Radio: Twelve Tax Planning Agenda Items To Do Before April 15

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Radio: Twelve Tax Planning Agenda Items To Do Before April 15

David John Marotta was interviewed on March 10, 2015, radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show discussing what should be on your agenda this tax season.

Listen to the radio interview here:

And you can read the tax planning agenda here:

  1. Fund Roth for 2014 ($5,500 per person or $6,500 for those over 50).
  2. Fund Roth for 2015 ($5,500 per person or $6,500 for those over 50).
  3. Get your children to fund their Roth IRAs with their earned income. Consider helping financially.
  4. If you are over the income limits ($191,000 for 2014 and $193,000 for 2015 MFJ), do a backdoor Roth (contributing to a non-deductible IRA and then converting that money to a Roth).
  5. If you have any self employment income, determine how much you can fund your SEP IRA (Simplified Employee Pension), usually 25% or $52,000.
  6. Adjust your 401(k) to a Roth.
  7. Set your 401(k) to automatically rebalance.
  8. Adjust your 401(k) to get the match (for example: 5% gets you an additional 4% of your salary).
  9. Adjust your 401(k) to the maximum elective deferral ($18,000 or $24,000 over 50).
  10. Look at the expense ratios on your companies 401(k) to see if they are excessive, if they are, ask for quote for a new plan.
  11. Review your tax return to see if you could be in the zero percent capital gains tax bracket, if so, realize as much capital gains as you can at zero percent.
  12. See how much capital gains you could realize at 15% and set that as the limit to realize in capital gains during 2015 when rebalancing.

Photo used under Flickr Creative Commons license.

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Austin Fey is a Wealth Manager at Marotta Wealth Management, specializing in charitable giving and asset allocations. She is a regular contributor to our Marotta On Money articles, often giving advice to those just getting started in finance.

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David John Marotta is the Founder and President of Marotta Wealth Management. He played for the State Department chess team at age 11, graduated from Stanford, taught Computer and Information Science, and still loves math and strategy games. In addition to his financial writing, David is a co-author of The Haunting of Bob Cratchit.