Burke and Conneely, LLC

Navigating the Illinois Income and Property Tax Rebates - U of I Tax School Illinois officials recently passed legislation that puts money back in the pockets of taxpayers through a program known as the Illinois Income and Property Tax Rebates. These rebates can be...

I have been getting many calls asking "Why am I getting this letter?" Here is an explanation from the Tax Advocates Office. Short answer-the tax on your 2019 return is due 7/15/2020. Ignore the letter if it says differently. If it is a "60 day" letter, get it to your accountant right away. You will have 60 days from the date it was sent out to answer, not 60 days from the letter date.

NTA Blog: Keep an Eye on Your Mailbox: Millions of Backlogged Notices Are Being Mailed Over the Next Few Months, Some Reflect Expired Action Dates. But Don’t Panic, See Inserts Providing Extended Due Dates Subscribe to the NTA’s Blog and receive updates on the latest blog posts from National Taxpayer Adv

2018 Tax Reform Law: New Tax Brackets, Credits and Deductions The new law lowers tax rates for individuals and adjusts the bracket amounts. For 2018 through 2025, the tax rates are 10%; 12%, 22%; 24%; 32%; 35% and 37%. In addition, a chain CPI index will be used for future indexing, thereby reducing the size of ...

Are you concerned about the new tax law changes? Do you wonder if you should pre-pay some or all of your state and local taxes? The answer, of course, is "it depends." Get in touch with your tax professional. He or she will have to review your prior year tax return to see if it would be advantageous for you to increase your state and local tax deductions. Look at page 2 of your 1040 to see if there is a number on line 45. If there is, increasing your tax deduction will not decrease your taxes, so don't bother.

If your total itemized deductions are less than $24,000 for married filing jointly or $12,000 for single, you likely will not be itemizing in 2018. It will be advantageous for you to accelerate as many of your deductions to 2017 as possible. This includes making your January 2018 mortgage payment in December since it is actually December interest you pay in January. If you planned to make charitable contributions early in 2018, you may want to make them now. If you have high out-of-pocket medical expenses, you may want to pay any outstanding bills now.

The new tax law specifically forbids deducting 2018 state income tax payments on your 2017 tax return, so that is out.

IR-2017-194: National Tax Security Awareness Week No. 2: Don’t Take the Bait; Avoid Phishing Emails by Data Thieves WASHINGTON – With the approach of the holidays and the 2018 filing season, the IRS, state tax agencies and the nation’s tax industry urge people to be on the lookout for new, sophisticated email phishing scams that could endanger their personal information and next year’s tax refund.