Tax credits can be especially valuable because they reduce taxes dollar-for-dollar; deductions reduce only the amount of income that’s taxed. A couple of credits are available for higher education expenses:

• The American Opportunity credit — up to $2,500 per year per student for qualifying expenses for the first four years of postsecondary education.

• The Lifetime Learning credit — up to $2,000 per tax return for postsecondary education expenses, even beyond the first four years.

But income-based phaseouts apply to these credits. If your income is too high to qualify, you might be eligible to deduct up to $4,000 of qualified higher education tuition and fees. The deduction is limited to $2,000 for taxpayers with incomes exceeding certain limits and is unavailable to taxpayers with higher incomes.

If you don’t qualify for breaks for your child’s higher education expenses because your income is too high, your child might. Many additional rules and limits apply to the credits and deduction, however. To learn which breaks your family might be eligible for on your 2013 tax returns — and which will provide the greatest tax savings — please contact us.

One of the most common mistakes investors make is forgetting to increase their basis in mutual funds to reflect reinvested dividends. Many mutual fund investors automatically reinvest dividends in additional shares of the fund. These reinvestments increase tax basis in the fund, which reduces capital gain (or increases capital loss) when the shares are sold.

If you neglect to include reinvested dividends in your basis, you’ll end up paying tax twice: first on the dividends when they’re reported to you on Form 1099-DIV, and again when you sell the shares and the reinvested dividends are included in the proceeds.

To help ensure you’re properly accounting for dividend reinvestments when you’re filing your 2013 tax return — or for other tax-smart strategies for your investments — contact us today.

For the last several years, taxpayers have been allowed to take an itemized deduction for state and local sales taxes in lieu of state and local income taxes. Although this break hasn’t yet been extended to 2014, it is available for 2013.

It can be valuable if you reside in a state with no or low income taxes or if you purchase major items, such as a car or boat. So see if you can save more by deducting sales tax on your 2013 return. And if you’re contemplating a major purchase, keep an eye on Congress to see if the break will be revived for 2014. You may want to factor the deduction’s availability into your purchase decision.

For help determining whether deducting sales tax makes sense for you — and for the latest information on the status of the deduction for 2014 — please contact us.

Recently released IRS final regulations for the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) employer shared-responsibility provision provide some short-term relief for midsize and large employers.

Under the ACA, the shared-responsibility provision (commonly referred to as “play-or-pay”) applies to “large” employers — those with the equivalent of 50 or more full-time employees. Play-or-pay had been scheduled to go into effect in 2014 but last year the IRS pushed that out to 2015. Now, under the final regs, eligible midsize employers that otherwise would be considered large employers under the ACA won’t be subject to the provision until 2016. To qualify for the midsize-employer relief, an employer must:

• Employ on average fewer than 100 full-time employees or the equivalent during 2014,
• Maintain its workforce size and aggregate hours of service,
• Maintain the health care coverage it offered as of Feb. 9, 2014, and
• Certify that it meets these requirements.

The final regs also provide some relief for large employers that don’t qualify for the midsize-employer relief: In 2015, they can avoid the penalty for not offering minimum essential coverage by offering such coverage to at least 70% of their full-time employees, rather than the 95% originally scheduled. The 95% requirement will apply in 2016 and beyond.

The final regs also clarify certain aspects of the play-or-pay provision. Please contact us if you’d like more information on the final play-or-pay regs or other ACA provisions.

If your use of a home office is for your employer’s benefit or because you’re self employed, you may be able to deduct a portion of your mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, utilities and certain other expenses, as well as the depreciation allocable to the office space. Or you may be able to take the new, simpler, “safe harbor” deduction.

Beginning with 2013 tax returns, taxpayers can use the safe harbor deduction in lieu of calculating, allocating and substantiating actual expenses. Other rules — such as the requirement that the office be used regularly and exclusively for business — still apply. The safe harbor deduction is capped at $1,500 per year, based on $5 per square foot up to a maximum of 300 square feet.

Also be aware that, for employees, home office expenses are a miscellaneous itemized deduction. This means you’ll enjoy a tax benefit only if these expenses plus your other miscellaneous itemized expenses exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). If, however, you’re self-employed, you can deduct eligible home office expenses against your self-employment income.

Questions about deducting home office expenses? Contact us; we’d be pleased to answer them.