“Halfway through the tax year is always a good time to assess where you stand with Uncle Sam. You can see how the year’s tax bill is taking shape, while you still have plenty of time to make tax-saving moves.”
This year is particularly important to do a mid-year tax review, because the new tax law may have changed your tax picture. If you’re not looking ahead, according to Kiplinger’s article “Midyear Moves for Retirees to Rein In Their Tax Tabs,” you may miss some critical opportunities.
Some taxpayers will find that they owe less taxes this year, while some will owe more. You might decide to switch from itemizing to taking the increased standard deduction. It’s also possible that you’re not going to pay the AMT (alternative minimum tax) this year.
Ramp Up Your Nest Egg. Are you still working? Then max out contributions to your retirement funds to help lower your taxable income. If you are 50 and older this year, you can put away as much as $24,500 in a 401(k) and $6,500 in an IRA.
Build Health Savings Accounts. If you have an HSA, be smart and put away as much as you can. Workers with HSA-qualified health coverage can contribute $6,900 in 2018 and those with self-only coverage can squirrel away as much as $3,450. If you’re 55+, you can put in an extra $1,000. HSAs are a great tax saving tool: the money goes in pre-tax, grows tax-free and when used to pay qualified medical expenses, is withdrawn tax-free.
Consider Your Deduction Strategy. The standard deduction in 2018 is rising to $12,000 for singles and $24,000 for marrieds filing jointly, so this is the year to figure out whether to itemize. Tax reform has also limited itemized deductions. The write off for state and local income, sales and property taxes is now capped at $10,000. Seniors (65 and up) can still take an extra standard deduction of $1,300 per person for joint filers and $1,600 for singles. For a married senior couple, itemized deductions would have to be more than $26,600. If the couple uses the full $10,000 write off for state and local income, sales and property taxes, they have to come up with more than $16,600 in deductions to save by itemizing.
Medical Expenses. The medical expense deduction is still in place. It is better in 2018, since the threshold dropped to 7.5% of adjusted gross income. Next year, that threshold rises to 10%. If possible, you should consider bunching medical costs into 2018, so that you can take advantage of that lower threshold.
Roth IRAs. Putting money in a Roth this year won’t cut your 2018 taxes. However, if you expect tax rates to climb, now is the time to put money in a Roth and pay taxes now, rather than later. Tax reform took away the ability to reverse a Roth conversion starting in 2018, so wait until the end of the tax year when you have a clearer vision of your numbers to do any conversions.
Reference: Kiplinger (June 29, 2018) “Midyear Moves for Retirees to Rein In Their Tax Tabs”
年中稅務籌劃：退休人員現在應該做些什麼
“納稅年度的中途總是評估你與山姆叔叔的立場的好時機。您可以看到年度稅收法案如何形成，而您仍有充足的時間進行減稅措施。”
今年對於進行年中稅務審查尤為重要，因為新的稅法可能會改變您的稅務狀況。如果你不向前看，那麼根據Kiplinger的文章“Midyear Moves for Retirees to Rein In Their Tax Tabs,” (中年移民退休人員加入稅收選項卡) 你可能會錯過一些關鍵的機會。
一些納稅人會發現他們今年欠的稅較少，而有些人則欠更多稅。您可能決定從逐項切換到採用提高的標準扣除。你今年有可能不用支付AMT（最低稅來替代）。
加速你的窩蛋。你還在工作嗎？然後，最大限度地提供退休基金的捐款，以幫助降低您的應稅收入。如果你今年年齡在50歲以上，你可以在401（k）和6, 500美元的IRA中獲得高達24, 500美元的稅務豁免。
建立健康儲蓄賬戶。如果您有HSA，要聰明並儘可能地收起。擁有HSA資格的健康保險的工人在2018年可以捐贈6,900美元，而那些只有自我保險的人可以多花3,450美元。如果你是55歲以上，你可以額外得到1,000美元。HSA是一個很好的節稅工具：這筆錢用於稅前，增加免稅，當用於支付合格的醫療費用時，可以免稅。
考慮您的扣除策略。在2018年單身人士的標準扣除額增加到12,000美元和已婚人士共同申請增至到24,000美元，所以今年要弄清楚是否可以逐項列出。稅制改革也限制了逐項扣減。國家和地方收入，銷售和財產稅的註銷現在上限為10,000美元。老年人（65歲以上）仍然可以為聯合申報者額外扣除1,300美元的標準扣除額，單身人士則需要1,600美元。對於已婚夫婦，逐項扣除額必須超過26,600美元。如果這對夫婦使用全額10,000美元的州和地方收入，銷售稅和財產稅，他們必須拿出超過16,600美元的扣除額才能通過逐項列出來節省。
醫療費。醫療費用扣除仍然還在。由於門檻降至調整後總收入的7.5％，因此在2018年更好。但明年，該門檻上升至10％。如果可能的話，您應該考慮將醫療費用匯總到2018年，這樣您就可以利用這個較低的門檻。
羅斯IRA。今年投入資金在羅斯是不會減少2018年的稅收。但是，如果你期望稅率上升，現在是時候把錢投入羅斯並立即納稅，而不是以後。從2018年開始，稅制改革取消了扭轉羅斯轉換的能力，所以請等到納稅年度結束時，您可以更清楚地了解您的數字，以進行任何轉換。
參考: Kiplinger (June 29, 2018) “Midyear Moves for Retirees to Rein In Their Tax Tabs”