The Firm of Gardner & Billing, CPAs PLLC

Friday night President Obama signed H.R. 5771 into law.   The bill amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend certain expiring provision including the Section 179 limitation.   A summary of the bill is included below: Summary: H.R.5771 — 113th Congress (2013-2014) Introduced in House (12/01/2014) Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 - Title I: Certain Expiring Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend certain expiring tax provisions relating to individuals, businesses, and the energy sector. Subtitle A: Individual Tax Extenders - Extends through 2014: the tax deduction of expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers; the tax exclusion of imputed income from the discharge of indebtedness for a principal residence; the equalization of the tax exclusion for employer-provided commuter transit and parking benefits; the tax deduction of mortgage insurance premiums; the tax deduction of state and local general sales...

Tuesday night the Senate passed Extender Legislation that brings back the ability to deduct capital purchases up to the $500,000 limit rather than the $25,000 limit we were dealing with earlier.   The House version is the same as the Senate, so the bill is on the way to the President’s desk for his signature.   It is expected he will sign the legislation. The 50% bonus depreciation is also included for qualifying property. For the purchase to qualify it needs to be placed in service prior to the end of the calendar year.     There are 55 provisions in the latest law.   We don’t have a complete list yet of all the extended items, so call the office with any specific questions you may have. This extender bill only applies to 2014, so the same dilemma begins for 2015.  

(Helena, MT) Montanans earning minimum wage will see an increase from $7.90 per hour to $8.05 per hour on January 1, 2015. An estimated 12,850 Montana workers, or 2.9 percent of the workforce, received hourly wages less than​ $8.05 per hour in 2014 and are likely to receive higher wages due to the 2015 minimum wage increase. Gov. Steve Bullock welcomed the increase. "People who work full time for a living shouldn’t be living in poverty. Higher wages ensure that working Montana families aren't falling behind and are able to make ends meet," Bullock said. "Montana's leading our country in economic growth by making sure our workers earn a decent wage and they have the skills for the jobs we're creating." In 2006, Bullock led a coalition that, through a voter's initiative, raised Montana's minimum wage and provided automatic adjustments for inflation increases. That measure garnered 73 percent of the vote. “By tying...

The most memorable college class I took was a business course that included sessions on ‘thinking outside the box’. The purpose was to make us look beyond our limited horizons and search for alternative solutions to problems. My favorite problem was one that had been used at MIT where the class, working together, had 4 hours to solve the problem; every student received the same final grade entirely dependent upon solving the problem – A or F for all.   The class was locked into a classroom. A full 5 gallon water dispenser was permanently attached to the counter top. Class members had to empty their pockets so brought nothing into the room but what they wore, and they were cautioned that they could not use any part of their clothing. Items in the classroom that were available for their use were pens, pencils, scissors, paper clips, thumb tacks, erasers and chalk. A six inch deep hole, 1/8 th inch larger around than a ping pong ball, had been drilled into the concrete floor....