The nationwide price of gas is slightly higher than it was a year ago, and the 2025 optional standard mileage rate used to calculate the deductible cost of operating an automobile for business has also gone up. The IRS recently announced that the 2025 cents-per-mile rate for the business use of a car, van, pickup,

or panel truck is 70 cents. In 2024, the business cents-per-mile rate was 67 cents per mile. This rate applies to gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles as well as electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.

The process of calculating rates

The 3-cent increase from the 2024 rate goes along with the recent price of gas. On January 17, 2025, the national average price of a gallon of regular gas was $3.11, compared with $3.08 a year earlier, according to AAA Fuel Prices. However, the standard mileage rate is calculated based on all the costs involved in driving a vehicle — not just the price of gas.

The business cents-per-mile rate is adjusted annually. It’s based on an annual study commissioned by the IRS about the fixed and variable costs of operating a vehicle, including gas, maintenance, repairs, and depreciation. Occasionally, if there’s a substantial change in average gas prices, the IRS will change the cents-per-mile rate midyear.

Standard rate or real expenses

Businesses can generally deduct the actual expenses attributable to business use of a vehicle. These include gas, oil, tires, insurance, repairs, licenses, and vehicle registration fees. In addition, you can claim a depreciation allowance for the vehicle. However, in many cases, certain limits apply to depreciation write-offs on vehicles that don’t apply to other types of business assets.

The cents-per-mile rate is beneficial if you don’t want to keep track of actual vehicle-related expenses. With this method, you don’t have to account for all your actual expenses. However, you still must record certain information, such as the mileage for each business trip, the date, and the destination.

Using the cents-per-mile rate is also popular with businesses that reimburse employees for business use of their personal vehicles. These reimbursements can help attract and retain employees who drive their personal vehicles a great deal for business purposes. Why? Under current law, employees can’t deduct unreimbursed employee business expenses, such as business mileage, on their own income tax returns.

If you do use the cents-per-mile rate, keep in mind that you must comply with various rules. If you don’t comply, the reimbursements could be considered taxable wages to the employees.

When you can’t use the standard rate

There are some cases when you can’t use the cents-per-mile rate. It partly depends on how you’ve claimed deductions for the same vehicle in the past. In other situations, it depends on whether the vehicle is new to your business this year or whether you want to take advantage of certain first-year depreciation tax breaks on it.

As you can see, there are many factors to consider when deciding whether to use the standard mileage rate to deduct vehicle expenses. We can help if you have questions about tracking and claiming such expenses in 2025 — or claiming 2024 expenses on your 2024 income tax return.

Once you reach age 73, tax law requires you to begin taking withdrawals — called Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) — from your traditional IRA, SIMPLE IRA and SEP IRA. Since funds can’t stay in these accounts indefinitely, it’s important to understand the rules behind RMDs, which can be pretty complex. Below, we address some common questions to help you navigate this process.

What are the tax implications if I want to withdraw money before retirement? 

If you need to take money out of a traditional IRA before age 59½, distributions are taxable, and you may be subject to a 10% penalty tax. However, there are several ways that you can avoid the 10% penalty tax (but not the regular income tax). They include using the money to pay:

• Qualified higher education expenses,
• Up to $10,000 of expenses if you’re a first-time homebuyer,
• Expenses after you become totally and permanently disabled,
• Expenses of up to $5,000 per child for qualified birth or adoption expenses, and
• Health insurance premiums while unemployed.

These are only some of the exceptions to the 10% tax allowed before age 59½. The IRS lists them all in this chart.

When am I required to take my first RMD?

For an IRA, you must take your first RMD by April 1 of the year following the year in which you turn 73, regardless of whether you’re still employed. The RMD age used to be 72 but the Secure 2.0 Act raised it to 73 starting in 2023.

How do I calculate my RMD?

The RMD for any year is the account balance as of the end of the immediately preceding calendar year divided by a distribution period from the IRS’s “Uniform Lifetime Table.” A separate table is used if the sole beneficiary is the owner’s spouse who’s 10 or more years younger than the owner.

How should I take my RMDs if I have multiple accounts?

If you have more than one IRA, you must calculate the RMD for each IRA separately each year. However, you may aggregate your RMD amounts for all of your IRAs and withdraw the total from one IRA or a portion from each of your IRAs. You don’t have to take a separate RMD from each IRA.

Can I withdraw more than the RMD?

Yes, you can always withdraw more than the RMD. But you can’t apply excess withdrawals toward future years’ RMDs.

In planning for RMDs, you should weigh your income needs against the ability to keep the tax shelter of the IRA going for as long as possible.

Can I take more than one withdrawal in a year to meet my RMD?

You may withdraw your annual RMD in any number of distributions throughout the year, as long as you withdraw the yearly total minimum amount by December 31 (or April 1 if it is for your first RMD).

What happens if I don’t take an RMD?

If the distributions to you in any year are less than the RMD for that year, you’ll be subject to an additional tax equal to 50% of the amount that should have been paid but wasn’t.

Plan carefully

Contact us to review your traditional IRAs and analyze other retirement planning aspects. We can also discuss who you should name as beneficiaries and whether you could benefit from a Roth IRA. Roth IRAs are retirement savings vehicles that operate under a different set of rules than traditional IRAs. Contributions aren’t deductible, but qualified distributions are generally tax-free.

Saving for retirement is a crucial financial goal, and a 401(k) plan is one of the most effective tools for achieving it. If your employer offers a 401(k) or Roth 401(k), contributing as much as possible to the plan in 2025 is a smart way to build a considerable nest egg.

If you’re not already contributing the maximum allowed, consider increasing your contribution in 2025. Because of tax-deferred compounding (tax-free in the case of Roth accounts), boosting contributions can have a significant impact on the amount of money you’ll have in retirement.

With a 401(k), an employee elects to have a certain amount of pay deferred and contributed to the plan by an employer on his or her behalf. The amounts are indexed for inflation each year, and they increase by a modest amount. The contribution limit in 2025 is $23,500 (up from $23,000 in 2024). Employees age 50 or older by year-end are also generally permitted to make additional “catch-up” contributions of $7,500 in 2025 (unchanged from 2024). This means those 50 or older can generally save up to $31,000 in 2025 (up from $30,500 in 2024).

However, under a law change that becomes effective in 2025, 401(k) plan participants of certain ages can save more. The catch-up contribution amount for those who are age 60, 61, 62, or 63 in 2025 is $11,250.

Note: The contribution amounts for 401(k)s also apply to 403(b)s and 457 plans.

Traditional 401(k)s

A traditional 401(k) offers many benefits, including:

• Pretax contributions, which reduce your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) and can help you reduce or avoid exposure to the 3.8% net investment income tax.
• Plan assets that can grow tax-deferred — meaning you pay no income tax until you take distributions.
• The option for your employer to match some or all of your contributions pretax.

If you already have a 401(k) plan, look at your contributions. In 2025, try to increase your contribution rate to get as close to the $23,500 limit (with any extra eligible catch-up amount) as you can afford. Of course, the taxes on your paycheck will be reduced because the contributions are pretax.

Roth 401(k)s

Your employer may also offer a Roth option in its 401(k) plans. If so, you can designate some or all of your contributions as Roth contributions. While such amounts don’t reduce your current MAGI, qualified distributions will be tax-free.

Roth 401(k) contributions may be especially beneficial for higher-income earners because they can’t contribute to a Roth IRA. That’s because the ability to make a Roth IRA contribution is reduced or eliminated if adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeds specific amounts.

Planning for the future

Contact us if you have questions about how much to contribute or the best mix between traditional and Roth 401(k) contributions. We can also discuss other tax and retirement-saving strategies for your situation.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), enacted in 2022, created several tax credits aimed at promoting clean energy. You may want to take advantage of them before it’s too late.

On the campaign trail, President-Elect Donald Trump pledged to “terminate” the law and “rescind all unspent funds.” Rescinding all or part of the law would require action from Congress and is possible when Republicans take control of both chambers in January. The credits weren’t scheduled to expire for many years, but they may be repealed in 2025 with the changes in Washington.

If you’ve been thinking about making any of the following eligible purchases, you may want to do it before December 31.

1. Home energy efficiency improvements

Homeowners can benefit from several tax credits for making energy-efficient upgrades to their homes. These include:

• Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit: This credit covers 30% of the cost of eligible home improvements, such as installing energy-efficient windows, doors, and insulation, up to a maximum of $1,200 this year. There’s also a credit of up to $2,000 for qualified heat pumps, water heaters, biomass stoves, or biomass boilers.
• Residential Clean Energy Credit: This credit is available for installing solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps, and other renewable energy systems. It covers 30% of the cost.
• Energy Efficient Property Credit: For those investing in clean energy for their homes, this credit offers a significant incentive. It covers 30% of the cost of installing solar water heaters and other renewable energy sources.

2. Clean vehicle tax credit

One of the most notable IRA provisions is the clean vehicle tax credit. If you purchase a new electric vehicle (EV) or fuel cell vehicle (FCV), you may qualify for a tax credit of up to $7,500. The credit for a pre-owned clean vehicle can be up to $4,000. To be eligible, the vehicle must meet specific criteria, including price caps and income limits for the buyer.

The credit can be claimed when you file your tax return. Alternatively, you can transfer it to an eligible dealer when you buy a vehicle, which effectively reduces the vehicle’s purchase price by the credit amount.

3. Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment Credit

If you install an EV charging station at your home, you can claim a credit of 30% of the cost, up to $1,000. This credit is designed to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles by making it more affordable to charge at home.

Act now

These are only some of the tax breaks in the IRA that may reduce your federal tax bill while promoting clean energy.

IRS data has shown that the tax breaks are popular. For example, in 2023 (the first year available), approximately 750,000 taxpayers claimed the credit for rooftop solar panels. Keep in mind that a tax credit is more valuable than a tax deduction. A credit directly reduces the amount of tax you owe, dollar for dollar, while a deduction reduces your taxable income, which is the amount subject to tax.

So, act now if you want to take advantage of these credits. There may also be state or local utility incentives. Contact us before making a large purchase to check if it’s eligible.