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Federal Income Tax Returns Due for Most Individuals

March 29, 2019 By SeaCure Advisors Leave a Comment

Filing deadline for most individuals:

The federal income tax filing deadline for most individuals is Monday, April 15, 2019. Residents of Maine and Massachusetts have until Wednesday, April 17, to file their 2018 tax return because April 15 is Patriots’ Day and April 16 is Emancipation Day.

Monday, April 15, 2019
Wednesday, April 17, 2019, if you live in Massachusetts or Maine
Tuesday, October 15, 2019, if you file for an automatic six-month extension by the original due date

Need more time?

If you’re not able to file your federal income tax return by the due date, you can file for an extension using IRS Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. Filing this extension gives you an additional six months (until October 15, 2019) to file your federal income tax return. You can also file for an automatic six-month extension electronically (details on how to do so can be found in the Form 4868 instructions).

Special rules apply if you’re living outside the country, or serving in the military outside the country, on the regular due date of your federal income tax return.

Pay what you owe

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not filing your return because you owe money. If the bottom line on your return shows that you owe tax, file and pay the amount due in full by the due date if at all possible. If you absolutely cannot pay what you owe, file the return and pay as much as you can afford. You’ll owe interest and possibly penalties on the unpaid tax, but you will limit the penalties assessed by filing your return on time, and you may be able to work with the IRS to pay the unpaid balance (options available may include the ability to enter into an installment agreement).

It’s important to understand that filing for an automatic extension to file your return does not provide any additional time to pay your tax. When you file for an extension, you have to estimate the amount of tax you will owe; you should pay this amount by the April 15 (April 17 if you live in Massachusetts or Maine) due date. If you don’t, you will owe interest, and you may owe penalties as well. If the IRS believes that your estimate of taxes was not reasonable, it may void your extension.

Having the right amount of tax withheld?

Taxpayers are required to pay most of their tax obligation during the year by having tax withheld from paychecks or pension payments, or by making estimated tax payments. A penalty may be due at tax time if too little is paid during the year, unless an exception applies. It seems that many taxpayers may not have properly adjusted their withholding or estimated tax payments for 2018 to reflect the many changes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The IRS has announced that it will waive the estimated tax penalty for tax year 2018 for taxpayers who paid at least 80% of their total tax liability during the year through federal income tax withholding, quarterly estimated tax payments, or a combination of the two.

The IRS continues to urge taxpayers to check withholding again this year to make sure they are having the right amount of tax withheld for 2019. You can give your employer a new Form W-4 to change your withholding.

Asset Protection in Estate Planning

March 25, 2019 By SeaCure Advisors Leave a Comment

You’re beginning to accumulate substantial wealth, but you worry about protecting it from future potential creditors. Whether your concern is for your personal assets or your business, various tools exist to keep your property safe from tax collectors, accident victims, health-care providers, credit card issuers, business creditors, and creditors of others.

To insulate your property from such claims, you’ll have to evaluate each tool in terms of your own situation. You may decide that insurance and a Declaration of Homestead may be sufficient protection for your home because your exposure to a claim is low. For high exposure, you may want to create a business entity or an offshore trust to shield your assets. Remember, no asset protection tool is guaranteed to work, and you may have to adjust your asset protection strategies as your situation or the laws change.

Liability insurance is your first and best line of defense

Liability insurance is at the top of any plan for asset protection. You should consider purchasing or increasing umbrella coverage on your homeowners policy. For business-related liability, purchase or increase your liability coverage under your business insurance policy. Generally, the cost of the premiums for this type of coverage is minimal compared to what you might be required to pay under a court judgment should you ever be sued.

A Declaration of Homestead protects the family residence

Your primary residence may be your most significant asset. State law determines the creditor and judgment protection afforded a residence by way of a Declaration of Homestead, which varies greatly from state to state. For example, a state may provide a complete exemption for a residence (i.e., its entire value), a limited exemption (e.g., up to $100,000), or an exemption under certain circumstances (e.g., a judgment for medical bills). A Declaration of Homestead is easy to file. You pay a small fee, fill out a simple form, and file it at the registry where your deed is recorded.

Dividing assets between spouses can limit exposure to potential liability

Perhaps you work in an occupation or business that exposes you to greater potential liability than your spouse’s job does. If so, it may be a good idea to divide assets between you so that you keep only the income and assets from your job, while your spouse takes sole ownership of your investments and other valuable assets. Generally, your creditors can reach only those assets that are in your name.

Business entities can provide two types of protection — shielding your personal assets from your business creditors and shielding business assets from your personal creditors

Consider using a corporation, limited partnership, or limited liability company (LLC) to operate the business. Such business entities shield the personal assets of the shareholders, limited partners, or LLC members from liabilities that arise from the business. The liability of these owners will be limited to the assets of the business.

Conversely, corporations, limited partnerships, and LLCs provide some protection from the personal creditors of a shareholder, limited partner, or member. In a corporation, a creditor of an individual owner is able to place a lien on, and eventually acquire, the shares of the debtor/shareholder, but would not have any rights greater than the rights conferred by the shares. In limited partnerships or LLCs, under most state laws, a creditor of a partner or member is entitled to obtain only a charging order with respect to the partner or member’s interest. The charging order gives the creditor the right to receive any distributions with respect to the interest. In all respects, the creditor is treated as a mere assignee and is not entitled to exercise any voting rights or other rights that the partner or member possessed.

Certain trusts can preserve trust assets from claims

People have used trusts to protect their assets for generations. The key to using a trust as an asset protection tool is that the trust must be irrevocable and become the owner of your property. Once given away, these assets are no longer yours and are not available to satisfy claims against you. To properly establish an asset protection trust, you must not keep any interest in the trust assets or control over the trust.

Trusts can also protect trust assets from potential creditors of the beneficiaries of the trust. The extent to which a beneficiary’s creditors can reach trust property depends on how much access the beneficiary has to the trust property. The more access the beneficiary has to the trust property, the more access the beneficiary’s creditors will have. Thus, the terms of the trust are critical.

There are many types of asset protection trusts, each having its own benefits and drawbacks. These trusts include:

Spendthrift trusts
Discretionary trusts
Support trusts
Personal trusts
Self-settled trusts

Since certain claims can pierce domestic protective trusts (e.g., claims by a spouse or child for support and state or federal claims), you can bolster your protection by placing the trust in a foreign jurisdiction. Offshore or foreign trusts are established under, or made subject to, the laws of another country (e.g., the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Belize, Jersey, Liechtenstein, and the Cook Islands) that does not generally honor judgments made in the United States.

A word about fraudulent transfers

The court will ignore transfers to an asset protection trust if:

A creditor’s claim arose before you made the transfer
You made the transfer with the intent to defraud a creditor
You incurred debts without a reasonable expectation of paying them

Tax Planning Tips: Life Insurance

March 18, 2019 By SeaCure Advisors Leave a Comment

Understanding the importance of life insurance is one thing. Understanding the tax rules is quite another. As insurance products have evolved and become more sophisticated, the line separating insurance vehicles from investment vehicles has grown blurry. To differentiate between the two, a mix of complex rules and exceptions now governs the taxation of insurance products. If you have neither the time nor the inclination to decipher the IRS regulations, here are some life insurance tax tips and background information to help you make sense of it all.

Life insurance contracts must meet IRS requirements

For federal income tax purposes, an insurance contract cannot be considered a life insurance contract–and qualify for favorable tax treatment–unless it meets state law requirements and satisfies the IRS’s statutory definitions of what is or is not a life insurance policy. The IRS considers the type of policy, date of issue, amount of the death benefit, and premiums paid. The IRS definitions are essentially tests to ensure that an insurance policy isn’t really an investment vehicle. The insurance company must comply with these rules and enforce the provisions.

Keep in mind that you can’t deduct your premiums on your federal income tax return

Because life insurance is considered a personal expense, you can’t deduct the premiums you pay for life insurance coverage.

Employer-paid life insurance may have a tax cost

The premium cost for the first $50,000 of life insurance coverage provided under an employer-provided group term life insurance plan does not have to be reported as income and is not taxed to you. However, amounts in excess of $50,000 paid for by your employer will trigger a taxable income for the “economic value” of the coverage provided to you.

You should determine whether your premiums were paid with pre- or after-tax dollars

The taxation of life insurance proceeds depends on several factors, including whether you paid your insurance premiums with pre- or after-tax dollars. If you buy a life insurance policy on your own or through your employer, your premiums are probably paid with after-tax dollars.

Different rules may apply if your company offers the option to purchase life insurance through a qualified retirement plan and you make pretax contributions. Although pretax contributions offer certain income tax advantages, one tradeoff is that you’ll be required to pay a small tax on the economic value of the “pure life insurance” in the policy (i.e., the difference between the cash value and the death benefit) each year. Also, at death, the amount of the policy cash value that is paid as part of the death benefit is taxable income. These days, however, not many companies offer their employees the option to purchase life insurance through their qualified retirement plan.

Your life insurance beneficiary probably won’t have to pay income tax on death benefit received

Whoever receives the death benefit from your insurance policy usually does not have to pay federal or state income tax on those proceeds. So, if you die owning a life insurance policy with a $500,000 death benefit, your beneficiary under the policy will generally not have to pay income tax on the receipt of the $500,000. This is generally true regardless of whether you paid all of the premiums yourself, or whether your employer subsidized part or all of the premiums under a group term insurance plan.

Different income tax rules may apply if the death benefit is paid in installments instead of as a lump sum. The interest portion (if any) of each installment is generally treated as taxable to the beneficiary at ordinary income rates, while the principal portion is tax free.

In some cases, insurance proceeds may be included in your taxable estate

If you hold any incidents of ownership in an insurance policy at the time of your death, the proceeds from that insurance policy will be included in your taxable estate. Incidents of ownership include the right to change the beneficiary, the right to take out policy loans, and the right to surrender the policy for cash. Furthermore, if you gift away an insurance policy within three years of your death, then the proceeds from that policy will be pulled back into your taxable estate. To avoid having the policy included in your taxable estate, someone other than you (e.g., a beneficiary or a trust) should be the owner.

Note: If the owner, the insured, and the beneficiary are three different people, the payment of death benefit proceeds from a life insurance policy to the beneficiary may result in an unintended taxable gift from the owner to the beneficiary.

If your policy has a cash value component, that part will accumulate tax deferred

Unlike term life insurance policies, some life insurance policies (e.g., permanent life) have a cash value component. As the cash value grows, you may ultimately have more money in cash value than you paid in premiums. Generally, you are allowed to defer income taxes on those gains as long as you don’t sell, withdraw from, or surrender the policy. If you do sell, surrender, or withdraw from the policy, the difference between what you get back and what you paid in is taxed as ordinary income.

You usually aren’t taxed on dividends paid

Some policies, known as participating policies, pay dividends. An insurance dividend is the amount of your premium that is paid back to you if your insurance company achieves lower mortality and expense costs than it expected. Dividends are paid out of the insurer’s surplus earnings for the year. Regardless of whether you take them in cash, keep them on deposit with the insurer, or buy additional life insurance within the policy, they are considered a return of premiums. As long as you don’t get back more than you paid in, you are merely recouping your costs, and no tax is due. However, if you leave these dividends on deposit with your insurance company and they earn interest, the interest you receive should be included as taxable interest income.

Watch out for cash withdrawals in excess of basis–they’re taxable

If you withdraw cash from a cash value life insurance policy, the amount of withdrawals up to your basis in the policy will be tax free. Generally, your basis is the amount of premiums you have paid into the policy less any dividends or withdrawals you have previously taken. Any withdrawals in excess of your basis (gain) will be taxed as ordinary income. However, if the policy is classified as a modified endowment contract (MEC) (a situation that occurs when you put in more premiums than the threshold allows), then the gain must be withdrawn first and taxed.

Keep in mind that if you withdraw part of your cash value, the death benefit available to your survivors will be reduced.

You probably won’t have to pay taxes on loans taken against your policy

If you take out a loan against the cash value of your insurance policy, the amount of the loan is not taxable (except in the case of an MEC). This result is the case even if the loan is larger than the amount of the premiums you have paid in. Such a loan is not taxed as long as the policy is in force.

If you take out a loan against your policy, the death benefit and cash value of the policy will be reduced.

You can’t deduct interest you’ve paid on policy loans

The interest you pay on any loans taken out against the cash value of your life insurance is not tax deductible. Certain loans on business-owned policies are an exception to this rule.

The surrender of your policy may result in taxable gain

If you surrender your cash value life insurance policy, any gain on the policy will be subject to federal (and possibly state) income tax. The gain on the surrender of a cash value policy is the difference between the gross cash value paid out (plus any loans outstanding) and your basis in the policy. Your basis is the total premiums that you paid in cash, minus any policy dividends and tax-free withdrawals that you made.

You may be able to exchange one policy for another without triggering tax liability

The tax code allows you to exchange one life insurance policy for another (or a life insurance policy for an annuity) without triggering current tax liability. This is known as a Section 1035 exchange. However, you must follow the IRS’s rules when making the exchange.

When in doubt, consult a professional

The tax rules surrounding life insurance are obviously complex and are subject to change. For more information, contact a qualified insurance professional, attorney, or accountant.

Education Tax Credits

March 4, 2019 By SeaCure Advisors Leave a Comment

It’s tax time, and your kitchen table is littered with papers and forms. As if this isn’t bad enough, you recently paid your child’s college semester bill, and you don’t know where you’ll find the money to pay the taxes that you expect to owe. Well, you might finally catch a break. Now that your child is in college, you might qualify for one of two education tax credits — the American Opportunity credit and the Lifetime Learning credit. And because a tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction against taxes owed, it’s more favorable than a tax deduction, which simply reduces the total income on which your tax is based.

American Opportunity credit

The American Opportunity credit is a tax credit that covers the first four years of your, your spouse’s or your child’s undergraduate education. Graduate and professional courses aren’t eligible. The credit is worth a maximum of $2,500. It’s calculated as 100% of the first $2,000 of tuition and related expenses that you’ve paid for the year, plus 25% of the next $2,000 of such expenses.

To take the credit, both you and your child must clear some hurdles:

To qualify for the maximum American Opportunity credit in 2019, your MAGI must be below $80,000 if you’re a single filer and $160,000 if you’re a joint filer. A partial credit is available for single filers with a MAGI between $80,000 and $90,000 and joint filers with a MAGI between $160,000 and $180,000.
Your child must attend an eligible educational institution as defined by the IRS (generally, any post-secondary school that offers a degree program and is eligible to participate in federal aid programs qualifies).
Your child must attend college on at least a half-time basis.
Your child can’t have a felony conviction.
You must claim your child as a dependent on your tax return. If your child has paid the tuition expenses, you can still take the credit as long as you claim your child as a dependent on your return. But if your child has paid the tuition expenses and isn’t claimed as a dependent on your return, your child can take the credit on his or her own return.

The American Opportunity credit can be taken for more than one student in the same year, provided each student qualifies independently. So, if you have twins who are in their freshman year of college (and you otherwise meet the requirements), your credit would be worth $5,000.

However, there are other restrictions. You can’t take both the American Opportunity credit and the Lifetime Learning credit in the same year for the same student. And whatever education expenses you cover with a tax-free distribution from your 529 plan or Coverdell education savings account can’t be the same expenses you use to qualify for the American Opportunity credit.

Lifetime Learning credit

The Lifetime Learning credit is a tax credit for the qualified education expenses that you, your spouse, or your child incur for courses taken to improve or acquire job skills (even courses related to sports, games, or hobbies qualify if they meet this requirement!). The Lifetime Learning credit is less restrictive than the American Opportunity credit. In addition to college expenses, the Lifetime Learning credit covers the tuition expenses of graduate students and students enrolled less than half-time.

The Lifetime Learning credit is generally worth a maximum of $2,000. It’s calculated as 20% of the first $10,000 of tuition and related expenses that you’ve paid for the year.

One major difference between the American Opportunity credit and the Lifetime Learning credit is that the Lifetime Learning credit is generally limited to a total of $2,000 per tax return, regardless of the number of students in a family who may qualify in a given year. So if you have twins who are in their senior year of college, your Lifetime Learning credit would be worth $2,000, not $4,000.

To qualify for the maximum Lifetime Learning credit in 2019, your MAGI must be below $58,000 if you’re a single filer and $116,000 if you’re a joint filer. A partial credit is available for single filers with a MAGI between $58,000 and $68,000 and joint filers with a MAGI between $116,000 and $136,000.

As with the American Opportunity credit, if you withdraw money from your 529 plan or Coverdell ESA in the same year that you claim the Lifetime Learning credit, your withdrawal cannot cover the same expenses that you use to qualify for the Lifetime Learning credit.

My child is in college — how do I know which credit to take?

The American Opportunity credit and the Lifetime Learning credit cannot be claimed in the same year for the same student, so you’ll need to pick one. Because the American Opportunity tax credit is available for all four years of undergraduate education, is worth more ($2,500 vs. $2,000), and the income limits to qualify are higher, that credit will probably be your first choice. But if your child is attending school less than half-time, the Lifetime Learning credit will be your only option (assuming you meet the income limits).

How do I claim either credit on my tax return?

Every year that you pay college tuition you should receive Form 1098-T from the college, showing the tuition expenses you’ve paid for the year. Then, at tax time, you must file Form 8863 to take either credit. If you are married, you must file a joint return to take either credit. For more information, see IRS Publication 970 or consult a tax professional.

There’s Still Time to Contribute to an IRA for 2018

February 25, 2019 By SeaCure Advisors Leave a Comment

Making a last-minute contribution to an IRA may help you reduce your 2018 tax bill. If you qualify, your traditional IRA contribution may be tax deductible. And if you had low to moderate income and meet eligibility requirements, you may also be able to claim the Savers Credit for 2018 based on your contributions to a traditional or Roth IRA. Claiming this nonrefundable tax credit may help you reduce your tax bill and give you an incentive to save for retirement. For more information, visit irs.gov.

You have until your tax return due date (not including extensions) to contribute up to $5,500 for 2018 ($6,500 if you were age 50 or older on December 31, 2018). For most taxpayers, the contribution deadline for 2018 is April 15, 2019 (April 17 for taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts).

Even though tax filing season is well under way, there’s still time to make a regular IRA contribution for 2018. You have until your tax return due date (not including extensions) to contribute up to $5,500 for 2018 ($6,500 if you were age 50 or older on December 31, 2018). For most taxpayers, the contribution deadline for 2018 is April 15, 2019 (April 17 for taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts).

You can contribute to a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or both, as long as your total contributions don’t exceed the annual limit (or, if less, 100% of your earned income). You may also be able to contribute to an IRA for your spouse for 2018, even if your spouse didn’t have any 2018 income.

Traditional IRA

You can contribute to a traditional IRA for 2018 if you had taxable compensation and you were not age 70½ by December 31, 2018. However, if you or your spouse was covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan in 2018, then your ability to deduct your contributions may be limited or eliminated, depending on your filing status and modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). (See table below.) Even if you can’t make a deductible contribution to a traditional IRA, you can always make a nondeductible (after-tax) contribution, regardless of your income level. However, if you’re eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA, in most cases you’ll be better off making nondeductible contributions to a Roth, rather than making them to a traditional IRA.

2018 income phaseout ranges for determining deductibility of traditional IRA contributions:
1. Covered by an employer-sponsored plan and filing as:	Your IRA deduction is reduced if your MAGI is:	Your IRA deduction is eliminated if your MAGI is:
Single/Head of household	$63,000 to $73,000	$73,000 or more
Married filing jointly	$101,000 to $121,000	$121,000 or more
Married filing separately	$0 to $10,000	$10,000 or more
2. Not covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan, but filing joint return with a spouse who is covered by a plan	$189,000 to $199,000	$199,000 or more

Roth IRA

You can contribute to a Roth IRA even after reaching 70½ if your MAGI is within certain limits. For 2018, if you file your federal tax return as single or head of household, you can make a full Roth contribution if your income is $120,000 or less. Your maximum contribution is phased out if your income is between $120,000 and $135,000, and you can’t contribute at all if your income is $135,000 or more. Similarly, if you’re married and file a joint federal tax return, you can make a full Roth contribution if your income is $189,000 or less. Your contribution is phased out if your income is between $189,000 and $199,000, and you can’t contribute at all if your income is $199,000 or more. And if you’re married filing separately, your contribution phases out with any income over $0, and you can’t contribute at all if your income is $10,000 or more.

2018 income phaseout ranges for determining eligibility to contribute to a Roth IRA:
Your ability to contribute to a Roth IRA is reduced if your MAGI is:	Your ability to contribute to a Roth IRA is eliminated if your MAGI is:
Single/Head of household	$120,000 to $135,000	$135,000 or more
Married filing jointly	$189,000 to $199,000	$199,000 or more
Married filing separately	$0 to $10,000	$10,000 or more

Even if you can’t make an annual contribution to a Roth IRA because of the income limits, there’s an easy workaround. If you haven’t yet reached age 70½, you can make a nondeductible contribution to a traditional IRA and then immediately convert that traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll need to aggregate all traditional IRAs and SEP/SIMPLE IRAs you own — other than IRAs you’ve inherited — when you calculate the taxable portion of your conversion. (This is sometimes called a “back-door” Roth IRA.)

Finally, if you make a contribution — no matter how small — to a Roth IRA for 2018 by your tax return due date and it is your first Roth IRA contribution, your five-year holding period for identifying qualified distributions from all your Roth IRAs (other than inherited accounts) will start on January 1, 2018.