Summer hours are in effect: Our offices close at NOON on Fridays from May 17th to July 12th
Our offices are closed tomorrow 1/7/25 from 8am – 1pm for a firm event. Thank you.
Summer hours are in effect: Our offices close at NOON on Fridays from May 17th to July 12th
Our offices are closed tomorrow 1/7/25 from 8am – 1pm for a firm event. Thank you.
The wedding bells are ringing, waves are crashing onshore at your honeymoon in Hawaii, and then it hits you! How is getting married going to affect my taxes? Okay, so maybe no one is thinking about taxes on their honeymoon, but it is something that every couple should understand. The tax system of the United States is setup so that combined tax liability of a married couple may be higher or lower than their combined tax bill if the couple had remained single.
This is where the idea of marriage penalty and marriage bonus comes from. The marriage penalty often affects taxpayers that have very high and very low incomes, and the marriage bonus affects several middle-income couples who have disparate incomes. The extent to which the marriage penalty or bonus affects a given couple depends on factors such as the level of their combined income, the proportion of their individual incomes being similar, and how many children they have.
A marriage bonus typically occurs when one individual with a higher income marries and files a joint return with an individual who has a much smaller income, and the additional income is not usually enough to push the combined income into a higher tax bracket. Married couples fall into the married filing joint tax brackets, which are wider in terms of income limits and result in a lower tax bill.
A marriage penalty occurs when two individuals with equal incomes marry and relates to individuals who have very low and high incomes. A high-income couple falls into this trap because income tax brackets for married couples at the top of the income tax schedule are not twice as wide as the equivalent brackets for single filers.
An example is the 33% tax bracket, which for 2016 single filers starts out at $190,151, but for married filing joint filers it starts out at $230,451. Two high incomes when combined could easily put a couple’s income into a higher bracket than filing as single, thus resulting in a penalty.
Another item to consider for the marriage penalty with high-income earners is the new 3.8% investment income tax. This tax is imposed on single filers who have adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more and for married filers with gross income of $250,000.
Two individuals who both made $150,000 would not be subject to the net investment income tax if filing as single. But if these two filed as married they would be subject to the additional tax, which is the lesser of their net investment income or the amount of their adjusted gross income over the threshold, times 3.8%.
A marriage penalty can also occur when two low-income individuals file as married. Two individuals who file single can be eligible for a large earned income credit depending on how many children they have to claim. The other advantage of claiming a dependent is the opportunity to file as head of household instead of just single. Head of household tax brackets are wider and there is also a larger standard deduction. Filing married eliminates the benefits of head of household and could potentially lower the amount of earned income credit available due to the combined incomes.
The idea of a marriage penalty or bonus causing a couple to tie the knot or to wait it out seems extraordinary, but it could affect one’s decision to work, work less, or not work at all. A married couple could have one individual who makes $40,000 and falls into the 25% tax bracket filing single, but who would fall into the 15% tax bracket filing married. The reverse could be true for the other spouse who didn’t work as single and would have been in the 0% bracket, but then married if they decided to work could possibly be in the 15% to 25% bracket.
There are ways to eliminate the marriage penalty and bonus, but it would require large changes to the US tax code. The US tax code is designed to be progressive in nature, but to also be equal in treatment among married and unmarried couples. If the United States adopted a flat tax and removed all provisions, then the marriage penalties and bonuses could be elmiminated. The United States could also eliminate the marriage penalty and bonus by keeping the progressive tax structure, but requiring everyone to file single. Without a major overhaul of the United States tax code, solutions such as widening the tax brackets for high-income earners filing joint and a permanent extension of the marriage penalty relief of the Earned Income Tax Credit will have to suffice as potential short term solutions.
Below is a list of eight things that students who take a summer job should know about taxes:
1. Don’t be surprised when your employer withholds taxes from your paychecks. That’s how you pay your taxes when you’re an employee. If you’re self-employed, you may have to pay estimated taxes directly to the IRS on certain dates during the year. This is how our pay-as-you-go tax system works.
2. As a new employee, you’ll need to fill out a Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. Your employer will use it to determine how much federal income tax to withhold from your pay.
3. Keep in mind that all tip income is taxable. If you get tips, you must keep a daily log so you can report them. You must report $20 or more in cash tips in any one month to your employer. And you must report all of your yearly tips on your tax return.
4. Money you earn doing work for others is taxable. Some work you do may count as self-employment. This can include jobs like baby-sitting and lawn mowing. Keep good records of expenses related to your work. You may be able to deduct (subtract) those costs from your income on your tax return. A deduction may help lower your taxes.
5. If you’re in ROTC, your active duty pay, such as pay you get for summer camp, is taxable. A subsistence allowance you get while in advanced training isn’t taxable.
6. You may not earn enough from your summer job to owe income tax. But your employer usually must withhold Social Security and Medicare taxes from your pay. If you’re self-employed, you may have to pay them yourself. They count toward your coverage under the Social Security system.
7. If you’re a newspaper carrier or distributor, special rules apply. If you meet certain conditions, you’re considered self-employed. If you don’t meet those conditions and are under age 18, you are usually exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes.
8. You may not earn enough money from your summer job to be required to file a tax return. Even if that’s true, you may still want to file. For example, if your employer withheld income tax from your pay, you’ll have to file a return to get your taxes refunded.
Contact your CPA or visit IRS.gov for more about the tax rules for students.
If you haven't already, you may be planning to enroll your kids in daycare or a camp this summer to keep them well cared for while having fun and staving off boredom. While many parents use child care year-round, summertime can offer unique opportunities and challenges.
The costs can certainly add up, but you may qualify for a federal tax credit that can lower your taxes. The IRS has put together some facts you should know about the Child and Dependent Care Credit.
1. Your expenses must be for the care of one or more qualifying persons. Your dependent child or children under age 13 usually qualify. For more about this rule see Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses.
2. Your expenses for care must be work-related. This means that you must pay for the care so you can work or look for work. This rule also applies to your spouse if you file a joint return. Your spouse meets this rule during any month they are a full-time student. They also meet it if they’re physically or mentally incapable of self-care.
3. You must have earned income, such as from wages, salaries and tips. It also includes net earnings from self-employment. Your spouse must also have earned income if you file jointly. Your spouse is treated as having earned income for any month that they are a full-time student or incapable of self-care. This rule also applies to you if you file a joint return.
4. As a rule, if you’re married you must file a joint return to take the credit. You can still take the credit, however, if you’re legally separated or if you and your spouse live apart.
5. You may qualify for the credit whether you pay for care at home, at a daycare facility or at a day camp.
6. The credit is a percentage of the qualified expenses you pay. It can be as much as 35 percent of your allowable expenses, depending on your income.
7. The total expense that you can use for the credit in a year is limited. The limit is $3,000 for one qualifying person or $6,000 for two or more.
8. Some exclusions to note: Overnight camp or summer school tutoring costs do not qualify. You can’t include the cost of care provided by your spouse or your child who is under age 19 at the end of the year. You also cannot count the cost of care given by a person you can claim as your dependent. Special rules apply if you get dependent care benefits from your employer.
9. Keep all your receipts and records. Make sure to note the name, address and Social Security number or employer identification number of the care provider. You must report this information when you claim the credit on your tax return.
10. Remember that this credit is not just a summer tax benefit. You may be able to claim it for care you pay for throughout the year.
These tips are taken from IRS Special Edition Tax Tip 2016-10, June 21, 2016
Collections are the lifeblood of any medical or dental practice. But do you really know if you’re doing a good job of collecting receivables? Find out for sure by monitoring these three collections performance indicators:
To find out how long it takes to collect a day's worth of gross charges, add up the charges posted for a specific period of time and divide by the total number of days in that period. Then divide the total accounts receivable by the average daily charges.
For instance, if you have charged $640,000 in the past 12 months, or 365 days, your average daily revenue is $1,753. Then, if your total accounts receivable today are $80,000, the days in accounts receivable is 45.6. That means it is taking an average of 45.6 days to collect your payments. Note that if this number is consistently high — or you notice a jump in the number of days outstanding from one month to the next — it could be sign of problems caused by anything from coding errors and incomplete documentation to claims rejections caused by patient registration errors.
Recommendation: We recommend that you use a rolling average of 12 months of charges for this computation. The results will vary by specialty and payer mix, but a typical goal for days in accounts receivable is 35 to 40 days.
Action: Determine how your practice’s days in accounts receivable compares with other practices using a source such as the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) annual Cost Survey Report or Performance and Practices of Successful Medical Groups Report.
The practice’s aging report, based on date of entry and NOT ”re-aged,” should be reviewed monthly. Obviously, the longer an account remains unpaid the higher the risk of it becoming uncollectable. So, it’s critical to measure the percent of your accounts receivable in each “aging bucket.”
Recommendation: We recommend that you review a separate aging report for both insurance and patient receivables monthly, paying particular attention to outlier payers in the insurance aging report to spot any developing trends. Credit balances in accounts receivable should be investigated and manually added back to each aging “bucket” to get a clear picture of accounts receivable aging. An acceptable performance indicator would be to have no more than 15 to 20 percent total accounts receivable in the greater than 90 days category. Yet, the MGMA reports that better-performing practices show much lower percentages, typically in the range of 5 percent to 8 percent, depending on the specialty.
Action: Consider establishing a target AR range for your practice. For example, you might shoot for having 60 percent of receivables fall into the 0-30 days bucket, 20 percent in 31-60 days, 5 percent each at 61-90 days and 91-120 days, and 10 percent falling over 120 days.
This is the bottom-line number that reveals how successful you were in collecting the money you are entitled to collect. Add up your total collections and divide by adjusted charges (charges less contractual adjustments) to determine how much you have actually collected. For example, if your practice only collected $50 on a procedure contracted for $75, your net collection rate would be 67 percent (50 divided by 100 minus 25).
Recommendation: We recommend that you use a rolling average of 12 months of net charges and receipts for this calculation. In general, a net collection percentage of 97 percent or higher will help ensure a healthy bottom line for the practice.
Action: If your net collection rate is lower than this, drill down and calculate the net collection rate by each of your payers to determine if the problem is coming from a particular source. If net collection percentage is consistently down across all of your payers, you’ll know that the problem is internal (e.g. your front-end billing process is resulting in rejected claims).
Contact our office today for help in monitoring your practice’s collection performance.
The adage, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” holds particularly true when it comes to practice finances. Problem signs — from lagging collections to soaring overhead — may start off at a simmer, but can quickly reach full boil. The trick is to look for the smoke so you can put out the fire before it rages out of control.
Your receivables drop — A drop in accounts receivable can be a smoke signal that production is lagging. The trick is to determine if the production hit is temporary (a dip in charges from a physician who has been away on vacation) or if it is something much more serious, such as a loss of referrals.
Put out the fire: Set up your monthly AR summary to show the trends month-to-month as well as year-to-year.
Your collections dwindle — You may be able to see this one coming if you spot an increase in receivables over 90 days old. Here, the culprit could be anything from delayed claim submissions to denials and poor follow-up.
Put out the fire: The best defense is a detailed accounts receivable report that includes not only overall aging, but also aging of patient receivables and insurance receivables.
Your overhead soars — Salaries increase and the cost of supplies inevitably rises. But what is not inevitable are sharp and unexplained increases in practice overhead. Soaring costs demand investigation. Yet, it’s important to remember that revenue also factors in to the overhead equation. Declining revenues are sometimes the culprit behind inflated overhead.
Put out the fire: Benchmark average overhead for your geographic area as well as your area of practice. Break practice expenses into categories (salaries, supplies, rent, etc.) and compare costs from month-to-month and year-to-year.
Your adjustments jump — Over time, a pattern should emerge and your practice’s typical adjustment rate should become obvious. Be wary of any major variation, which can be a sign of anything from changes in billing patterns or payer mix to embezzlement or a recurring data entry error.
Put out the fire: Depending on your billing cycles and productivity, adjustments can follow charges by two to eight weeks. To accommodate for this, compare the current month’s adjustments to charges and collections from the prior month or even the month before.
You start seeing late charges and penalties — A medical practice that can’t pay its bills within 30 days may be suffering from serious cash flow issues. Getting dinged with late charges and penalties is compelling proof.
Put out the fire: Review practice bank statements for any unusual or unexpected withdrawals to rule out fraud. Then, conduct a cash flow analysis to determine where the bottleneck is occurring.
Your practice finances will let you know when trouble is brewing — if you know what to look for. Your best bet for spotting the smoke is with a regular process of monitoring and review. Start by establishing a basic dashboard* of relevant metrics and key indicators — and keep an eye out for any variances.
Then, put a practice administrator, physician manager or outside accountant on the job of monitoring the practice’s financial indicators on a monthly basis. Finally, schedule a regular meeting to review and discuss the information with all stakeholders in the practice.
Need help monitoring your practice’s financial indicators? Our experienced accounting professionals can help.
* An electronic dashboard could prove very useful to your practice. To learn about dashboards and see an example, click here.
If you have a financial interest or signature authority over a foreign financial account, you may be required to file FinCEN Form 114a, otherwise known as the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR). A US citizen must file if the aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. The deadline of June 30th may not be extended.
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Nonprofits need to exercise caution not to stray into political activities that could put their tax-exempt status on the line.
Nonprofits need to get up to speed on their rights and responsibilities under the Office of Management and Budget’s new rule requiring agencies and other entities allocating federal dollars to reimburse organizations for indirect costs (also known as administrative or overhead costs). If they don’t learn the ins and outs of the new rule, they risk forfeiting reimbursement dollars. This article explains how reimbursement is determined and what nonprofits should be doing now as a result of the change.
