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Tax Tips for Special Needs Families: Tips for Next Year

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I know how stressful tax time can be, and I know there are quite a few families out there who believe they’ll never get it filed on time. Here are some suggestions to consider to help you become more prepared for next year.

What if you owe?

If you owe, work with your tax professional (if possible)

  • Be as accurate as you can when calculating your tax liability.
  • Pay your tax on or before April 15.
  • If your tax return is not complete, submit an extension to file, IRS Form 4868.
  • The extension to file is not an extension of payment, so pay on time!

What if you can’t pay the total tax due?

Contact the IRS immediately at 800-829-1040 to discuss options

  • Ask about the “Fresh Start Initative”.
  • The initative may be an installment payment agreement or an offer in compromise.
  • Do not wait! Please do something on or before April 15.

What you need to do after April 15 as a special needs family

Special needs families do not have the luxury of preparing for taxes from January 1 through April 15; tax season is all year. You need to know if any current and future expenses are possible income tax deductions. Organization of your receipts and statements are key.

You may discover that your income tax threshold is not enough to obtain a tax deduction. Look into other ways to recoup your expenses, such as Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Spending Accounts, a health insurance reimbursement, or some other arrangement.

Don’t know if a medical expense is a legitimate tax deduction? You can find that out by visiting irs.gov and searching for Publication 502, Medical and Dental Expenses. My book and free webinars also discuss what is and is not a medical expense tax deduction.

Find an organizational method that suits your personality. If you file your documents in a cabinet or use apps, do whatever is most comfortable.

The best way to get through tax season is to prepare year round. Learn from your mistakes this year and resolve to become a prepared, organized, and empowered special needs family.

Yolanda Baker is an Austin-based accountant and the author of BITE Your Bills: Cutting Medical Expenses for the Disabled. She provides webinars and assistance with health insurance issues, medical expense tax deductions and assisting those with high health care costs.

Please note that the information Ms. Baker provides is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not to be considered financial or medical advice. Please consult with a financial or medical professional for clarification.

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Have a Holly Jolly Holiday With These Resources!

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I love the Holidays!

This year my boss, that would be me, has given me from Thanksgiving to New Year’s off. Yay! Time to savor the holidays. I’ll be working on my Family History Project and planning some big projects for next year.

And I’ll be sleeping in.

And eating really unhealthy food. Can you say Chocolate?!?

And watching my favorite holiday movies like Holiday Inn and The Santa Claus trilogy.

I can’t wait!

But before I go, I want to share some articles I found that will help you and your Special Needs Family have a Holly Jolly, Safe and Sane Holiday!

Connie Hammer, Parent Coach for Autism offers tips to make your holiday shopping less stressful and more fun.

The Holidays are all about sensations. Connie coaches us on how to help our Sensory Sensitive Kids survive.

Terri Mauro at About.com’s Children with Special Needs, shares some practical advice to handle some not-so-practical celebration situations.

Excellent survival guide posted on Facebook gives suggestions for handling everything from travel to photos.

Love tip #6 – Color coding presents. Great idea for all kids!

You can’t take care of your child if you haven’t taken care of yourself. Terri shares a wonderfully comprehensive list of articles to help you get Jolly instead of Grinchy!

Traveling with your Special Needs Child this Holiday Season? BabyCenter has compiled some great resources to help you out not just during the holidays but anytime you hit the road.

One Place for Special Needs shares some excellent ideas to help everyone have fun and stay sane.

Our lives with Special Needs Loved Ones can be extremely stressful and sometimes sad and often scary. We hope these resources will help make life a bit easier and the Holidays a bit more enjoyable.

Enjoy some special times with all of your Loved Ones this Holiday Season. And we’ll see you next year!

Sandra
and Matthew and Elisabeth, too!
Elisabeth and Matthew on her 21st Bday

 

 

 

 

 

 

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An Interview with Heath Burch from GuardianPack

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Do you worry about what will happen to your Special Needs Loved One if something should happen to you? Are you worried that you can’t afford all the legal fees to get a will and a Special Needs Trust completed? Are you confused about just what you need, when and why?

The legal and financial aspects of having a Special Needs Family Member can be so overwhelming that they are often shoved under the carpet. It’s tough enough to deal with the day-to-day stuff.

Heath BurchIn this interview with Heath Burch from GuardianPack we explore those issues. And Heath shares easy and affordable tools that you can set up yourself.

Give yourself and your chosen guardians peace of mind. Here’s how:

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A special offer just for our listeners:

Heath has offered a 20% discount on any of the tools you purchase at GuardianPack through October 31, 2012. Just enter the code sfv20 at checkout. Click here for details.

For more on handling the legal and financial issues you face with your Special Needs Family, check out these interviews:

Interview with Laura Hoffman-King – Conservatorship for Special Needs Family Members

Interview with Doug Baker – Special Needs Financial Planning

And if you are wondering if conserving your Special Needs Child is necessary, maybe my story, Conserving Matthew, will help.

And if you have any questions or are searching for any information that we didn’t cover, please let me know in the comments or email me privately here.

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A PTA for Special Education? Hmmm…

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A few weeks ago I did an interview with Peggy Bud, a special education consultant. A couple of things really struck me in the interview.

First, and this is not a new revelation, there is a disconnect between the reality of the law and the reality of available resources.

The other thing was Peggy’s suggestion of forming a Special Education PTA. Matthew is 19 now and we only have two more IEP’s left in our special education journey. Looking back, it’s one of those ideas that sound so simple that you wonder why every school district doesn’t have one.

Think about it

  • A place to come together to support and be supported by other families who get what you’re going through
  • A place to come together to ask questions and get information in an open and cooperative environment; where you can ask questions, anonymously if necessary
  • A place where you can work collaboratively with administrators and other professionals to inform and educate Special Needs parents on the resources available and how to get them
  • A place where those who came before you can give you a hand up
  • A place where you can give a hand up to those coming behind you

We have usually enjoyed an excellent working relationship with Matthew’s IEP team but there were times when I felt like maybe there was information I was missing. Often when we asked questions about policies, procedures and law, we were guided to research resources. Instead of just getting a straightforward answer, I felt like I was researching for a doctoral thesis and having to sort through unfamiliar terms and legalese. I wonder if there were more services that could have been made available for Matthew but I wasn’t asking the right questions in the right way. Having a forum with other parents who may be able to help fill in the gaps, help find the best terminology to form the right questions, share resources that they had come across and then together work with administrators to educate parents would have been, as the commercial says – priceless.

A Special Ed PTA could take a lot of the stress off of parents of trying to figure everything out for themselves. It could be a truly wonderful solution for parents, educators and for our children.

So if you’re thinking that this sounds great but you don’t have one in your area, I strongly encourage you to consider banding together with other Special Needs Parents and forming your own. I did a little bit of research and here are some resources that I found:

Many Special Ed PTAs have Facebook pages; check them out for ideas, too.

If you do form your own, please let me know how it goes and if there is anything else I can do to help.

~Sandra

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No More Guessing – We Really Want to Know!

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Life After IEPs

 

“You know,” Sandra said recently, “the web is full of great resources for parents of younger kids. But tweens and teens? Not so much.”

It’s true.

If you’re the parent of an adolescent with special needs, Sandra and I want to bring you the resources you want most for this stage of your child’s development.

Now – we could rely on our personal experience to figure out what matters most to you. We could guess and experiment with blog posts and videos – trial by error.

Or – we could ask you. Directly.

It may be hard for you to specify what you need and want because, well, sometimes we don’t know what’s out there.

That’s why we’ve put together a survey that lists a variety of topics from which you can choose. Menu style.

And you can tells us the learning formats you prefer so we can deliver information to you – your way.

By participating in the survey, you’ll have a chance to consider your priorities – and give us the information we need to serve you better. Win – Win.

And – there will be prizes!

You can choose to enter a drawing to win a free customized Transition Action Planning Session with me to plan next steps for your child’s future. You won’t even have to include your name or contact information on the survey.

No more guessing! We really want to know what you want to know. Won’t you help us help you?

Click here to find out more: Life After IEPs Parent Survey

 

Mary Mazzoni - Life After IEPsMary Mazzoni has a passion for empowering teens to use their own voice and build the lives they desire. She provides training and coaching with teachers, youth, families, and IEP teams. Her blog LifeAfterIEPs.com http://lifeafterieps.com/ offers free transition planning tools and tips so teens (and the adults who support them) can plan and act now for their future.

 

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