Welcome to the Alcorn & Cureton, Ltd Web Site
Our office hours are back to Mon-Fri 8am-5pm.
Our phone extensions are:
Doug Alcorn x106, Patrick Nix x107, Angie Emery x104, John Pless x109, Brian Reynolds x108, Thuy Le x105 and Jo Ellen Reynolds x100.
FinCEN BOI is back!
The required filing of the Beneficial Ownership Interest Report is now back on, with an extended due date of January 13, 2025. Almost all small LLCs and corporations have to file this report or face up to a $10,000 penalty. There are exceptions for companies with over 20 employees and over $5 million in gross receipts, and certain occupations such as insurance brokers, but almost every other company, including single member LLCs have to file. A lot of our clients formed LLCs for their rental properties and they do have to file. Details can be found on the FiCEN web site, www.FiCEN.gov
The report is filed online with FinCEN and is easy to do if your ownership is straightforward. The only complication tends to be the uploading of the owners driver licenses.
The Jan 13 filing deadline is for companies in existence at Jan 1 2024. New companies have to file within 30 days from startup.
Generally Trusts and partnerships NOT registered with the State don't have to file.
We can help you file, but we need to do it as soon as possible. Let us know if we can be of assistance.
Receive a strange check from the IRS in January? It may be legit. They are sending out Economic Stimulus Checks for those that did not claim them on their 2020 and 2021 income tax returns. Checks of up to $1,400 per person will be mailed or direct deposited by the IRS for anyone entitled to the payments and did not claim them on the tax returns. For the returns we prepared we claimed the payments in 99% of the time, but there may be a few returns out there entitled to receive more money.
Please use our client portal (File Share) to send documents to us. It is safe and secure. Click on the File Share box at the bottom of this page. You register using your email address.
Have an old 529 plan (College Tuition Plan)? There are new rules on how you can get rid of the excess funds. You can roll over to a Roth IRA for the beneficiary, but you have to follow the guidelines.
Tax Credits for sale? Our newsletter for August has some real good articles on the scammers trying to sell tax credits. Please take a look at them. If you have not subscribed (its free) clink on the link at the bottom of this web page (ENEWSLETTERS).
We are happy to announce that Mr. Patrick Nix has assumed an ownership interest in Alcorn & Cureton, Ltd. Pat is a Virginia CPA and Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) and has been working with us since 2006.
We are sorry to announce the passing of our founding partner Eric Cureton. We started Alcorn & Cureton back in 1982 as a successor to Neel & Alcorn and Richard Neel & Co. with roots in Old Town Alexandria. It's been a great ride! We will truly miss Eric.
New IRA contribution amounts allowed in 2025 for those age 60 thru 63 (a select group). You will be able to make larger IRA contributions than anyone else.
There are a lot of changes to retirement plans effective in 2025. Be sure to work with your Plan Adminstrator to make sure your plan is up to date and in compliance.
There are tons of Energy credits available for both your house and automobiles. The very best websites to test what is available to you based on your location and income are:
https://www.energystar.gov/products/ask-the-experts/tax-credits-energy-efficient-upgrades-are-back
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/energy-efficient-home-improvement-credit
https://www.rewiringamerica.org/app/ira-calculator
For info on any specific vehicle try
https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/electric-vehicles-for-tax-credit
Receive a 1099-K? Make sure you provide us with a copy of it. While the Feds just raised the filing threshold back to $20,000, the states of VA and MD require the 1099-K filing at $600. A 1099-K is a reporting form that payment processors such as PayPal issue to businesses.
Partnerships and S Corporations can pay their VA income tax thru the entity (PTET). The payment link is:
https://www.business.tax.virginia.gov/tax-eforms/ptetpmt.php#
It is our 43rd year! Thank you all for letting us be a part of your lives over all these years. We appreciate our clients.
Improve your Cash Flow without increasing your taxes. In your regular investment accounts, if you are having your dividends reinvested and are selling stock or pulling money out of retirement plans for cash flow, change your dividends to be paid directly to you. You are already paying taxes on them, and you can reduce the need to sell stock or take retirement distributions. We effectively used dividend reinvestment to build up our accounts over the years, but now might be the time to have those dividends paid directly to you.
We now have a billing portal that will allow you to pay your bill via credit card or ACH debit. If your email address is set up in our billing system, you can click on the link below and set yourself up. This is for payment only. To upload documents please use the file share box at the bottom of this page.
secureportal.mangobilling.com/#/login?CCID=1288&CName=Alcorn%20%26%20Cureton%2C%20Ltd.
For 2023 and after if you are age 73 or greater, you have to take a Required Minimum Distribution from your IRA and retirement accounts.
Are you age 70 1/2 or more? The good news is that, if you have earned income, you can now contribute to your IRA. There is no maximum age limit on IRA contributions now, but you do have to have earned income (employment or income subject to SE tax) to make the contribution. But IRA contributions can affect your QCD (Qualified Charitable Distribution) deduction.
We love QCDs and highly recommend those over age over 72 to use them for your charitable gifting. And we love IRA contributions. But the two don't mix well. To the extent that you make a post age 70 1/2 IRA contribution of, say $5,000 and you did QCDs of $7,500, your allowable QCD deduction would be $2,500 (the $7,500 QCD made less the IRA contribution of $5,000).
Effective 1 July 2021 Virginia requires almost all individual income tax payments to be electronic. Any estimated payment over $2,500 is to be paid electronically which can be done easily on their website:
https://www.business.tax.virginia.gov/tax-eforms/760es.php#
We can set your tax payments to be made electronically when we do your tax returns. Just make sure we have your up to date bank information.
Tax Laws are changing. Please take a look at your Estate planning and make sure it is up to date. Do you have a Revocable Living Trust that is current? A current Medical Directive? These are all important to have to to keep up to date. Let us know if you have any questions.
Have huge capital gains? You have up to 180 days to completely shelter those gains using an investment in a Qualified Opportunity Zone. Ask us about QOZs.
Use our secure portal to upload your data and documents to us. It's safe (fully encrypted) and easy. Click on the File Share box at the bottom of this page.
The Federal Estate Tax exclusion jumps to over $12 million a person. But some states, such as Maryland and DC still have much lower thresholds for when the estate tax starts. The annual gift tax exclusion amount is $17,000.
You can upload your investment information directly into your tax return by using our Intuit Link system. Let us know that you want to have your interest, dividends and stock sales imported directly in, and we will send you an invite to register with Intuit and select the accounts you want to upload.
Starting a business? We can help. Generally we recommend that most businesses start as an LLC (Limited Liability Company). If there is only one owner, it will be a single member LLC and the income and expenses will just be reported on the owner's tax returns. If there is more than one owner, the LLC will be taxed as a partnership and will file a partnership income tax return. The entity itself does not pay income taxes, in that the income flows through to the owners on their tax returns.
The LLC form of business helps protect you from legal liability if done correctly. Most businesses can benefit from that, especially high risk activities such as real estate (rentals, construction and flipping), restaurants and services.
LLCs generally have to register with the State and you want to obtain a Federal Employer ID number (EIN) from the IRS. That way you do not need to use your Social Security Number.
The IRS does NOT call you to say they are suing you, taking you to court or demanding you make a payment to them today. These are scams. The IRS warns that there are now scam IRS CP-2000 notices (tax adjustments) being emailed out. The IRS also does NOT send out emails regarding a tax refunds or rebates or request that you set up a PIN number in order to get your refund. These are phishing schemes and phone scams, and you should not respond to them and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER click on a link from one of those emails. If your notice or call says anything different, it is fake. PLEASE REPORT THESE TO http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml
Setting up a 529 Plan for your kids or grandchildren? While there is not a Federal tax deduction, there are state tax deductions available if set up with your state of residence or its approved plan. You can maximize your state tax deductions by splitting the accounts between husband and wife (Virginia) or by the different type of plans (Maryland).
Virginia Employers, including individuals with rental properties, must file a BPOL license with their county or city by March 1. Landlords with properties in DC must file a Franchise Tax return and have a current DC Business License. Every jurisdiction has its own rules on this. Fairfax County requires a business license if you rent three or more residential properties or one commercial property.
Get a heads up on the new laws-subscribe to our NEWSLETTER. Our monthly newsletter will be emailed to you each and every month. Click on the Subscribe button at the bottom of the page. This is a free client service that we want you to take advantage of. There are always a lot of good tax planning ideas in each monthly newsletter.
Are you maximizing your retirement plan deductions? Is all of your estate planning (wills, trusts and medical directives) up to date? Please make sure that we have the current version of your Will and Trust documents.
We have many calculators in our FINANCIAL TOOLS section (tab above) including a full 1040 tax calculator, estate planning and mortgage loan calculators, including refinance savings computations and amortization schedules. There are so many powerful calculators; you will be able to calculate things that you never thought existed!
Driving directions to our office can be found in the CONTACTS section.
In addition to providing you with a profile of our firm and the services we provide, this Website has been designed to become a helpful resource tool to you, our valued clients and visitors. Our dedication to superior client service has brought us to the Internet as we endeavor to continue to provide the highest quality professional service and guidance.
As you browse through our Website, you will see that not only have we highlighted background information on our firm and the services we provide, but have also included useful resources such as informative articles (in our Newsletter section) and interactive financial calculators (in our Financial Tools section). Check out the nifty refinancing calculators to determine if you should refinance now, and how much it may save you.
In addition, we have taken the time to gather many links to external Websites that we felt would be of interest to our clients and visitors (in our Internet Links section).
While browsing through our Website, please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you may have - we'd love to hear from you. We pride ourselves on being proactive and responsive to our clients' inquiries and suggestions.
If you are uploading your QuickBooks file, we suggest that you send a Portable Copy (.QBM) in that it is smaller and contains less data than a regular Backup file (.QBB). It also does not contain your sensitive customer data. Please note that you also need to send us your current QB password.
