taxes Archives – Page 3 of 12 – Michele Cagan, CPA

11 Tips for Using Your Stimulus Prepaid Debit Card

05/31/2020
taxes, you need to know this

How to avoid fees, pay bills, and beef up your bank account Don’t throw out the plain white envelope from Money Network Financial! That’s your Economic Impact Payment Card, the official name for your stimulus prepaid debit card. You’ll receive one of these prepaid debit cards if you’re eligible for a stimulus payment and the IRS didn’t have your banking information for direct deposit. Here are 11 tips that will help you set up the card, use the money however you want, and avoid paying fees. Activate your stimulus prepaid debit card immediately by calling 1-800-240-8100. You’ll have to enter…

Clearing Up PPP Loan Confusion

05/09/2020
media, news, small business, taxes, you need to know this

How to use the money for maximum loan forgiveness Updated September 2020 PPP (Payroll Protection Program) loan confusion has hit hard. Small business owners and self-employed people are scared to use the money the wrong way – but the rules have not been communicated clearly. That’s partly because new “interpretations” keep coming out, and partly because the rules were unclear when the loans first hit the streets (and still kind of are). Here’s the deal: You can ONLY use PPP loan proceeds to pay: Employees through payrollRentMortgage interestUtilities That’s it. You can’t pay contractors. You can’t pay back other loans…

Stretch Out Your Cash with My 3-D Plan: Ditch, Delay, Decrease

04/27/2020
investing, personal finance, taxes, you need to know this

If the Covid-19 crisis has you worried about money – and, honestly, I don’t know anyone (including me) who’s not – you can take some practical steps right now to preserve your cash. Most of the standard personal financial advice just doesn’t apply right now. All that matters in a time of extreme uncertainty is your cash flow. More cash means more options. So this is a time to do everything you can to hold on to cash. The truth is, we don’t know how long the financial impact of Covid-19 will last or how bad things will really get.…

Should I Withdraw from My IRA or 401k?

04/24/2020
personal finance, retirement, taxes

Know This BEFORE You Pull Money from Retirement Accounts The CARES Act (aka the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) made it easier than ever to borrow or withdraw money from your retirement accounts before retirement age. And even though most of the normal rules of personal finance have flown out the window during this crisis, the regular advice about retirement accounts still holds up: Leave that money where it is. That said, if you have to choose between food, housing, medicine, and other absolute necessities or pulling money out of retirement accounts because you have no other options,…

$1,200: Everything You Need to Know About Your Stimulus Check

04/01/2020
news, taxes, you need to know this

You have questions about the government stimulus checks. Here are the answers you can trust. Who gets a payment? Every adult with a Social Security number who earns no more than the income caps (those in a second) will get an automatic $1,200 payment from the IRS. The income limits are based on your adjusted gross income from your 2019 tax return, or your 2018 return if you didn’t file 2019 yet. Once you reach the lower limit, your stimulus payment will begin to shrink until it hits zero if you earn more than the upper income limit. The full…