Worcester Business Journal

20 Worcester Business Journal | November 26, 2018 | wbjournal.com 10 T H I NG S I know about . . . … Supporting nonprofits By Courtney E. Pelley Courtney E. Pelley is chief of staff at Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center in Worcester. Reach her at Courtney.Pelley@ kennedychc.org. 10) Learn about our mission. This is the biggest bang for your temporal buck. Low investment, high return. As nonprofits, our work is mission-driven. A clear and concise mission statement summarizing our purpose can be found on our website. 9) Tell your family, friends and colleagues. Fundraising is important, but friend-raising is paramount. My top picks for you to check out: Main IDEA, The Sprinkler Factory, and Worcester Earn-A-Bike. 8) Follow us on social media. Start with Andy's Attic. Located at South High Community School and run by students (led by an amazing teacher), Andy's Attic provides new socks, new underwear and gently used clothing to those in need. Students enrolled in a nonprofit management course learn about local nonprofits. If you follow their Facebook page, then you will learn too! 7) Like and share our posts. Our marketing teams work magic on a shoestring budget. You can help us expand our reach by getting our work out in front of your social networks. 6) Take a tour. I had the privilege of touring Creative Hub Worcester and haven't been able to stop talking about it since. 5) Attend our events. From routine annual meetings to formal galas, almost all nonprofits host events. Kennedy CHC's Annual Walk & Fun Run takes place in June – we hope to see you all there! 4) Volunteer. Start with United Way's Day of Caring to get your feet wet. 3) Give. Simply (and honestly) put, no gift is too small (or too big). 2) Serve as a board member. From A (accountant) to Z (zoologist), we want you! You don't have to wait for us to reach out. If our mission resonates with you, please express your interest in serving. 1) Come work for us! K N O W H O W Four year-end tax planning tips 10 1: C Y B E R S E C U R I T Y T R A I N I N G R eview your withholding e Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in 2018 made several changes to the tax code, possibly making your ideal withholding amount somewhat different than previous years, not the least of which were changes to the tax brackets and thresholds for each brack- et. While there are still a few pay peri- ods le in the year, there is still time to increase or decrease your withholding to come as close to your ultimate tax liability as possible. ere are a number of free online tax calculators you can use to estimate your tax liability. Run the numbers and adjust accordingly. Maximize your retirement contributions Saving for retirement is always good planning. Taking advantage of the maximum pre-tax contributions to a retirement plan is great planning. Contributions to retirement accounts can significantly reduce your taxable income. For 2018, you can defer as much as $18,500 of your salary into a qualified retirement plan such as a 401(k), and if you're over 50, you can defer up to $24,500. If you don't have an employer-spon- sored retirement plan, you can contrib- ute (and deduct) as much as $5,500 to a traditional IRA if you are under age 50 and as much as $6,500 if you are 50 or older. Harvest capital losses Although long-term capital gains are taxed at more favorable rates than ordinary income, the tax can still sig- nificantly increase your tax bill. If you have taken this year some of the gains you have realized in your portfolio, you should consider reviewing the rest of your portfolio and selling any positions you are holding at a loss to offset those gains. Bear in mind, if you really want to hold the investment, you cannot simply sell it to take the loss and im- mediately buy it back. You have to wait more than 30 days before you can buy it back if you want to take the loss. You can replace the investment immediate- ly with a similar investment, such as replacing an index fund from one fund family with a similar index fund from another fund family. Think before you prepay deductions A common tax planning strategy used to be to prepay certain deductible expenses such as real estate taxes or state income tax estimates before the end of the year to accelerate the deductions. e strategy still holds true for charitable contributions and medical expenses. In fact, taxpayers can deduct charitable contributions of as much as 60 percent of their income, up from the prior 50-percent cap. e threshold for the medical expense deduction has been reduced from 10 percent of adjusted gross income to 7.5 percent of AGI. e biggest change in deductions for individuals is the deduction for state and local taxes. Prior to the 2018 tax act, the amount you could deduct was unlimited. Under the new act, the maximum amount of state sales, excise, income and property taxes to be deducted is $10,000. Be mindful with the increase of the standard deduction (from $6,500 to $12,000 for and individual and form $13,000 to $24,000 for a married couple) many people will no longer have enough deductions to itemize. Prepaying deductions will only benefit a taxpayer who has deductions in excess of the standard deduction. Keep in mind the following deductions have been eliminated: Casualty and the losses (except those attributable to a federally declared disaster), unreimbursed employee expenses, tax preparation expenses, and moving expenses. BY RYAN M. KITTREDGE Special to the Worcester Business Journal BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal E mployees can be an organization's best line of defense against cyberattacks. Having educated, aware and engaged employees is just as crucial as having a good cybersecurity system in place. Information security company Shred-It, for example, said 47 percent of business leaders report human error as the cause of a data breach in their organization. Make it a constant. Long gone are the days of cybersecurity being the focus of one employee training session a year. Risks and defenses are constantly changing; training must be varied, constant, measured and updated. According to the nonprofit Center for Internet Security, "Cybersecurity awareness comprises continual processes of integrating behavioral change into the business process." Establish accountability. Employees should know they are responsible for their actions when it comes to downloading soware from unknown sites and other cybersecurity risks, says ComputerWorld.com. It should be clear "in case of a malware attack, an employee cannot say that he wasn't aware of the possibility of an attack." is ownership prompts engagement. Stage attacks. e best cybersecurity training is real-scenario training, says Eddie Schwartz of ISACA, previously known as the International Security Audit and Control Association. He told TechRepublic.com the best awareness comes when users have a simulated attack set up specific to their job. "ey're asked to understand the lessons they've learned … and the implications on the business, on their personal lives and how they could have prevented it," Schwartz says. "And then they're asked to share that experience with their peer group." ese staged attacks — an email phishing scam, for example, or suspicious USB drive le on an office table — can be arranged via an outside vendor with data measured by department. W Ryan M. Kittredge is a partner and financial planner for Carr Financial Group in Worcester. Reach him at ryan@carrfinancial.net. W W

• Cover