Intuit 1099 E-File Service is now Open with "Early Bird" Discounting

It's January, which means 1099 season has begun.  The Intuit 1099 E-File Service is now open and ready to accept your Tax Year 2013 filings. You can use the service to create electronic 1099-MISC forms to deliver to your vendors, as well as electronically file with the IRS.

Ready to get started?

•	Access the 1099 E-File Service now!
•	If you use QuickBooks1, you can save time and import your data by accessing directly from the Vendor Menu.
•	If you use Intuit Online Payroll, just start in Taxes & Forms.

As a thank-you for your early interest, Intuit wanted to let you know about our Early Bird Discount. If you complete your filings by January 17th, you'll receive up to 20% off², depending on how many forms you file. No coupon or code required.

Finally, a reminder about a few key deadlines:

•	January 17th - Last day for Early Bird special pricing
•	January 31st - IRS deadline to provide copies to contractors
•	March 31st - IRS deadline to E-File your 1099-MISC forms

 

Money Moves We Make to Get into a Lower Tax Bracket

Laura Quinn for Yahoo News writes:  I haven't been in the 10 percent tax bracket since I made money at my part-time job at the mall in high school. My husband and I usually fall in the 25 percent tax bracket unless we make smart financial moves throughout the year to lower our taxable income. While it's not always possible, I contribute as much as I can to retirement accounts so we can be in the 15 percent tax bracket. I'm not an expert on taxes, but I have followed the advice of personal finance experts throughout the years to reduce my tax bill. According to a recent Forbesarticle, the 15 percent income level for married joint filers is $17,850 to $72,500. The 25 percent income level for married joint filers is $72,500 to $146,400.

Getting as close as I can

Since the rates are "marginal rates," I don't owe one particular rate on all of our income. One CNBC article explained marginal tax rates as dividing a person's income into different sections. Each section has a different marginal tax rate. Once a person reaches a new marginal rate due to higher income, that rate applies only to the taxable income within that section. Even if I can't get us into the 15 percent tax bracket, I am still further ahead if our taxable income is on the lower end of the 25 percent tax bracket. It's not about working fewer hours or earning less money, but lowering our taxable income bysaving for retirement.

Setting up automatic deductions

One of the ways we lower our taxable income is by contributing to our 401(k) plans. I know the money I save into my Roth 401(k) won't lower our taxable income, but anything I put into the regular 401(k) will essentially be a tax write off that doesn't require itemization, according to a Turbo Tax article. I found if I automate my savings, I'm more likely to meet my retirement savings goals. I let my employer funnel 10 percent of my income into my 401(k) plan to lower my taxable income.

Using my flexible spending plan

Anther way I've been able to reduce my taxable income is by using a flexible spending plan for medical expenses. The flexible spending plan is a pre-tax plan that helps me pay for medical expenses. Each year, I change how much money I put into my spending plan and budget wisely. With some plans there is a "use it or lose it" stipulation, but with other medical health savings account the unused portion gets moved forward to the next year.

Trying new ideas

Although I've spent the last decade saving money into a 401(k) plan, I'm open-minded to other ways of reducing my tax liability. I recently read a Fox Business article about how taxpayers can reduce federal income tax liability. One idea was to turn to municipal bonds that provide tax-free interest. Although I haven't been able to qualify for the "saver's credit," I do receive the American opportunity credit for money spent on college tuition for my son.

I used to feel helpless when it came to the tax bill every year. After figuring out better ways to manage my money, I started to feel more in control of my tax destiny. I know the tax code is complicated, but I am no longer intimidated by it. Being more aware of what's offered each year gives me true taxpayer relief.

Give your tax pro a helping hand with these 5 steps

Business Management Daily writes: Prepare for a tax return crunch. The IRS has already announced that the government’s shutdown in October will delay tax filing season by a week or two.

Strategy: If you use a pro to handle your return, make things easier with these five steps.  

1. Get your house in order. Don’t simply dump a pile of receipts, credit card slips and other papers on your CPA’s desk. Arrange a meeting soon to cover all the bases and provide all the relevant information and documentation in a neat and logical order.
2. Don’t assume assumptions. Give your tax pro a refresher course on your situation and any special quirks. Even more important: Check to see if items carried over from 2012—capital losses, passive activity losses, net operating losses, etc.—will be allowed on your 2013 return.
3. Report securities transactions. This info is often vital to a return. Provide your tax pro with all 1099s. (They should be sent by Jan. 31.) Remember that transferring shares within the same family of mutual funds is a taxable event.
4. Support basis adjustments. If you sold securities in 2013, you owe tax on the difference between your sales price and your basis. Make sure that the adjusted basis you use for calculations is properly documented. Otherwise, you might overpay your tax bill.

If you’re not careful, you could pay a “double tax” on mutual fund dividends and capital gains that have been automatically invested. Reason: You have already reported those amounts.

Example: In 2013, you sold mutual fund shares acquired at $10,000 for $15,000. Over time, you’ve paid $2,000 in tax on the reinvested dividends and capital gains, so your adjusted basis is $12,000 ($10,000 + $2,000). Therefore, your taxable gain is only $3,000 ($15,000 – $12,000), not $5,000 ($15,000 – $10,000).

Note that mutual fund companies are generally required to report the adjusted basis on certain sales of shares acquired after 2011 to both investors and the IRS.

5. Combine business with personal. Usually, it’s not a good idea. However, if you own a business, especially a pass-through entity like a partnership or S corporation, it may be easier to have the same firm handle both your personal and business returns. One is often dependent on the other.

Tip: The filing deadline for 2013 corporate tax returns is March 15, 2014.

5 Great Android Accounting Apps for Small Businesses

Brett Nuckles for BusinessNewsDaily.com writes: If you run a small business, you probably use a smartphone for business communications, calendar management and a lot more. Users can find an Android app to streamline virtually every aspect of running their business — and now, they can add finance management to the list.

Accounting apps for Android can't do it all; for serious number crunching, you'll need the benefits of a larger monitor, a full keyboard and deeper features found in desktop software. But for basic accounting tasks, mobile apps have distinct advantages. Because they run on your Android smartphone or tablet, you can log in and access your account from virtually anywhere. And because your account information is stored in the cloud, your information will be up-to-date on all your devices.

Here are five great Android finance and accounting apps to help you manage your business on the go.

Shoeboxed (Free with Shoeboxed subscription, starting at $10/month)

With Shoeboxed for Android, keeping your receipts, bills and other financial documents organized is as easy as snapping a photo. Once your document is uploaded via the Shoeboxed app, the important information — such as vendor, date, total and payment type — is automatically extracted, thus creating a fully searchable digital database of your transactions. Using Shoeboxed will pay off in a major way when it's time for small business owners to file their taxes. Organizing documents by hand is laborious, so the app can save you time. Plus, it can save you money; hiring someone to manage your paper documents is expensive.

Book Keeper Accounting (Subscriptions start at $3.99/month, free 30-day trial available)

Book Keeper Accounting is one of the top-rated accounting apps for Android. The fully featured finance and accounting app sports a simple layout but packs all of the tools that small and medium-sizebusinesses need to track transactions, payments, sales, receipts and more. It also features deep inventory management. Book Keeper Accounting also lets you generate and manage invoices from right within the app, and keep track of paid and outstanding invoices.

Mint (Free)

Mint is billed as a personal finance app, but it offers useful tools for entrepreneurs and very small businesses to track spending and tweak budgets. Add bank accounts and credit cards, and the app automatically pulls in and categorizes your transactions, and then organizes them in easy-to-read graphs to show you where your money is going. In other words, Mint will keep your finances organized so you can focus on business operations.

QuickBooks for Android (Free with a QuickBooks desktop subscription, starting at $13/month)

QuickBooks offers elegant accounting tools to help you track and manage your finances. The Android app isn't a fully featured mobile version of the QuickBooks desktop application; instead, think of it as a mobile companion app with useful tools to help you track sales, send out invoices and review recent payments when you're away from the office. It requires a QuickBooks subscription, but a free 30-day trial is available.

FreshBooks (Free with a FreshBooks subscription, starting at $20/month)

FreshBooks is a QuickBooks alternative with tight cloud integration and an easy-to-use interface. At its core, FreshBooks is a system to help you record and track your business's expenses and profits. It has extra functionalities, such as the ability to track how much you or your employees work on a project, for easier invoice generation. And like other services, it organizes and charts your expenses to help you make business decisions and file your taxes. The service offers a free 30-day trial; after that, you can continue to use FreshBooks starting at $19.95 per month.

Popular Tax Breaks To Disappear in 2014 / From mortgage insurance premiums to teachers’ classroom expenses, don’t miss out on these tax breaks.

Diane Sweet for Crooks & Liars writes: Now that we've said goodbye to 2013, we also say goodbye to several tax breaks our Do Nothing Congress has allowed to expire at the end of the year.   In fact, a total of 55 tax breaks disappeared on Tuesday at midnight.

Of course, this happens nearly every year and almost every year, Congress eventually renews them.

Here are eight of the tax breaks that will be missed the most, CNN:

1. Tuition and fees: A deduction for tuition and fees of up to $4,000 is currently available to parents and students paying for college. More than 2 million taxpayers claimed this break in 2010, saving more than $4 billion, according to the most recent data available from H&R Block.

2. Teachers' expenses: The Educator Expense Deduction aims to help teachers cover the cost of classroom supplies like notebooks, pens and paper that their school doesn't reimburse them for. Elementary and secondary school teachers can qualify for deductions of up to $250 per year, even if they don't itemize.

Nearly 4 million teachers deducted $915 million in school expenses in 2010.

3. Mortgage insurance premiums: Currently, homeowners are able to deduct their mortgage insurance premiums as residence interest. About 4.2 million taxpayers claimed the tax break in 2010, deducting a total of $5.6 billion in mortgage insurance premiums, according to H&R Block.

4. State and local sales tax: In states without an income tax, like Florida and Alaska, taxpayers have been able to deduct state and local general sales taxes instead of taking the income tax deduction -- but that won't be an option next year unless Congress intervenes.

In 2010, 57 million taxpayers claimed more than $16.4 billion in deductions this way.

5. Donations through your IRA: Retirees older than 70-and-a-half have traditionally been able to make non-taxable charitable donations of up to $100,000 directly from their IRA disbursements. But once this tax break expires, they will need to take the disbursement first, meaning it will be considered part of their taxable income.

6. Energy-efficiency: It's your last chance to get a credit of up to $500 if you made energy-efficient home improvements this year -- including new windows and doors. To see if you qualify, visit EnergyStar.com or ask the company where you bought the items.  The break is only available for people who haven't already claimed received credits totaling $500 in past years (The credit has ranged in value since taking effect in 2006.).

7. Commuter costs: Currently, commuters who take mass transit like trains or buses to work are able to receive $245 a month (or $2,940 per year) in tax-free money toward those expenses. But this perk is scheduled to expire January 1, at which point commuters will only be able to write off just $130 per month -- $1,560 a year.

8. Mortgage debt forgiveness: A tax break that has been in effect since 2007 allows struggling homeowners to exclude any debt forgiveness they were granted from a bank when calculating their taxable income.

For the more than 6 million Americans who still owe more on their loans than their homes are worth, the expiration of this tax credit Jan. 1 is bad news. If they get a mortgage modification from their bank or do a short sale of their home after year-end, their tax bill could be thousands of dollars higher than if the modification were completed before year-end.

Another disappearing tax break that could very likely impact us "regular" people indirectly —A 50 percent tax credit for expenses related to railroad track maintenance through 2013. Tax break: $232 million in 2013.

The number of crude oil carloads hauled by U.S. railroads surged from 10,840 in 2009 to a projected 400,000 this year.

If the tax break makes it more difficult for railroads to maintain equipment, well...haven't we seen enough oil train derailments already? 

Americans Doing Business in Canada

Allan Madan CPA, CA for Madan Chartered Accountant writes: It has become an increasing trend to see Americans moving north of the 49th parallel. In a recent study Canada has been the home to over 45,000 American immigrants from 2006-2011, an increase of over 31,000 in the previous six year period. With this steady rise it is important for Americans doing business in Canada to understand Canadian taxes and how they might apply to individuals and corporations moving north.

Individual

Canadian Taxes Filing date

If you are a US citizen working in Canada you are required to file a Canadian tax return.  Unlike in the US state and federal taxes are combined into one form the T1 general.  In order to fill out your T1 you will have to obtain a T4 slip Statement of Canadian employment earnings, similar to a W2. This will be delivered by your employer before February 28 of the tax year.

Deemed Resident vs. Non Resident

In Canada you may have to pay taxes even if you are a US citizen. If you are deemed to be a resident by the CRA, then you are required to pay tax on your worldwide income (US and Canadian). To be deemed a Canadian resident, you:

·         Must have significant ties to Canada (permanent home, spouse or children have moved to Canada): or

·         Have resided in Canada for 183 days or more during a calendar year

If you don’t fall under theses two criteria then you are considered a non-resident and are not liable for taxes on only employment income in Canada.

Foreign Tax Credit

In order to prevent its citizens from being double taxed the US allows for any taxes paid to Canada to be deducted from your US taxes payable.  Without the US Foreign tax credit, many American citizens would not conduct their business in Canada

US Business

Definition of US Company doing business in Canada

According to Canada’s tax act in order to qualify as an American company conducting business in Canada you must:

1.       Produces, grows, mines, creates, manufactures, fabricates, improves, packs, preserves or constructs anything in Canada

2.       Solicits orders or offers anything for sale their through an agent or servant, whether the contract or transaction is completed inside or outside of Canada

3.       Disposes of certain resources properties or Canadian real estate

However Canadian law has interpreted the act providing a broader definition of Americans working in Canada. Even if you are a US based company and make a sale in Canada you are liable for tax.

An example could be if your company sells software to companies and is based in the United States. Say that company also occasionally sells to Canadian corporations all done over the phone. If they have $20 million in sales and $5 million is attributable to Canadian sales they will have to pay tax on this amount. Even if they don’t hold operations in Canada the government of Canada deems this to be Canadian business income and such liable to Canadian taxes. There is some relief in the form of the Canadian US tax treaty.

Canada US Tax Treaty

The US Canada tax treaty was established to prevent double taxation. In the previous example the $5 million that was taxed in Canada would also be taxed in America as worldwide income. This creates a problem as the $5 million is being taxed twice.

To solve the problem permanent establishment must be determined. In Canada PE includes:

-          Fixed place of business such as office, factory or branch

-          A construction or installation project lasting more than 12 months

If your company is considered to have a permanent establishment in Canada then it must pay Canadian taxes on income earned in Canada. If it is considered a non-permanent establishment such as in the example above then it would not be required to pay Canadian income taxes. However it must fill out a Treaty based Exemption form to inform CRA that it is in fact a non-resident corporation. Without the treaty non-permanent establishments like the software company would have to pay Canadian income tax on money earned in Canada.

Options of starting a corporation in Canada

Whether you own a C or S corporation in the states it will be taxed in Canada as a corporation. In Canada, corporations and Individuals are seen as separate entities and taxed accordingly. A corporation will be required to fill out a T2 corporation income tax return and an individual will be required to fill out a T1 personal income tax return.

S corporations which choose to be considered a partnership will also be charged a corporate tax rate. In Canada you cannot pass corporation profits down to shareholders through dividends in order to avoid corporate tax. S-corporations will have to start a subsidiary in Canada and pay income tax on its Canadian operations.

Income tax paid in Canada will be credited to the United States. You will be able to claim a type of foreign tax credit which will give you most if not all tax paid in Canada back.

Whether you are an American company or US individual it is important to know about what taxes may be awaiting you in Canada. If you would like to know more about other taxes please check out our article on Americans Working in Canada and Taxes @ Madan Chartered Accountant.

5 Reasons to File Your Taxes Early / Advantages to filing early include receiving your refund faster and avoiding fraud

 GEOFF WILLIAMS for US News World Report writes:  If you like to file your taxes early and then chuckle at all the procrastinators who wait until April 15 nears, your day of reckoning is getting close. The earliest day the IRS will begin processing 2013 individual tax returns is Jan. 31, 2014, a date slightly later than usual due to the government shutdown last fall.

What are the advantages of filing early? Here's a list of good arguments from tax preparers.

Get your money now. This is the most obvious reason a taxpayer might want to file as early as possible. But try not to fall into the trap of thinking you need the refund before the IRS can get it to you. Some tax preparation services offer refund anticipation loans, which have steep fees that eat into that refund.

You'll also likely get your money in a shorter amount of time if you file earlier than the person who files a month or two after you, according to Elaine Phelan, a professor of accounting at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. Early filers may only have to wait for their refund for 21 days – the average time taxpayers have had to wait in recent years, and sometimes less, according to the Internal Revenue Service – whereas a later filer may have to wait longer, say, 31 days.

"If you work with a paid preparer, they are excited to jump into the new year and will enthusiastically get your taxes done quickly," Phelan says. "If you are expecting refunds, the IRS processing centers are less busy and will process your claim faster, so you might even get that refund sooner."

And, of course, if you file electronically versus putting your form in a mailbox, you should get your money even faster.

It may help with financial aid. "Taxpayers with college-age children need to get their tax information early to get the maximum amount of financial aid," says Lawrence Pon, a tax specialist who owns an accounting firm, Pon & Associates, in San Francisco. He says there is a direct link between the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form and the IRS, so your tax information is sent directly to the financial aid form without you having to provide it yourself.

It may help if you and your ex-spouse are feuding. Hopefully you don't fall into this category, and it's better for each party if you can keep the IRS out of your marital strife, but Pon says that "sometimes divorced people do not agree on who claims the children as a dependent, even though there may be a court order and an agreement. Whoever files first will claim the child, and the other ex-spouse may be out of luck."

You'll lessen your odds of becoming a victim of identity theft. "The sooner you file your return, the less opportunity someone else has to file a return in your name," says Joe Reynolds, identity fraud product manager at Travelers, headquartered in New York.

He points out that some criminals have been known to break into a home or car, steal identification and then file taxes in that person's name, scoring a refund that doesn't belong to them. The odds are slim that that will happen to you, of course, but it is another reason to file earlier rather than later.

Reynolds also advises getting your refund via direct deposit "so criminals can't have it redirected to their address or steal it from your mailbox."

There's more time to catch potential mistakes. If you wade into your taxes now and discover there's paperwork you need that you don't have, or it's simply going to be a more complicated tax year than you anticipated, you may not end up filing early, but now you have more time to spend on your taxes.

Not that there aren't smart reasons to file close to or on April 15, of course. If you owe the IRS money, there's really no financial advantage for you to give it to them any earlier than April 15.

How CEOs Can View QuickBooks Financial Data

Samuel Clemens for InsightSquared writes: Scenario: you’re a CEO. You are sitting at your kitchen table on the weekend and you want to review some of your company’s financial metrics or end-of-quarter numbers. How do you do it? Seems simple, right?

Option 1: Remote Access and MultiUser Mode

Not so fast!

If your company uses QuickBooks Desktop (vs Online), as the vast majority of QuickBooks customers do, then a CEO reviewing financials at home is actually a very difficult proposition! This is becausethe QuickBooks file is stored on the accountant’s desktop computer at the office.

Here is what you would need to do:

1. Log into the office LAN via a VPN. In order to even see the accountant’s desktop machine, your CEO needs to get onto the office local network as if they were in the building. This requires a VPN. They can be complicated to set up so if you don’t already have one, make sure you get some IT help to set one up.

2. Make sure the accountant’s computer was left turned on. If the accountant saved money by turning the computer off for the weekend then your CEO is S.O.L. You won’t be able to access a file on a hard drive if that hard drive isn’t turned on.

3. Make sure the accountant’s computer has filesharing access enabled. Like #2 this would have needed to be done ahead of time. It also needs to be done by someone who knows what they are doing, because if you incorrectly set up filesharing then your whole company will have access to the financials.

4. Make sure the accountant’s copy of QuickBooks is in “Multi-User” mode. In order to have multiuser mode, QuickBooks will need to have been originally installed as “Multi-User Host Installation.” Then, the accountant needs to have gone to File menu > Utilities > Host Multi-User Access when they last started up QuickBooks. If these options were not chosen at installation and startup then your CEO is S.O.L.

5. Open the file using the CEO’s local copy of Quickbooks. Hopefully the CEO has a copy of QuickBooks installed on their laptop. If not, they need to go buy a copy at the local computer store, or buy another license if your company has a multi-user license setup.

Sounds complicated? No kidding! This was pretty intimidating to write, much less implement.

You can also use a “remote desktop” screensharing solution to replace steps #3 – #5 above. For example, LogMeIn and GoToMyPC are both very good remote desktop applications. There are three problems: (a) they would have needed to be set up beforehand, (b) controlling a computer via screenshare is usually a pretty slow and frustrating experience, and (c) if the CEO is reviewing financials on the accountant’s computer then the accountant will not be able to use their computer during this time.

So, are there better ways to give your CEO basic access to financials? Read on…

Option 2: Migrate to QuickBooks Online

If your company uses QuickBooks Online edition then your CEO can view financials just by opening a web browser and going to intuit.com. Pretty simple.

But…the vast majority of companies still use QuickBooks Desktop. Yes you can migrate to QuickBooks Online from Desktop. However be careful because the Online version does not yet have feature parity with the Desktop version.

If a QuickBooks migration is not something you want to contemplate right now, keep reading…

Option 3: Online Analytics

Instead of migrating QuickBooks to an online version, what if you could leave QuickBooks as-is but have online analytics instead? Your CEO doesn’t need to enter any General Ledger transactions. They probably don’t need access to QuickBooks itself.

This is where an online analytics package (like InsightSquared) can shine. To set one up, you will need two setps:

1. Enable Intuit Sync Manager. Here are Intuit’s official setup instructions for the Sync Manager. Once installed, your QuickBooks desktop data will be synced with Intuit’s secure servers in the cloud. You can then access your data remotely using other applications that you authorize.

2. Pick an analytics package. We happen to be biased — we think our financial analytics are the best in the world! But by all means, feel free to shop around — Intuit has a Marketplace with other applications you can authorize.

How Inflation Will Cut Your Taxes in 2014

Dan Caplinger for Daily Finance writes:  Most of the time, inflation is one of the most serious financial threats people face, propelling slow but steady price increases that erode the purchasing power of your savings and make it harder to make ends meet.

But when it comes to your taxes, inflation's bite need not be too painful: The government makes annual adjustments to the tax code to reflect the higher cost of living, which should help you save on your taxes in 2014.

1. Higher Standard Deductions

The standard deduction allows taxpayers to earn income up to a certain amount without paying any taxes -- and without going to the trouble of itemizing deductions. For 2014, the figure for single filers will rise by $100 to $6,200, with joint filers getting a $200 increase to $12,400. Those who qualify as heads of household split the difference, with their standard deduction jumping $150 to $9,100. Depending on your filing status and tax bracket, these increases could save you anywhere from $10 to $80 on your 2014 tax return.

2. Higher Personal Exemptions

Most taxpayers get to take a personal exemption for each member of their families, including dependents. The personal exemption amount will climb by $50 to $3,950 in 2014. The increase could boost tax savings anywhere from $5 to $20 per person depending on your tax bracket, although high-income taxpayers begin to have personal exemptions phased out once their income goes above certain levels.

3. Higher Tax Brackets

The boundaries of the various tax brackets get an inflation adjustment in 2014, allowing taxpayers to earn more money while getting taxed at a lower rate
For instance, single filers will see the upper end of the 10 percent tax bracket rise from $8,925 to $9,075, while the top of the 15 percent tax bracket will rise from $36,250 to $36,900. By taxing more of your income at lower rates, these shifts will produce tax savings of $72.50 for a single filer earning $40,000 in taxable income. Higher-end earners will reap more substantial savings: Joint filers with taxable income of $250,000 will see a drop of more than $400 in their taxes.

4. Higher Earned Income Tax Credits

Millions of working low-income taxpayers are eligible to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit. The maximum credit amount rises $99 in 2014 for joint filers with three or more qualifying children, with an $88 increase for those with two children, $54 for one-child families, and $9 for eligible individuals with no children.

5. Higher Exclusions for Foreign Workers

If you work abroad, you're entitled to exclude money you earn in wages or salaries from your foreign job. The amount of money you're able to exclude will rise in 2014 by $1,600 to $99,200, producing savings of $160 to $640 depending on your tax bracket. The exclusion is designed to offset the taxes that foreign workers typically pay in the countries in which they work.

6. Higher Exemptions for Alternative Minimum Tax

The Alternative Minimum Tax was originally designed to apply only to the richest taxpayers -- its purpose being to prevent the wealthy from gaming the system and paying no taxes at all. But over time, thanks to inflation, the tax gradually started capturing more upper-middle-class taxpayers, especially in states that have high taxes that aren't deductible for AMT purposes. In 2014, the exemption amount of AMT will rise by $900 to $52,800 for single filers and by $1,300 to $82,100 for joint filers. With AMT rates at 26 percent and 28 percent, those increases can save between $234 and $364 in potential AMT liability.

These are just a sampling of the many ways that cost-of-living inflation adjustments will lower taxes for millions of Americans. For more information, be sure to visit the IRS website and get the comprehensive list of inflation adjustments for 2014.

Intuit Inc. (INTU): Generation Investment Management, Citadel Investment Group, Select Equity Group, Scout Capital Management are Bullish

Ben Alberstadt for Nextiphonenews.com writes:  Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) shareholders have witnessed a decrease in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds lately.

According to Inc., “Financial software maker Intuit announced Wednesday morning that it has agreed to acquire small-business resource site Docstoc.”

Now, let’s take a gander at the recent action encompassing Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU).

Hedge fund activity in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)

At Q1′s end, a total of 29 of the hedge funds Insider Monkey tracks were bullish in this stock, a change of -9 percent from the second quarter. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their holdings significantly.

Of the funds we track, Generation Investment Management, managed by David Blood and Al Gore, holds the largest position in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU). Generation Investment Management has a $473.9 million position in the stock, comprising 9 percent of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, which held a $150.5 million position; 0.2 percent of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include Robert Joseph Caruso’s Select Equity Group, James Crichton and Adam Weiss’s Scout Capital Management and Steven Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors.

Due to the fact that Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) has faced a declination in interest from the smart money, we can see that there is a sect of money managers that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q2. At the top of the heap, Greg Poole’s Echo Street Capital Management cut the largest position of all the hedgies we watch, comprising close to $31.4 million in stock, and John Overdeck and David Siegel of Two Sigma Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund cut about $27.7 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 3 funds heading into Q2.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)?

Insider buying is particularly usable when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and seven insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU). These stocks are Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY), Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX), CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA), salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), and Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE). This group of stocks belong to the application software industry and their market caps resemble INTU’s market cap.

Company Name	# of Hedge Funds	# of Insiders Buying	# of Insiders Selling
Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY)	36	0	8
Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX)	33	0	0
CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA)	17	0	5
salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)	50	0	12
Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE)	39	0	12

At the end of Q3, Intuit Inc. was the fifth most widely held application software industry equity among the hedge funds Insider Monkey tracks.