, so everyone in the business understands proper operating procedures. With these systems in place, the owner can spend his time managing the systems (which takes less time than managing the people).

– Putting reporting in place so information is readily available to make timely decisions.

Which strategy do you think will be more successful?

Wealth strategy #1 is going to struggle.

The owner is too busy to focus on wealth building. The business owner could achieve his goal if he wasn’t too busy, but it is all based on what he is willing to do. Is he willing to leverage his resources so he has the time to focus on his wealth? Is he willing to move out of his comfort zone by figuring out how his business could run without him there?  

Wealth strategy #2 embraces the leverage that comes with properly using resources.

The business owner is willing to do whatever it takes to leverage his resources. The leverage from the proper use of resources gives the owner more time to focus on building his asset (his business) in order to build his wealth.

Too Busy?

When I hear that someone is too busy to focus on their wealth, I think about these two strategies. Is anyone really too busy to focus on their wealth? If someone is truly interested in taking control of their wealth, they will make it a priority. Until then, they will remain too busy.

 

5 Under-Utilized Tools to Protect Your Wealth

Posted on January 2nd, by Janice in Taxes Wealth No Comments

graphA successful wealth strategy not only builds your wealth, it also protects your wealth. There are several wealth protection tools I see under-utilized in a wealth strategy. Are you using these tools effectively?

Tool #1: A Tax Strategy

Building wealth is not about what you make, but what you keep. The average taxpayer spends 2.5 hours a day working to pay their taxes. Without a tax strategy, taxes can easily drain a person’s wealth and their ability to build wealth.

A tax strategy that legally reduces your taxes protects your wealth by keeping more of it in your pocket. And, a properly designed tax strategy will protect your tax savings by having you well-prepared for an audit.

Tool #2: Estate Planning

It’s a shame to see someone build incredible wealth during their lifetime only to see it diminish when they die due to poor estate planning. The hits to a person’s wealth can come from many different directions: estate taxes, probate fees, attorney fees and assets not being passed how they were intended (just to name a few).

The good news here is that basic estate planning can add a great level of protection to one’s wealth.

Tool #3: Reporting

If you hate reporting, then odds are you are not getting the right reports.

Reporting should report the activity YOU want. There are no specific rules that must be followed – it is based on facts, figures or data you want to help you make decisions to grow your business and your wealth.

The right reports tell you when you need to take action in your wealth strategy. Taking action at the right time protects your wealth. For example, if your reporting indicates that the cash flow from your business is on a downward trend, you can protect your business (and wealth) by addressing the issue immediately. Waiting too long, or not acting at all because you don’t have the reporting to tell you there’s an issue, could be detrimental to your business.

Tool #4: The Right Team Members

Every team member should be pushing your wealth strategy forward and not keeping it from moving forward.

Are your team members deal-makers or deal-breakers?
Do your team members start their responses with “Here’s how you can do that?” or “You can’t do that?”

The right team members protect your wealth by enabling you to leverage their expertise into your wealth strategy to move your wealth building forward while avoiding costly mistakes and distractions.

Tool #5: Agreements

When you hire an attorney, you usually sign a letter agreeing to certain terms. Or, if you have a partnership, you probably have a partnership agreement with your partner.

These agreements protect your wealth if your relationship goes south. The most important time to have your agreements in place is before things go bad; if you wait until things go bad, your wealth is not protected.

Think about the people you interact with in your business or investing. What types of agreements do you have with them? Are expectations clear on both sides?

I find most people are investing and running their businesses without the proper agreements in place.

Protect Your Wealth

Many people are anxious to start building their wealth right away – so much so that they rush out and jump right into an investment. I love this enthusiasm. I like to redirect that enthusiasm into creating the wealth strategy first. A properly built foundation can save years and years when it comes to building wealth.

Using Cap Rates In Your Wealth Strategy

Posted on December 15th, by Janice in Wealth No Comments

dollarThe cap rate is one of my favorite tools when it comes to investment properties.  

What is the cap rate?
The cap (Capitalization) rate is the rate of return provided, prior to financing, by the cash flow of an investment property.

The equation to determine the cap rate of a property looks like this:

Cap Rate = Net Operating Income from the property / Fair Market Value of the property

Let me give you a simple example.

You purchase a property for $500,000 and the property’s net operating income (income after operating expenses but before any interest, principle or depreciation) is $50,000.  

Your cap rate is 10% ($50,000 / $500,000).

What Can the Cap Rate of a Property Tell You?

#1 – A cap rate can tell you how leverage (debt) will affect your investment.  
If the cap rate of a property is higher than the borrowing cost (interest rate), it is an indicator that the property’s cash flow will cover the interest cost.

If the cap rate is less than the interest rate, it is an indicator that the property’s cash flow will not cover the interest cost.  

#2 – A cap rate can provide indicators as to when to sell or buy.
If cap rates are trending downwards, it may be time to sell. A downward trend is an indicator that property values are increasing.

If cap rates are trending upwards, it may be time to buy.  An upward trend is an indicator that property values are decreasing.

Using Cap Rates in Your Wealth Strategy
Cap rates provide a quick snapshot to help alert you that you may need to do some deeper analyzing and take action.  Cap Rates are even more powerful when you track the trends.

Of course, cap rates are only one tool when it comes to analyzing investment property and anytime you buy or sell an investment property, it should be part of your overall wealth strategy.  

4 Retirement Suggestions for Younger Workers (18 yrs. – 55 yrs.)

Posted on November 30th, by Janice in Uncategorized No Comments

dreamstime_m_19902302Even if you are not ready to retire yet, it’s never too early to start thinking about your retirement years. Here are some simple ways you can start making strides toward preparing for retirement, even if it is far down the road.

1. Don’t rely solely on Social Security. Since social security won’t be sufficient to pay for life’s necessities – look for other options (investing) to help cover essential costs.  The present day retirees 2 greatest financial concerns are covering health care costs and running out of money before running out of breath.

2. Control spending.  If you’re living beyond your means before retiring, you are likely to continue in retirement until you don’t have enough to cover your needs.

3. Get a handle on procrastination and inconsistency. These are two of the biggest enemies of financial success.  Get started saving today and do it on a consistent basis.  Use payroll deductions and programmed bank withdrawals.  Investing whether the market is up or down is important.

4. Plan for healthcare. The Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates that the average couple can expect to spend $261,000 of their own money to achieve a 90% certainty of meeting their health care needs.  In addition to Medicare, have a supplemental policy and long term care might be a good idea.  Insurance may seem expensive, but not having it could be more expensive.

If you’re not planning on retiring for many years to come, you don’t have to have every retirement detail in place yet, but it’s never too early to start thinking about some of these issues and beginning to make some initial plans.

 

 

5 Best Practices That Will Reduce Your Taxes

Posted on November 15th, by Janice in Uncategorized No Comments

tax formsPractice 1: View every day as an opportunity to reduce your taxes

When you are making money, there is an opportunity to reduce your taxes. When you are spending money, there is an opportunity to reduce your taxes. When you have a new investment, there is an opportunity to reduce your taxes. When you make a new deal for your business, whether it’s with a vendor, a customer or an employee, there is an opportunity to reduce your taxes.

Making it a habit to look at every day as an opportunity to reduce your taxes will create the right habits to actually reduce your taxes.

Practice 2: Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

It is crazy to put off anything you can do today to reduce your taxes. Every day you delay your tax planning represents money you are unnecessarily giving to the government that you could be putting in your pocket.

Do something today to help your tax strategy!

For example, spend 15 minutes scanning and filing your receipts. Those who stay organized throughout the year are better able to capture all of their expenses, whereas those who only do it once a year usually miss several expenses.

Practice 3: Track where your cash goes. 

Little expenses can add up to big tax savings. Track where your cash goes. Cash is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to missed deductions – business lunches, tips, other incidentals. It’s easy to spend cash, and then forget where it was spent. This means the deduction gets missed.

A few dollars here and there adds up. Let’s say a person spends $20 cash every day on business expenses. That’s over $7,000 a year in missed expenses that can result in an overpayment of taxes of over $2,500.

Practice 4: Stick to your tax strategy.

Most tax advice is geared towards those who are not business owners or investors which is why you want to make sure you stick to your tax strategy.

Business owners and investors have much better opportunities available to them in the tax law to reduce their taxes. Often times, the tax saving opportunities available to business owners and investors create permanent tax savings (this means the tax is eliminated) while the tax saving opportunities available to the general population create temporary tax savings (this means the tax is just deferred until a later year).

Practice 5: Stick to your wealth strategy.

I regularly have people share with me that they bought or invested in something for tax benefits and then ask me if that was a good idea. I always answer the same way.  If it is part of your wealth strategy, yes!  If you have not considered how it fits in your wealth tax strategy yet, you definitely want to do that first.
 If you want to learn more about how to take advantage of these tax strategies; sign up on our email list or call us for an appointment to get started today

Free Investment Portfolio Reviews Now Available at Vanderbilt CPA Group

Posted on October 30th, by Janice in Uncategorized No Comments

billKossenClients have been have been asking for investment services! We heard you.

Vanderbilt CPA Group now has an independent professional in our office location who can provide these services. It is a natural fit as many investment choices often are related to tax and accounting matters. Many of you already know Bill Kossen from our office; he will now be providing investment services to clients.

Transamerica Financial Advisor’s Registered Representative, William R. Kossen, welcomes the opportunity to review/discuss investment opportunities that make sense to you. “I enjoy helping my clients prepare for the future by getting to know them and their needs. I enjoy working with Vanderbilt CPA Group because they work hard to take care of their clients’ complete financial needs.”

Request your free investment (portfolio) review today as an annual financial check-up. Are your retirement investments doing as you expected? It could be costing you valuable retirement income.

Bill Kossen is a Registered Representative and Investment Advisor with, and Securities offered through Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc. (TFA) member FINRA, SIPC. Non-securities products and services are not offered through TFA. Vanderbilt CPA Group is not affiliated with TFA. Neither TFA nor its representatives provide tax or accounting advice. Persons who provide such advice do so in a capacity other than as a representative of TFA.

To schedule an appointment, contact William R. Kossen or Janice S. Vanderbilt at 616.954.9254

 

 

 

 

 

Rules for Deducting Your Personal Vehicle in Your Business

Posted on October 14th, by Janice in Business Taxes No Comments

carsOne of the most common tax deductions I see missed is the business use of a personal vehicle. 

When I meet with new clients and discuss this deduction, I hear all sorts of reasons as to why they haven’t taken this deduction:

– They didn’t know they could
– They don’t use their personal vehicle that much for business
– They were told that since it was a personal vehicle, it couldn’t be deducted
– They thought it was a red flag for an audit

The truth is, anytime your business uses your personal vehicle, there’s a tax deduction, whether the business use is 1% or 100%.

Have Your Business Reimburse You – Tax Free!
Your business should reimburse you for allowing it to use your car – even if you are the one using it in the business.

When your business reimburses you, your business claims the reimbursement as a deduction, reducing the amount of business income that is taxable, which in turn reduces your overall taxes.

The tax savings get even better – the reimbursement you receive from your business is not taxable to you – it is tax free income.

Here’s What You Need to Do
To make this tax reduction strategy work, you’ll want to track how many business miles versus total miles you put on your car in a year. Your business miles divided by your total miles is your percentage of business use. This is a very important percentage because it is the percentage of your vehicle expenses for which you can be reimbursed by your business.

Vehicle expenses include:

– Maintenance
– Tune-ups
– Replacement parts
– New tires
– Gas
– Oil
– Washes
– Car loan interest
– Depreciation
– Lease payments

These expenses add up, which can mean big tax savings.

Multiply your total expenses by your percentage of business use and that is the amount of reimbursement to collect from your business.

Alternatively, you can have your business reimburse you based on the standard mileage rate. The standard business mileage rate is currently 56 cents per mile. This rate changes on a regular basis and can be found on the IRS website.  Multiply the number of business miles by the standard business mileage rate and that is the amount of reimbursement due to you from your business.

The standard mileage rate is used in lieu of other expenses. This means if you use the standard mileage rate, it is in lieu of your actual vehicle expenses for that year which include the expenses listed above.

Using the standard mileage rate method usually works best when your business mileage is high. If your business mileage is low, then using the actual costs will likely result in a greater deduction.

Regardless of which method you use, submit an expense reimbursement report to your business and have your business cut you a check. This is something you can do monthly or quarterly.

The Result is Permanent Tax Savings
The vehicle deduction is one of my favorite tax deductions because it has the ability to turn expenses you already have into legal tax deductions. This creates permanent tax savings.