As the 2016 initial tax filing deadline has now passed and after a short rest, my blog post is being posted a bit late this month. I will keep it short. The tax filing season is grueling but temporary. I want to thank our client base for another great year. We have quite a bit of remaining 2016 tax preparation work ahead of us although we processed more returns this season before the deadline than we ever have historically.
With this year’s main filing season ended and with tax reform possibilities in the news, it will be interesting to see what, if any, tax law changes are passed later this year. The Trump proposal announced this week would make sweeping changes to the tax brackets consolidating them down to only three rate brackets of 10%, 25% and 35% from the seven current brackets ranging from 10% to 39.6%. Negotiations will occur before a final tax bill is pushed forward so there is no way to know what will be included in that bill at this point.
It is never too soon to begin planning ahead for 2017. There are many actions that can be taken now and over the next several months to set yourself up well for minimizing tax liability for 2017. If you are self-employed, you also need to ensure that you are paying an adequate amount of federal and state income tax throughout the year to cover your tax liability. If you have concerns about your 2017 tax situation due to changes that might have occurred compared to your 2016 situation, please contact us for a phone or in-person consultation.