Work Hours & Work Shifts: Fitting Into Your Schedule

Work Hours and Work Shifts make it simple to set the times you work and have drives outside those hours automatically classified as personal. Simply specify your Work Hours in the Account Settings tab, and MileIQ will do the work of classifying any drives outside of those hours as personal.  

We know your work schedule may vary. That’s why Work Shifts lets you set multiple working shifts for the same day or across multiple days. For example, if you drive for a ridesharing service during the morning and evening commutes, just set Work Shifts and your personal drives are taken care of. Work Shifts can even handle overnight schedules.

You don’t have to worry about your drives while working a “graveyard” shift.  Here’s how to set up Work Hours and Work Shifts from your app or the web dashboard.  

Sad news for anyone whose favorite part of the day is their business meeting on the green:
The new tax bill eliminated your opportunity to deduct a golf game as a business expense.
As writer Josh Sens shares in a Golf.com article, buried in the tax reform “is a provision that eliminates a 50% deduction for business-related
entertainment expenses. It applies to a range of activities, including concerts, sporting events, and, yes, rounds of golf.” While dinner at the end of the course can still count, the rounds of golf do not.

What’s a golf-loving business owner to do?

Make the most of the other ways you can optimize your taxes.
GET REIMBURSED FOR YOUR BUSINESS EXPENSES
This is one of the best ways you can maximize your deductions and keep more of what’s yours. Even without golf getting deducted, there are many other expenses you can list. If you have paid for any business expenses personally (this includes your own business) and have not been reimbursed, it’s time to submit that expense report and get paid.
HOLD YOUR ANNUAL MEETING
Meeting minutes are an ideal place to document the activity in your tax strategy. All the items on this list should make their way into your annual meeting. Make the minutes of your annual meeting part of your year-end planning.

Eager for more ways to maximize your deductions? Jeff ’s tax-strategy book, “Keep What’s Yours” helps you do exactly what the title of the book implies: hold onto more of your earnings. Discover how proactive tax-strategy planning will help you keep more of what’s yours. From there,
you’ll get to use what you were paying in taxes to reach your financial goals.

Get your copy of Jeff ’s tax-strategy book here: TheNewTaxLawAdvantageBook.com/offer-page25326725.

Trying to find a great way to celebrate? Well, you’re in luck. I’ve created a handy dandy list of 22 ways to goof off today, whether you’re in the office or free to roam about.

1. Take the day off everything: work, school, whatever.
2. Go somewhere unexpected.
3. Play tourist in St. Louis
4. Try a new food (introduce your kids to something new)
5. Breakfast for dinner – need we say more?
6. Catch up on Netflix
7. Do something you would love to do if you had nothing on your To-Do list
8. Have a dance party- Dance like no one is watching!
9. Go Outside – it has been a long Winter – Take a day to bask in the sun.
10. Play a board game
11. Take a Nap
12. Have a coffee date with your spouse, the kids, your friends or with a good book.
13. Read a new book
14. Play Golf
15. Take a hike
16. Have a picnic in the park
17. Wake up late
18. Watch old comedies
19. Go for a drive
20. UNPLUG Try to be out of touch for the entire day
21. If stuck at the office – have a nerf gun fight with your coworkers
22. Just Be Silly, pig out and have as much fun as you can!

1. Upgrade Office Furniture – Providing your staff with ergonomic office furniture is a great way to ward off possible back problems and improve productivity.

2. Housecleaning – Arrange for a bulk discount at a local housecleaning agency, and give all employees coupons for a single session at their homes

3. Gift Cards – Everyone loves the luxury of getting to shop for free. Choose gift cards according to each workers’ preferences

4. Non-Work Lunch With the Boss – Take your team members out to lunch, either individually or in small groups. Keep the conversation away from work topics; instead, spend the time getting to know each person better.

5. Handwritten Notes – Yes, we mean just sit down with a pen and a stack of paper. Think about what each person has accomplished this year, and thank them for their specific efforts and achievements.

While appreciating your employees today remember that we all like to be thanked and even though this day is scheduled once a year, appreciating your employees several times throughout the year will leave the team feeling valued and you may well see an increase in productivity.

Since many common business documents must be retained in accordance with federal law, here is a list of how long common documents must be kept.

2 Years

• General Correspondence
• Bank Reconciliations

3 Years

• Employee Applications
• Purchase orders
• Requisitions
• Sales Contracts
• Sales Invoices

4 Years

• Expired Policies (All types)
• Settled Insurance Claims
• Export Declarations
• Freight Bills
• Manifests
• Waybills
• Bills of Lading

5 Years

• Benefits
• Safety Reports

6 Years

• Internal Audit Reports
• Accident Reports
• File Inspection Reports
• Insurance Polices

7 Years

• AP/AR Ledger
• Expense Reports
• Petty Cash Records
• Accident Reports (HR)
• Attendance
• Personal Files – After Termination
• Time Reports
• Routine Correspondence

8 Years

• Salary Hours
• Group Disability Reports
• Safety Reports

10 years

• Payroll records after termination
• Claims – After Settlement

Permanently

• Cash Disbursements / Receipts
• Chart od Accounts
• Depreciations Schedule
• Financial Statements
• General Ledger
• Inventory Records
• Journal Entries
• Tax Returns
• Personal Files- Current Employees
• Articles of Incorporation
• Audit Reports – External
• Contracts
• Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents
• Correspondence – Legal/Tax
• Mortgages, Licenses, Deeds
• Organizational Charts
• Partnership Agreements

This list is not a full listing of everything. If you are unsure about how long to keep a document. Ask your tax advisor.

If you do not have a tax advisor. Capital Advisory Group, Inc. is here to answer your questions.

Need to know what to keep personally- see our How Long Do I keep That?

Saturday, April 18, 2020 10 am – 12:30

Location: 119 Old State Road
Ellisville, MO 63021

Sensitive Material That can be Destroyed

• Purchase Orders
• Supplier Records
• Supplier Confidential Information
• Corporate Records
• Requisitions
• Sales Contracts
• Sales Invoices
• Customer Lists and Contacts
• Strategies
• Advertising
• Activity Sheets
• Training Information
• Contracts
• Budgets
• Strategic Reports
• Legal Contracts
• Correspondence
• Payroll information
• Performance appraisals
• Applications
• Disciplinary reports and promotions
• Medical Records
• Treatment Programs
• Manuals
• Training Information
• Activity Sheets
• General Service Information
• Health and Safety Issues
• Appraisals, Product Testing, Etc
• Hanging Folders
• Product Samples
• Plastic Credit and ID Cards
• CD-ROMS/CD-RS/DVDs
• Computer Backups
• Videotapes/Cassette Tapes
• All Types of Paper
• Staples, Paper clips, Binder Clips

The guide below will help you determine how long each document should be kept. This is not a complete list, if you have questions on a certain document, consult your tax advisor.

Documents to Keep ‘Til the End of Time

• Birth and death certificates
• Social security cards
• Pension plan documents
• ID cards and passports
• Marriage license
• Business license
• Military discharge papers
• Any insurance policy
• Wills, living wills, and powers of attorney
• Vehicle titles
• Loan documents
• House deeds and mortgage documents
• House records: cancelled checks for major home improvements and maintenance (for the length of home ownership)
• Medical records
• Photos or video tapes of valuables
• Tax return copies and worksheets
• Income tax payment checks
• Annual IRA or other investment contribution statements, pension/profit-sharing informational returns

Keep physical copies of these documents in a safe place, such as a safe deposit box or a fire-proof safe—one single location that’s easy to grab in case you need to evacuate—and also make digital copies for off-site backup.

Documents to Toss As New Ones Arrive

The paper parade is endless. The good news is with every new investment statement, renewed insurance policy, or many other regularly recurring documents, you can keep just the latest version. Specifically, you can shred these documents when you get the new one:

• Monthly or quarterly investment statements (for annual statements, see the next section)
• Social security statements
• Annually renewed insurance policies

Documents to Keep Until a Specific Time or Event

• Credit card receipts: After you’ve reconciled them with your monthly statement—unless it’s needed for a warranty or tax filing. In those cases, keep the receipts with the product manual until the warranty expires or with your tax papers.
• Bank deposit or withdrawal slips: After you reconcile with your monthly statement
• Credit card and bank statements: 7 years if you need them for tax support, otherwise one year.
• Annual investment statements: Until you sell the investments, then hold them for 7 years after you sell with your tax papers.
• Paycheck stubs: After reconciling with your W-2 form and have paid your taxes
• Health explanation of benefits (EOB): 1 year
• Utility records: At least 3 years
• Taxes and supporting records (e.g., tax-related medical bills, donations, etc): The common recommendation is 7 years, because that’s how far back the IRS usually goes if you’re audited.

This list is not a full listing of everything. If you are unsure about how long to keep a document. Ask your tax advisor.

If you do not have a tax advisor. Capital Advisory Group, Inc. is here to answer your questions.

If you have a business click here to read about what you should keep for your business.

Which tax breaks stay the same in 2019?

Many tax breaks survived the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act unscathed. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some tax deductions and credits that weren’t affected at all:

•             Capital gains and qualified dividend taxes

•             The Child and Dependent Care Credit

•             The American Opportunity Credit

•             The Lifetime Learning Credit

•             The Student Loan Interest deduction

•             Tax deductions for retirement savings

•             Big changes to the alternative minimum tax

Many legislators had initially sought a repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, but it still exists in 2018 and beyond. If you aren’t familiar with it, the AMT is designed to ensure that high-income taxpayers pay their fair share of taxes, even if they’re entitled to tons of deductions and credits.

Taxpayers still need to calculate their taxes twice — once under the standard method and again using the AMT — and pay whichever results in a larger bill. Don’t worry, though — your tax-preparation software program will determine if you need to be concerned about the AMT. However, there were a couple of significant changes made by the new tax law.

First, AMT exemptions never were indexed for inflation. This became the main problem with the AMT — because it didn’t change over time with purchasing power, it began to apply to more and more Americans. The AMT never was designed to affect the middle class, but it had started to do just that. From here on out, the AMT exemption amounts will be indexed for inflation.

Second, the AMT exemption amounts themselves, as well as the phase-out limits at which they start to go away, have been increased significantly.

The personal exemption is gone

To be perfectly clear, although the standard deduction has roughly doubled, it doesn’t mean that people are getting double the tax break — far from it.

While the standard deduction has increased, the valuable personal exemption has gone away. The reasoning for this is that, in addition to a tax cut, lawmakers were also attempting to simplify the tax code. So instead of giving taxpayers a standard deduction and several exemptions, these two things were essentially combined into a higher standard deduction.

In plain English, a personal exemption is a certain amount of income Americans can exclude from their taxable income each year. In prior tax years, Americans could claim one personal exemption for themselves, their spouse, and one for each dependent.

In the 2017 tax year, each personal exemption was an effective $4,100 tax deduction. And there was no limit to the number of personal exemptions that could be claimed. For example, a married couple with six dependent children could claim eight personal exemptions. You can see how the higher standard deduction may not exactly be a gift — especially for larger families.

No more Obamacare penalties, starting in 2019

While the Republican administration and Congress have thus far been unsuccessful in repealing the Affordable Care Act, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did eliminate the individual mandate — aka the “Obamacare penalty.” This is the penalty you pay for not having health insurance.

One important caveat: The penalty is only repealed in tax years 2019 and beyond. If you didn’t maintain qualifying health coverage throughout 2018, you still may face the penalty when you file your tax return in 2019.

In closing, Capital Advisory Group has been helping business owners with tax liability mitigation and wealth strategy for over 40 years. We’re here to help business owners and entrepreneurs use tax laws to your benefit. We’ll help you to understand how the tax laws work, and how they are designed to reduce your taxes, not to increase your taxes. Once you understand these basic principles, you no longer need to be afraid of the tax laws. They exist to help you and your business—not to hinder you.

I hope you found this piece informative and are able to take away some actionable tactics. Please let me know how I can be a resource for you in any way. I do this all the time and would love to show you exactly how!

Email me or give me a call (636) 394-5524 to schedule your strategy session today! Thank you! You are appreciated!

Jeff Zufall, Capital Advisory Group. 

Alimony paid will no longer be tax-deductible and alimony received will no longer be taxable income. For decades, alimony — typically paid by men — has been tax deductible for the person paying it and taxable income for the person receiving it (typically women). But that basic tenet of divorce will no longer apply this year and beyond, due to provisions in the big 2017 tax law.

Know the good from the bad. With the new laws, you, your spouse, both attorneys and any financial advisor the two of you will use should be looking at all the angles. Know the good assets from the bad assets, tax-wise.

Since the New Tax Law changes are now in effect it is wise to speak to a tax advisor who can let you know how the changes affect you in 2019.

Capital Advisory Group, Inc. will help you navigate through these changes.

Call (636) 394-5524

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