The Blog

As much of the nation and world has been enjoying this holiday season, my team and I have been preparing for a season of a different kind — TAX season. And sure, we’ve certainly been pausing to meditate on the beauty of THIS season, but it just so happens to always coincide at the dawn of our busiest time of … Read More

December is officially with us. It’s cold. And time is running out. By that I mean that we are ONE MONTH away from year-end. That’s one month away from doing anything positive to affect your tax burden (with the exception of IRA contributions and a few other various back-dating strategies that are allowed). So here’s a quick and dirty tax … Read More

Activity is relatively slow around here this week, and it always puts me in a meditative mood. Thanksgiving is nice because it’s not quite yet the “calm before the storm” which the December holidays represent (right before tax season, as they are). This is a week when I get to gear up … but I do so by looking back. … Read More

Well, after the midterm election results have settled for a while, I promised I would pipe in with my thoughts about what this means for tax policy moving forward. Here they are: … Yes, you read that right. Despite what may seem like a fundamental shift in the makeup of Congress (the Republicans taking over control of the Senate) and … Read More

Last week, I wrote to you that we would be giving some attention to “tax planning”. If you’re not entirely familiar with the term, it’s the process by which you make moves NOW (before year-end) that can pay off in significant savings by the time we actually fill out your tax returns for you in the winter or spring. Believe … Read More

First, I’d like to put out a little mini-fire that’s been raging on the interwebs a little: No — Federal tax refunds are NOT being delayed until October 15, 2015. Sometimes, satire is so close to what’s *actually* happened that it takes on a level of “truthiness” that gives it legs. That’s what happened here. An article from a website … Read More

I’ve recently received some emails expressing confusion about the current estate tax situation, and implications for elderly parents. The facts are that many people will be caught uninformed about *exactly* what their options are for their families when they deal with caring for the elderly, esp. as it relates to their finances and estate. One of the biggest problems is … Read More

First of all, there’s this:http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/tompor/2014/09/21/susan-tompor-tax-refunds-will-be-cut-for-some-who-get-health-credits/15958211/ Health insurance is set to now become part of our tax preparation process. This is the opening salvo. If you have friends who received one of these notices, we can help. Send them our way: (818)435-2321 But moving on, I wrote a few weeks ago about the hidden financial mistakes which even some of our … Read More

In the course of our daily work here at New Era Tax & Accounting, we not only work with tax forms and legal/financial documents a TON … but we also get a regular crash course, via those documents, on how people (our clients, mostly) have arrived to the place where they actually have something to *protect*. In short, we get … Read More

Labor day comes at me like a rush, every year. There’s a corporate tax deadline on the 15th of September to keep me busy and focused … but the truth of the matter is that the beginning of fall means that my team and I start to get real focused now. Winter is coming. (Which means tax season.) We’ve been … Read More