Happy August! August gets its name from Roman times, and here is a little bit of history on that fact:
After Julius’s grandnephew Augustus defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra, and became emperor of Rome, the Roman Senate decided that he too should have a month named after him. Not only did the Senate name a month after Augustus, but it decided that since Julius’s month, July, had 31 days, Augustus’s month should equal it: under the Julian calendar, the months alternated evenly between 30 and 31 days (with the exception of February), which made August 30 days long. So, instead of August having a mere 30 days, it was lengthened to 31, preventing anyone from claiming that Emperor Augustus was saddled with an inferior month. (Source: http://bit.ly/1stm3Pv)
But we digress… August also means awe-inspiring, and August is a time for big picture issues. None are more important than putting your kids through college, so this month’s San Francisco Tax Bulletin kicks off with an informative article on the FAFSA, which is how the Federal government allocates student aid. Interestingly, for people who own their own businesses and can shift income forward or backward there are strategies that can impact financial aid. Related to this is the issue of grandparents’ contributions to children’s education. There are some interesting scenarios here. So if your children or grandchildren are looking at college here in San Francisco or elsewhere perhaps Stanford or University of California, Berkeley, or even beyond the San Francisco Bay Area, tehre are some very interesting tax and finance strategies to minimize expenses and maximize aid possibilities.
More San Francisco Tax Tips
Great reading for August, the time of the Roman Emperors! Rounding up the August Tax Bulletin for San Francisco are other serious and important topics:
- Keeping Wealth in Your Family’s Future – a discussion of estate planning of great importance to any small business owner or other person with substantial assets (think San Francisco Real Estate).
- Tougher Rules on Reverse Mortgages – the government is tightening regulations on reverse mortgage, another topic of interest to people who have high value properties in the Bay Area.
- Reasonable Compensation for S Corporation Owners – S corp’s are great in terms of minimizing taxes, but there is an issue around what is “reasonable compensation” for the owner via W2 income vs. flow thru.
You can download our San Francisco Tax Bulletin by clicking on the highlighted link. Happy reading!
