QUICK FACTS

For 2018, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) is:

• 54.5 cents per mile for business miles driven
• 18 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates

The current tax rate for social security is 6.2% for the employer and 6.2% for the employee, or 12.4% total. The current rate for Medicare is 1.45% for the employer and 1.45% for the employee, or 2.9% total.

Additional Medicare Tax Withholding Rate

Additional Medicare Tax applies to an individual’s Medicare wages that exceed a threshold amount based on the taxpayer’s filing status. Employers are responsible for withholding the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on an individual’s wages paid in excess of $200,000 in a calendar year, without regard to filing status. An employer is required to begin withholding Additional Medicare Tax in the pay period in which it pays wages in excess of $200,000 to an employee and continue to withhold it each pay period until the end of the calendar year. There’s no employer match for Additional Medicare Tax.

Wage Base Limits

Only the social security tax has a wage base limit. The wage base limit is the maximum wage that’s subject to the tax for that year. For earnings in 2018, this base is $128,400.

There’s no wage base limit for Medicare tax. All covered wages are subject to Medicare tax.

For additional information visit IRS.gov.

For 2018, the maximum you can contribute to all of your traditional and Roth IRAs is the smaller of:

• $5,500 ($6,500 if you’re age 50 or older), or
• your taxable compensation for the year.

The IRA contribution limit does not apply to:

• Rollover contributions
• Qualified reservist repayments. Your traditional IRA contributions may be tax-deductible. The deduction may be limited if you or your spouse is covered by a retirement plan at work and your income exceeds certain levels.

The same general contribution limit applies to both Roth and traditional IRAs. However, your Roth IRA contribution might be limited based on your filing status and income.

You can’t make regular contributions to a traditional IRA in the year you reach 70½ and older. However, you can still contribute to a Roth IRA and make rollover contributions to a Roth or traditional IRA regardless of your age.

If you file a joint return, you and your spouse can each make IRA contributions even if only one of you has taxable compensation. Your combined contributions can’t total more than the taxable compensation reported on your joint return. It doesn’t matter which spouse earned the compensation.

If neither spouse participated in a retirement plan at work, all of your contributions will be deductible.

Further information is available in IRS Publication 590.

The maximum contribution cannot exceed 20% of total compensation, not exceed $55,000.

• In general, plans must limit 401(k) elective deferrals to the amount in effect under IRC section 402(g) for that particular year. The maximum elective deferral is $18,500 in 2018.
• A 401(k) plan might also allow participants age 50 and older to make catch-up contributions in addition to the amounts contributed up to the regular 402(g) dollar limitation, provided those contributions satisfy the requirements of IRC section 414(v). Visit IRS.gov for details.

• The following table shows the minimum annual deductible and maximum annual deductible and other out-of-pocket expenses for HDHPs.

* This limit does not apply to deductibles and expenses for out-of-network services if the plan uses a network of providers. Instead, only deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for services within the network should be used to figure whether the limit applies.

Self-only HDHP coverage is an HDHP covering only an eligible individual. Family HDHP coverage is an HDHP covering an eligible individual and at least one other individual (whether or not that individual is an eligible individual).

Further information is available in IRS Publication 969.

• 0%: Up to $38,600 in annual income (up to $77,200 if married, filing jointly)
• 15%: Up to $38,601 to $425,800 in annual income (up to $479,000 if married, filing jointly)
• 20%: $425,801 or more in annual income ($479,001 or more if married, filing jointly)

$11,180,000 per individual

$15,000

Beginning in tax year 2013 (returns filed in 2014), taxpayers may use a simplified option when figuring the deduction for business use of their home. Full details on the new option can be found in Revenue Procedure 2013-13.

Note: This simplified option does not change the criteria for who may claim a home office deduction. It merely simplifies the calculation and recordkeeping requirements of the allowable deduction.

Selecting a Method

• You may choose to use either the simplified method or the regular method for any taxable year.
• You choose a method by using that method on your timely filed, original federal income tax return for the taxable year.
• Once you have chosen a method for a taxable year, you cannot later change to the other method for that same year.
• If you use the simplified method for one year and use the regular method for any subsequent year, you must calculate the depreciation deduction for the subsequent year using the appropriate optional depreciation table. This is true regardless of whether you used an optional depreciation table for the first year the property was used in business.

Effective, January 1, 2019, Ohio minimum wage will increase to $8.55 per hour with exceptions for tipped employees, some student workers and other exempt occupations. Tipped employees minimum wage will be $4.30 per hour. Ohio’s minimum wage is updated annually based on the cost-of-living index.

An exception is made for employees under 16 years old, and any employees who work for companies grossing under $305,000 per year, who may be paid $7.25 per hour (the Federal Minimum Wage) instead of the higher Ohio Minimum Wage. Handicapped or disabled workers may be paid a special minimum wage rate, lower than the Ohio Minimum Wage, if their employer has a certificate from the Ohio Department of Commerce.