Heinemann & Associates, PLLC

01/20/2019

Your estate plan should include appointing a digital fiduciary for your digital assets. These include websites,blogs,email accounts,social media accounts,digital currencies such as bitcoin,and photos and documents stored in the cloud. Has your state passed a Digital Assets Act?

01/07/2019

USPS Postage rates will rise 10% on a first class letter on January 27,2019. For customers who print postage online (via Stamps.com) the metered mail rate will then include a 5 cents discount from post office prices. Consider purchasing forever stamps before January 27.

11/01/2018

Veterans Day is approaching. Some are seeking to start small businesses. For a list of the Top 150 Franchises offering purchase discounts to Veterans, check the November issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

08/12/2018

Facebook security can be fortified by checking your security settings in the following areas: 1.Check your privacy settings under "account" at the top right of any page.2. Place your friends on lists with different settings.3.Who can find you? Browse facebook securely. Check to see if https://appears 5.Who is logging in as you? 6.Which apps know you? 7. Your friends apps know you too. To disallow,edit your settings. 8.Edit who can post on your wall.

06/18/2018

Qualified education expenses that may be paid under qualified tuition programs,e.g.,529 plans have been limited to post secondary education. The 2017 Tax Reform Act expands that to include elementary and secondary school expenses of up to $10,000 per year for qualified expenses.

02/24/2018

Payment Card Industry standards apply if your business accepts or uses credit cards. If your customers provide their payment card information via email, you may be at risk. Learn about your responsibilities at

PCI Compliance Guide, powered by ControlScan, is the leading blog site focused exclusively on PCI DSS compliance.

02/07/2018

If watching consumer trends is pertinent to your business decision making,http://trend-watching.com can be useful. There are both free and paid versions. https://google.com/trends/ gives you trending stories with a chart matrix so that you can alien your posts for better visibility on the web.

Our trends, insights and tools enable 250,000+ future-focused professionals in 180+ countries to build brands that matter, and products that delight.

01/14/2018

Time for New Year's resolutions! Do these include shopping smart, investing wisely,managing money or credit better, or living large on a small budget? www.wisebread.com
can assist you in frugal living, best deals, top personal finance blogs, career and more. Give it a look !

All-inclusive resorts offer an affordable and convenient way to travel, but did you know you could book these properties for free?full story

01/08/2018

Lending money to a relative? Avoid a tax trap-imputed interest! If you are not charging interest to the relative, the IRS treats it like you have received taxable interest from the relative even though you haven't. Thus a possible unexpected tax bill. There are two exceptions to the imputed interest rule. If the loan is for less than $10,000, you have no tax worries unless the money was used to buy income producing property. If the money is a gift, you don't have to deal with interest. Each spouse can gift up to $15,000 in 2018 without any tax consequences.

12/26/2017

Year end tax planning should take into consideration the recent tax bill. Consider prepaying 2018 state and local taxes as well as real estate taxes under the new rules. With the stock market runup, gifting appreciated publicly held securities to charity will allow a deduction for the fair market value rather than cost. Noncash donations of property including clothing and household items to Goodwill and other charities will result in a deduction. Make an IRA distribution to charity to satisfy the RMD and avoid taxation for those 70.5 years of age.

12/17/2017

It will cost you $34,558.65 to give the 12 Days of Christmas, an increase of 0.6% from last year. That is driven by cost increase for the pear tree, the increased demand and popularity for GoldenRings, and wage increase for the Lords-a-Leaping. The PNC Christmas Price Index website includes a coloring book for children this year.

11/19/2017

Mutual funds usually pay capital gain distributions in November or December. If you buy into a fund before the distribution date, you can be taxed on the gains distirbuted even though they have already been reflected in your purchase price. Consider waiting until January to buy into a fund.