There is a crucial principal in retirement planning called paying your future self first.  The idea, if you’re not familiar with it, is to prioritize saving and investing for your retirement before allocating money to other expenses and fun.  This approach makes sure you build a sufficient nest egg to support your needs in retirement.

Americore can help with several under used programs to help you build up your retirement plan, but the principal of paying your future self first, still holds.  Here are some basics principals to follow, before we help clients enhance their future.

Set Clear Retirement Goals

No goal is reached until it is set.  Figure out your retirement goals and estimate the amount you will need to live comfortably during your retirement years.  If you aren’t sure how much you will need to live, look at your current income and take 80% of that number, then multiply for inflation and taxes and you at least have an estimate. Consider allowing for new factors too, like lifestyle, healthcare, travel and hobbies you always wanted to pursue when you had time.

Create a Budget

Once you know the goals, the next step to making them happen is to create a comprehensive budget.  The budget should outline your current income, expenses, savings and retirement savings. 

Make Your Contributions to Retirement Accounts.

You made the plan, now make sure you make the contributions just like you planned. Speak to your financial advisor to check whether the tax advantage program now is better than pre paid tax on your retirement draws.  If now is better, take advantage of tax-advantaged retirement accounts available to you. These may be 401(k) s or IRAs (individual Retirement Accounts) or other similar accounts.  If you can contribute more than budgeted,it might make sense to contribute as much as allowed to use the employer matching benefit and tax advantages. Talk to a professional to see if this is right for you.

Automate Your Savings

You can make the process of paying your future self easier. One way to more easily pay today’s money to your future self is to automate the transfers from your paycheck or bank account to your retirement planning accounts.  Automated transfers make sure the contributions get made before you spend it somewhere else.  This way, you don’t short your future self.

Pay Off High Interest Debt

This is a good approach for most of us with debt.  Though it may not be your highest monthly payment, it is costing you more than the low interest debt over time.  During that time, you could be putting that money into your retirement planning account.

Diversify Your Investments and Risk

Your retirement savings should already be in a diversified portfolio aligned with your risk tolerance. This is likely to change over time based on the time frame until retirement.  A mix of stocks, bonds, insurance and other assets can help you achieve long-term growth while managing risk.

Regularly Review and Adjust

As we mentioned in a July Americore article, It is important to periodically review your retirement plan and make adjustments as needed.  Your life, your goals and your priorities change with life events.  Your retirement planning for paying your future self should be reviewed and adjusted accordingly.  Reassess your financial situation too, your retirement goals and risk tolerance to make sure your plan stays on track.

Avoid Early Withdrawals

Tapping into your retirement savings before retirement can leave you with penalties and those taxes you previously avoided paying.  Early withdrawals can also significantly impact the growth of your future self’s nest egg.

Get Informed

Learn about retirement planning strategies.  At Americore, we love to share information on programs designed to enhance or protect your retirement savings.  Knowledge is empowering and can help you make informed decisions about your retirement savings.

Talk to a Professional

If you are uncertain about retirement planning or want to learn how to improve your plan, talk to a professional like those at Americore.  We’d like to hear your goals. Call our office at 747-224-8110 in a free, no obligation call to discuss ways to improve the lifestyle of your future self or contact us here. Tell your Americore representativewhat you’re looking for, and we’ll tell you how we think we can help you make that happen.

Sometimes this is just about focus.  When you spend every day making sure your own clients enjoy a great customer experience, you lose track of things like retirement planning, exit strategies and legacy planning.  Or maybe you did all of that…15 years ago.  What you think about, what you needs constantly changes and if you haven’t updated your retirement and legacy planning, it time to review your plan.

The Need to Review the Plan

Your business value has changed in fifteen years.  It is possible that your health needs have changed too.  Was your exit strategy in the original retirement plan you conceived? With all of those changes, retirement planning needs to be periodically reviewed and renewed.

It is natural, even when you make a good plan, that changes will need to be integrated into the plan years later.  We show you ways to enhance your plan using uniquely designed legitimate programs that many business owners never realize they qualify for. 

Before you can know which programs would make sense for your situation, assess where you and your business stand today.  We can help with this, and save you some time.  It is essential to step back and evaluate your situation, lifestyle, and progress made on achieving your retirement goals.  Next, let’s put the financial assessment in writing. It will become your starting point, useful for navigating the journey toward your financial destination.

Enhance Your Retirement Planning

Mellody Hobson, known for her TED Talks series, said: “…about understanding money regardless of the amount. It’s about how you treat it and how you maximize opportunities.” At Americore, we have spent decades on finding additional ways to help you maximize your financial opportunities.  We call those opportunities blue apple programs, because you rarely see them, but they are incredibly valuable, nonetheless.  We access programs offering tax breaks, credits, rebates and other incentive programs that help grow business and personal wealth today. 

Using Programs To Build and/or Protect Wealth

There are many programs available, and we have learned how to best match them to our clients’ needs.  Just a few include employee reimbursement programs, telehealth employee program incentives, travel reward bonus plans, R&D programs available to most businesses for product development, as well as other programs that add millions of dollars to your cash flow. 

But each of these opportunities works as part of a comprehensive retirement plan and exit strategy. And each plan starts by opening a conversation on how we can collaborate with you and your team to enhance your vision.

Acting on the Plan

Regardless of your age, retirement is not the vague someday event people often see it as.  There are real time frames that you can use to develop a great plan for retirement, business exit and legacy creation.  We can help you choose the programs right for you, make sense of the process,  and set up realistic goals to achieve.

Call our office at 747-224-8110 or contact us here to open the conversation.  Tell your Americore Group representative  what you’re looking for, and we’ll tell you how we think we can help you make that happen.

Americore regularly works with a business’ existing team, their CPAs and Financial Planners. We also work with lenders like regional banks, investment banks, inventory and equipment lenders to bring improved liquidity to our clients’ businesses. We are a well-capitalized organization. Our nimble organizational structure offers clients and referral sources direct access to principals and decision makers.

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

Dennis comes from a family rich with entrepreneurial spirit. His father had a law firm and real estate brokerage firm among other businesses. Since Dennis Bays was a teen he has owned several of his own businesses, even while earning a W-2 salary in corporate America. Along the way, he discovered a love for the entrepreneurs of our country and has funded well over $100,000,000 for other businesses.

As for why he loves entrepreneurs, Dennis responded, “they’re the secret sauce… They create opportunities and industries; they give most of the rest of us opportunities to work. ”    

The Tax Code is NOT just for the Rich.

But many entrepreneurs seem to be facing a disparity. Taxes are considered an unavoidable liability. Still, we’ve all seen news reports of fortune 500 companies who don’t pay them. We’ve also seen billions of dollars handed out of government programs to those same big companies. The thing is, “the tax code is written for all businesses.”  And tax savings programs are NOT just for the “big guys”.

Sadly, while small businesspeople are focused on growing their small to mid-sized businesses, they miss opportunities. The fortune 500 companies have teams of professionals spending their days in finding and leveraging those same wealth building programs.

Tax Incentives for your Business

Tax incentives have become a way for the government to stimulate certain business  activities. Small businesses are often performing the same activities the rich are getting paid to carry out. Regrettably, the government is not great at promoting those programs to more businesses.

Americore makes it their business even the playing field for activities the government wants to encourage, even in small businesses. Since the government wants to foster these behaviors, they aren’t looking to punish businesses for using the related  program.

Still businesses hesitate to take advantage of available benefits. Whether it stems from unfamiliarity with the programs or incorrectly completed paperwork many entrepreneurs are missing out. By working with small to midsize businesses to correctly complete program documentation, Americore facilitates use existing program in the tax code.

As Dennis Likes to say, “CPAs help you with the [tax] loopholes; we help you with the programs.”  These are not just tax reductions or write offs. These are programs that release money set aside for certain government encouraged business activities.

Examples of Some of Dennis Bays’ Favorite Programs

You may wonder what type of activities the government rewards. You’ll be familiar with some, but we’ll go over a few anyway.

Everyone knows if you buy a house there is a mortgage interest credit. The government offers this tax break because a neighborhood with more homeowners is a more stable neighborhood than one with transient renters.

If you buy an electric car or solar panels for your home, the government will offer tax credits because they want the country to reduce carbon emissions.

For businesses who are looking for more better products or more efficient operation methods, there is an R&D credit. If you hire certain workers or have a business in a certain zip code, the government might help with your business costs.

There is also a program for employee healthcare insurance. If you offer health insurance to your employees, you can receive up to $2500 a year per employee.

These are just a few of many more programs out there, designed to encourage certain behavior.

Americore can help your business benefit from many of the same programs the “big guys” use. Call our office at 747-224-8110 or contact us here. Tell your Americore Group representative  what you’re looking for, and we’ll tell you how we think we can help you make that happen.

What The Tax Savings Summit Is

Host Carlotta Thompson founded Tax Strategists of America.  Though Carlotta Thompson began working for the IRS, she found she wasn’t doing what she had dreamed of since she was a teen.  Carlotta wanted to help small business owners with their tax challenges.  She didn’t feel the IRS was covering the need.  As Carlotta says, “It was heartbreaking to disallow and penalize taxpayers for taking a deduction that they rightfully should have used, just didn’t have all of the documentation for.”

Why You Need to Attend Now

Tax Strategy, by definition should be forward facing.  On December 31^st, it’s past time to strategize.  By then, your only option is to tweak some of your contribution amounts.  Now, you can learn from multiple tax advisors their favorite industry secrets to saving on your 2022 tax bills.  There are great programs out there to save you thousands of dollars.  Unless you have money to burn, why aren’t you checking it out.  It costs nothing for regular registration, but you can pay more to have long term access to speakers beyond the day of their presentation.

Who Are The Speakers

Businessmen today engage in a perpetual struggle. In spite of being great at product knowledge and business profitability, they constantly fight to protect their personal wealth.   Instead, many find taxes leech dollar after dollar away. How can you hang on to your own personal wealth?  Change your perspective. 

By merging tax strategies using accounting to economics to statistics, speakers share their Wall Street to your street viewpoints.  Each day of the Tax Savings Summit for Business Owners, speaker after speaker will share their own hard earned insights and favorite wealth saving perspectives.  You get to absorb, and pick your own best options to protect your personal wealth.

Challenge your self

How you select and watch the videos on different tax strategies doesn’t matter.  However, the order of how you proceed to execute your tax strategy does matter.  In fact, it could matter more than the actual steps you follow. As one speaker mentioned, unless you are Warren Buffet, you won’t be a billionaire by doing the same thing he is doing today.  Figure out what he did at your stage and you will have a better formula on how to create your own plan. 

Dennis Bays Is at the Summit Too

Meanwhile, seasoned talented financial strategists like Dennis Bays are sharing ways to build your own strategy to cut the tax bill.  It’s great to be good at what you do, but it’s better to be great and reap the benefits of that skill.  So be the incredible entrepreneur you are, but take some time and visit the Tax Savings Summit to learn more about hanging on to more of your wealth.  You earned it, now learn how to protect it.  Then call our office at 747-224-8110 or contact us here.  We’ll answer any questions on the healthcare tax savings strategy rolled out by the Mayo Clinic. Talk to us about some of your wealth protection issues and, we’ll tell you how we think we can help put you in a better position.

If you’re a US Business Owner, you need to attend this Tax Savings Summit. It will reveal industry experts’ secrets for reducing tax bills and it’s just around the corner. The virtual tax savings summit doors open on August 29. Over a three day period, attendees will have access to the networking roundtable, Speaker Q&A breakout rooms and a Tax Savings Workshop.

The Tax Savings Summit is the Best Time Investment this Year.

We know you’re busy, so the Tax Savings Summit is organized to make the most of your time. It is chock full of successful advisors speaking on ways to lower your tax bill without raising any flags. These guest speakers have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, Forbes, ABC News, Entrepreneur and The Washington Post. They are consummate professionals, with critical information to share on tax savings and various methods of legitimately growing your wealth.

Americore’s own Dennis Bays is speaking on August 29^th  on Employee Preventative Health Program.  We hope small business owners will attend to learn how to improve employee retention, while saving money on mandated health benefits. We think you’ll love this, and other tax saving and wealth preservation topics covered by summit speakers.

It’s the Best Financial Investment this year

The cost of the summit is incredibly low. You don’t have to travel to it because it’s virtual. There are no registration fees but for a small add-on, you can get the All-Access Pass which includes 18 additional BONUS speaker interviews.

Add the VIP experience too, for a more personalized event. As a VIP, you’ll  receive a swag box delivery and 3 exclusive LIVE sessions with the summit host and other speakers. Here’s the thing, regardless of the level of access you pick, this is a great opportunity to learn more legitimate ways to save taxes and grow wealth.

There is Still Time to Register

Because the Tax Savings Summit is a virtual event this year, we’ve been able to accept more registrants. That means there is still time to register and enjoy the full benefits of the event. But the event is in eleven days, so register now to secure your opportunity to get critical wealth preservation information. It will be your most valuable 3 days of the summer, and it won’t encroach on Labor Day weekend celebrations.

Why So Many Tax Savings Summit Speakers?

Not all growth methods fit your situation, but in a room full of experts, your chances of finding a good fit go up exponentially. The Tax Savings Summit guest speakers bring a wide range of experience and knowledge. You listen and then choose the right solutions for your tax savings and wealth preservation.

If you’re a client of Dennis Bays at AmericoreUSA.com, for instance, you’re familiar with his wide range of financial expertise. His knowledge in government and investor programs designed for small businesses, has saved millions of dollars for US entrepreneurs. What you may not realize, is the importance of being of service to  US-based business owners. Dennis’ participation in the Tax Savings Summit is one more way he shares his time and knowledge for the benefit of others. If you’re ready to start a conversation, call our office at 747-224-8110 or contact us here. Tell your Americore Group financial advisor about your goals, and we’ll tell you how we  can help you make that happen.

What a Financial Advisor for Business Knows

As a financial advisor for business or individuals, Dennis has to work with clients to reveal their values and goals.  He knows that not defining values, creating goals and planning, is a sure recipe for falling short of targets. After years of watching certain programs create wealth for his clients, Dennis realized some facts should be shared.  There is a better financial future out there, and there are steps that can help you reach it.

Define Your Values

Values are those qualities and principles in life that are desirable to you. Before you set goals, figure out what you want out of life or out of your business venture. Without that first step, it is impossible to create a sound financial strategy.

Before a financial advisor for business gives recommendations, they start by going over which investment options are attractive to you.  This is one of many methods of discovering your values.  You can facilitate this process by asking yourself: what is important about money to me?  Values have different meanings for different people but are always based on an emotional response.  Values like independence, freedom, achievement, balance, family care, making a difference, security and self-worth are all powerful emotional ideas.  And they are all responses to the question of what money means to people.

Set Goals

You reflected on your values, those intangible emotional powerhouses.  Goals are the tangible results from your values.  Your goals can change along the way, but setting them creates the framework for your financial plan for your future.  We recommend clients lay out each goal in writing and then go back and rearrange by order of priority.

This is the guideline for you and your financial planner. Too often we hear 30-somethings state a goal of retiring at 40. When we look at the financials, we see a 401K and a small life insurance policy that doesn’t support those goals. If you have aggressive goals, you need to prepare for them aggressively.

When setting your goals, keep them realistic and specific such as: I want to retire December 31, 2032.  Discuss goals with your Financial advisor for business and personal goals.  If you are a business owner, you will need to plan how to reach retirement by your goal date, and your exit strategy. Once you and your financial advisor know the goals, you can develop a plan.

Map out a Plan

If values are intangible ideals and goals are the tangible results of values, then plans are the roadmap to goal achievement.  By working out how to reach your goals, you make it more likely to reach them.  The how may be investing more, using more grants and tax credits, or it may be more structured allocation of funds.  Any plan you work out with your financial advisor should include smaller goals along the way. 

For instance, if Jim wants to go on a trip with his wife when he retires, he will need to grow enough funds to pay for the trip.  If the trip will cost $10,500 , Jim will need to set aside around $292 monthly, or $3,500 a year.  By breaking the bigger goal into smaller amounts, Jim can check how he is advancing toward his goal and make adjustments before it is too late. If by the second year, Jim realizes he missed contributing to the goal, he may need to up the contribution, change the destination or figure out how to bring in more funds for the trip.

By making these changes, when Jim retires in three years, he will have the money to take their celebratory trip.  They won’t have to deplete other accounts as a reaction to missing the financial goal. Your goals may be bigger, but the concept is similar.  Set the goal and make a plan to reach it.  Then set smaller targets so you can measure your progress to the bigger goal.

Check Your Current Financial Status

Four simple questions will give you the key to your current financial status.  Just like your google maps, you can’t get directions on how to reach your destination unless you share your current location.  Gather your financial information and answer these questions as fully as possible.

1. Do you have enough money set aside for emergencies?
2. Are you accumulating enough wealth to achieve your goals?  If you are retired, this question may be, “Are you accumulating enough wealth to sustain your quality of life?”
3. Have you accumulated too much debt? 
4. Do you have enough insurance to protect your plan?

Emergencies, debt, illness and injuries as well as unforeseen claims can destroy any financial plan if not included in the plan.  You can’t prevent them, but you can set aside funds to alleviate the loss. 

Get The Help You Need From Your Financial Advisor for Business

No matter what programs and plans help you to reach your financial goals, the first step is defining your values.  A financial advisor for business like Dennis Bays can help you reach your financial goals within those defined values.  It’s time to start the conversation with Americore.  You’ll be glad you did. Call our office at 747-224-8110 or contact us here.  Tell your Americore Group representative  what you’re looking for, and we’ll tell you how we think we can help you make that happen.

Americore is a Trusted Advisor

Americore can help with both.  At Americore, before we add any Blue Apple financial solutions to our collection, we become extremely familiar with each one.  If we do not see sufficient benefit to any program, we don’t bring it to others.  Some of our programs, such as the Blue Apple health care benefit program not only saves employers money, but actually gives back in rebates. Other programs help offset employee retention struggles.

Why Blue Apple Solutions

Americore researches a host of programs which are feasibly good opportunities to free up funds for other investments. Only the best of those programs end up in our Blue Apple solutions. Surprisingly, many of these financial gems are unknown in the financial world.   We pride ourselves in finding those little known programs that free up funds.  You know more than anyone else where your funds can do the most good.  And we pride ourselves on knowing how to help free your funds so you can apply them to go to work.

Keep Your Own Advisors

We don’t replace your trusted advisors.  Instead, we work with them to open up your plan by opening up new financial opportunities in hidden, but valid programs.  As if that isn’t enough incentive, we won’t charge you or your team upfront for this.  We are paid out of the proceeds.  You then have funds to apply where they can begin working better, harder, and smarter for you.

Save Hours of Research

Knowing the gains of any program, benefit or investment takes time to discover.  That discovery is our passion, and we devote our careers to it on your behalf.  Once we separate the wheat from the chaff, we can share the best with you and your advisors, and you enjoy the advantages.  Our Blue Apple solutions are proven to free up funds, improve cash flow, improve employee retention, or boost retirement planning.  Tell us your goals, and we can enhance the plan.  What we mean by that, is we should have a conversation.  It won’t cost you anything, but you’ll be glad we did.

Wall Street to Main Street

Some financial advisors love to speak over their clients.  They want to show their superiority.  At the Americore Group, we want to be the trusted advisor who shares knowledge so you can benefit.  Period.  We don’t want to make it mysterious or more complicated.  We just want to show you new ways to benefit from opportunities and investments available to you.  The programs we leverage are often government sponsored and all are fully approved, legitimate financial tools. 

Call our office at 747-224-8110 or contact us here.  Tell your Americore Group representative  what you’re looking for, and we’ll tell you how we think we can help you make that happen.

As you near the date, knowing which retirement mistakes to avoid will make a more enjoyable lifestyle in retirement.  With retirement funds in various accounts, how you withdraw your assets matters. Ignoring tax implications or taking your benefits at the wrong age can cost you money and lifestyle options. Information is king, however, and you can get more out of your retirement by learning retirement mistakes to avoid.

Don’t Claim Your Social Security Benefits Too Soon.

One of the more common retirement mistakes to avoid is under-analyzing when you should start drawing social security benefits. There are different benefit levels at different ages.  The benefits you claim at 62, 66 or 67 aren’t the maximum available.  If you have multiple accounts, you can choose to withdraw from other accounts until your benefits maximize out.  At 70, after using the other benefits for several years, you can claim your full Social Security entitlement.  Note: there are time when it is necessary to draw SSI benefits sooner.  Talk to an Americore Advisor or your own financial advisor to learn when it’s the right time for you.

Don’t Withdraw From Your 401(k) Before RMD’s

Currently individuals must begin taking required minimum distributions (RMDs) from qualified retirement accounts at age seventy two.  This age deadline applies to those who turned 70 ½ in 2020 or later. Previously, the deadline was seventy ½ years old.  RMDs withdrawn from retirement accounts are taxable.  Accounts with RMDs include traditional IRA, simple IRA, SEP IRA, 401(k) or 403(b) accounts. Roth IRA withdrawals are non-taxable.  Some roll other retirement account balances into their ROTH IRA to turn tax deferred into tax free assets. Check with your Americore Representative or your own financial advisor to learn more about this option.

Avoid Benefits Until You Leverage Your Investments. 

The first places to withdraw funds from are your taxable brokerage accounts.  Choose your least tax efficient accounts that are subject to capital gains and dividend taxes.  Meanwhile, you are giving your tax advantaged accounts more time to grow and the interest more time to compound.

Don’t Assume The Same Formula Works for Everyone

Roth IRA is the last account most retirees choose to access, but the order isn’t a straight formula. Assumption of a 1-2-3 step order is another one of the retirement mistakes to avoid.  Keep from accessing your other IRAs too long, and they can grow large enough to subject you to higher taxes. Every dollar you take from your traditional IRA is taxable income. That means If you deplete your brokerage accounts to live off your IRA, you may find taxes cut deep into cash flow.  Keep in mind that you will still need to handle any RMDs, and the tax bracket they create as well.

Don’t Delay Talking to Your Professional Advisor

An Americore Group Advisor can help you understand the retirement steps that work best for you.  Retirement and investment accounts are not the only tools you need for a more comfortable lifestyle.  Americore Blue Apple programs can enhance your retirement and investment accounts value.  Get details on the right opportunities for your situation by scheduling your Americore Consultation here. Even if you have an advisor in place, Americore can bring added value to your retirement plans without extra cost.

Americore Group
Project Blue Partner/Founder
5750 Lindero Canyon RD #1019
Westlake Village, CA 91362
DIrect: 805-300-2800 | Office: 747-224-8110

2022 Planning

Now let’s have a conversation about your 2022 planning.  Americore has a wealth of programs available to you already.  We focus on making ourselves familiar with a myriad of ways you can leverage existing programs to save and access additional funds.  The end of a year, or beginning of a new year is the perfect time to reflect on where you stand financially.  How far did you come in 2021 and where do you want to be this time next year?  Did you save as much as you wanted?  Were your investments as big and as lucrative as you hoped?  Did you actually progress another year closer to where you want to be in retirement?

You can’t change financial missteps made in 2021, but you can get the help you need to take the steps to do better in the new year.  Choosing to be more financially fit is a pretty common new year’s resolution.  It is what you do about it that can make the difference over the next twelve months.

Americore Blue Apple Programs

One of the ways to be more financially fit is to take advantage of our Blue Apple Programs.  We frequently talk about our Blue Apple programs, because we are proud of them.  We found underutilized programs that, when properly used, improve both cash flow and retirement position.  Here are a few of the programs we help our clients use, but there are several more.  We should have a conversation about ways to strengthen your financial position for a more comfortable future.

Employment Rebates

Following the great resignation, and the hike in minimum wages, companies are struggling to juggle costs to cover the new hires they need.  If that is something you struggle with, Americore can walk you through the job growth grant fund hiring program.  This fund offers rebates on the salaries paid to new employees that exceed the minimum wage.  Employers can pay better wages and attract more workers under this program.

Employee healthcare

Some of our programs offers great employee retention opportunities.  One of these programs is a unique approach to employee healthcare that solves multiple problems at once.  Employers need to offer healthcare benefits to attract and keep employees, but it can be costly.  Employees don’t want to risk working without healthcare benefits.  Healthcare doesn’t have to just be an expense to  bear to retain talent.  You can get paid to provide healthcare to your personnel!   It is already being done by savvy entrepreneurs.  All it took to utilize the savings opportunity was a fresh look from Americore.  Americore is helping firms utilize telemedical care and that is a direction healthcare urgently needs to go.  They are willing to reward you for helping them.  It becomes a win-win and Americore can get you there.

Americore is More than its Programs

As enticing as our Blue Apple programs are, Americore professionals do more than offer a collection of programs.  With decades in the business, we consult on market, cash flow options, business strategies, retirement planning and more.  Our fresh approach to the programs we mention open up tens of thousands and even millions of dollars in operating capital that you might not otherwise be able to use, even when it is yours.  When you are doing your 2022 planning, Blue Apple programs can enhance your options.

If you are thinking, “No thanks. I already have a team.” It’s okay.  We don’t replace your existing  team.  We work with them to reveal new approaches to your current challenges that benefit you and your business.  Your team will flourish along with the company as you benefit from our experience. Start your Americore conversation today at Contact, or call (747) 224-8110.  You’ll be glad you did.

Tax Saving Action #1: Check Your Tax Withholdings

This one is a simple item to check off.  As a W-2 employee, even when it’s your company paying you, make sure you double check your tax withholdings.  The self-service IRS Calculator is free and it’s easy to use.  It is also a quick way to check whether the amount you withheld is the right amount from your pay.  Grab your most recent pay statements (and your spouse’s), other income information, and your most recent income tax return.

If you do not withhold enough in taxes, you might be surprised by how much money you still owe when you file your income taxes.  If you are withholding too much, you might get a larger refund, but you could be investing that money each paycheck. This tax saving action enlightens you on what to expect, allowing you to make an informed decision. 

The calculator is a nice tool for most people, but when your tax situation is more complex, it is better to use instructions in Publication 505

Tax Saving Action #2: Donate to Tax Exempt Entity of Your Choice

Usually it makes sense claim your charitable donations only if you itemize your deductions.  Before you donate, you can check the organizations Tax Exempt status by entering the organization’s name or employer identification number on the IRS Organization Search Tool.  Under the CARES Act, you can now claim up to $600 for cash donations by non-itemizers. When you know how much to donate, you have another tax saving action to take.

Tax Saving Action #3: Contribute to your Retirement Savings

There is still time to contribute to y our 401K retirement account.  You can still contribute until your last paycheck or December 31, 2021.  The contribution caps only apply to what you put in.  your employer’s contributions don’t count toward your aged defined additional 401(k) contribution limit.  Employers may have a longer period to make matching contributions. IRA contributions are different.  Those can be made until April 15, 2022.

Since we are mid-December, waiting is a bad idea.  Act now to get the corrections onto your last paycheck of the year. Wondering who to contact?  Normally, the human resource department of your employer handles that. 

Tax Saving Action #4: Retrieve Any Reimbursements Due for 2021

If you have a Flexible Spending Account, (FSA), that reimburses your out of pocket expenses related to healthcare or dependent care costs with pretax money.   Check with your employer on whether you need to use your FSA funds by December 31.  If you fail to do so, you could lose those funds, unless your employer uses a rollover feature or offers a grace period.  If you paid for healthcare and forgot to submit the paperwork, submitting now could be a nice reimbursement.

Tax Saving Action #5: Check your Stock Values

This one is not as clear cut as some of the other year end strategies.  Check your stock values.  Selling stocks that gained value and paying the capital gains taxes is a good strategy.  If you are in a lower federal tax bracket, you might not need to pay capital gains tax.  Even if you’re in a higher tax bracket, sometimes it makes sense to sell stocks doing well.  Re-buying them as a way to reset the baseline stock price and reduce future capital gains taxes. Become informed to know which tax saving action will benefit you most. 

Talk to your investment advisor if you already work with someone.  If you don’t already work with an advisor, we should have a conversation.  It costs you nothing but time and you’ll be glad you invested the time.