Tax Tip of the Month: Increase in Standard Deduction for Tax Year 2018

The GOP tax bill passed in 2017 made many changes to the nation's tax code, but one of the changes that impacts the most people was the increase to the standard deduction available to individuals, married couples, and heads of household. The standard deduction available to these people in 2018 is as follows: Individuals and married people filing separately: $12,000 Married couples filing jointly: $24,000 Heads of household: $18,000 This is double the standard deduction for the previous year. What this means for many people is that if their income did not change much in 2018 vs the previous year, and they itemized their deductions in 2017, they may be better off taking the new standard deduction instead of itemizing their deductions. Whether or not this is the case depends on whether or not they have more itemized deductions available to take in 2018, as well as other factors. If we are preparing your tax return, we will advise you on whether or not you should take the standard deduction or itemize deductions.

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Picture of the Month Last month Ben took one last hike before the start of tax season with his son to the top of Flat Top Mountain at the Peaks of Otter, where they found a surprising amount of snow as you can see in the picture.

Latest News As tax season continues, our office has prepared W-2s and 1099s for all clients who requested that service, and those have been mailed out. As a reminder, our office hours for tax season will be from 8:30--5 pm on weekdays and from 9 am--12 pm on Saturdays. If you need to get in touch with our office outside of those times, the best methods for doing that are by sending an email, leaving a voicemail, using your online portal, or using the letter slot in the door. These are all checked by our staff every day. There is no charge if you would like us to set up an online portal for you to securely send messages to us. This is a more secure way of sending confidential personal information than using email.

Featured Video: What Happens if You Don't File a Tax Return Have you ever wondered what happens if you don't file a tax return? Here's a hint--it's not anything good. At the very least you might miss out on a refund, and at worst you could end up owing the government a lot of money. In the video below Ben answers that question in more detail.

Featured Resource: Payment Options for Taxes

For those that owe money for your 2018 taxes, there are many payment options available. Those include online payments, checks, wire transfers, and more. You can see the complete list of options on the IRS website here .

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