November « 2009 « News for Clients

November 11, 2009

Home Buyer Credit

Filed under: Uncategorized — robin @ 4:22 pm

Congress has extended the first time home buyer credit to homes purchased before May 1, 2010. It also allows home buyers who have owned the same home for 5 consecutive years during the previous 8 years to get up to $6,500 in tax credits if they purchase the new home after November 6, 2009 and apparently before May 1, 2010. Note, the law does not require you to sell your old personal residence. If you do sell your old residence, you still qualify for the tax free gain of up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for married filing joint.

The purchased home cannot exceed $800,000 for either first time home buyers or those who have owned a home the requisite 5 years. The credit phases out if you make too much money, $145,000 for individuals or $245,000 for married tax payers.

Please check with us to make sure you are eligible for the credit as individual tax situations vary.

Comments (0)

Employee gifts

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Employees, Gifts, payroll — robin @ 3:48 pm

This is the time of year when we are thinking about holiday gifts for our employees. Yes, there rules about what and how you can give employees gifts. If the gift is of low monetary value, like a turkey, then you can simply give the gift and all is well. Be careful not to give such gifts frequently, or the total value has to be added to their gross payroll. If you choose to give a larger value item, a gift certificate or cash, the IRS rules this additional payroll, subject to all payroll taxes and withholding. Therefore, please check with us before you do your holiday gifting to your employees.

Comments (0)