Financial

If you can’t wait for 2020 to be over, you’re certainly not alone. However, don’t let the challenges of this year distract you from taking care of important end-of-year financial moves.

Has 2020 left you feeling like the fabled Sisyphus, forever pushing a boulder up a steep hill? While we prepare for a fresh start, here are six financial best practices for year-end 2020 and beyond, none of which require any heavy lifting.

To say COVID-19 has made 2020 a disastrous year for just about everyone would be an understatement. However, in response to the economic slowdown and losses of income, Congress passed several extensive laws to benefit individuals and businesses that suffered financial hardship because of COVID-19. Therefore, 2020 has given rise to more than the usual tax-planning opportunities.

A federal tax credit for the purchase and installation costs of a residential solar system is fading away. After being 30% of the cost for several years through 2019, the credit amount drops to 26% in 2020 and then 22% in 2021, the final year of the credit.

Good news – you have an extra $24,000, and you’ve decided to invest it in the stock market. It’s always nice to have investable cash on hand, but you also might feel as if the pressure is on. Nobody enjoys seeing the market take a dive shortly after they jump in. Unfortunately, we never know when it might do exactly that.

President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum on August 8, 2020, that directs the Treasury Secretary to use his authority to defer the withholding, deposit and payment of employees’ portions of Social Security taxes from September 1 through December 31, 2020. The goal is to put more money in the pockets of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

We are still waiting for the dust to settle on what President Trump’s executive orders mean for taxpayers and business owners. There is a lot of talk about legal challenges and how Congress may react, but here is a summary of what we know now.

Temporary Payroll Tax Relief

The global coronavirus pandemic has changed every single facet of our world – from the way we work to how we live our day-to-day lives – and we have been forced to quickly adjust.

Unfortunately, there are those out there who seek to take advantage of this turbulent time.

The utility of living consists not in the length of days but in the use of time.

— Michel de Montaigne

Under new guidelines that apply only to the 2020 tax year, you can now donate 100% of your adjusted gross income and have it all offset your taxable income completely, as opposed to the usual 60% it was capped at before.