The Oct 15th extended personal tax return deadline is looming, so if you haven’t filed yet you need to cancel this weekend’s plans and get to it!!  Many people in Florida will learn an unfortunate lesson after being punched in the head by Hurricane Matthew as they are uprooted from their homes and will miss the deadline. The IRS rarely cares about the “procrastinators problem” so they will pay heavy fines when they are able to file. Lesson to learn…don’t put off to next Friday what could be done today and should have been done last May or June at the latest.

This isn’t the only deadline when it comes to proactive tax planning. Setting up many Safe Harbor plans had a deadline of Oct 1st so companies now wanting to add a plan before the end of year must use a non-safe harbor approach but will have until Dec 31st to accomplish everything required.

401(k)
Deadline to establish the plan – October 1st of that year for safe harbor plans, otherwise December 31st of that year.
Deadline to fund the plan –

Employee contributions – must be withheld from pay by December 31st and remitted to the investment firm as soon as reasonably possible
Employer contribution – must be made by the tax return due date, including extensions

Other plans that help you pay less tax are just opening enrollment such as many Flexible Medical FSA type accounts. An example from one such administrators web site;

You can make the following benefit elections online from November 2, 2015 through December 11, 2015:

• Sign up/re-enroll your Flexible Spending Account (Medical Reimbursement and Dependent Care).
• Enroll, change or cancel your Vision insurance.
• Enroll, change or cancel your Dental insurance

The point is that if you complain every year while doing your taxes and facing the bill, now is when you come into our office and sit down and plan the outcome while we have time to use the tools given to us by the tax code.

Call us at 770-843-5159 or e-mail us at jmills@taxcentersofgeorgia.com and lets talk for 30 mins about what might be able to still be done to help!  Or you could just procrastinate until Matthew hits?!