- Water Wise Gardening guidance: A local spring-time favorite, the Water-Wise Give and Take Plant Event, will be held at the Fresno State Horticulture Greenhouse Park at 3150 E. Barstow Ave on May 3, 2014 from 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. with a new kick-off event hosted by Friends of the Madden Library on Friday, May 2 at 6 p.m. Both events are free for the public and designed to educate guests on how to save water with Fresno-friendly landscaping practices. The event on Friday will include a panel discussion with Q & A on Smart Gardens: How to be Water-Wise in Times of Drought. Saturday’s Water-Wise Plant Give and Take Event will draw hundreds of guests, dozens of master gardeners, offer hands-on activities for kids, and provide free educational workshops. More info here.
- Convert washing machines to grey water systems: You can convert the water output from a washing machine to a grey water system to then water your outdoor plants without a permit. California changed the law in 2009. Expenses to retrofit the washing machine would be deductible for rentals. For personal residences, the costs could be added to the basis of the home.
- Rebates for water efficient systems. If you have an older toilet or washing machine, the City of Fresno offers up rebates of $50 to replace inefficient systems. Both clothes washers and toilets can get a $50 rebate each.
- Upgrade and maintain irrigation systems. Now is the time to upgrade your sprinkler system to use timers and to review it for leaks. Retrofit existing systems to use drip irrigation not only helps water resources, it cuts down on your water bill as well. If you have a timer on your system now, ensure that you turn it on manually at least once a month to ensure it’s in good working order. More tips can be found online here.
In our Spring newsletter, we bring you the following topics:
- Time to review and rebalance your stocks
- Benchmark based Life Insurance and Annuities
- Underused Business Tax Deductions
- SEP plans go separate ways
- Estimated taxes for business owners
- Mixing IRA distributions with Social Security
As always we thank you for being our clients and if you need any help, have any questions, or need any tax planning, just call us at 559-252-8585 or email us at tshb@tshb.com.