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8A Daily News – Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Tax tips for newlyweds Protect forests by not moving firewood An act as simple as transporting firewood can lead to widespread devastation. Since 2008, the Pacific Southwest Region Forest Health Protection staff of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has been cooperating with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to monitor the flow of firewood into the state. CDFA records information on all loads of firewood inspected at their 16 agricultural border protection stations and also confiscates any wood that contains insects or signs of fungal disease. This data is sent to USFS ecologist Matthew Bokach for analysis and reporting. Almost 60 million pounds of firewood have been recorded entering the state in the previous five years. Just over half (54 percent) of this weight has been in large commercial shipments of pre-packaged pieces, while the rest has been in private vehicles and typically in much smaller loads. Over the same fiveyear period, at least 815 individual forest pests were prevented from being carried to over 200 named destinations within California. Some of the notable species that were intercepted on firewood include emerald ash borer and gypsy moth, both of which were transported to California illegally in violation of nationwide Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service quarantines. The most dramatic example occurred in July of 2010, when a couple from Michigan was stopped in their RV at the Topaz border station (south of Lake Tahoe). Inside their vehicle was ash firewood containing adult and larval emerald ash borers. This is the furthest this invasive exotic species has been carried Graphic courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service Number of forest pests intercepted in firewood at CDFA border stations from other states and adjacent countries, 2008-2012. and detected from its federal quarantine area in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, where it has killed millions of urban trees and cost municipalities and homeowners billions of dollars in tree removal costs and lost property values. Firewood has been brought to California in private vehicles from 46 other states (including Alaska), Canada, and Mexico; while potential forest pests have been transported to California from 42 other states, Canada, and Mexico (Map 1). Top destinations to which firewood bearing potential pests was being transported were the greater Los Angeles urban area (95 forest pests), the Sacramento urban area (63), Yosemite National Park (45), the Sacramento urban area (63) and the San Francisco-Oakland urban area (36). Over a quarter (28 percent) of the forest pests were in vehicles with California license plates, bringing firewood back to the state from somewhere else. Even insects native to the U.S. can become devastating pests if moved to an adjacent state. Less than half (46.6 percent) of the wood borers native to Arizona also occur in California. The gold-spotted oak borer is a wood borer native to southeastern Arizona that was introduced into San Diego County, California in the early-2000s, most likely from firewood. In its new environment this beetle infests at least four new host species of oak that have no co-evolved defense mechanisms; the result has been tens of thousands of trees killed with no known mechanism for containing the insect's spread. Any one of the hundreds of firewood-borne pests intercepted at CDFA border stations every year could be the next gold-spotted oak borer or emerald ash borer in its effects if successfully introduced into Through the Newspapers in Education program, area classrooms receive the Red Bluff Daily News every day thanks to the generosity of these local businesses & individuals. TEHAMA COUNTY DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF 885 NTY S I N C E 1 TEHAMA COU E VOICE OF THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING NEWSPAPERS a new area. This is particularly true in California, where non-native pests could have infested over 95 percent of the state had they reached their destinations. It's worth noting that almost the entire state of California is within 50 miles of a federal or state park or forest. How you can help: • Leave firewood at home – do not transport it to campgrounds or parks. • Use firewood from local sources. • If you have moved firewood, burn all of it before leaving your campsite. • Don't bring firewood from other states back into California. For more information on the firewood issue in California, please visit the website of the CA Firewood Task Force: www.firewood.ca.gov. Community Clip? e-mail: clerk@redbluffdailynews.com or Fax: 527-9251 Late spring and early summer are popular times for weddings. Whatever the season, a change in your marital status can affect your taxes. Here are several tips from the IRS for newlyweds. • It's important that the names and Social Security numbers that you put on your tax return match your Social Security Administration records. If you've changed your name, report the change to the SSA. To do that, file Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card. You can get this form on their website at SSA.gov, by calling 800-772-1213 or by visiting your local SSA office. • If your address has changed, file Form 8822, Change of Address to notify the IRS. You should also notify the U.S. Postal Service if your address has changed. You can ask to have your mail forwarded online at USPS.com or report the change at your local post office. • If you work, report your name or address change to your employer. This will help to ensure that you receive your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, after the end of the year. • If you and your spouse both work, you should check the amount of federal income tax withheld from your pay. Your combined incomes may move you into a higher tax bracket. Use the IRS Withholding Calculator tool at IRS.gov to help you complete a new Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate. See Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax, for more information. • If you didn't qualify to itemize deductions before you were married, that may have changed. You and your spouse may save money by itemizing rather than taking the standard deduction on your tax return. You'll need to use Form 1040 with Schedule A, Itemized Deductions. You can't use Form 1040A or 1040EZ when you itemize. • If you are married as of Dec. 31, that's your marital status for the entire year for tax purposes. You and your spouse usually may choose to file your federal income tax return either jointly or separately in any given year. You may want to figure the tax both ways to determine which filing status results in the lowest tax. In most cases, it's beneficial to file jointly. For more information about these topics, visit IRS.gov. You can also get IRS forms and publications at IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-8293676). 2 gray whales wash onto Calif. beaches EUREKA (AP) — Researchers have been unable to determine what caused the deaths of two gray whales that have washed onto Northern California shores in the past week. The Times-Standard of Eureka reports (http://bit.ly/1cGg4ub) that Humboldt State University professor Dawn Goley was called to Manila Beach on Saturday evening on a report of a stranded whale. Goley tells the newspaper the 30-foot long whale had scars indicating it may have been caught in fishing gear, but it was too decomposed to know for certain. She estimated its age at around 1. Decomposition also prevented researchers on Friday from determining what led to the death of another gray whale that washed ashore on Dillon Beach in Marin County. Marine Mammal Center spokesman Jim Oswald tells the Marin Independent Journal the researchers did collect bones that will be used for future study. 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