Dr. Friday Tax Tips

Dr. Friday reviews IRS modernization efforts like expanded e-filing and faster processing. She points out that it can still be difficult to reach an IRS agent, and that representation can help when you need answers. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. This comes from the IRS. The IRS continues a multi-year modernization effort and expands electronic filing capacities and digital communication tools. In 2025, taxpayers benefited from the faster processing speeds. I’m gonna kinda stop right there, because we all live in the real world. You can’t reach an agent on the phone, and you have a difficult time confirming if something’s been e-filed, where the money is actually at. They may be able to get it into the system faster, they still need to expand the telephone system. So if you need help and you need help contacting the IRS, as an enrolled agent I can represent you. All you have to do is call 615-367-0819. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains that the higher estate and gift tax exclusion continues and rises with inflation. She shares why this helps families plan wealth transfers and when you may need help with an estate tax return. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Because of the OBBA permanent extension, the higher estate and gift tax exclusion continues to rise annually with inflation. In 2025, the exemption reaches its highest level ever, providing substantial protection for family wealth and transfers that money onto the beneficiaries. It helps us plan, finalize the valuations due to certain favorable tax environments, and makes it easier for surviving spouses and children and married couples. Anybody that has an estate is gonna benefit from these higher rates, and it also keeps the government out of our pocket, which is what we’ve done after working so hard to build up these assets. You need help with an estate tax return? Just call our office. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains why the premium tax credit through the Marketplace can be confusing and how it is based on your taxable income. She warns that income changes during the year can create a large repayment if you do not update the Marketplace. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. And personally, this is one of the most confusing tax things we have. It’s the premium tax credit. It has to do with the Marketplace, and how much money you’re paying for your insurance and how much money you’re actually earning. Remember the Marketplace bases this all on your taxable income, and the problem is sometimes people don’t know how much money they’re making. They sell something, they get a second job, they increase their income, and don’t tell the Marketplace. And guess what? I had a couple last year that had to pay $21,000 back, another one that paid $16,000, and another one that had to pay. That’s a lot of money. Make sure you’re keeping up with these taxes with the Marketplace. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains how employer-provided commuting benefits like transit passes and workplace parking can be tax-free. She notes that inflation adjustments may raise the monthly limits and that small businesses can use these perks to help employees. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Qualified transportation fringe benefits, including mass transit passes and workplace parking allowances, continue to offer tax-free benefits to employees when offered by an employer. For 2025, inflation adjustments may increase monthly limits, providing greater tax savings for commuters. Employers offer these benefits mostly to upgrade the payroll system and help benefit their employees. This is a great way. If you’re a small business owner and people have to pay for parking or they have to pay to come in and they’re willing to use transit, you can give them those passes for nothing, and that actually increases their payroll. If you need help, give us a call, 615-367-0819. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains how the Social Security wage base keeps rising and can increase payroll taxes for many workers. She also notes that Medicare tax stays uncapped, so higher earners should plan for it. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Social Security wage base continues to rise due to the national average wage income inflation, increasing the amount we have to pay. So as employees, we pay 6.2% in Social Security tax. As employers, we pay 6.2% in Social Security tax. Higher wage earners will eventually threshold out. It’s around $200,000 this year. And then after that, you’ll still continue to pay your Medicare, but it will continue to go up. The remaining Medicare tax will stay uncapped, which means you will always be paying your Medicare tax. Again, something you should be working and planning on. If you’re in the higher income, you may be able to maximize some other taxes. If you need help, give me a call. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains that long-term capital gains rates still generally fall into the 0%, 15%, and 20% brackets. She also reminds higher earners to factor in the 3.8% net investment income tax when planning a sale. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Long-term capital gains structure remains intact due to the one big beautiful bill, and those three rates are 0%, 15%, and 20%. But I do want to throw in there, there is a 3.8% net investment income tax that came with Obama, and that is still also in play, which means that those rates of 0%, 15%, and 20% most of the time go 0%, 15%, 18.8%, and 23.8%. We really do not have a 20% capital gains. If you’re selling, you need to understand taxes because if you don’t, you’re gonna pay more money or be surprised when tax day comes. You need help? Check us out, drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday closes out January by reminding listeners that tax season is underway. She shares a simple system for gathering W-2s and 1099-Rs and using SmartVault to speed up preparation. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. And the last one for the month of January, which means we are fully into tax season. If you haven’t, you should be receiving your final W-2s and your 1099-Rs. You should have an envelope on your kitchen table, or someplace where you’ve written all the forms you need. So if you prepare your own taxes, or you’re coming to us or some other tax person, you’ve got everything organized. And if you’re coming to us, remember we have the SmartVault. So you should be uploading those documents so that we can get your taxes done as fast as possible. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you need to call our office: 615-367-0819. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains why knowing your earned income and investment numbers matters for tax planning. She shares how tracking those numbers can help maximize credits and avoid unpleasant surprises later. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Maximizing your earned income tax credit. Thresholds help taxpayers maximize the value they get under the tax law. Understanding your tax numbers: so often people are like, I don’t know how much my earned income is. I don’t know how much I’ve made in investments. You need to at least keep those numbers somewhat in your head. I get it, none of us know exactly, especially as self-employed people. Sometimes that’s a moving target, right? But you do need to know if you’re going to do any kind of tax planning, not just throw numbers on a tax return and hope you don’t owe money, but actually plan. Because sometimes paying taxes today will be lower than paying them later, with penalties. If you need help, go to drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains how marriage and divorce affect your taxes, especially filing status. She clarifies that a divorce at any point in the year counts for the entire year, which can create surprises. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. You know, when life happens, sometimes people get married, sometimes people get divorced, sometimes you have children, sometimes the children grow up and move out. All these things are life-affecting and mostly tax-affecting events. So if you are divorcing, I have to reiterate what people I thought knew but I have found out don’t: it doesn’t go into effect the day you divorce, it goes into effect the year you divorce. So if you divorce any day today or December 31st, you are considered divorced the entire year. It’s not a half-year thing, it’s not a quarter-year thing. So that means if you’ve been claiming married, you may end up with a huge tax problem. If you need help, call me. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains that the earned income tax credit amount hasn’t changed much, but the IRS audits these claims frequently. She stresses the importance of documenting where a qualifying child actually lives. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. The earned income tax credit amount for 2025 hasn’t really changed. It has remained the same. One thing you do need to know: the IRS has specifically put out that it remains the most frequently audited part of a tax return. One of the reasons that’s happening is because a lot of times people are not keeping record of the residency of where that child is living. If that child is not living with you for more than six months and one day a year, and you’re not the primary custodian, and you’re claiming your girlfriend’s child or something else, you may be breaking the law. drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains why she is a strong advocate for health savings accounts (HSAs), even though she doesn’t sell insurance. She describes how HSAs can grow and help cover medical costs in retirement. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. I do not sell insurance. I’m putting that at the beginning of this because I am a huge advocate for health savings accounts. HSA contributions increase with inflation, and if you happen to be blessed where you don’t need to use it, you don’t have to. You don’t lose it. It just grows and grows. It’s another way of increasing your retirement. And you’ll need it, let’s be honest. Statistically, you’re going to have to have 200,000 to 400,000 in retirement just for medical expenses. Imagine if you had that sitting in your HSA, so you could take your other retirement and live off it or pass it down, whatever works for you. If you need help, check out the video. Check us on the web, drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday encourages taxpayers to think beyond filing their 2025 return and start planning for 2026. She highlights common events like conversions, real estate sales, and IRA moves that can change your tax bill. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Preparing taxes is what I do. I’m Dr. Friday, an enrolled agent, licensed by the Internal Revenue Service to do taxes and representation. When you’re doing your taxes, right now it’s tax time, guys, and all you’re thinking about is preparing your 2025 taxes. And you’re not thinking about what do I need to be looking towards in 2026? When you’re working on your ’25s, put a thought in your mind about what might be happening. Do you want to do a conversion? Are you selling real estate? Are you taking money out of an IRA? Are you doing a bad thing, a backdoor IRA? All these things affect your taxes, and if you know in advance what the tax bill is, you can plan for it. If you need help, go to the web drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains that retirement plan contribution limits keep increasing with inflation and highlights catch-up contribution rules. She encourages taxpayers to take advantage of these options as they approach retirement. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Retirement plan contribution limitations for 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457 plans continue to rise with inflation. The SECURE Act 2.0 enhancements remain in effect, expanding those catch-up contributions for all of us that are over the age of 55, and in some cases, some of the catch-ups that qualify for over 50. Then you can actually start putting more money aside. They understand a lot of times when you’re raising your family and doing things, you don’t have the ability to maximize retirement. But sooner or later we will have to retire. So putting your money into a retirement plan is a good idea. If you need help with taxes, go to drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains how inflation and income changes can affect tax brackets and credit eligibility. She warns that raises can sometimes push taxpayers out of credits like EITC or the child tax credit without planning. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Taxpayers should evaluate how inflation changes thresholds, especially for credits like the child tax credit and earned income tax credit. High inflation years can meaningfully increase brackets, and reduce effective tax rates. What I’m basically saying is everyone’s making more money. But when you’re making more money and they’re not adjusting those thresholds, you could be getting yourself outside of earned income credit because you made too much money. You may not qualify for the child tax credit because you’ve made too much money, even though all those raises help you feed your family and do good things. It doesn’t always help you when it comes to taxes. You need to plan. If you need help, drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains why permanent tax provisions make long-term planning easier than laws that constantly expire. She also clarifies how enrolled agents help taxpayers plan, prepare, and handle IRS issues. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. One of the things we all like about the one big beautiful bill is, plain and simple, it gives us the tools to do long-term planning. Under the last couple passes of tax law, there’s been four years, five years, and then they expire. A lot of expiring, and that leads to a difficult time for us as tax people and also just as taxpayers to sit down and say, hey, in the next five years I’m going to do this, this, and this. If you don’t have that kind of window, it’s difficult to do good planning. And remember, tax preparers are preparers. Enrolled agents help you plan as well as prepare your taxes, and also represent you if you need help. drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains that the cash charitable deduction limit is now permanent at 60% of income. She also discusses how the higher standard deduction makes itemizing harder and why bunching may still help some taxpayers. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Cash contributions were 50%, went up to 60%, and now that is permanent under the one big beautiful bill. The years of having 100% of our charitable deductions deductible probably isn’t going to be on the table for a long time, especially with the standard deduction going up every year. It’s harder and harder for individuals to actually itemize under the current tax law unless you have a very healthy mortgage, or unless you do bunching. Bunching is basically taking your sales tax, adding it up, buying bigger things in the year, and you also pay your property taxes. Remember here, we don’t have a state income tax. If you need help, just go to drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains that the alternative minimum tax (AMT) thresholds remain in place. She discusses why AMT can surprise taxpayers, especially when large capital gains are involved. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. AMT thresholds remain the same under the new current one big beautiful bill. Alternative minimum tax. Many of you guys aren’t sure what I’m talking about, but this is a tax code within the tax code. If you were to talk to someone at the IRS, they would say this is a way they try to level the playing field so that the rich can’t get richer and the poor stay the same as they are. So I don’t know if I agree with that, but either way, middle income people are going to get hit, ever since 2017. Higher incomes have ways of avoiding it. So make sure if you’re selling and you’ve got a lot of capital gains, you need to talk to someone: 615-367-0819. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday reminds taxpayers that today is an important deadline for the final estimated tax payment. She explains that missing it can trigger penalties and encourages making the payment to stay ahead. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. Today is tax day. Not the day we’re going to file our final tax returns, but it is the day you’re going to make your final estimated tax payment. And if you haven’t made any, remember we made the first three estimated payments in 2025, and then the last one is due today. And if you don’t make that payment, there are penalties. I don’t care what people say, it’s not elective. If you don’t want to pay penalties, you want to understand where your money’s going and give the IRS less money, make your estimate today. Or check us out on the web at drfriday.com. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday introduces herself as an enrolled agent who focuses on tax preparation and IRS representation. She explains the types of situations where professional help can make a difference, from filing to planning. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. I am Dr. Friday, an enrolled agent licensed by the Internal Revenue Service to do taxes and representation. That’s all I do. 31 years of doing it here in the Nashville, Brentwood area. If you don’t know how to get out of that with the IRS, if you need help, or just basically need some tax help, completing your 2025 taxes or planning for your 2026, I am your person. Maybe you’ve inherited money. Maybe you have a situation where you need to sell your primary home. All you have to do is go to the web drfriday.com. Or maybe you want to talk face to face or on the phone, 615-367-0819. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.

Dr. Friday explains that the estate and gift tax exemption stays at a higher level, giving families more certainty. She notes how that stability can help with long-term gifting and charitable planning. Transcript G’day, I’m Dr. Friday, president of Dr. Friday’s Tax and Financial Firm. To get more info, go to www.drfriday.com. This is a one-minute moment. The estate and gift tax exemption is permanently extended, so there isn’t a drop in 2026. That’s right. In 2025, this means estate planning and large gifts can continue operating under the favorable higher exemption threshold. Wealthy families have long-term certainty on how they can structure their gifts and their wealth, and making sure that they’re able to give. Because a lot of people, you know, they give a lot of money to charities and they gift a lot to other individuals. This isn’t just making the rich richer. This is a way to help the world be a better place by helping us manage the money in a better way. 615-367-0819. You can catch the Dr. Friday Call-in Show live every Saturday afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m. right here on 99.7 WTN.