(Guest Lecture): January 2023 - Financial Preparing for Your 2022 Tax Filing

Diana is the financial program manager and she specializes in financial help for people with multiple myeloma and AML. As a professional financial advisor and former caregiver of her husband who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, she understands perfectly the financial issues that are facing cancer patients. And not only does she understand them, but she is willing to dedicate her education, her time, and her skills in order to make sure we are receiving the best education possible when it comes to these financial issues. Today we're going to be talking about preparing your 2022 tax filing. So goodbye to 2022, whether it was a good year or a poor year or into a new year. And now we got to think about filing our taxes for 2022. This is going to get complicated due to medical bills and other myeloma expenses. So today, Diana is going to share general advice with us, while also giving us suggestions to talk to our professional tax accountant about. So with that being said, Diana, I'm excited to hear from you, and we'll get started. Thanks, Audrey. It feels like I've been away for so long sitting in this seat. But thank you for everybody who decided they were going to participate in this. I hope that everyone can get a nugget of information that's going to help you on your taxes and possibly bring some more money to your pocket. So, again, I want to reiterate that this is general information. I am not a tax professional. I'm not an accountant. I would suggest if there's any specific things you need to have addressed, reach out to them. They are very willing. I also want to be if I didn't put us in slides, I will also want to make sure that people who have low incomes or disabled, they can get free filings on your taxes. So be aware of that. There's a lot of opportunities that are out there for people, but I want you to make sure you take advantage of all of them. So these are the things we're going to cover in this webinar. So we're going to get everything together and get organized. Getting your documents together now, the first one or two weeks is going to help you file those things in a timely manner and as seamless as possible. There are still hard to believe there are still people who are still waiting to get their refunds back from 2021. Everything has been bogged down. Evidently, there's going to be an $80 million refit or retro in the IRS department. We'll see how that goes. They've been saying that for years. Their system is very antiquated, but the more that you do to protect, to pull everything together, protect your paperwork, protect everything that you have going with your tax filing and getting those things organized and expediently, the better off you're going to be. So we're going to review the current 2022 important facts. Things have changed. Now it's going to be changing for next year. So I want you to prepare not only for taking care of 2022 taxes, but prepare going forward for 2023 things you can do now to put into a place so that you can be better prepared for next year. And we're also going to understand what needs to be gathered and are changed for next year's preparation. I'm only going to review some of the pertinent information to you guys. Things like Audrey mentioned, tax credits, changes for the cost for or what benefits you can get for your patient assistance programs. We're going to go through all those things. So let's get all this together. Again, talk to your tax professional for personal questions or concerns, because I can't cover all those things. Next slide. Next slide. So the documents you're going to need are your 1099s and there are quite a few 1099s. Your last year tax returns, your W-2s, proof of medical related expenses, paid out of pocket insurance documentation, especially for affordable care or Obama plans, health insurance marketplace statement form or your 1095A. Audrey, do we have the notes on here? You won't be able to see. You want me to read them? You won't be able to see them. Oh gosh, I won't be able to see them. Remember? Well, yeah, I need to be able to see those. I'm going to go over the different 1099s, because I think it's very important. A lot of people forget or don't understand what those 1099s are and it's going to relate to probably some of them for everybody in this audience. Yes. So there's 1099 or NEC, 1099DIV or DIV, dividends and distributions, 1099INT, interest income, 1099MIS, like miscellaneous income, 1099R, which is distributions from pensions, annuities, retirement or profit sharing plans, insurance contracts, etc. 1099C, which is cancellation of debt, 1099B, which is proceeds from broker and barter exchange transactions, 1099A, acquisition or abandonment of secured property, 1099H, health coverage tax credit, HCTC, advanced payments, 1099G, which is certain government payments like unemployment compensation, state and local income tax refunds, agricultural payments and taxable grants, 1099LYC, long-term care and accelerated death benefits, 1099OID, original issue discount, 1099Q, payments from qualified educational programs under sections 529 and 530, 1099SA, which is distributions from an HSA, ARCH or MSA or medical advantage MSA. I'm going to copy that and put that in the chat so that people can see that if they need to. Right, so a lot of those things are very pertinent, like the last one, the ARCH or the MSA programs. If you've got unemployment for this past year, there's a lot of things in there I think you really need to pay attention. If you took advantage of any of those programs or had unemployment, make sure you get those 1099s because if they're not filed correctly and because when you got that income it was filed on your behalf or they sent something there so they're waiting for those documents to match up. Make sure you do that or you may be audited. Don't want you to get a surprise in the mail. Yeah, thank you. Diana, can you move your microphone? Do you have your microphone plugged in? Could you move it a little bit closer to you? Some people are having a hard time hearing you. Is this better? Get it a little closer. Oh, I'll be off the table at that point. Oh. How's this? Is this any better? I think it's a little bit better. If the audience can let me know if that's good, that would be really helpful. And we do have captions available if people want to turn those on. I'm going to switch to a different outlet. Let's see if it works. Okay. How is this? I mean without it. Is that okay? Yeah, I almost hear you better. Okay, well let's do it without. And if I need to change, let me know. Yeah, let us know to the audience. Okay. Next slide. Other documents you're going to need is your social security numbers for you, your spouse, independent children, or other dependents. The other dependents would be if you filed on behalf or claimed a mother or grandparent or anybody that you're taking care of. You need to have their social security numbers as well. Forms of any taxable unemployment income such as your unemployment for being off or disability income, the way you had to pay taxes and you're maybe not at your job anymore. Things like that you need to really pull those papers together. And all receipts for deductible itemization items if you're going to itemize. But I'm going to say this again later on in the webinar. You cannot use any kind of income that you receive for copays, deductibles, you know deductibles for your insurance. If you received reimbursement from for that through your nonprofits like your leukemia and lymphoma society, health well. Because it's just doesn't work that way anything above and beyond what you paid out of pocket that you were not refunded or given money back for, then you can claim that if it's above 7.5%. I would suggest you go to all of right now. I would go to your CVS pharmacies, all of the pharmacies you use for any of your medications, not just myeloma. Anything for out of pocket for your copays, deductibles, premiums as well health insurance premiums that were not refunded to you through like LLS. All of these things you pay for and think about those things that maybe you had to go a trip out of town to see your specialist. All of those things you can itemize. Any as much as you can itemize above that and get above that 7.5% that you are that can't write off, you got to go above 7.5% get all those documents because you're going to need those receipts in the event you get audited later on. Next slide. So understanding your AGI or adjusted gross income. This is very important if you're going to be putting in applications through your nonprofits like looking at the Phelma Society health well because they're going to ask you for this AGI. Keep in mind your AGI from last year may be different from the AGI you're anticipating this year. Let them know that because that can make a difference in whether you're going to be accepted in that grant. So when you're applying for some grants you may be asked about your adjusted gross income you'll find that on your tax statements that's why I suggest you look for your last year's tax returns. It will affect your taxes, AGI is your income from all sources minus any adjustments. Generally, the higher your adjusted gross income, the more taxes you'll pay. Good tax planning can include making changes during the year that can lower your AGI, changing your number of deductions or people you claim. There are several ways you can lower your AGI including contributing to a retirement account like an IRA or 401k and I want to mention right now. What you can contribute has gone up for 2022, 2023. So, especially if you're over age 50 you can still do that additional $1,000 we're going to go over some of those changes at the end of the webinar, but that's a way to reduce your tax liability. And surprisingly, sometimes when you make increase your contributions to your 401k you may find more money in your paycheck. So there's something for you to look at because you're paying less taxes. Also, if you're contributing to a health savings account that also makes a difference in your taxes. Next slide. So again, life events also affect your taxes. Purchasing a home, how does that make a difference? You purchase a home, no matter what time of the year you had you had to pay upfront interest. If you look at that you can write the interest off, you can itemize that interest. That's almost the only thing you can do anymore for on a home. Losing a job, if you end up paying or got received your loss of income or you received unemployment benefits, that's going to affect your taxes. So a loss of income can actually reduce what your tax liability is, of course, because you don't have that income coming in. Going to college, you can reduce and use some of the tax advantage programs for college. For people who are going to college that you claim as dependents. Getting married or divorced. You know getting married, you add, you now from single filing a single person you're now filing as a married, that increases your deduction, your normal deduction, or if you're divorced that can change as well. The birth of a child, you have another dependent which actually increases your or reduces your tax liability. The death of a spouse, child or dependent can also affect your adjusted gross income. So I would suggest you look at everything, if you change how you're paying for your medical insurance, if you change how you're paying for long term care because you can also write off some qualified long term care premiums as well. Take everything into account, it's going to be better for you on your taxes. Next slide. So additional things understanding your adjusted gross income tax credits for earned income tax credit we're going to break that down as to what that means. Child and dependent care credits, child tax credits, credits for other dependents like your grandmother or things people like that, education credits, we kind of went through that. So properly claiming these tax credits can reduce taxes owed and boost your refunds. If you don't want refunds. And here's, here's a lot of things people that really look forward to that check every year because I know I'm going to get refunds. It's a good way to save or anticipate a saving if you've done everything correctly. However, if that's money you need to pay for medications. Why are you letting the government hold your money, you might want to look to see if there's ways so you can go in and pay the taxes that you're due, and not have your government holding your money that you have to wait a whole year to get. So, take all that into consideration, your tax accountant can help you figure those numbers out. So always keep records that show your eligibility for credits to claim. This would also include agency letters about advanced credit payments you receive like advanced childcare credits, and those things are going away, and there's going to be people who are going to get bills for increased taxes as a result of some of these things. Your next slide. Charitable deductions. If you donate to charity you may be able to get a tax deduction of credit. So tax deductions can help you lower the amount of income that you actually that you're actually taxed. Some of these are only available if you itemize deductions so be aware of that. You want to itemize. And your deductions are going to be your item is item is itemized deductions are going to be higher than your standard deductions for single or filing married. Other tax deductions may still be available if you take your standard deduction like writing off your mortgage insurance, your mortgage interest. Next slide. So just before I want to talk a little bit more about the charity thing. We all give, we all give or hopefully we all give if we're able to for charity, and hopefully everybody looks at health health free and they're getting a benefit out that and they can donate to health free which I always encourage if you're able to do so. But there's a way to actually give more than what you're getting on like a 10 or $20 as well. People aren't aware there's gifting that you can give to a nonprofit such as maybe art or benefits of life insurance policy or highly appreciated stock which you're never going to use, and you can get those tax benefits, while you're living. So there's a lot of things that you can do to reduce your tax liability, but you can also give towards your favorite charity. So now, understanding some of the tax extensions tax credits that we mentioned earlier are actually dollar amounts that are subtracted from your tax bill. There are two types of tax credits refundable, and that's when the tax credit is greater than the amount of tax you owe, you get the difference in a refund. We understand what that's like you get a, you know you you pay $2,000 in taxes, unfortunately it's a whole lot higher than that. So you get what you're required to pay up maybe only 1500 so you get that $500 in a refund. Non refundable tax credit is when the tax credit is not refundable, even if the credit is higher than what you owe your tax bill will be reduced to zero. However, you will not get a refund. It's not hard to wrap your head around because you're paying taxes and you pay more why can you not get a refund. So it doesn't reduce your tax bill. Next slide. Again charitable deductions, extended from the Tax Fair certainty and disaster relief act of 2020 and through cares act for those who get the charitable organizations. This allows you to deduct up to 100% of your adjusted gross income and qualified term reductions. However, you must itemize your deductions, very few people I think actually can can deduct up to 100,100% of their adjusted gross income. If you take your standard deduction you can get an above the line deduction on top of your standard deduction for date donations made in cash. So if you pay cash every month or whatever to your charitable donation, even if it's taken out of your checking account that's considered cash, then you can deduct that those donations. So for those who make cash deductions to help tree and cash, this is an opportunity for you. Be aware of the maximums though. So you can if you put in $100,000 or $200,000 to be aware of what those cash deductions are going to do to your taxes. Again, so your tax advisor. Next slide. So medical deduction, this is what's going to make the most impact I think on the people who are listening today. So you can again, is, is, I am reiterating some of the things we spoke about earlier. So you can deduct medical expenses, premiums, co-pays, deductibles, all out of pocket medical expenses above 7.5% of your adjusted gross, not your gross income. I've had people look at their gross income and not file. Don't look at your gross income, look at your adjusted gross income on that please. You must itemize your deductions in order to realize these, these types of deductions. So which means For everything you, every receipt you have, you need to itemize those things in categories on your tax return. Contact your pharmacy again for printout of all that you paid towards your prescriptions and get a printout of all the co-pays, deductibles paid for doctor's visits. Your doctor's office can provide those things to you. You may be able to find it on my chart. Save yourself some, some steps and some time. But make sure you include all of those things. If you went out of town to visit, if you had a strange bill that came through that you paid out of pocket, make sure you include all of those things. Get a printout of your insurance premiums that you paid as well. Did you spend money on other items for home modifications for medical needs? Those things can be included. Did you have to get things for like Anything done to your home like you had to do pull bars or, or ramps to your house. All of these things that you paid for out of pocket for medical needs or had your, your car changed for a wheelchair or for operation. All of these things can be tax deductible. So all of this will count. Again, you'll have to itemize your deductions in order to write off these expenses, but it's well worth looking into. Next slide. So any assistance you receive from patient assistance programs again, or from nonprofits do not apply towards your deductibles, which means you cannot write those off your taxes. You got to reduce, reduce the amount to receive through patients assistance programs from your line items and then what's left over is what you can deduct above the 7.5% of your adjusted gross income. Next slide. So for those receive grants from your pharmacy pharmaceutical companies like patient assistance programs through let's say GSK to help pay for prescriptions know that you do not have to file this financial assistance on your taxes. You don't have to claim that. Also, if you receive grants from nonprofit organizations for copays deductibles or any other medical assistance, you don't need to file this on your taxes. However, again, you need to reduce it from your 7.5% if you're going to be itemizing some of these, these deductions. Next slide. So here's an area that most is unfortunate but a lot of people forget about this. Don't forget to see if you qualify for this tax credit that's the earned income tax credit, one out of five taxpayers who qualify either don't claim the benefit or don't file a tax return. This task credit is designed to help out lower or middle income households. In order to qualify single fathers must have adjusted gross income below 16,480, while the cap for married couples with three or more children is 59 187. So if you were on Medicaid. You know this might be something you might want to look at because you probably already qualify for that so please look at it and so you can take advantage of this earned income tax credit. Depending on your filing status the credit can save you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand on your taxes. Well worth the time. Don't forget to see if you qualify. Next slide. So let's discuss some of the post pandemic tax implications for 2022 and I've got a feeling some of those things are going to go over to 2023 as well. So if you lost your job and received unemployment insurance benefits in 2020 the first $10,000 of your benefit was tax free. As in 2020. That's when you filed your 2021 taxes. However, in 2021 and 2022 filing taxes years, if you were unemployed and did not have taxes withheld from your benefits, you will now have to pay taxes of those benefits, make sure that you get a copy of those of those forms 1099 I can't remember those G I think whatever those 1099 forms you make sure you get that when you file your taxes or else you might be audited later on, or you'll get a really big tax tax bill with penalties and interest associated with it, you don't want that to happen. Next slide. So there's some changes to 401k plans I are raising more. So, for 2021, some of these changes can impact your 2022 tax bill, and possibly 2023. The required minimum distribution age those are people those are for people who are now, age 70, 70 and a half you're required to take money by federal law out of your retirement plans, anything that was tax deferred. So, the retirement age went up it's no longer 70 and a half. Now it's 72, so you could defer, taking money out if you don't need it out of your retirement plans 401ks IRAs whether not necessarily IRA. So you don't have to take money if you don't need it which means less money unless you have to file toward your taxes for those who have beneficiary IRAs the rules can be more complicated. If you are a spouse, you could have turned that IRA into your own, own IRA. If you are children of a decedent, or someone who died, then you had to follow different rules with your IRA, especially that person was already taking money from their IRA. So I suggest you've heard your tax professional for help regarding your specific situation, or also talk to your financial advisor because they should know what these rules are. So if you don't have any money, you don't want to pay the taxes, don't take it out. That will give it an opportunity to grow. When the market starts rebounding and a lot of times the markets rebound fairly well. So, I know right now is a tight time for inflation is inflation is eating every dollar up, including your savings. So if you don't have to go in there and get it right now. Don't. Next slide. The American rescue act of 2021 temporarily expanded eligibility for the premium tax credit or PCC is a refundable credit that helps eligible individuals and families cover premiums for the health insurance purchase through the health insurance marketplace. The American rescue act of 2021 temporarily expanded eligibility for the premium tax credit by eliminating the rule that a taxpayer with household income above 400% of the federal property. Federal property level line cannot qualify for a premium tax credit. So again, please consult with your tax professional for the criteria or eligibility. It's really simple to find a lot of this information out. Next slide. The volunteer income tax assistance act offers free tax help for people who generally make $54,000 or less. So that can apply to a lot of people on this call, or persons with disabilities. The elderly and limited English speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. There are IRS certified volunteers provide free basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing to qualify for individuals and I also suggest file electronically File electronically if you can, which means you're going to need a bank account, you're going to need your email account, you're going to need all these things. If you're elderly and don't have those, you need the help filling some of these things out. Call them. They'll help. They'll assist you with getting this done. Because if you file electronically, it's going to go through faster versus doing paper and paper is becoming a lot more Not secure, I should say. So be aware of the security when filing paper returns. You can access assistance at community and net neighborhood centers. Call your local library. They'll have information about this as well. Schools, shopping malls and other convenient locations. That's going to be really taken off here soon. So the sooner you get your paperwork, your everything together, the better is going to be for you. If you anticipate returns of faster than you're going to get your returns back. Next slide. So out of the spent out of pocket expenses and Affordable Care Act, the Affordable Care Act offers premium tax credits to help with a portion or all of your out of pocket expenses, depending on your income. This tax credit helps individuals and families with moderate to low incomes who purchase health insurance to the health insurance marketplace. You must file a tax return to establish your income. So you can do ACA if you're on a low income if you do not file your income tax, you're not going to get this tax credit. You must encourage by using non network or out of network providers as determined by your plan are not eligible to be covered as out of pocket expenses. So be aware of all of this when you're when you're looking at this premium tax credit, it is advantage to those people who have moderate income, moderate income to take advantage of all the all of the credits that you can get. Next slide. There is a cap on out of pocket expenses there's a limit set on the amount of money you spend to maintain your health insurance plan through the marketplace deductible or co pays or maximum out of pocket is what would mean by what you need to spend. After you reach this amount, the insurance company is required to pay 100% of any additional costs for that year. So, for people who don't understand the ACA and I have to repeat this because I'm surprised a lot of people don't know. You do not have to be a low income, uninsured person to sign up for ACA. In fact, you could be working. And we're talking about people who are under 65 who are not Medicare eligible or government medical plan eligible. So, you could be working at your job and have in your, have your employer insurance. You can, your family can sign up for ACA, because you know the cost of insurance for employer plans are extremely high. But if you can go to ACA for your, your, your spouse or children, it may be a lot less expensive. There's also a limit on the out of pocket costs for high deductible plans for the marketplace. So, how deductible plans have high, where you can also participate in health savings accounts. MSA so I would take advantage of any kind of savings account to pay for out of pocket costs, and you can, you can also realize the cost of your premiums can be taken care of. So, be aware of ACA and opportunities you have to Affordable Care Act, as, or known as Obamacare. Next slide. So let's review this is a lot. Again, go to your financial advisor talk to your CPA, they can walk you through a lot of these things, if you don't have time to do that, just start googling you have time to look at IRS.org. There's a lot of information you can just say information about tax changes. You're going to get a lot of that information, not just for now but for 2023 and prepare for 2023 look at your W-2s, do you need to change your exemptions on that. Look at things that you can do can you save a little bit more on your W-2. So, go towards your taxes that you have a high tax bill at the end of the year, if you need to look at more exemptions or, or look at more deductions. Try to find out a way to reduce your tax liability if it means you saving more that's going to benefit you down the road in your 401ks or your IRAs. Look at those options as well. So many of the tax extensions from the CARES Act have been extended. Thank God we don't know how long there's going to happen, they're going to stay that way. The effect of the CARES Act may have tax liabilities that will now become due. If you have some extensions that went through you that you took credits for and your incomes change or other things have changed you may have taxes that may become due. Tax credits should be reviewed so you can get the most from them, always. If you're disabled or low income or low to middle income range be sure to review the options, I apologize I'm having a hard time speaking today. If you are disabled or in the lower to middle income range, be sure to review the options that are available to you. Again, you can get free tax help and for the low to middle income or disabled, if you need to have that done. Please seek the help from a tax professional. I would encourage everyone to start pulling your papers, all of your, your receipts for for travel for lodging for food if you had to go out of town because some of you can write some of that off, as well as your prescriptions from everywhere you got them for, for wherever you got your eye, your, your your blood work, everywhere you took your check or your credit card you can get receipt you can actually get a printout for your credit card company and try to find out where all of those documents are because the more you realize that these deductions the better off you're going to be on your taxes. So I think that comes to the end of it I know those kind of fast there's a lot of options available for you there's a lot of health out there. I will be glad to answer any questions I didn't go over everything. But there's a lot. As everybody knows, it's a lot. And if you're on Medicare. There's a lot more for you to consider and be aware of. Thank you, Diana. Something Diana and I discussed is this year trying to have more open q amp a's. So in addition to her excellent information that she gives, giving you guys opportunities to have full hour sessions where you can come and ask your general financial questions about my Loma. And I bring that up as your questions matter so much to us and they help us understand what your needs are and what really you're looking for. And we always are going to have a question and answer as a part of every topic session but we also hope to have open q amp a's. So with that being said now it's time for your questions, and as Diana said she's more than welcome, more than happy to answer the questions to the best of her ability, or help you form a question that you can bring to a professional tax accountant. So the first question that I see here, Diana is, what is the amount number for the federal poverty limit. What is that dollar number. And it's gonna be a pin that back. It's not just a number. It depends on how many people are in your household. So, there is a single, and it's for it's a different amount for each number, each additional number of people in your household, you can go to federal poverty levels, that it just one of the federal poverty levels, Google that, and I'll give you all the information you need. Okay, and that's, and that's standard across every state, it doesn't change. Okay. So, somebody wanted to clarify so patient assistance programs and assistance grants like you can get, for example from LLS org are not taxable income. Is that correct. That is correct. Okay, that's really good to know. But the trick is you can't use that towards your 7.5 explain the 7.5 one more time for people that joined late, because I see some questions about that. Okay, let's say you had 100 year growth adjusted, you will do these easy numbers for understanding your adjusted gross income, not your gross income, your adjusted gross income is $100,000. You have to the baseline is $7,500 out of pocket that you cannot claim anything above that $7,500, you can claim on your taxes you can itemize. Okay. Hope that helps. I think it does. Thank you. Okay, so our over the counter medications tax deductible. So, depending on what those over the counter medications are generally, yes, if you keep receipts for those things, and as for, like you can get some of the vitamins you get doctor sometimes the doctor will give you a prescription for the say vitamin D three, maybe $50,000 50,000 megagrams a month dollars I was like whoa. 50,000 megagrams a month, and, and you can get vitamin D three over the counter. And you can still write that you can still write that off because those are things your, your doctor says you need. And if you need bandages. Things that you get for like needles syringes things that are that you pay out of pocket for like for diabetes or for neuropathy things like that yes you can write that stuff off. Okay, couple questions here about mileage for volunteer work, is it still deductible at 14 cents per mile. It is actually gone up three cents. So, going up mileage for those things are going up as well as mileage for business deductions those are going up as well free free sense. Okay, so I'm going to put it's up, whoops. Robin I'm sorry I'm going to type that in so it's 17 cents per mile. Just for people that are curious. Yeah, make sure when you're doing those kind of things I think this is the hardest area I think for people to keep their receipts on is when you're doing mileage. And if you're buying gas and things like that. So, keep your receipts and when you get those receipts those things, they fade out really quickly. Or you can take pictures of your mileage in your car. There's things you can do to keep those things up there's also something you can, I think there's a, almost like a pedometer or something you can your car when you do when you do trips like this for volunteer, but keep a copy of those receipts and if you get just get a regular receipt or you go to a place they say we're going to sign off on your mileage. Make sure you make a copy of that because of other receipts will fade and you will not within a year if you keep it in your car and I keep a lot of things in my center console. They are in there. They're gone it's terrible so you got to keep up with those receipts. Yeah, definitely. So, clarify a little bit what it means by volunteer driving. Okay, so if you are going from, let's say from your home and you volunteer you're the, you run the local myeloma chapter support group, or you are going to the hospital to help patients as a, you know, that is considered volunteer as long as the is a qualified volunteer qualified program that you're volunteering for. So if it's driving somebody to stem cell transplant that's not counting as volunteer driving. It may not be, I would talk to your financial advisor. Okay. Thank you. Is medical travel deductible at all. If you pay, if you keep the receipts for those medical travel is deductible, keep a copy of your gas room and board food for one person not necessarily for both people. Keep a copy bubble since it is deductible as that is a cost for your health. Yes. Wonderful. Okay, so this person is wondering they didn't have an FSA, FSA, HSA or HRA for dental expenses, can they include this type of expenses dental in the deductions. If they paid out of pocket for those things that were we saying, yes you can. So, people forget glasses, dental work, vision, all this stuff is medical expenses. Yes. Wonderful. Okay, somebody is asking if there's work that they used to do around their house and can no longer do that work because of physical limitations due to myeloma. They have to hire to get the work completed is that work deductible. If they pay. Yeah, dang. Okay. So, the question here is what is the maximum adjusted gross income threshold to qualify for medical expense deductions, and how can it be itemized and deducted, knowing that the baseline is 75,000. When the maximum able to be deducted such as the cost of a stem cell transplant. Okay, I know. Can you open you, if you don't mind clicking the question and answers yourself that you can see at the bottom. And it's Tim's question and Tim maybe if you want to re ask that question. The baseline isn't actually 7500. Diana was giving an example. Just to be clear. 7500 that's only based on, yeah, if you had $100,000 adjusted gross income 7.5% is is you had to go above 7.5% of your adjusted gross income before you can make you can claim anything. Yeah, it's your personal adjusted gross income 7.5% of that we used 7500 as an example because it's easier math. And Tim if that didn't answer your question, if you could ask it again, we would be more than happy to try our best to answer the question. Jen is wondering if you do you know if medical mileage rates for the first half of 2022 was point one eight and increased to point 22 for the second half of the year. I'm not sure about that but I think the mileage rates increase for everything across the board, I will check and we'll put that on with the other information. Okay, yeah, we'll definitely look into that that's a great question. It does get complicated you know we were talking before the before the session started Diana and I were talking about, you know, when is when is that point when you go. I thought I should really do my taxes for me. And, you know, she brought up the point that it really becomes on how much, you know, you itemize in terms of if you're going to be itemizing a lot of things you know then that's really advantageous to have somebody in your making sure that you're getting the maximum refund or tax credits or whatever it may be to make sure that you're not paying more than you need to. Right. Right. Yeah, I'm talking about the retirement limitations that went up. And if you put more in your retirement plan you may end up realize more in your check. I want to go over this a little bit more. So America's contribute up to 22,500 your 401k. It used to be 20,500 so you're there's an increase in that of $2,000. Okay, for 2022. So if you went up, you can actually it's actually better for you so mean what is that per year Diana 401k and 403 B's and 457 so before it's usually people work in hospitals or things like that. Meanwhile, the limit on annual contributions to an IRA like your individual IRA you go to the bank and yet IRA increased to $6,500 is up from 6000. And so if you're 50 years old or older you still have $1,000 additional to that you could put in every year so the more you put into your savings. And I'm telling you now a lot of people when the market goes down, they do not say they say well markets down I'm not gonna make anything. You put it in now you're buying everything at a discount. Everybody wants to get a discount you don't want to pay the premium you don't like to we don't want to wait to your car that you want to buy is $50,000 more than it was when it was last year. Buy it when it's cheap. If you have money that you can afford to put into your 401k put into your IRA, I would suggest you do that because when the market starts going up. You're going to see that increase even more significantly markets use, and I say this. Historically markets when the market started improving, we have seen some years when the market improved in a year 30 31%. Where else are you going to get if you didn't have the money in there to get that 30 31% you've lost that opportunity. Right. So, now in Roth IRAs, and your savers credits all increased in 2023, so be aware of what your savings contributions are going to be. In addition to that, income levels have income tax rates your marginal tax rates have changed. So if you had an income that was where your tax rate was like 25 26%, it may now be 24% 2% lower which means you pay 2% less tax liability can be used as a percentage for some people where you didn't get a tax return, you may now realize the tax return. So that's for everybody I would suggest you look at your tax rates and talk to your financial advisor. So, standard deductions, if you don't itemize center deductions went up for individual person was 13,850. That's up $900 and and for the, the married couples have changed as well it went from 27700. To 27700. So $1800 increase so that means you're realizing a better tax return. So I would suggest you look at that for flexible spending accounts that if you have health insurance, and you want to set aside money to pay for those co pay is deductible things out of pocket. So if you look at those things those went up from 3000 went up to 3050 from 2000 850 for from 2020 2022 so that's for your 2023 contributions. Take advantage of that if you find yourself paying out of pocket, why not use that because it comes out comes out free tax, a benefit to you, and you can take that money and pay for things down the road you're going to pay for a lot of people So if you have flexible spending accounts that you have set aside out of your check to pay for out of pocket expenses. If you only deduct put in there for the first two months out of your paycheck, and it's automatically taken out your paycheck free tax, you can still use that entire benefit to the entire year up front. You don't have to wait until you put it into your account to realize to be able to take it out and use it for expenses so be aware of that opportunity is available to you. Awesome. Thank you. We have somebody saying people can also lower adjusted gross income by maxing out or contributing to an HSA for high deductible plans. Exactly. There's so many tips and tricks. There are in Medicare recipients qualify for any kind of health savings plan. And Medicare recipients qualify for any type of health savings plan, they can there's an MSA account and and again you got to look at whether you have a high deductible plan or not, but I would suggest you get on Medicare.gov and look for those options. Great. Okay, and then Tim is re asking, is there a maximum cut off for a just adjusted gross income to qualify for itemized medical expenses, none that I'm aware of. No, I've known people who had $500,000 adjusted gross, and they had a huge huge medical bills, and they were able to realize some of that. That deduction. Great. I'm Fernando is wondering I've been paying for storage can I deduct this type of expense in the 1040 and 540 he mentions 540 because he's in California, not unless that storage was used for a business expense. Okay. There's so many things that it's just like oh my gosh can't they make this more simple. No, thank you. Well I'm so glad Diana that we have people like you and that we have professional tax professionals, or that was a reiteration but that we have people that are willing to help us and that can guide us because it is so tricky and it does get complicated by myeloma. We have about five more minutes for questions and then we'll finish up. So if you want to ask your question, make sure you get it in right now. Luce is wondering when and how are taxes paid for flexible spending accounts if they are pre taxed. Okay, that's, it's almost like you take your 401k out like this pre tech. This is a benefit that the federal government gives you because it helps them on taxes so if you have your flexible spending account and you have money taken out and say $400, then a year, then you don't, your benefit is you're not paying taxes on that and then you're not paying that to the doctor for whatever out of pocket expenses so there's, it's just, it's a benefit for you. That money never does get taxed, it's, it's able to pass through. Oh, not straight to the doctor but it's able to go to the doctor without being taxed by the government. Is that correct. That is how it runs. If you don't use that money though it disappears. Yeah, it's awful. Where does it go. Do you know, it stays with the company who took it out of your, your, your check. Yeah. So when do you need to set up a HSA by when I want to say, let me let me just reiterate the questions for people that can't read it. Okay. So the question is by when do you need to set up an HSA for this year. The question is health savings. It depends if you're if you're mid year and you got a job or even if you're in the last part of the year and you got a job and you're eligible sign up for HSA, you can do it. And you can go to your bank you don't necessarily have to, there's a lot of places to set up health savings accounts for, for people. And remember this is a great benefit health savings accounts, because you can use that money, if you don't, if you don't need it you can go to health for retirement, supplement retirement and things later. So there's a great opportunity for health savings account if you're in a high deductible plan, and you don't use all that money it doesn't go away like health savings help. Like flexible, flexible spending accounts. So, you can go there's somebody said best health savings account is at fidelity investments all the others nickel and dime you. For opinion, because I've set those up for people, I've looked at them and I have to do that on the financial advisor side. It, and it. Again, it depends on what your needs are. Yeah, are you going to be using it. Yep. We're so glad you found something that worked for you and want to share with other people and it's really just trying to figure out what do you need it for what's best for you what's offered to you. And then I'm trying to figure it out. Along the way. Well thank you to everyone for participating for joining us, it really is a pleasure to get back in the swing of things. I know there were a couple bumps along the way. And then there's also somebody that put in many resources to find the best HSA for you so this is super helpful. And I'll keep that up during my. So that you guys can see it in the answered questions. So it is a link that says millennial money.com and and we'll take that as well. And we'll look at it and if it's deemed a good resource then we'll share it with the rest. We just always have to vet our resources before we share them with everyone but thank you for sharing your information as the audience. Thank you Diana for your preparation and sharing. I really do appreciate you. And we will finish up today with just a couple of outro announcements. So please join us next month if you liked today. Meet us next month we're going to be talking about federal, private and prescription legislative changes that you need to know. We want to keep you informed of what these legislative changes will mean to you and your family. And Diana will be joining us again to discuss that. There's other events you might be interested in in this following week. So tomorrow we have help three moves chapter that's kind of our fitness chapter and myeloma patient Keith Guernsey is going to be coming to share his inspirational fitness and movement story about how to start slow but stay moving. The fifth is our Southeast myeloma chapter so if you live anywhere from Delaware all the way to Georgia. You're welcome to join us as Dr. Peter Voorhees is going to be sharing with us the best of ash. So he's going to be compiling his thoughts in each of the categories what was significant about what was released for m. Gus and smoldering patients newly diagnosed active myeloma relapse myeloma maintenance therapy stem cell transplant. And we are going to have your chance to ask your question so again that's if you live from Delaware to Georgia, that's going to be our Southeast meeting. And the 10th of you live in Southern California. You're welcome to join us to talk about easy snack and meal ideas for busy patients and caregivers. The link to sign up for any of those events and even more events that I didn't mention are found at the bottom of the slide and will be included in that email that I've been discussing. Another thank you to Bristol Myers Web GSK Genentech Avian Amgen for being our sponsors and thank you to each of you for taking the time to be here. We hope you have a fabulous year and a great rest of your day. Thank you everyone and take care. Bye bye.