64 – Year End Tax Planning Tips

Christian Financial Perspectives

English - December 10, 2019 06:15 - 33 minutes - 45.6 MB - ★★★★★ - 11 ratings
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Previous Episode: 63 – Master Your Credit Rating

Next Episode: 65 – Cultivating Joy Through Generosity

We look at some year end tax planning tips for this year that need to be incorporated as soon as possible, as well as some that might benefit you over the course of a lifetime. There are no guarantees in life but one thing we can all probably agree on is that taxes will only go up and deductions will only become fewer in the years to come.

Click below to listen to Episode 64 – Year End Tax Planning Tips

Year End Tax Planning Tips

Check out these 12 tax deduction tips.

More episodes >>

No time left to procrastinate! It’s that time of year again where we think about taxes and what deductions we can incorporate before the end of the year. They say there are only two certainties in life, death and taxes. With the changes to the tax code in 2018 due to The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it has become even more important to look closely at your tax situation each and every year and plan ahead. Year end tax planning is a must in order to minimize the amount of taxes we pay each year.

There are no guarantees in life but one thing we can all probably agree on is that taxes will only go up and deductions will only become fewer in the years to come. It’s also important to think strategically in order to minimize the amount of taxes paid over a lifetime. So, in today’s episode of Christian Financial Perspectives, Bob and Mary Jo look at some year end tax planning tips for this year that need to be incorporated as soon as possible, as well as some that might benefit you over the course of a lifetime.

HOSTED BY: Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA® and Mary Jo Lyons, CFP®, CKA®

Mentioned In This Episode

Christian Financial Advisors

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Bob Barber, CWS®, CKA®

Mary Jo Lyons, CFP®, CKA®

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

[INTRODUCTION]

Bob: Welcome to Christian Financial Perspectives, a weekly podcast where we talk about ways to integrate your faith with your finances. This is Bob Barber.

Mary Jo: And I’m Mary Jo Lyons.

Bob: Are you ready to learn how to apply biblical wisdom to everyday financial decisions?

Mary Jo: Join us as we look at integrating your faith with your finances. If it’s your first time listening, welcome to our podcast, and if you’re a returning listener, welcome back.

[EPISODE]

Mary Jo: Luke 20: 20-25, “Watching for their opportunity, the leader sent spies pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor, so he would arrest Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ they said. ‘We know that you speak and teach what is right and are not influenced by what others think. You teach the way of God, truthfully. Now tell us, is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ He saw through their trickery and said, ‘Show me a Roman coin. Whose picture and the title are stamped on it?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. ‘Well then,’ he said, ‘Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.'”

Bob: Boy, Mary Jo, this scripture, I’ve heard it so many times and you know it’s really talking about paying taxes. It’s just a great scripture, and it’s pointing that we should be honest when we pay taxes.

Mary Jo: Well, we should be honest in everything.

Bob: Exactly. Exactly. We should be honest in everything, but you know it is interesting. You know, I’ve just got through building my new home. You know, some of these guys, they wanted to be paid in cash. And I was like, why do you want to be paid in cash? I mean like greenbacks. You know, not a check and well, so I wouldn’t have to report it, but that’s not right. So Jesus was really strong about this in this scripture and pointing out that pay to the government what we owe. You know, you look at that dollars, it’s the US Government’s, but of course we don’t have to pay more than we need to. God’s Word is about using wisdom, and it’s wise for us, as believers in Christ and we believe God’s word, to use all those tax deductions that the governing authorities allow us to use as long as it’s done with integrity.

Mary Jo: Integrity, I think, is the key word there. There’s certainly benefits for doing that as well. When you don’t declare all your income, you can’t show how much you earn and then that will hurt you down the road. So there’s good and bad with it, but you also take advantage of our roads. You take advantage of our schools, our city utilities, all of those things that taxes pay for. So, why shouldn’t you pay towards those expenses? Your fair share.

Bob: I got another one, too. Don’t mess with the IRS.

Mary Jo: Yeah, that’s a good one too.

Bob: I’ve heard people say, well I don’t need to pay taxes, you know, that’s not constitutional. And then you hear about them going to jail. So, I’m not going to mess with the IRS. I’m going to do what’s right. So if you guessed from today’s scripture what we’ve been talking about. If you think today’s podcast is about taxes, well you’re absolutely right and what a fun subject to talk about. Not. You know, but we need to talk about it.

Mary Jo: It’s a necessary evil if you want to look at it that way. But I think it makes sense and we should all pay our fair share. Fair being the keyword.

Bob: Yeah. Yes.

Mary Jo: So we do have some great reminders for you on today’s show, or podcast – some that could be worth several hundreds, if not several thousands, of dollars in savings. I don’t know about you, Bob, but I think it’s safe to say that taxes are only going to go up from here. What do you think?

Bob: I believe you’re right. I’ve never seen them going down much.

Mary Jo: And funny how that works.

Bob: Especially my property taxes with the way everything is increasing here in Central Texas.

Mary Jo: So we want you to keep in mind that none of these strategies should be used without first seeking the advice of your tax advisor and preferably a CPA, a Certified Public Accountant, as tax laws are constantly changing and vary depending on each individual situation. And we don’t know your situation, so this is very much overall educational and intended for very general purposes, but definitely seek the advice of your tax expert. They say there are two certainties in life, Bob, death and taxes.

Bob: I’ve heard that one many times.

Mary Jo: And with the changes to the tax code in 2018 due to the tax cuts and jobs act, and it’s become more important than ever to look closely at your situation each and every year and plan out accordingly. Plan longterm.

Bob: And that’s because these tax cuts and jobs act back in 2018, everything pretty much doubled for your exemption. So before we get started today, we’re going to go into 12 year end tax strategies. I want you to hear that word I just said again, year end. This is not the time to procrastinate. We’re bringing you this podcast a couple of weeks before the end of the year. But I want you to remember two extremely important numbers. So before we get started on our 12 year end tax strategies for this year, it’s important to remember these two numbers, $24,400 and $12,200. Now what I mean by this is $24,400 is the standard deduction rule for married couples filing jointly. And $12,200 is the standard deduction rule for singles filing individually. So, Mary Jo is going to share with you what we mean by the standard deduction.

Mary Jo: So here’s how the standard deduction actually works if you’re not quite familiar with it. And some of us think we know, but we’re not a 100% sure. So you can typically deduct items like property taxes, mortgage interest, and charitable giving, and all of these “items”. That’s what they mean by itemizing. I’m air quoting, but you can’t see that. And all of these items combined need to add up to at least the standard deduction. And if you’re married and file a joint tax return and all of your deductions do not total more than the $24,400 that Bob mentioned, or if you are single and they don’t add up to $12,200, you only get to offset your taxes owed by the standard deduction amount. Anything over this amount can be itemized and deducted from the total tax you owe.

Bob: That can be real confusing. Can you can see where that could be confusing, Mary Jo?

Mary Jo: Oh, absolutely.

Bob: So, basically, if you’re not going to have itemized deductions if you’re married and they’re not going to total over $24,400, you’re not going to have any deductions because that’s your standard deduction. So, you have to get above that number or if you’re single, $12,200.

Mary Jo: Sometimes if you’re struggling with visualizing how all this works, pull up the form 1040 and actually just look at the form and review it and if you haven’t been the one preparing your taxes for awhile, sometimes that will just kind of help you formulate how it all works in your mind and it’ll help you with planning purposes.

Bob: As we get into our 12 year end tax strategies. Mary Jo is going to talk to you in just a minute about the tax strategy number one and utilizing these numbers. Hopefully, we’re going to lower those income taxes for you if you use some of these. I don’t think all of us are going to be able to use all 12 of them, but if you use some of these by a few hundred dollars or even a few thousand dollars as long as you do it by the end of the year, that’s the important thing, to do this by the end of the year. I just want you to remember as we get into these twelve, these strategies. Remember you can call Mary Jo or I any time at (830) 609-6986. Again, it’s (830) 609-6986. If we’re available, we’ll get right on the phone with you. If we’re not, Kirsten or one of our people in the office can set up a time for you or you can email us from our website at ciswealth.com. All right, tax strategy number one. Go ahead, Mary Jo.

Mary Jo: So the first thing we want to look at is lumping as many qualified itemized deductions as you can into one year to get over that standard deduction threshold. That standard deduction threshold, now, it’s larger than it has been in the past. So we might struggle each year to make it, but we can plan and be very strategically on when we spend things that could be a deduction and maybe do all that in one year. Then, the next year you’re limited to the standard deduction, but then the next year you can bunch everything together. That may have to be an every year thing going forward, but otherwise you may never go over the standard deduction. So, by lumping them together, you’re more likely to get over the standard deduction amount. Examples again include property taxes, charitable contributions, and things of that nature. So if you don’t lump them in your itemized deductions, they’re meaningless for tax purposes.

Bob: I want to go in a little bit of detail on that. So what we mean by lumping them is like paying your property taxes. As an example, this is 2019. I could pay my 2020 taxes in January of 2020 then in December of 2020, pay 2021 taxes, right?

Mary Jo: Exactly, yes.

Bob: And it’s the same thing with your charitable contributions. You can either pay forward or look backward, but try to lump two years of charitable contributions into one year, just like you can lump a couple of years of property taxes into one year. That way, you’re going to get over that standard deduction and that is a very important strategy to do. Again, if you don’t understand what we’re talking about, give us a call, but this really means the difference between hundreds of dollars in tax savings and none.

Mary Jo: As we talk about the various strategies, this will become more clear because we’re going to illustrate how to do some of that going forward.

Bob: The second strategy that we have today is truly maxing out your contributions to your qualified plan at work. So as an example, if you’ve got a 401k, some of you don’t have that, but you’ve got a 403b or like if you work for a nonprofit or the government, you’ve got a 457 or a TSP plan, but before the end of the year, max out those contributions if possible. We’ve had folks, maybe they’ve put in $12,000, well they can go up to $19,000, and you can go talk to your payroll department about doing this. We’ve actually had clients do this in the past and that saved a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand, dollars. So remember this year, if you’ve not put this much in in your 401k, 403b, or federal thrift savings plan, you can go all the way up to $19,000, and if you’re over 50 you can add another six to that. So you can put up to $25,000 into your qualified retirement plans at work. But take a look at that right now, you know, in the next day or two and see how much you’ve put in and see maybe you can put a little bit more in, maybe even that last paycheck if you could afford not to take it, put it all into your qualified plan.

Mary Jo: And you know, Bob, you can be pretty strategic with how you do this if you have a flexible HR department, and this is probably really important for higher earners. The more you contribute early in the year, the longer that’s working in a tax deferred environment for you. You’re getting growth that’s growing and all of that is tax deferred. So, if you can tell your HR person, look, I want to max out my contributions for the year, so is there any way to do that, say, January through June? Then, you’re not taking the contributions out June through December. Sometimes that’ll work to your advantage and you’ll have more take home pay the rest of the year, but you’re getting that money in a tax deferred environment early on, if that makes sense.

Bob: I want to mention too, this is own your side of the equation, not own the match that you’re getting. I could see where some people will be confused on that. Mary Jo, like let’s say the 19,000 is the max. Maybe they’ve put in, you know, 9,500 and they’ve got a match of 9,500 and they’re thinking, well there’s a 19 but they don’t realize that’s on your side. You can put in the $19,000

Mary Jo: That’s right. So that brings us to tax strategy number three. So if you want to, you could give a big year end gift to your favorite charities before the end of the year or even fund a donor advised fund before the end of the year and give it out slowly over time to your favorite charities. When you fund a donor advised fund, it doesn’t all have to be given the next year. It can go over time.

Bob: That’s the beauty of the donor advised fund, isn’t it?

Mary Jo: Absolutely.

Bob: You can put $20,000 or $50,000 or a $100,000 into that donor advised fund. You get the tax deduction for it now, but you can give it out slowly over a long period of time.

Mary Jo: As needs arise that really pull at your heart. So if there’s nothing speaking to you this year, then just hold on to it.

Bob: Now here’s another tax strategy that I know your husband, Mike, would appreciate.

Mary Jo: It must be about a car.

Bob: Okay. Tax strategy number four. If you’re going to buy a car in the next few months, plus you get the year end deals, you might go ahead and do it now, because the sales tax could be deductible, assuming you get over that standard deduction. But if not, wait until next year and try to lump all your deductible items together into one. So I’m not pushing you to go out and buy a new car, but the sales tax and all sales taxes can be deductible. But you know the cars, it’s such a large amount, it’s easy to see that sales tax.

Mary Jo: Well, it’s probably the largest individual purchase any of us make at one time. And the rule works, the IRS permits you to ride off either your state and local income tax or sales tax when itemizing your deductions. And you can use either the actual sales taxes that you’ve paid or the IRS optional sales tax tables. That is something that’s allowable, and we should pay attention to that.

Bob: So here in Texas we’re fine, but if you have a state that has income tax, you can’t write off both. Is that what this is saying?

Mary Jo: Right.

Bob: Okay. So tax strategy number five, finish maxing out your health savings account for this year if you haven’t done so. That’s something I see all the time that people have not done. The maximum amount you can put into an HSA account is $3,500 per person, $7,000 for a family. But if you’re over 55, you can add another thousand to that per person.

Mary Jo: I always knew there were benefits to getting older.

Bob: Yeah, that’s probably because our health costs are higher and you know, I’m 57 now and knock on wood, everything’s been coming back good, but I’m sure getting a lot of physicals and hearing tests and all that to make sure everything’s working good. And I’m using what’s in my HSA account, so we’re maxing out what we put in those HSA accounts, which because I’m 57 I can put $4,500 in, plus Rachel can do the same thing.

Mary Jo: That’s all growing in a tax deferred environment yet again. So these balances, you don’t have to use them right away. They can be carried forward and used later on when you have less income and cashflow and use them for medical expenses in your later years. You can even cover things like premiums for longterm care insurance by using your HSA. So Mike and I were holding on to ours and we plan to use it much later. That takes us and brings us to tax strategy number six. Get those elective medical procedures done before the end of the year, if possible. For example, if you need eyeglasses or you’re considering eye surgery, which my husband is doing just now to take advantage of that. If you need to have some dental work done or maybe hearing AIDS upgraded, these are medical costs. They can be partially deductible depending on your income. So you want to look at how that all works.

Bob: And it may be too late right now because, you know, it’s hard to get into those doctors sometimes and get that done at the end of the year. But plan this ahead for next year and in the coming years when looking at grouping those deductions again to get over that standard deduction. Or next year, if that’s the year to group your deductible expenses, put that in one too. So as an example, you’ve got to meet your deductible and everything’s paid on top of that. It does make sense to lump all that into one year cause it all starts back over on January 1st. In 2019, the IRS allows all taxpayers to deduct the total qualified unreimbursed medical care expenses for the year, but it’s got to exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income.

Mary Jo: That’s the magic number. They have to exceed 10%.

Bob: Exactly. So if you make $100,000, unless you get over $10,000, that’s not going to count.

Mary Jo: Then there’s tax strategy number seven. If you own a business, buy any necessary business equipment before the end of the year. If you’re looking to upgrade your computers or your copiers or do you buy some additional office furnishings, even an automobile for the business, as well as paying possible year end bonuses to your employees. These are things you can, again, group together in the year where they’re going to benefit you.

Bob: I just bought a new computer yesterday on Cyber Monday.

Mary Jo: Oh good.

Bob: I know people will hear this next week, but Cyber Monday was yesterday. Like you said, I wanted to do that before the end of the year so we can take it off as a deduction. Strategy number eight is prepaying tuition. So if you’re a parent or grandparent of a college student, you may be able to lower your 2019 tax bill by simply prepaying the tuition right now versus waiting till next year.

Mary Jo: Then there’s tax strategy number nine. We call it tax loss harvesting. Sell your investments that’s fallen below your purchase price, and use the resulting loss to offset any capital gains in taxable accounts. And how that works, if you have longterm losses, they can offset realized longterm gains. In other words, if you have gains in something that you’ve sold, you don’t realize those gains until you actually sell the investments and you can do that up to $3,000. The same is true with short term investments. If you sold a short term investment and you have at least a $3,000 gain, you can offset $3,000 worth of losses on other investments that are also short term.

Bob: This normally works very well with individual stocks.

Mary Jo: Absolutely.

Bob: Say you have stock A and it’s gone up by $10,000 and you have stock B that’s gone down by $5,000. Well, if you sold both of them, there’d only be a $5,000 gain because you’re going to offset that $10,000 gain with the $5,000 loss. Now, some people though, they’re like, well, why would I do that? Well, maybe that stock is peaked out and maybe the other stock is just a loser and you just need to get rid of it. But there’s other things you can do, too, with tax loss harvesting. We’ll buy like kind stocks. So if it’s in a certain sector, we’ll buy that same type of stock. You do have to wait at least 31 days before you buy that same stock again if you wanted to.

Mary Jo: And you know the same thing does work with mutual funds in taxable accounts, too. So if you have big losses in a mutual fund and you have big gains in another, you could sell those, sell the gains, and then take the loss off of that. And then you can buy a similar investment now or wait 31 days and buy the funds back if they fit into your portfolio. But we can certainly help you walk through that in your taxable account if that’s something that would pertain to you.

Bob: And ETFs as well.

Mary Jo: Yes, absolutely.

Bob: Yeah. Okay. Tax strategy number 10 so remember we just have 12, so we’re nearly at the end here. Transfer IRA money to charity. This makes so much sense, especially for taxpayers. You know, you can only do this in the efficient way if you’re over 70 and a half, but if you’re not over 70 and a half and you have a parent that is, or a grandparent, you definitely want to tell them about the strategy, especially if they’re strong church goers and they give a lot to charities. Because for taxpayers over 70 and a half, up to $100,000 a year can be transferred from a traditional IRA, tax free, to a charity. But it’s got to go from the IRA directly to charity. And so as long as it’s done directly, there’s no tax due. I’m not saying, you know, $100,000 but if you could do $10,000.

Mary Jo: A lot of people are fortunate enough that they have to take those required minimum distributions from their IRA each year, but they don’t necessarily need it, the income to live on. So this applies to those people. You can meet your required minimum distribution requirement and you can donate all or part of it if it’s not all needed. And spouses are eligible for this as well. So for a couple, you can donate directly up to $200,000, up to $100,000 from each spouse’s IRA.

Bob: So let’s look at it this way. For a retiree that’s in a 24% tax bracket, an IRA charitable contribution of just $5,000, that could reduce your income tax bill by $1,200, even a thousand dollar donation could reduce your tax bill by $240. That’s why it’s worth listening to Christian Financial Perspectives. You’re making money today by listening to this program. The benefits of making the charitable contribution from your IRA are even bigger for those in the higher tax bracket. Remember, the charity has gotta be a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Mary Jo: Which is what they refer to as a qualified charity. And you can’t also take the charitable deduction, so there’s no double dipping. So it’s kind of one or the other. This is also a great reason to consider a rollover to an IRA. So if you’re still sitting there, you’re retired, and you’ve left money in your 401k. You can’t do this from a 401k. It can only be done from an IRA.

Bob: I’m glad you pointed that out because that’s what some people were thinking. It’s got to be an IRA.

Mary Jo: That’s right. So another thing to think about in rolling over that money into an IRA if you haven’t done that.

Bob: I want to mention something here, too, because this can sound confusing. Remember. We’re here for you. You just give us a call at (830) 609-6986 during business hours, or you can email us from our website at ciswealth.com, and we’ll be glad to go over this strategy with you, especially for those of you that have that RMD. You haven’t taken it this year, but you know what, even if you have, look at that strategy for next year. It just makes so much sense. Instead of giving cash to your church as a tithe. Gift from your IRA as a tithe.

Mary Jo: And that brings us to another good one. All these land here if you will. That’s income timing. So you want to think strategically about income payouts if you have that option. So, consider delaying income until next year. Remember, this is a year end tax strategy only, and it’s only a good strategy if you think that your income will be lower next year. So if you’re thinking that your income is higher this year, maybe you’re going to retire halfway through the year, so you’re only going to have six months worth of earned income next year. Maybe you can time some things to go in next year instead of taking it this year. So a good example of how this would work if you plan on retiring during the year next year, are stock option grants that are considered income. So when you exercise those grants, when you do that, it becomes income. So instead of doing it now in December, you might want to wait until next year if you can choose when to take this. Be strategic.

Bob: And so this brings us to our last tax strategy today. Tax strategy number 12 which has to do with Roth conversions. The Roth conversion is a great strategy. It’s best for people, though, that believe their tax rates during retirement are going to be the same or higher than their current tax rates. Let me say that again. The Roth conversion strategy is a good strategy, but it’s only if you believe your tax rates during retirement are going to be the same or higher than your current tax rates. I haven’t seen tax rates going down lately though.

Mary Jo: Well, you know, we always think that when we retire, since we won’t have our earned income, that our income is going to be so much less. But once you get into the required minimum distribution age, that’s probably not the case anymore.

Bob: Being a high income earner, you may not have ever qualified for making a Roth contribution because of your income limitation. You may have just focused on traditional IRAs and 401k’s because of that immediate tax deduction, that you got a reduction. But if you look strategically to the future, a Roth conversion may make sense to do that now. So it’s very important to think strategically all about these tax strategies to minimize the amount of taxes that you’re going to pay over a lifetime, not just this year, but over a lifetime.

Mary Jo: I think that’s really important. So I’m going to repeat that, Bob, if that’s okay. It’s important to think strategically in order to minimize the amount of taxes you pay over a lifetime, not just this year. So a Roth IRA allows for tax free withdraws if the Roth IRA, either your contribution that you’ve put in earlier or your conversion amount, once you’ve had that open and in the Roth IRA for over five years.

Bob: I emphasize that – five years. Yes.

Mary Jo: And you’ve reached the magical age of 59 and a half or you become disabled or you’re dead. And if you no longer have earned income and have not started your required minimum distributions and you’re between the ages of 59 and a half and 70 and a half. It’s kind of that magic time period when this makes sense. If you believe your income tax bracket will be higher in later years due to large required minimum distribution requirements and if you have more funds in IRAs and 401k’s than you expect to need in your lifetime and you want a plan to pass these on. So if you have legacy goals, money in a Roth IRA is probably one of the best ways to leave money to the next generation.

Bob: And I am amazed at our retirees, Mary Jo, how many are not using their funds from their IRAs.

Mary Jo: Yes, they don’t need them necessarily. But you think about it. So the Roth, what happens if your son or daughter are a doctor, a lawyer, or somebody that is going to plan to have a high earning salary and then all of a sudden when they get their inheritance, it creates a tax liability for them. So passing those funds into a Roth for the next generation, there’s some real wisdom here. Things to know. Amount converted must become taxable income in the year it’s converted, and you need to have some cash on hand to pay the current taxes. So if you had to dip into an IRA to pay those taxes, it probably doesn’t make any sense. But if you have cash on hand, now might be a good time to think about this.

Bob: There seems to be some major confusion about that. I’m always seeing that when someone wants to convert from the IRA to a Roth IRA, they think they’re going to take the extra money out to pay the taxes from the IRA. And I say, No. You have to have on the sidelines, whatever tax bracket you’re in, to pay that amount of tax with that.

Mary Jo: Back in 2010 when there was a tax law that allowed for some great benefits to do Roth conversions, my husband and I did that that year and took advantage of it. When we got our tax liability, we were like we knew it, but it still hurt. So those years we had to have a pretty hefty tax bill, but it’s gonna make sense for us longterm. So if you find yourself in this situation, you may want to consider doing a Roth conversion for all, or even just part, of an IRA. So if you’re not sure how this works, let me give you an example. You want to calculate your current estimated income. So how much room do you have before you go up into the next bracket? For example, if you’re in the 22% tax bracket and your current joint income for this year, let’s just say is $96,000 the 22% bracket is any income that earns between $78,951 and $168,401. If you fall in that bracket between those two numbers, that puts you at the 22% bracket. If you take $168,401, which is the top of the bracket, minus $96,000 which is your salary, that’s a difference of $72,401. So, you could have additional earned income of $72,401 before it pushes you up into the next higher tax bracket. So if you’re wondering how much to convert, it would make sense to only convert $72,401 or somewhere less than that. And then that way you’re not going to be pushing you into a higher tax bracket this year. So again, we’re here to help. I know that’s a little bit confusing and some of those numbers are a little clunky, but I just kind of wanted to give a little brief explanation.

Bob: I think this is why you need a financial advisor.

Mary Jo: Absolutely. It’s an interesting strategy, but it will take planning and something you may want to consider going forward.

Bob: You need a pen and a pencil for that one. So there you have it. There’s our 12 year end tax strategies that could save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, but you’ve got to integrate these before the end of the year. And there’s many other tax strategies to use throughout the year that we didn’t even go into today. There are a lot of unique ones for special situations like the sell of a large company, maybe a large ranch, highly appreciated company stock, or even how to best structure high oil and gas income to minimize income taxes, which I’ve done a lot and helped a lot of the folks down in the Eagle Ford Shell, a very big oil field that’s about an hour from me.

Mary Jo: And once again, Bob and I are not tax authorities. So, many of these strategies should not be used without first seeking the advice of your tax advisor or CPA. Tax laws are constantly changing and they vary depending on your individual situation, as well as what state you live in. So we want to make sure that you get that that we are not giving tax advice. If you’d like to take a complimentary 15 or 20 minute phone call to discuss how any of these strategies could apply to you. Call our office at (830) 609-6986 or visit us on the web at ciswealth.com, but don’t procrastinate as time is of the essence with just a few weeks to go before the end of the year.

Bob: I want to say that one more time. Don’t procrastinate.

[CONCLUSION]

Mary Jo: You’ve been listening to Christian Financial Perspectives. Join us next week as we explore more about how to apply biblical wisdom to your financial situations.

Bob: To make sure you don’t miss any of our podcasts, you can subscribe to Christian Financial Perspectives on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher. To learn more about integrating your faith with your finances, visit out website at ciswealth.com or call 830-609-6986.

Mary Jo: That’s all for now until next week.

[DISCLOSURES]

Comments from today’s show are for informational purposes only and not to be considered investment advice or recommendations to buy or sell any company that may have been mentioned or discussed. The opinions expressed are solely those of the hosts, Bob Barber and Mary Jo Lyons. Bob and Mary Jo do not provide tax advice and encourage you to seek guidance from a tax professional. Investment advisory services offered through Christian Investment Advisors Inc. DBA Christian Financial Advisors, a registered investment advisor.

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