Paying to much in taxes..

[jleo]

I own multiple businesses and have a simple IRA set up for one of them but can only contribute I believe 15k is the max but still going to owe 70k+ in federal taxes this year. I was told you can't have more than 1 retirement account such as a 401k plus a simple ira being I am the business owner.

I am not looking forward to writing that check and being we have a few weeks left in the year was seeing if I am missing something as far as a tax deductible I could use to offset some of this.

[cchrissyy]

the simple ira for the business doesn't count against you fully funding a traditional ira (or a roth)

the simple limit in 2019 is 13k
you could do 6k in a traditional ira too

[terran]

Be very careful about opening multiple retirement plans. It's very likely (certain?) that your multiple businesses are considered a "controlled group" which means they're essentially treated as one business for these purposes.

Do any of your businesses have employees other than business owners or their spouses?

[jleo]

the simple ira for the business doesn't count against you fully funding a traditional ira (or a roth)

the simple limit in 2019 is 13k
you could do 6k in a traditional ira too

I don't believe I can do a traditional ira because I am over the income limit of 122k a year?

[jleo]

Be very careful about opening multiple retirement plans. It's very likely (certain?) that your multiple businesses are considered a "controlled group" which means they're essentially treated as one business for these purposes.

Do any of your businesses have employees other than business owners or their spouses?

Yes you are right about the controlled group this is what my accountant told me as well which limits us to 1 plan.

[Evgenia]

Have you looked into a Solo 401(k)? It enables you to "employer match" your own contributions and those of any "employees."

Vanguard offers one and is WONDERFUL to work with in setting it up.

[terran]

A solo 401(k) is a great option IF you don't have any employees who aren't either owners or owner's spouses, which is why I asked about that. Some plans allow you to put minimum number of years working for the business and minimum hours worked during the year to be eligible, which can give you some flexibility if you do hire. I don't think Vanguard offers this. I would go with Etrade. That's where I have mine.

[Goldielocks]

This won't be for Texas, but I found out that Canada's Budget 2019 (taxes) has an updated electric vehicle benefit for business owners.   Instead of a rebate (only available for new plug in cars), ANY plug in car, including used, that a business buys can be 100% written off in the first year.
This will be around for about 5 years, with some declining benefits in future years.  Can't be combined with new vehicle rebate -- buy hey, most dealers just increase the price of the new car the amount of the rebates anyway -- .

How it works:

Uses a new depreciation class rate table (Class 54).
100% deductible -- no half year rule
Buy a fully electric vehicle. Used or new.  (Used are great prices right now because the new models are much more advanced).
You take all the miles driven for business this year / total miles driven x cost of vehicle = Amount you can deduct in 2019.
Whatever you sell the car for in future you reclaim as income.   (After many years that will be low, or you can time it to sell in a low income year).

Because it is the end of the year, you can buy a car for your business, park it or only drive it this month for business.  Deduct 100% against income, then next year, you can drive it for both business and pleasure use with no penalty... and still deduct a % of operating costs for your business.

So -- I would recommend double checking your Electric Vehicle tax incentives for your area, if you are looking into buying a used car in the next year.

You could write off a $20k used car against your current year's income.   That would definitely help your taxes, right? does the US have any similar incentives or is it just for California and states without their oil companies?

[jleo]

A solo 401(k) is a great option IF you don't have any employees who aren't either owners or owner's spouses, which is why I asked about that. Some plans allow you to put minimum number of years working for the business and minimum hours worked during the year to be eligible, which can give you some flexibility if you do hire. I don't think Vanguard offers this. I would go with Etrade. That's where I have mine.

I have employees but none are my spouses.. I don't think I could do a solo 401 k being I have employees on payroll right?

[terran]

A solo 401(k) is a great option IF you don't have any employees who aren't either owners or owner's spouses, which is why I asked about that. Some plans allow you to put minimum number of years working for the business and minimum hours worked during the year to be eligible, which can give you some flexibility if you do hire. I don't think Vanguard offers this. I would go with Etrade. That's where I have mine.

I have employees but none are my spouses.. I don't think I could do a solo 401 k being I have employees on payroll right?

Correct, non-spouse employees means no solo 401(k). Your Simple IRA is probably the cheapest option for a retirement plan since you have employees. If you want to look into opening a 401(k) for you and your employees here are a couple of providers I've run across that seem like they'd be good (but no personal experience): https://www.employeefiduciary.com/ and https://www.guideline.com/