News

The IRS recently issued its 2022 cost-of-living adjustments for more than 60 tax provisions. With inflation up significantly this year, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many amounts increased considerably over 2021 amounts. As you implement 2021 year-end tax planning strategies, be sure to take these 2022 adjustments into account.

John Perkins, CPA from our Evansville office recently did an interview with WNIN on 2021 tax planning. Check out the video for updates on tax code changes, what moves you need to make before the end of the year, and how those stimulus dollars affect your taxes.

Please join us for a FREE webinar from Kemper CPA Group as we teach you to take a closer look at your current tax strategies to make sure they are still meeting your needs.

The AICPA is asking Congress to direct the IRS to waive payroll tax penalties after the sunset of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC). The ERC was previously available through Jan. 1, 2022. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ends the credit retroactive to Oct. 1. Due to the change, some employers may face penalties because they retained payroll taxes in anticipation of receiving the ERC.

On October 25, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a simpler accounting option that will enable private companies to more easily measure certain types of shares they provide to both employees and nonemployees as part of compensation awards. Here are the details.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“the Act”). The Act includes changes to the Employee Retention Credit (“ERC”) for 2021. Specifically, the Act ends the ERC retroactively, and makes wages paid after 9/30/2021 ineligible for many employers.

As if another year of the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t enough to produce an unusual landscape for year-end tax planning, Congress continues to negotiate the budget reconciliation bill. The proposed Build Back Better Act (BBBA) is certain to include some significant tax provisions, but much uncertainty remains about their impact. While we wait to see which tax provisions are ultimately included in the BBBA, here are some year-end tax planning strategies to consider to reduce your 2021 tax liability.

The IRS occasionally publishes “Issue Snapshots” to provide an overview of a tax topic for its employees. Recently, the tax agency released “Issue Snapshot: Combined Limits under IRC Section 404(a)(7).” The publication discusses the limits on contribution deductions when an employer provides both a defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) retirement plan — commonly referred to as a “combination” plan.

Events of the last decade have taught us that tax law is anything but certain. So how can young, affluent people plan their estates when the tax landscape may look dramatically different 20, 30 or 40 years from now — or even a few months from now? The answer is by taking a flexible approach that allows you to hedge your bets.

The Social Security Administration recently announced that the wage base for computing Social Security tax will increase to $147,000 for 2022 (up from $142,800 for 2021). Wages and self-employment income above this threshold aren’t subject to Social Security tax.

If your business is depreciating over a 30-year period the entire cost of constructing the building that houses your operation, you should consider a cost segregation study. It might allow you to accelerate depreciation deductions on certain items, thereby reducing taxes and boosting cash flow. And under current law, the potential benefits of a cost segregation study are now even greater than they were a few years ago due to enhancements to certain depreciation-related tax breaks.

The COVID-19 pandemic is still adversely affecting many businesses and not-for-profit organizations, but the effects vary, depending on the nature of operations and geographic location. Has your organization factored the effects of the pandemic into its financial statements? You might not have considered this question since last year if your organization prepares statements that comply with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles only at year end.