Category: Blog

Moving to a new home can mark an exciting transition in life. Maybe you’ve just gotten married and you’re settling into a real house after a series of walk up apartments. Maybe your children are finally out of the house and you’re trading four bedrooms and a suburban backyard for lofty downtown sophistication. Maybe you’re ready to retire and opt out of snowy winters for good. Moving is also a monumental pain in the butt. We’re not just talking about packing up...

Early on a Tuesday morning, FBI agents fan out across the country to arrest dozens of people in six states on racketeering charges and other offenses. The next Gambino family mob “rollup”? No, it’s “Operation Varsity Blues” — the newest celebrity scandal, featuring CEOs and Hollywood stars bribing their children’s way into competitive colleges! And, like with most good scandals, there’s a tax angle lurking underneath the juicy gossip.Some of our most...

Choosing where to live is one of the most important decisions we make on this journey we call life. Do we embrace the familiar comfort of the small town where we grew up, or do we strike off for fame and fortune in the big city? Do we celebrate new advances in home snowblower technology, or do we opt-out of winter entirely on a houseboat in the Keys? Choosing where to put down roots is an intensely emotional choice. But for some of us, it’s a tax-planning choice, too. Bryce Harper is...

She’s a long-haired European exotic beauty. She lives a life of glamour and luxury that most of us can only dream of. She has 300,000 followers on Instagram. She’s earned $3 million in royalties and endorsements. She’s launched fashion lines, and been the subject of two books. Oh, and she has absolutely no idea how much she pays in taxes, and she wouldn’t care if she did. Who is this gorgeous creature? Is she latest supermodel sensation, posing for the Sports...

Oscar night is the biggest night in Hollywood. The stars shine just a little bit brighter. The red carpets stretch just a little bit farther. And the bloated egos get just a little bit bloatier, if that’s possible. (Here’s looking at you, Bradley Cooper.) Ironically, fewer and fewer of us tune in to the actual ceremony. Why give up hours of your life watching celebrities congratulate each other when you could fit a couple of full-length movies in the same length of time? Nominees...

Would anyone in their right mind sit down from scratch and develop the tax withholding system we have today? The IRS publishes tables telling employers how much to take out of everyone’s paycheck, depending on their income, their filing status, and the amount they guesstimate they’ll be claiming in deductions and credits. Then, at the end of the year, employees file their actual returns and hope it’s the IRS coming out on the short end. Lots of Americans use the tax withholding...

New tax code Section 199A can give you a tax deduction of up to 20 percent of your taxable income reduced by net capital gains. In new final regulations, the IRS has given clarity to the capital gains component of the Section 199A tax deduction. You may remember that the Section 199A tax deduction applies to your trade or business income from a pass-through entity such as a proprietorship, rental property, trust, estate, partnership, or S corporation. When taxable income is equal to...

New tax code Section 199A can give you a tax deduction of up to 20 percent of your taxable income reduced by net capital gains. In new final regulations, the IRS has given clarity to the capital gains component of the Section 199A tax deduction. You may remember that the Section 199A tax deduction applies to your trade or business income from a pass-through entity such as a proprietorship, rental property, trust, estate, partnership, or S corporation. When taxable income is equal to...

Your ownership of a pass-through trade or business can generate a Section 199A tax deduction of up to 20 percent of your qualified business income (QBI). The C corporation does not generate this deduction, but the proprietorship, partnership, S corporation, and certain trusts, estates, and rental properties do. The tax code says QBI includes the net dollar amount of qualified items of income, gain, deduction, and loss with respect to any qualified trade or business of the taxpayer. Sole...

As a small-business owner, you probably incur work-related education expenses from time to time. You may even decide to pursue an advanced degree, such as a Master of Business Administration (MBA). You likely want your employees to be on a path of continuous improvement. There’s much to know about how such business deductions work for both you and your employees. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) tax reform may trigger a need for you to change your strategy to help your continuous learning (likely...