Liz Miller, Founder and President of Summit Place Financial Advisors, joins TheStreet to give a mid-year tax checkup.
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00:00Let's talk about the broader taxpayer, right? In terms of a mid-year financial update,
00:07what should all taxpayers be looking at as we are in the middle of the year?
00:14Okay, a couple big things we always want to talk about. Let's start just with your income.
00:19You want to take your latest W-2, and you want to look at what has been withheld so far this year,
00:24and you want to compare it to last year. You want to say, well, what were my taxes last year
00:29at this point, and am I far ahead? If you work with an accountant, send them that W-2,
00:35because what we're trying to figure out is, am I withholding enough? This is the time of year
00:39to make an adjustment to say, whoa, I don't think I'm keeping enough out of my paycheck,
00:44and I don't want to have a big amount I have to pay Uncle Sam next April. So first look at your
00:50W-2 earnings so far this year compared to last year, and how much taxes have been withheld in
00:55your state and federal so far this year. If you feel like you need more to be taken out,
01:00then contact your human resources people, your benefit people, whoever helps you make those
01:05changes, and ask about, how can I get more taxes withheld from my paycheck? So number one is your
01:11income. Then with that, maybe you have to pay estimated taxes, and you realize that you're
01:16going to have to owe more. That, you probably work with an accountant who maybe told you what
01:20your estimated taxes are. Send them your W-2 and say, hey, here's how much we've paid so far in
01:27April and June. Am I on track? Should I be paying a little more in September and next January to
01:33make sure I've paid enough in my tax planning? Then finally, we're going to go to our portfolio,
01:39and you do want to look at, well, what have my gains been so far this year? If you have individual
01:43stocks and they've been traded, if you're working with an advisor, ask for an update on what your
01:48capital gains are so far this year. If you're doing it yourself, most of the websites will show
01:54you what your realized gains, they call it, for the year. What have been your realized gains and
01:58losses so far this year? So that, again, you can kind of see, am I going to have to pay taxes? So
02:05realized gains and losses, depending on your income, you're going to pay anywhere from 15%
02:09on that to up to 25% plus, depending on your income level.