On April 14, millions of fans will gather around the biggest screen they can find for the start of one final season in Westeros, the setting of George R.R. Martin’s epic Game of Thrones. The show, which producers pitched as “The Sopranos in Middle Earth,” has leaped from television into the broader culture. In 2013, 241 babies were named “Khaleesi” after the title Danaerys Targaryen takes by marrying the Khal Drogo. UC Berkeley offers a class in “invented...

Nobody really likes to pay taxes. It’s no surprise, then, that so many people work so hard to avoid them. As humorist Fran Lebowitz once said, “a dog who thinks he is man’s best friend is a dog who has obviously never met a tax lawyer.” Truly proactive tax professionals like us understand that you don’t just want to know how much you owe. You want us to use the ins and outs of the tax code to help you pay less. And so this week’s episode of Beat...

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...