News

To date, 29 states have enacted pass-through entity (PTE) taxes that can enable owners of pass-through entities such as partnerships, multi-member LLCs, and S corporations to effectively get around the federal $10,000 limit on deducting state and local taxes (SALT). The 29 states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado,...

The President signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law on August 16, 2022. It contains some valuable tax credits for homeowners. When it comes to taxes, nothing is better than a tax credit since it is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in the taxes you must pay (unlike a tax deduction...

Maybe the least popular change brought about by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was a first-ever cap on the federal personal income tax deduction for state and local taxes. From 2018 through 2025, the TCJA caps itemized deductions for state income taxes (or general sales taxes if...

Is the mileage rate sticking it to you? Could you increase your tax deductions by switching from the IRS mileage rate to the actual-expense method? If so, you will be happy to learn you can make that switch. When you choose the mileage rate, you elect out of the...

Do you own investment property? What about a small business? Sooner or later, you will probably want to sell. One of the downsides of selling a business or investment property is the huge tax bill at the end. Profits are likely subject to the capital gains tax—perhaps at a...

You may have joined the Great Resignation, maybe temporarily or maybe for good. Or your non-working status might have nothing to do with the Great Resignation. For instance, you could be a stay-at-home parent. In any case, as a spouse with no tax-defined earned income, you might want to...

The Fed is finally taking aggressive action to fight inflation, but will it work? Where’s the stock market headed? Who knows? Real estate might be a good inflation hedge, but it’s a non-liquid asset and no sure thing. Clearly, this is not a great environment for investors or retirement...

Here’s a question I received from one of my clients: I will hire my 15-year-old daughter to work in my single-member LLC business, and I expect to pay her about $12,000 this year. Do I pay her through payroll checks and file a W-2? My Answer Yes. And W-2...

Through October 2022, you can buy Series I bonds that pay 9.62 percent interest. And you receive that rate for six months from the time of purchase. What happens after that? On November 1, 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department sets a new six-month rate equal to the fixed rate...

The IRS noticed that average gas prices across the United States exceeded $5.00 a gallon and took action. Small businesses that qualify to use and do use the standard mileage rate can deduct 62.5 cents per business mile from July 1 through December 31, 2022. That’s up 4 cents...

Are you loving the 21 percent corporate tax rate and now keeping more money inside the corporation? If so, beware of the accumulated earnings tax. You can easily overlook it. You likely don’t have the proper documentation to avoid it. And it’s expensive. The accumulated earnings tax is a...

I know you report your business on Schedule C of your Form 1040. Have you noticed that the self-employment tax significantly drains your cash? The S corporation may plug a good chunk of that leak because only the W-2 wages that the S corporation pays to you would suffer...