The IRS announced inflation-adjusted limits for deductible contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs) for 2017. For family coverage, the contribution limit will be $6,750, and for individual coverage, the limit will be $3,400. If you’re age 55 or older, you can contribute an additional $1,000 during 2017. HSAs combine high-deductible health insurance plans with pretax contributions to a healthcare savings account. The savings account funds can be withdrawn tax-free to pay unreimbursed medical expenses. This is general information and should not be acted upon without first determining its application to your specific situation. Please contact your CPA or tax advisor for additional details.
Planning can help you achieve a comfortable retirement. Here are five suggestions to consider: Start a retirement savings program as early as possible and contribute regularly. The longer and more consistently you contribute, the larger your nest egg will become, even before the compounding provided by growth and earnings. Regular, reasonable deposits wisely invested will easily outgrow sporadic and insignificant contributions. Deposit your funds in tax-deferred accounts. Invest in tax-deferred accounts to the greatest extent possible. If your employer offers a tax-deferred plan, such as a 401(k), contribute as much as you can, particularly if the plan provides matching funds. Investigate individual options, such as IRAs, for additional planning opportunities. Why? One of the advantages of tax-deferred accounts is that investments that aren’t reduced by taxes will grow and compound at a faster rate. Other advantages include the ability to control your withdrawal rate and the amount of any accompanying tax, and the opportunity to postpone recognition of taxable income until retirement, when you’ll likely be in a lower tax bracket. Establish an investment plan. As funds within your retirement accounts accumulate, you’ll have to decide how to invest them. Establish an investment plan as early as possible. Then follow your plan consistently, revising only enough to keep matters on course, correct for deviations, and respond to unexpected events. Track your portfolio and re-balance as needed. Maintain a balance among growth, income, and short-term investments, and adjust the ratios as you age. The standard rules of thumb:
Once you’re retired, plan withdrawals so your funds will last the rest of your life. To avoid running out of funds, plan for a long retirement.
A successful retirement plan requires forethought, discipline, and monitoring. For assistance, contact your CPA or financial advisor. This is general information and should not be acted upon without first determining its application to your specific situation. Please contact your CPA or tax advisor for additional details.
Unfortunately, like a good reputation, a strong credit score can easily be ruined. Here are three simple ways to devastate your credit score.
Be careful with your credit. Negative events can impact your rating for a long time, making lenders reluctant to offer you money. This is general information and should not be acted upon without first determining its application to your specific situation. Please contact your CPA or tax advisor for additional details.
Keeping a to-do list is a great way to be productive, avoid having things fall through the crack, and unclutter your brain.
How you maintain your to-do list varies: some people use pen and paper because they love the feeling of crossing tasks off, others use Excel or Google documents. Still others might try Evernote. If all of those still have you feeling unorganized, then relax. There’s a whole new genre of apps to automate your to-do list. Here is a list of things to consider when selecting a tool:
Once you’ve thought about your requirements, now you can look for an app that meets it. Here are a few to get you started: If those don’t work out, Google “to-do list apps” and you’ll have a bevy of selections to choose from. These to-do lists will work for not only business projects but also major life projects like weddings, vacations, and more. Try these new to-do list apps and please let us know what you think.
myRAs generally follow Roth IRA rules. That means the maximum contribution for 2015 and 2016 is $5,500 ($6,500 when you’re over age 50).
Contributions to your myRA are invested in a U.S. Treasury savings bond. The balance in your account earns interest and is guaranteed to retain its value. The Department of the Treasury recently added new ways to fund myRAs. As before, you can choose to fund your account from your paycheck by completing a direct deposit authorization form and giving it to your employer. In addition, you now also have the option of making direct deposits from a checking or savings account or from your federal income tax refund. To learn more about myRAs and/or to see if one would be a good fit for you, please contact your financial advisor.
This is general information and should not be acted upon without first determining its application to your specific situation. Please contact your CPA or tax advisor for additional details.
In mid-December, Congress renewed a list of tax breaks known as “extenders” that have been expiring on an annual basis. This year many of the rules are retroactive to the beginning of 2015, and you may benefit from them as you prepare your 2015 federal income tax return.
In addition, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, which was signed into law on December 18, 2015, makes some of the rules effective through December 31, 2016. Others are effective through 2019, and some are effective permanently. Provisions in the Act also make changes to existing tax rules that were not part of the extenders. All of these changes will affect your tax planning for 2016 and future years. Here’s an overview of selected provisions.
Because the Act was passed so late in the year, you will need to review your 2015 transactions to take advantage of applicable breaks and claim them on your 2015 federal income tax return. Also, with the rules now extended through 2016 (and in some cases beyond), you can begin to update your current tax plan with some measure of certainty. Please note: This is general information and should not be acted upon without first determining its application to your specific situation. Please contact your CPA or tax advisor for additional details.
Slack is a relatively new collaboration tool that is designed to cut down on emails among team members and boost productivity. It provides messaging by topic or channel so that threads of communication can be streamlined and accessed easily. One of my clients introduced me to Slack and I have found it to been very convenient and useful.
Slack is a searchable messaging portal that allows document sharing from a team member’s computer or integrated apps such as Google Drive, DropBox and more. Slack has 300,000 paid accounts and 1.1 million active users per day. There is a free option. Once all your team members are in Slack, they can create channels and have conversations within the channels. Channels can be organized in any way you want, such as by:
Channels can be made public within your team or private. You can also direct-message anyone else in the group so two or more team members can have a private talk. Conversations can be followed on any device – computer, tablet, and phone. You can add documents to the message stream so team members can review and make comments. These documents can come from your local computer or one of the 900 integrated apps. And the messages are searchable to boost efficiency. If you are looking for a tool that reduces the number of emails across team members, try out Slack at www.slack.com.
Clarify Your Vision
A vision statement for a company helps to keep everyone on track and seeing the bigger picture of what they are accomplishing day after day. What does the world look like after it has consumed your product or service? How is the world smarter, more beautiful, happier, healthier, or wealthier after they have left your business? If you haven’t written your business vision and mission statement, consider completing this exercise for 2016. Create New Habits What habits are holding you back? Which ones are propelling you forward? Choose one habit that is costing you the most and make a commitment to drop it from your 2016 repertoire. Conversely, identify the habit that is brining you happiness and wealth and multiply it. Let Go Sometimes we need to let go before we can move forward. What do you need to let go of? Are there customers or employees in your life that sap your energy or your bank account? Build Your Support Structure Are you short-staffed? The way you manage your time has everything to do with your success or the lack of it. If low- or no-revenue producing tasks are taking up your time, it is going to be hard to boost your income and get ahead. Surround yourself with support to do everything that can be delegated, such as filing, bookkeeping, appointment scheduling, and routine customer service. If possible, outsource personal tasks such as grocery shopping, housekeeping, cooking, and lawn maintenance as well. Make a list of areas where you could use support, and fill these gaps. In today’s world, you do not need to hire full time people to fill these slots. You can simply hire responsible contractors, other small businesses, and virtual assistants to build your support team. Focus What project or task would make a huge difference in 2016 if you could pull it off? Focus on the high payback projects and commit to one, even though it might be out of your comfort zone. Imagine the difference in your business once it is completed, and get inspired to get started. Choose just one of these areas to start your 2016 out with hope, intention, and excitement.
Created by Palo Alto Software, LivePlan helps small business owners easily develop budgets and forecasts, create goals for their business, and then track their progress on a dynamic dashboard that syncs with popular accounting systems. LivePlan imports accounting data from QuickBooks and presents the information in a dashboard view that shows business owners where their financials stand compared to their original plan and previously set goals.
“Accounting data alone is not sufficient enough to run a business,” said Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software. “Business owners must also track how those actual numbers compare to their budget and forecast and their historical performance. LivePlan gives small business owners access to this information - in an easy to view format - without having to ask their bookkeeper or accountant to run multiple reports. With this, accountants are becoming strategic advisors, and helping small businesses in areas beyond taxes, bookkeeping, and audits.” About Hart & Associates At Hart & Associates, we are committed to providing the highest level of service to our clients. In support of this focus, continuing education is part of our company culture. Our goal is to meet or exceed the current continuing education requirements for CPAs in the State of California, as well as to keep up with new offerings that support the growth and success of our clients. About Palo Alto Software, Inc. Palo Alto Software, Inc., makers of the #1 selling business planning software in the world, develops and publishes tools, products, and content to help small and midsized businesses pitch, plan, manage, and grow their ventures. LivePlan, the company’s flagship product, is a SaaS (software as a service) solution for business planning and financial management. Palo Alto Software has been the market leader in its category for over 15 years, has served well over 2 million entrepreneurs, and has customers in 180 countries. It was founded in 1988 by business planning expert Tim Berry. Sabrina Parsons has been the company’s CEO since 2007. Parsons successfully expanded its service offering into the cloud with LivePlan. Palo Alto Software is a privately-owned corporation based in Eugene, Oregon.
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