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We absolutely, positively don’t like commuting mileage. You should dislike it, too. It’s personal. It’s not deductible. But with knowledge, it’s avoidable. Let’s eliminate commuting and make those trips from your home to your office deductible.
The law gives you two ways to eliminate commuting from your home to your...

The tax-code-defined vacation home rules come into play when you have both rental and personal use of a home. Thus, you can have tax-code-defined vacation homes in the city, in the suburbs, and in recreation areas. If you have no combined rental and personal use of the home, the...

With today’s home prices and the crazy real estate market, it’s likely difficult for your children to buy a home. And it’s conceivable that you are ready to move on from your existing home. If this is true, consider the three options below. Option 1: Make an Outright Gift...

The federal income tax tables do not give you your “true” tax rates. Here’s one example: the net investment income tax (NIIT). It’s a hefty 3.8 percent on top of what you pay according to the table rates. If you own rental property, you’re one of the NIIT’s prime...

Do you give money to your church? Do you get a tax benefit from those donations? How about your donations to other charities? Recent changes in the tax code have done much to destroy your benefits from church and other tax-deductible 501(c)(3) donations. But there’s a way to donate...

The IRS Classification Settlement Program (CSP) offers a chance to settle your employment tax debt due to worker misclassification if you do not qualify for Section 530 relief. CSP agreements typically result in a substantial reduction of assessed employment taxes, especially if you misclassified workers over several years. The...

It isn’t easy to make predictions, especially about the future. But there is one prediction we’re confident in making: you will have substantial out-of-pocket expenses for health care after you retire. Personal finance experts estimate that an average retired couple age 65 will need at least $300,000 to cover...

You have heard the horror stories about mail sent to the IRS that remains unanswered for months. Reportedly, the IRS has mountains of unanswered mail pieces in storage trailers, waiting for IRS employees to process them. Because the understaffed IRS is having so much trouble processing all the documents...

The generally favorable partnership federal income tax rules are a common reason for choosing to operate as a partnership with multiple partners instead of as a corporation with multiple shareholders. The most important partnership tax rules can be summarized as follows: You get pass-through taxation. You can deduct partnership...

If you have a home that you both rent out and use personally, you have a tax-code-defined vacation home. Under the tax code rules, that vacation home is either a personal residence, or a rental property. The tax code classifies your vacation home as a rental property if you...

When you own more than one business, you need to consider the grouping rules that apply for passive-loss purposes. Should one of your businesses lose money, you may not deduct the losses from that business during the current tax year unless you materially participate in the business or, if...

Tax law has an amazing break for unconventional homeowners. You can deduct your mortgage interest payments even when the deed to the house and the mortgage are in someone else’s name. Here’s what happened to Sue Davis. Sue could not personally qualify for a home loan. Her parents stepped...