Before tax reform, the de minimis safe harbor election was the best way to immediately expense the entire cost of your small-business assets for federal income tax purposes. Now that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax reform gives you 100 percent bonus depreciation through 2022, you have three possible reasons to use 100 percent bonus depreciation as your federal income tax default expensing method: If you are filing Schedule C for your business activity, there is no self-employment tax...

Imagine this: your Schedule C business buys a home at the beach, uses it solely as an entertainment facility for business, pays off the mortgage, and deducts all the expenses. Next, say, 10 years later, without any tax consequence to you, you start using the beach home as your own. Is this possible? Yes. Are there some rules on this? Yes. Are the rules difficult? No. Okay, so could I achieve the same result if I operate my business as a corporation? Yes, but the corporation needs to...

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...