Just as the daylight hours are getting shorter, so is the time for fine-tuning any last-minute strategies to lower your 2018 tax bill. Unlike recent years, in which the tax rules have been fairly stable, 2018 brings extensive changes as a result of a large tax overhaul that passed Congress last December. These changes will...Read More

Did you know that if you’re self-employed you may be able to set up a retirement plan that allows you to contribute much more than you can contribute to an IRA or even an employer-sponsored 401(k)? There’s still time to set up such a plan for 2018, and it generally isn’t hard to do. So...Read More

A potential downside of tax-deferred saving through a traditional retirement plan is that you’ll have to pay taxes when you make withdrawals at retirement. Roth plans, on the other hand, allow tax-free distributions; the tradeoff is that contributions to these plans don’t reduce your current-year taxable income. Unfortunately, your employer might not offer a Roth...Read More

The Senate passed the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” early this morning, and the revote in the House looks like a formality, so soon there will a new law of the land. Regardless of the downstream economic affects of the new law, taxpayers should be aware the provisions that affect them in the near term. What...Read More

As the end of the year approaches, most of us have a lot of things on our to-do lists, from gift shopping to donating to our favorite charities to making New Year’s Eve plans. For taxpayers “of a certain age” with a tax-advantaged retirement account, as well as younger taxpayers who’ve inherited such an account,...Read More

Updated 12/21/17 — The TCJA has eliminated like-kind exchanges for personal property of all types. Like-kind exchanges can now only be utilized on real property (real estate) exchanges. Like many business owners, you might also own highly appreciated business or investment real estate. Fortunately, there’s an effective tax planning strategy at your disposal: the Section...Read More

It’s common for closely held businesses to transfer money into and out of the company, often in the form of a loan. However, the IRS looks closely at such transactions: Are they truly loans, or actually compensation, distributions or contributions to equity? Loans to owners When an owner withdraws funds from the company, the transaction...Read More

Many career-minded individuals struggle to balance the responsibilities of raising a family with the demands of the office. The solution is often hiring third party help in the form of nannies, maids, drivers, etc. But no matter what you call them, or what services they perform, the IRS classifies anyone who works in your home,...Read More

A recent Tax Court ruling saw a traveling salesman from Virginia disallowed a deduction for miles he had driven in the course of his work because he failed to properly document them (TC Memo 2016-111). Text from the Tax Court’s decision appears below, but the gist is that the IRS is serious in it’s requirement...Read More

The issue of identity theft has been coming up in a lot of client discussions I’ve had recently. As scary as having your identity stolen can be, many taxpayers take a lackadaisical approach to protecting themselves and assume that identity theft is something they read about in the headlines, but not something that will happen...Read More