-
Did you give to charity in 2021? Make sure you have substantiation
February 9, 2022
Categories: Home Office, Record Retention, Tax, Tax Records
If you donated to charity last year, letters from the charities may have appeared in your mailbox recently acknowledging the donations. But what happens if you haven’t received such a letter — can you still claim a deduction for the gift on your 2021 income tax return? It depends. The requirements To prove a charitable donation for which you claim a tax deduction, you need to comply with IRS substantiation requirements. For a donation of $250 or more, this includes obtaining a contemporaneous
-
Will the standard business mileage rate go up in 2022? Yes!
January 5, 2022
Categories: Business, Consulting, Home Office, Record Retention, Tax Records
After two years of no increases, the optional standard mileage rate used to calculate the deductible cost of operating an automobile for business will be going up in 2022 by 2.5 cents per mile. The IRS recently announced that the cents-per-mile rate for the business use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be 58.5 cents (up from 56 cents for 2021). The increased tax deduction partly reflects the price of gasoline. On December 21, 2021, the national average price of a gallon of regular
-
There’s a deduction for student loan interest … but do you qualify for it?
January 3, 2022
Categories: Tax, Tax Breaks, Tax Cuts, Tax Records
If you’re paying back college loans for yourself or your children, you may wonder if you can deduct the interest you pay on the loans. The answer is yes, subject to certain limits. The maximum amount of student loan interest you can deduct each year is $2,500. Unfortunately, the deduction is phased out if your adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeds certain levels, and as explained below, the levels aren’t very high. The interest must be for a “qualified education loan,” which