Mason Financial Services, CPA

05/03/2026

My opponent is clueless. He doesn't know that we're audited every year. Both by the state and an independent CPA firm. And we win awards for it. I don't think he is lying. I think he truly doesn't understand the job. He's a house flipper.

https://main.sbcounty.gov/2025/05/08/auditor-controller-treasurer-tax-collector-honored-with-triple-awards-for-excellence-in-financial-reporting/

Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Firm in Redlands, California.

09/03/2024

New requirement if you have an LLC or S corp. The fine is $591 a day. They’re due by the end of the year.

FinCEN has prepared the following Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in response to inquiries received relating to the Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Rule and Beneficial Ownership Information Access and Safeguards Rule.

08/29/2024

Facebook is abuzz with the proposal to tax unrealized gains. It’s pretty much all false.

1. The proposal applies to those worth more than $100 million. If that applies to you, I have a business opportunity to discuss with you.
2. Most people don’t pay tax on their house even when they sell it. Section 121 allows up to a profit of 500k tax free.
3. It’s an election year. Everything presented this year is to attract attention and get votes. Or to make the other side look bad. They’re playing us for fools.
4. It’s blatantly unconstitutional. The 16th amendment only allows income to be taxed. Changes in the value of assets is not income. There are a number of cases supporting this.

09/13/2022

Funny

01/04/2019

Four billion dollars of our money was paid out inappropriately and the IRS can't recover a billion of it.

The IRS overpaid nearly $4 billion to Obamacare customers through tax credits last year, and because of the way the law is written it can’t even try to collect on a quarter of that, the Treasury Department’s inspector general reported this week.

11/29/2017

Look accurate and reasonably comprehensive. Give it a shot. http://taxplancalculator.com/

09/27/2017

How does Trump’s tax plan affect you?

There are a lot of different types of tax payers that will be impacted in different ways, but I’m going to focus on how it affects most individual taxpayers. I’m also going to avoid any political or budgetary perspectives.

The changes that impact individual tax payers are:
• Increasing the standard deduction to 12,000 for singles and 24,000 for marrieds, up from 6,350 and 12,700, roughly a doubling.
• There will be 3 tax brackets – 12, 25 and 35% down from the present 7 tax brackets ranging from 10%-39.6%. It may appear that lower income people will be paying a higher rate, but that’s not the case because of the increasing standard deduction. People paying 10% today may pay nothing under this plan.
• Increasing the child tax credit to a yet unspecified amount from 1,000 presently.
• Add a $500 tax credit for dependents other than children.
• Eliminate all itemized deductions except for mortgage interest and charitable contributions.

The question for most people is what does that mean for me, bottom line? To answer that, I’m going to make up three basic sample taxpayers and evaluate the impact. We’ll call them the Retireds, the Youngs and Mr. Single. Since there are details not yet know, I’ve had to make some assumptions. I’m not able to do higher income individuals because there are too many unknowns – most importantly what income levels are subject to what rates. I have also rounded results.

The Retireds are a retired couple receiving $30,000 in social security and $33,000 in pensions. They don’t have enough deductions to itemize. Their federal tax bill is presently $2,000 in federal tax. Due mainly to the higher standard deduction, their tax bill would drop to around $1,000, a reduction of 50%.

The Youngs are a young married couple. One spouse works and earns $50,000 a year. They own a house and itemize their deductions. They presently pay $3,000 a year in federal tax. Under the new plan, they would pay about $2,200, a decrease of 27%.

Mr. Single is of course single, with no children. He earns $20,000 a year. His federal tax bill is around $1,000. Under the new plan, it would be $400, a reduction of 60%.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me through my website at ensenmasoncpa.com.

09/08/2017

Many are concerned about the data breach at Equifax. Questions I'm getting is 1) Does it affect me? 2) What should I do? The answer to the first is probably yes. Pretty much anybody with a credit history is affected. Don't use any of these services that state they'll tell you you're affected. You are. Don't risk further damage by sharing more personal information. What should you do? Check your credit periodically. No less than once a year. Preferably quarterly. You don't need to pay for anything. Lifelock and others make a mint selling you what is available for free. Once a year, you can get a copy of all three reports from annualcreditreport.com. Beyond that, there is creditkarma.com and others including many credit card companies that will give you unlimited access to one credit report.

08/30/2017

Everybody feels a little more charitable when there are people in obvious need. Before you donate to a charity, do a background check on them. This website provides lots of information and is easy to use. Before you give to a charity, look them up on www.charitynavigator.org. Even among the big well known charities, there are big differences. And of course, there are scams and fake news making good charities out to be bad.

Charity Navigator, America's largest independent charity evaluator, provides free ratings of the Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency of thousands of charities. We are the individual donor's first source for unbiased news and information on philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, wise g...

04/24/2017

I have discovered an issue with Obamacare where an extra $1 of income can cost $9,064 in tax because of the way the premium credits work. That extra dollar makes one ineligible for that credit. That works out to a tax rate of 906,400%.