No Will

If you don't have a will, the state decides who gets your assets, and it might not be what you want. Each state has different rules. Here is Georgia your spouse gets only one third of the estate if there is no will. The remainder of the estate is split up between other family members.

Form W-4- Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate

You usually have to fill this out on the first day at a new job. This form tells the employer how much to withhold from your paycheck for federal taxes. It is a 2 page form which is actually pretty complicated especially if you are married and both spouses work, and many people don't understand it. The form calculates the number of allowances you are claiming. The more allowances you claim, the more take home pay you will receive in your paycheck because the federal withholding will be less. It is usually better for the higher paid spouse to claim all of the applicable allowances and the lower paid spouse to claim zero allowances. I recommend that if both spouses work, that you check the married box but withhold at the higher single rate. The goal is to try to break even when you file your tax return. You should consider completing a new form W-4 every year to fine tune your withholding.  I can prepare a W-4 along with your tax return if you request it.

Donating Appreciated Tangible Personal Property

Normally you get a deduction for the fair market value (FMV) of property donated to a charity. However if you donate appreciated tangible personal property like artwork or jewelry you will probably be only able to deduct your cost or basis in the property. You can deduct the FMV only if the charity uses the property for its exempt purpose, for example, if a church displays the artwork on its walls. If the charity just sells the item and uses the proceeds, then it doesn't qualify for a FMV deduction as the IRS says that is an unrelated use.

Taking Social Security at age 62

You should start getting social security at age 62 if you are single, not working, don't think you will make it to age 77, and you need the money for living expenses. Almost 80% of those persons turning 62 opt to take social security immediately so you will also be in the majority. If you don't fall into those categories, wait until age 70 to start social security and collect 71% more every month as long as you live. Your spouse will also get that 71% additional amount as a survivor's benefit  on your demise if it is greater than their social security payment.

Investment Travel

Trips to your broker, investment adviser, and to look after investment property are deductible. Be sure to keep track of your mileage and you can deduct 57.5 cents per mile for 2015. Costs to attend investment seminars or conventions and trips to attend stockholder meetings are nondeductible.

IRA Partnerships

In the last several years many of you have received K-1's from partnerships due to investments in your IRA account. The federal ID number is not your social security number but another entity number. Brokers have been putting funds in partnership investments to try to increase yields. The question is what do you do with these K-1's on your tax return. The short answer is that you do nothing on your own individual tax return. A form 990-T for tax exempt organizations needs to be filed if the code 20 V on the K-1 is greater than $1,000. Code V is for unrelated business income. Most of the K-1 code V's I have seen are much less than $1,000.

Estimated Tax payments

A common IRS notice that I have been seeing lately deals with differences in estimated tax payments between the taxpayer and the IRS. Estimated tax payments are due quarterly and I usually will calculate them in advance for the next year when I do the tax return. Sometimes the amounts paid in differ from what I set up or from what the taxpayer remembers when giving me info on the  tax organizer. One way to make certain differences don't come up is to have the estimated tax payments come out automatically from your bank account. I have been doing it this way on my return for years without any problems. The money comes out on the due date and will still be timely, and you don't have to write a check and mail it in. All I need to set up is your bank routing number and account number.