Tax and Finance Information
from Expert CPA Sam Tanious

Sam Tanious is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Former Internal Revenue Service IRS Auditor / Officer and much more. Sam has been preparing accurate tax returns for over 20 years, legally reducing tax liability and helping clients build and protect wealth through wealth management strategies. He has helped thousands of individuals and small business owners navigate the maze of tax, regulatory to greater success and wealth. Call Sam today for a no obligation appointment. (440) 789-1040

Sam offers this information as a free service. As always, do NOT rely on the Medical, Legal, Financial or other Advice from this or any other website. The material available on this site is for information purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal or financial advice, nor is it intended as a substitute for professional counsel, diagnosis or treatment.

Financial 10 Commandments

1. Be financially stable.
2. Live within your means.
3. Continue your education.
4. Fund your HSA every year.
5. Develop a habit of savings.
6. Max out your ROTH every year.
7. Think about investing in what you know best.
8. Understand the importance of "Money Mindset".
9. Understand good productive vs. bad reductive debts.
10. Don't use retirement money for anything but retirement.

2024 IRS Interest and Mileage Rates:

For individuals, the rate for overpayments and underpayments will be 8% per year, compounded daily. Here is a complete list of the new rates:

• 8% for overpayments (payments made in excess of the amount owed).
• 7% for corporations.
• 8% for underpayments (taxes owed but not fully paid).

Mileage Rate

The standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or trucks) will be:

• 67 cents per mile driven for business use.
• 21 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes.
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations.

Pay off your debt!

The "snowball method," means paying off the smallest of all your loans as quickly as possible. Once that debt is paid, you take the money you were putting toward that payment and roll it onto the next-smallest debt owed. Ideally, this process would continue until all accounts are paid off. As you roll the money used from the smallest balance to the next on your list, the amount "snowballs" and gets larger and larger and the rate of the debt that is reduced is accelerated.

Perfecting your debt pay down strategy.

• Build an emergency fund: Have a safety net in place before you begin a debt pay down method. While it's good to want to become debt-free, having funds to rely on in case of situations like an unexpected medical bill or car repair should be a priority.
• Stay up to date on all of your current bills: if you are late on payments, as this will only complicate your debt situation. Contact your lenders to discuss possible options to prevent late payments such as adjusting the payment due date.
• Track your spending: Be careful to not charge up additional debts while you are working to pay down your debt. Track your spending to ensure you stick to your budget. Take note of how your credit score changes. Paying down your debts may help improve your score over time.

Home Improvements and Clean Energy Tax Credit

Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit is up to $3,200.

• Qualified energy efficiency improvements installed during the year which can include things like:
• Exterior doors, windows and skylights.
• Insulation and air sealing materials or systems.
• Residential energy property expenses such as:
  • Natural gas, propane or oil water heaters.
  • Natural gas, propane or oil furnaces and hot water boilers.
• Heat pumps, water heaters, biomass stoves and boilers.

Qualified expenses include the costs of new, clean energy equipment including:

Maybe it is a good time to Refinance!

1. Have the lender pay the Cost of Refinance - (it is negotiable)
2. Pay for point(s) if you can, to lower the rate - (it is tax deductible)
3. Don't extend your loan - don't add more years.
4. Accelerate paydown and payoff on your mortgage.
5. Check your credit score and fix it.
6. Use the cash flow to pay off some credit cards (bad debts)
7. Get a pre-qualified letter.
8. Enroll in a mortgage monitoring system.
9. Do your homework - Due diligence.
10. If you have any extra funds, use it to pay off (less years)

Freeze Your Credit Cards

Now is a good time to freeze your credit files with the major bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) if you haven't already. That will protect you from the scammers that tend to follow big breaches like this. If more people freeze their files, there will be fewer victims of cybercrime. It just may be the one good thing that comes from this massive Social Security number breach.

Freezing your credit simply means preventing potential creditors from accessing your credit report, which makes it harder for bad actors to open new accounts, like a new credit card or a loan, using your personal information.

Even if you don't think you were impacted by the National Public Data breach, your data has almost certainly been involved in some kind of breach. That's why you should freeze your credit files: It's a free and easy way to protect yourself from identity theft and to keep hackers and scammers out of your bank account.

You can put a freeze in place by setting up an account at each of the credit bureaus' websites. (below are direct links to the pages to freeze your accounts for Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.) Once your account is set up, it only takes a couple of clicks to freeze your files.

https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/

https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze