Category: Blog

Movie fans, quick: what do you get when you combine Night of the Living Dead, Deliverance, and The Mist — with just a hint of Sophie’s Choice? It probably looks a lot like like Netflix’s newest hit, Bird Box. The movie imagines a shattered future where an unknown presence has driven everyone who sees it to suicide, and follows Sandra Bullock and two five-year-old children on a desperate blindfolded gauntlet down a raging river in search of safe haven. Netflix...

Qualified opportunity funds are a new tax-planning strategy created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax reform.   The new funds have the ability to defer current-year capital gains, eliminate some of them later, and then on the new investment make capital gains tax-free. To put the benefits in place, you need to navigate some new rules and time frames.   To make this as clear as I can with as few words as possible, I’m going to use this example: On December 1, 2018, you sell $8 million...

2019 is here, and it’s almost time to file your first tax return under the new law. But you probably sat around watching sports all weekend instead of talking taxes, didn’t you. (Did Santa bring a new TV?) So, as we ring in the New Year, let’s take a look at how the new tax bill affects some of those athletes you’ve been watching.   Washington sold the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as “tax simplification.” And really, who can’t raise a toast to that? Lower...

Two questions:   Did you prepay your 2019 rent so that you have a big 2018 tax deduction? How do you identify in your accounting records the monies you put on your IRS Form 1099-MISC for the business rent payments to your landlord?   For the 1099-MISC, do you simply look at your checkbook or payment ledgers to identify the amounts you are going to report? If so, you will create an incorrect 1099 for your landlord that’s going to cause your landlord a tax problem.   One golden...

Link to the PODCAST >>> https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/ernie-neve-plymouth-meeting-accountant-facing-wrath-irs-surviving/   In this episode, host Neil Howe talks with Certified Public Accountant Ernie Neve of The Neve Group, LTD. Ernie helps clients who are facing the wrath of the IRS, (the most powerful collection agency in the world) in the form of tax liens, bank account levies, wage garnishments and other financial hardships. Neve warns that the tax resolution industry is...

Some of the greatest stories in America reach their dramatic finale in a courtroom. Who doesn’t admire Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch standing up to racism in Jim Crow-era Alabama in To Kill A Mockingbird? Who can forget Tom Cruise baiting Jack Nicholson into bellowing out that yes, he did order the Code Red at the end of A Few Good Men? And who can’t imagine the smile of relief on O.J. Simpson’s face when the jury announced they had found him not guilty? (Good thing he’s...

Who says year-end tax planning has to be difficult? If you know the tax law inside out (and we do!), there are easy steps you can and should take right now that will cut your tax bill big time. What money-saving strategies can you put to work in the final days of December 2018? You’ll find out when you read my new article titled 2018 Last-Minute Year-End General Business Deductions.   Five last-minute strategies you can use to cut your 2018 tax bill Strategy #1: Prepay expenses using...

Holiday season is in full swing, and millions of Americans are celebrating with their favorite libations. Breweries are rolling out their winter brews. Wine stores are stocking up on champagne. And somewhere in a gentrifying warehouse district near you, a hipster bartender in a flannel shirt and man bun is crafting his favorite seasonal cocktail.   But alcohol can be a mixed blessing. Alcoholism is a disease; public intoxication is a crime; and drunk driving is epidemic. Yes, that’s...

The IRS has posted the final 2018 Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, numbered Schedules 1 through 6 and the 1040 Instructions. The 2018 Form 1040 uses a “building block” approach so taxpayers with straightforward tax situations only need to file Form 1040, while those who need to provide supplemental information can use the new numbered schedules they need. For the tax year 2018, taxpayers will no longer use Form 1040-A or Form 1040-EZ but instead use the redesigned Form 1040. More...

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2019 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2019, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be: •58 cents per mile driven for business use, up 3.5 cents from the rate for 2018, •20 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, up 2 cents from the rate...