What to Expect as a Small Business from the IRS in 2012

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AIA’s Chief Financial Officer, Mark Francis, provides his insights into important IRS rule changes that could potentially have both positive and negative impacts to your bail bond business.

In 2012, Many Tax Benefits Increase Due to Inflation Adjustments
by Mark Francis, CFO – AIA
For tax year 2012, personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise and tax brackets will widen due to inflation, the Internal Revenue Service announced today.
By law, the dollar amounts for a variety of tax provisions, affecting virtually every taxpayer, must be revised each year to keep pace with inflation. New dollar amounts affecting 2012 returns, filed by most taxpayers in early 2013, include the following:
The value of each personal and dependent exemption, available to most taxpayers, is $3,800, up $100 from 2011. The new standard deduction is $11,900 for married couples filing a joint return, up $300, $5,950 for singles and married individuals filing separately, up $150, and $8,700 for heads of household, up $200. Nearly two out of three taxpayers take the standard deduction, rather than itemizing deductions, such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
Tax-bracket thresholds increase for each filing status. For a married couple filing a joint return, for example, the taxable-income threshold separating the 15-percent bracket from the 25-percent bracket is $70,700, up from $69,000 in 2011.
Credits, Deductions, and Related Phase Outs
For tax year 2012, the maximum earned income tax credit (EITC) for low- and moderate- income workers and working families rises to $5,891, up from $5,751 in 2011. The maximum income limit for the EITC rises to $50,270, up from $49,078 in 2011.The credit varies by family size, filing status and other factors, with the maximum credit going to joint filers with three or more qualifying children.
The foreign earned income deduction rises to $95,100, an increase of $2,200 from the maximum deduction for tax year 2011.
The modified adjusted gross income threshold at which the lifetime learning credit begins to phase out is $104,000 for joint filers, up from $102,000, and $52,000 for singles and heads of household, up from $51,000.
The $2,500 maximum deduction for interest paid on student loans begins to phase out for married taxpayers filing a joint return at $125,000 and phases out completely at $155,000, an increase of $5,000 from the phase out limits for tax year 2011. For single taxpayers, the phase out ranges remain at the 2011 levels.
Estate and Gift
For an estate of any decedent dying during calendar year 2012, the basic exclusion from estate tax amount is $5,120,000, up from $5,000,000 for calendar year 2011.
The annual exclusion for gifts remains at $13,000.

AIA Congratulates PBT on a Successful Annual Conference

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Last week, the AIA team attended the Annual Conference of the Professional Bondsmen of Texas. This year’s conference took place at the beautiful La Cantera Resort in San Antonio. In addition to great conference presentations and informative curriculum, there were the traditional events including a golf tournament, a welcome reception and a casino-themed event, capped off by the ever famous PBT auction. As always, these events were first class in every way. We take our hats off to PBT for a job well done. Here are some highlights from day one sessions:

The Keynote speaker was William “Pete” Rearden. He gave a presentation called, “Oops…Your Attitude is Showing.” He is a motivational speaker/comedian that talked about how our attitudes affect our performance, lives and work. He focused on the power of positive thinking. He also talked about the difference between leadership and management, and the importance of communication.

PBT presented a brief presentation on health insurance programs that are available for small businesses.

Roger Moore did a session on the difference between employees and independent contractors. He helped the audience determine if those working in their offices should be classified as employees or independent contractors by going through a list of determining factors that need to be considered.

Mark Holtschneider from Lexington National did a presentation on Immigration Bonds. He focused on the risks involved in writing these types of bonds, the requirements and rules, and also the underwriting expectations. He also reviewed the necessary forms that are involved in writing immigration bonds.

Town Hall Meeting- Scott Walstead provided updates to the attendees on legislative matters and specific hot topics in the bail industry. After the meeting, members were asked to mark the items that were most important to them so that the PBT could determine where their focus should be in the upcoming year. The upcoming Be An Angel event was also discussed

• Davie Westmoreland of Texas Quick Bail – PBT Bondsman of the Year

• Glenn Strickland of A1 Bonding – PBT Award of Excellence

• Doc Dillard of Doc’s Bail Bonds – PBT President’s Award

• Ken Good – PBT President’s Award

Outgoing PBT President, John McCluskey, also received a special award from incoming President, Scott Walstead, recognizing John’s contributions and leadership over the past four years. The entire AIA Family of Companies would like to extend our warmest congratulations to everyone who was honored. We are especially proud of our own AIA agents that continue to play a valuable leadership role in PBT. PBT is a great organization and it is made greater by all of the individuals that participate and contribute their time, money, and passion for the benefit of the bail profession.

We would also like to congratulate those individuals who have stepped up and taken on responsibilities for the PBT as its new officers. This includes the following individuals:

• President- Scott Walstead

• Vice President- Davie Westmoreland

• Secretary- Judy Grandmaison-Warren

• Treasurer- Melinda Webb

• Parliamentarian- Eddie Dees

Directors: Marge Walstead, John McCluskey, Glenn Strickland, Bo Jones, Ken Good, Ronnie Long, Alicia Davis

We look forward to another year of great things coming out of the PBT and to working closely with this new leadership team of real bail professionals. Congratulations to everyone.

Pretrial Release

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What impact has Pretrial Release had in your county? Have your precious tax dollars been used to make our communities safer or are they putting you and your family more at risk? It’s time you heard the facts…or shall we say, the myths about Pretrial Release. If you are a bail agent you may want to share this information with your local opinion leaders.

 

To receive your FREE copy of the “Taxpayer Funded Pretrial Release – A Failed System” booklet, visit www.depositbailtruth.com.

 

Related Posts

Excellent free resources available on Hawaii’s sunshine and public records laws

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If you’re interested in Hawaii’s public records law and sunshine law, the Office of Information Practices currently has links to a number of very useful publications that are being used in their workshops for public officials and attorneys.

If you are at all concerned about public access and open government, you need to check these out.

These materials can be accessed from the “What’s New” page on the OIP website.

There’s a new publication, Agenda Guidance for Sunshine Law Boards, which lays out how agendas are supposed to be developed and posted.

There are is a guide to the Uniform Information Practices Act, our public records law, as well as a sunshine guide for state and county boards, both very useful.

A UIPA Powerpoint presentation used in one workshop is also available, along with a few additional goodies, including an outline for their presentation, “Ethical Considerations for Counsel When Advising Sunshine Law Boards.”

via ilind.net

FREE BAIL BONDS: Good for Monopoly, but Not Good in Real Life

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The first thing most people think about when they hear the phrase “Get out of jail free” is the game of Monopoly. But unfortunately, that fond childhood memory and association is being replaced by the inadequacies of government sponsored pretrial release programs. I recently read a great article (click here to read the article) by Dr. David Muhlhausen of the Heritage Foundation, discussing how Pretrial Service Agencies are able to tap into the $357 million provided through the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program.

These grants are also tapped into by local police departments. As you would expect, these local police departments are required to provide documentation around annual performance measures describing how their programs are doing. Just as any business would operate, you invest money in a product or a division, you track performance and then make a determination of how to improve the product or process or discontinue it. So far so good, right? Well, here comes the kicker. Unlike the accountability and tracking required by local police departments, Pretrial Service Agencies have no requirement for reporting performance results. Yep, that is what I said, go ahead and read that last sentence a second and a third time. PRETRIAL SERVICE AGENCIES ARE NOT REQUIRED TO REPORT PERFORMANCE RESULTS. Almost makes you want to go out and start a pretrial service office doesn’t it?

In a time of economic depression (oh I’m sorry, I mean recession) across the country and what seems to be a never ending cycle of joblessness, how can our tax dollars be distributed so carelessly with no accountability? How can our elected officials continue to support an entity that doesn’t report results because those results would be so poor that they would look even more foolish than they already do? How can our state and local governments continue to support a government entity that substantially underperforms compared to a more efficient, effective and proven private sector approach (commercial bail)? These are questions that continue to baffle me and everyone I know both in and outside the bail bond profession.

While we continue to be amazed by the ineptitude of the thinking (or lack of it all together) that goes into these programs, there is a ray of hope on the horizon. Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) has sponsored a bill that would require Pretrial Service Agencies that receive any federal taxpayer funding to report their results. These are outlined specifically in the Muhlhausen article. I hope you join us in supporting this new Act (HR 1885) and encourage your own state representatives to do the same.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

via Behind the Paper with Brian Nairin: FREE BAIL BONDS: Good for Monopoly, but Not Good in Real Life.