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7 Year-End Options to Reduce Your Tax Bill

BY RENEE MICHEL, MBA, AND JOE SWEENEY, CFP® , FINANCIAL ADVISORS AT SWEENEY & MICHEL, LLC

As the year ends, it’s important to be mindful of ways to minimize your tax burden. Just like the holidays come and go, so do tax planning opportunities. Below are common ways to potentially reduce your income taxes due for 2021:

1. Donating Assets. You can deduct up to 50% of your income for charitable donations made in cash, and 30% of stock or property. Giving appreciated assets has an extra benefit, as you can deduct the full value of the asset while avoiding generating capital gains.

2. Selling assets which have dropped in value (also called tax-loss harvesting) can be a valuable way to offset capital gains elsewhere. If your losses > gains, you can deduct up to $3,000 against income.

3. Deferring income to next year might make sense in certain situations.

4. Prepaying 2022 expenses and picking up the deduction this year can be helpful.

5. Another way to defer income is to use a tax-sheltered company retirement plan or IRA. Company provided plans like 401(k)’s will allow you to defer income by contributing by December 31st. IRAs allow you to make contributions for a tax year until your tax deadline.

6. Owners of IRA’s who are over 72 years old are subject to RMD’s. However, they can direct their distribution directly to a qualified charity and avoid the income tax or 1099 altogether, allowing them to still take a standard deduction.

7. Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) allow pre-tax contributions which can be withdrawn tax-free for out-of-pocket health expenses.

Renée Michel, MBA and Joe Sweeney, CFP® | 196 Cohasset Road, Suite 100, Chico CA 95926 (530) 487-1777 | renee@sweeneymichel.com | joe@sweeneymichel.com | www.sweeneymichel.com

This is not tax advice. | Sweeney & Michel, LLC is a Registered Investment Adviser. This brochure is solely for informational purposes. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Sweeney & Michel, LLC and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital. No advice may be rendered by Sweeney & Michel, LLC unless a client service agreement is in place.

By Kevin Dolan 50 Reasons I find myself grateful while contemplating 50 years of adulthood.

(Ok, five decades of opportunities to act like an adult.)

1. This page I get to fill each month and Aveed who started the whole thing in the first place. 2. Mrs. Houk. My adopted everything. An individual human being resulting in my entire being. 3. 34 years of sinking knee-deep in the complicated and rewarding world of education. 4. Maya, my magical comrade, sounding board, and the epitome of teaching and friendship. 5. Daughters who have created wonderful families Renee and I can revel in. 6. Being a Chicoan, with its purple politics, bountiful beauty, and a terrific testing ground. 7. Spending 35 years in gyms, teaching and coercing the greatest game ever invented. 8. Marty and Vern, who have been along the ride for each twist, turn, and reversal. 9. Doctors: Uzma Abbasi, David Jablons, and Brock Cummings who are why I’m still here. 10. 2nd floor, Enloe Hospital, home of Cardiac Care and the best nurses ever. 11. Golf, and its ability to allow all to play, always waiting for that one shot. 12. The Birdhouse fundraiser Kevin Girt and I conjured and the incredible experience it was. 13. “Bingeing,” a participle I did not see in my life until Yellowstone and Ted Lasso. 14. Research. A wonderful form of mediation as well as an awefilled humbling experience. 15. Napa. Enough said. 16. The many and varied jobs, each filling me with responsibility, a work ethic, and awareness. 17. Music, my ever changing eclectic list of favorites ripe for any occasion or occurrence. 18. Notre Dame for its friendships, Bellarmine for its eyeopening, and PV for my Renee. 19. Places like The Perk to gather, meet up, or open a laptop and get some work done. 20. Spending three decades attending, coaching, and directing Snow Valley Basketball School. 21. As a result of those years, I discovered a long-lasting love affair with Santa Barbara. 22. Morning coffee, both cups. 23. Amata, who I talk to, answer questions from, and strive for much needed resolve. 24. Sun breaking dawn—marking the only thing left to certainty each day. It will set. 25. The marvelous privilege of becoming Poppy to Renee's Ne and “letting the magic begin.” 26. Water—oceans, lakes, rivers, babbling brooks—and time to do nothing but watch. 27. My friend, Craig, who sends texts sparking laughter, wonder, amazement, and responses. 28. My love of words and how my curiosity led to understanding and being able to back it up. 29. Sunday coffee drives and the myriad ways to go. 30. The wild summers as a member of the slow-pitch softball team, Chico Cheeks. 31. A pair of empty bar stools meeting each other at the corner. 32. The fall, with its trees full of color, fluctuating temps, and ushering me into the autumn of my life. 33. The 36 sessions of Enloe’s cardiac rehabilitation left me with physical and mental strength. 34. Books—especially the ones that go from hands to my head, my heart, and stamp my soul. 35. A son-in-law and daughter-in-law who naturally established our unending organic relationship. 36. My shop where I don’t answer questions but simply concentrate on problem-solving. 37. My five years at Biggs where I discovered you can never have enough ideas. 38. Walks, my form of meditation replete with opportunities, ones I named with matching playlists. 39. CBS Sunday Morning. 40. Remarkable mentors—Bob Cranston, Sam Simmons, and Louise Jensen. 41. For 14 years, I had the privilege of witnessing authentic learning at its finest. 42. The Writing Project that taught me really great ideas are for sharing not hoarding. 43. For Dylan Thomas writing, “In the moon that is always rising.” 44. My life, with its highs and lows. Would not trade it for anything. 45. Becoming the Editor-in-Chief of Upgraded Living and running into story after wondrous story. 46. Grasping the hashtag #girldad and embracing it for the beautifully mystical world involved. 47. Don, Renee’s dad, who became the dad I needed at just the right time. 48. Bidwell Golf Course for its wonderful layout and well-placed patio. 49. Porter, Hendrik, and Lavi—three individual souls who have left an indelible mark on my heart. 50. Renee (What else would I leave you with?)