Tax Time Tips and Tidbits

We, as your trusted tax advisors, want to be sure you are constantly kept up-to-date on tax laws that affect you, both directly and indirectly. Thus, we took it upon ourselves to point out a few items of which you may want to be aware. We also know that alliterative titles are catchy.

The Government Shutdown and You

In this time of uncertainty around, well, pretty much everything, one thing is always certain: you still must file and pay your taxes on time. The IRS, regardless of the length of the US Government shutdown, is still requiring timely filing of tax returns. The Treasury Department on January 15^th  released a shutdown contingency plan for the IRS during the tax-filing season, in which approximately 46,000 furloughed workers will be recalled regardless of shutdown status. In other words, no furlough for your tax returns. The good news is that the tax professionals at Clearview are here to help you!

Electric Cars – Hurry Up and Buy!

Did you know that you were entitled to a federal tax credit for purchasing electric plug-in vehicles from Tesla and GM? Unfortunately, the credit, which was $7,500 (maximum) for vehicles purchased prior to 2019, has been reduced but is still available. Note that Nissan has not yet reached sales thresholds to trigger a reduced credit, so the full amount is still available for Nissan plug-in vehicles at the moment.

For buyers of Tesla cars, the credit dropped to $3,750 (maximum) for cars purchased in the first half of 2019. For cars purchased in the second half of 2019, the credit drops to $1,875 (maximum). There is no credit after 2019.

For buyers of GM electric plug-in vehicles, qualifying purchases made through March 31, 2019 are still entitled to the $7,500 (maximum). For purchases made between April 1, 2019 and September 30, 2019, the maximum credit is $3,750. For purchases made between October 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020, the maximum credit is $1,875.

So, if you were planning on purchasing an electric vehicle in the near future, you may want to push the purchase up a bit if possible. We are happy to help determine the applicable credits to which you may be entitled.

Health Insurance Mandate Fines

This section is a tricky one to write. If you are a republican, this is the Obamacare mandate. If you are a democrat, this is the Affordable Care Act mandate. If you are neither republican nor democrat, this is just a mandate I suppose. In any case, the fines under the health care mandate were repealed for years after 2018. If you did not have full-year coverage in 2018, you may still be responsible for the associated fines this tax filing season.

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