Hi everyone, welcome to Uncommon Cents, Episode #1. Uncommon Cents is The Financial Education series by Bowman Financial Strategies. Today’s Podcast is the inaugural episode of Uncommon Cents and I wanted to provide a brief overview of what you can expect and how this podcast differs from its sister podcast, Mastering Mondays. Many of you may be familiar with Mastering Mondays, a non-financial podcast discussing topics to help you live better in retirement covering topics like health, psychology, food, travel, relationships and hobbies. Uncommon Cents by contrast is focused solely on financial topics with a focus on areas relevant to those that are near or at the transition from Accumulation to Distribution.  

This communication does not constitute federal tax advice and it may not be used as such. Please consult a qualified tax professional for tax advice or assistance.

Today we are talking about tax forms. Just saying it makes every accountant get excited. Ooooh, tell me more about my 1099r, please! Today I am going to review the most common forms that you will run across and some other basic tax preparation tips. Many of these forms are related to accounts I manage for my clients, so if you are a client and you ever have questions about any tax form or need a copy from a current or prior year, please reach out to my office and I am glad to help.

As you prepare for the 2018 tax filing season, you may find these checklists helpful. They outline the forms you should be collecting in the coming months, so you can successfully file your taxes. The IRS has a checklist here. The financial Website Investopedia has a great article and checklist to help you get prepared here: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/07/tax_prep.asp

Summary of Action Steps to Prepare for Tax Season:

Step 1: Schedule a time with your preparer so you can have your appointment prior to April 17th to ensure you can institute any tax savings actions prior to deadlines imposed by the IRS. If you use an accountant, be early! They get very busy during accounting season, and the first folks in the door will get taken care of first. If you don’t use an accountant, I recommend finding one unless your taxes are extremely simple.

Step 2: Gather information. The forms listed below fall under the umbrella of a group of IRS Tax Forms call Informational Forms. Here is the quick list of the most common forms. There are more! So, do not use this as an exhaustive list. However, these are the forms I most

Step 3: Gather receipts and charitable contribution information. In addition if you are making Charitable contributions, here is a link to the IRS pamphlet that details the type of substantiation you may need to include your contribution as a deduction.

Step 4: Gather all personal information like Social Security numbers for you and any dependents, EINs (companies you own) or Trust Identification Numbers (TIN) for any Trusts you may have.

Step 5: Gather last years tax returns. If you are using a new accountant they will need to see last years tax forms form the state as well as the federal government.

Step 6: Go to your appointment

Here is a quick list of forms I commonly see my clients receiving. You can click on a name of a form in the quick list and it will take you to Investopedia website where you will find the specific description of each form. I wrote a brief description of each form below as well as a slightly longer descriptions and some unique circumstances that may apply to you.

W2 (Income earned, and taxes paid. For an Employee)

1098 Mortgage Interest Statement

1098-C, E, T (Donations, student loan interest, and Tuition payments)

1099-Misc (Non-employee compensation)

1099-B (reports Gains or Losses on securities investments)

1099-R (IRA distributions)

1099 INT (Interest received)

1099-DIV (Dividend received)

1099-LTC (LTC benefits received)

5498 (IRA contributions)

W2: First, many of you may still be working. If you are an employee of a company, you will receive your annual W-2 from each company you work for. This form is provided by your employer and per the IRS, “It reports the wages earned by employees and the taxes that were withheld from their paychecks. It also reports Social Security tax, a.k.a. the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax, to the Social Security Administration. The FICA tax has two components, the Social Security portion and the Medicare portion, which are separately reported on Tax Form W-2.” You should receive these forms per current federal law by January 31. You may have multiple W2 forms if you worked for more than one company in the calendar year you should receive one from each employer.

1099 MISC: For those who are not W2 employees but earn their income as Independent Contractors, you will receive a 1099-Misc. Per the IRS, “Tax Form 1099-MISC is commonly used among self-employed professionals to report profits from services performed for other organizations. If you are a sole-proprietor and were paid more than $600 for services during a given tax year, the business you worked for is required to send Tax Form 1099-MISC.

1099-R: A common form that our clients will see each year. The 1099-R form is issued by the IRS and reports distributions from IRAs, annuities, profit-sharing plans, insurance contracts, or pensions. The form must be mailed to the recipients by the custodian at the latest by Jan. 31 of the year after the distribution was made

Read more: Form 1099-R. For my clients, you may see this form in 3 common scenarios although all scenarios may not apply to you.

W2 (Income earned, and taxes paid. For an Employee)

1098 Mortgage Interest Statement

1098-C, E, T (Donations, student loan interest, and Tuition payments)

1099-Misc (Non-employee compensation)

1099-B (reports Gains or Losses on securities investments)

1099-R (IRA distributions)

1099 INT (Interest received)

1099-DIV (Dividend received)

1099-LTC (LTC benefits received)

5498 (IRA contributions)

These are just the highlights; however, they probably represent 80% or more of the tax forms you should receive. Your situation is unique and what applies to someone else may not apply to you, so be sure to get with an accounting professional to ensure you are not paying more in taxes than you need to. With all the tax changes in the last year, I believe it is wise to consider using an accountant. Speak with your accountant to determine how these tax forms will be used to calculate your taxes each year. And, you don’t want to get sideways the IRS.

I hope this note helps you prepare, and maybe gets you started earlier than you would have otherwise.

Thank you for listening to the Bowman Financial Strategies Uncommon Cents Podcast and Blog. I appreciate your time. Please feel free to send me questions by going to our website at www.bowmanfinancialstrategies.com and go to the Contact Us page or send me an email at erik@bowmanfinancialstrategies.com. Finally you can always reach us at 303-222-8034.

Now go ahead and use this Uncommon Cents information to LiveWell in retirement!