The IRS Deductions Blog

Archive for December, 2008

Question: California 529 – are portion of contributions state tax deductible?

According to Money magazine a portion of contributions (note I’m talking about contributions) to in-state 529 plans may be state tax deductible for residents in 30 states plus the District of Columbia. Is California one of these states? Where can I get more information if this is true?

Answer: No CA does not offer a state deduction for 529 plans.

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Island Arts: High-flying musings on the value of art

I recently had to take an out-of-state trip. This particular trip required I travel by plane. As many of you who travel know, there are times when your travel plans are out of your control. Since I wasn’t responsible for flying the plane, this left me time to read and as you may guess, write.Not breaking news here on Marco, there is a campaign underway to Save Marco’s Art League – Project Rescue …

Support Reason.tv And See More Vids With Drew Carey, PJ O’Rourke, John Mackey…and Barack Obama!

Question: Where is there an on line reference about Pre-Tax Deductions and open enrollments?

I’m trying to find a government website that explains payroll deductions regarding making changes to pre-taxed insurance plans during or outside an employer’s open enrollment. I’ve checked IRS.gov, but could not find the information.

Answer: Why would the government have anything regarding making changes? Ask your employer regarding making changes. That’s who the plan is offered through.

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Guide to health care reform

The health care plan includes many changes for American businesses, families and citizens, but how those changes affect each entity varies.

401k

Question: Does a real estate loss on a property outside Arizona qualify as AZ source income for tax purposes?

I moved to Arizona in April 2007 and started renting out my condo in Florida at that time. This rental resulted in a 2007 Deductible Loss for federal tax purposes. Is this loss deductible in Arizona? It is attributable to the time I lived in Arizona but it is a Florida property.

Answer: If you live in Arizona, your income/loss from everywhere is subject to AZ tax. It would be subject to the other state’s tax as well (which would be an AZ credit), but fortunately Florida has no state income tax, so you don’t have that complication.

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Five Questions: Tax time

Five Questions about AARP Tax-Aide

100 pregnancies in just over 100 weeks!

The establishment of an egg donation surrogacy program in South Africa has achieved significant results in successful egg donation and successful surrogacy pregnancies. The egg donation agency grew from a small egg donor agency – tending to donor egg requirements for recipients from a database to a fully fledged egg donor program offering access to egg donor profiles and surrogate profiles facilitating quality egg donation surrogacy treatments.

Recipients of donor eggs are offered the option of reviewing egg donor profiles with pictures. A link below the egg donors allows further information pertaining to the egg donors. Information about the donor screening status is also provided. Alternatively to viewing the egg donor profiles along with information and egg donor pictures, the donor egg agency assists the process by proposing suitable egg donors who would be a good match – depending on preferred criteria, in terms of physical traits, academic, social and spiritual profile.

With a surrogacy program, it is imperative that the commissioning parents and surrogates are well matched and understand the surrogacy relationship. The feasability of a successful relationship has to be ascertained even before proceeding to the medical and psychological screening. baby2mom effectively undertakes to understand the requirements for a surrogate profile of the commissioning parent prior to proceeding to fast track the process of adequately matching surrogate to intending parent. Examples include specific surrogate requirements as indicated by the commissioning parent as well as a preferred parent profile requried by the surrogate. Aspects pertaining to t he profile include location, race and religion.

baby2mom Egg Donation Surrogacy – www.baby2mom.co.za is proud and excited to announce 100 pregnancies in just over 100 weeks. This is as a result of the efforts undertaken to effectively match egg donors to recipients and promptly assist with surrogacy programs.

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Weather Forecast: Calm today, but it could be dicey as we turn to 2010

Weather for your Wednesday

2008 05-30 Passing Strange – Sundance – Frank Langella – A M

Question: Can parking near your place of employment be used as tax deduction for individuals in Australia?

I pay $10 a day to park a block from my office. I arrive most mornings at 7am and in Winter it is often dark when I leave the office. I pay for parking so I can park close to my office as I do not feel safe walking across the river early in the morning or when it is dark at night. Can this be used as a deduction..?

Answer: no, i don’t think so. you can’t claim the cost of travel to and from work as that is considered a private expense.

Check out the ATO website for further details. here is an extract
“You cannot claim the cost of normal trips between your home and your workplace as that travel is private. You cannot claim it even if:

you did minor tasks – for example, picking up the mail on the way to work or home
you had to travel between your home and your workplace more than once a day
you were on call – for example, you were on standby duty and your employer contacted you at home to come into work
there was no public transport near where you worked
you worked outside normal business hours – for example, shift work or overtime, or
your home was a place of business and you travelled directly to a place of employment.
You can claim for the cost of trips undertaken between your home and your workplace if:

you used your vehicle or had other travel expenses because you had to carry bulky tools or equipment that you used for your work and could not leave at your workplace – for example, an extension ladder or cello
your home was a base of employment – you started your work at home and travelled to a workplace to continue the work, or
you had shifting places of employment – you regularly worked at more than one site each day before returning home.”

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Budget 2010: Raising productivity, skills, innovation and economic restructuring part 2

C.20. Continuing Education and Training (CET) will be our next major wave of investment in our people. We will build up an outstanding CET system for adults, to complement a first-rate education system for our young.

Sydney Accountants