Tax Tips
Donor-Advised Funds: A Tax Planning Tool for Church and Charity Donations
Do you give money to 501(c)(3) charities? Do you get a tax benefit from those donations? 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 way you want, get...
Transferring Your Home to Your Adult Child
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...
Selling Your Appreciated Vacation Home? Consider the Taxes
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...
Alert: A Massive New FinCEN Filing Requirement Is Coming
Do you own a corporation, limited liability company (LLC), limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability limited partnership, or business trust? Or are you planning to form one of these entities? If so, be alert. There’s a new federal filing...
Deduct a Cruise to Mexico
You may not have thought of this, but taking a cruise ship to Mexico for a business meeting is acceptable as a deductible form of transportation. Because Mexico is in the tax law–defined North American area, the law says that you need no stronger business reason to...
Are Self-Directed IRAs for Real Estate a Good Idea?
The stock market is tanking while real estate continues to skyrocket. If your retirement savings have taken a hit, you may be wondering if this is the time to invest in real estate through your IRA, Roth IRA, or SEP-IRA. You can’t invest in real estate with a...
The IRS Wants to Know about Your Crypto
Cryptocurrency such as bitcoin is all the rage these days. Crypto is not legal money. It is property, similar to gold. Like gold, its use can result in taxable income. The IRS is concerned that you and millions of Americans are using crypto without paying tax on the...
Health Savings Accounts: The Ultimate Retirement Account
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...
Partnership with Multiple Partners: The Good and the Bad
The generally favorable federal income tax rules for partnerships 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 benefit rules can be...
Send Tax Documents Correctly to Avoid IRS Trouble
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...
Tax Implications When Your Vacation Home Is a Rental Property
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...
IRAs for Kids
Working at a tender age is an American tradition. What isn’t so traditional is the notion of kids contributing to their own IRA, especially a Roth IRA. But it should be a tradition, because it’s a really good idea. Here’s what you need to know about IRAs for kids....
Vacation Home Rental—What’s Best for You: Schedule C or E?
Do you have a beach or mountain home that you rent out? If the average period of rental is less than 30 days, you likely have a choice—either • claim the income and expenses on Schedule C, or• claim the income and expenses on Schedule E. When Is Schedule C a Good...
Entertainment Facility: Perk for You, Your Net Worth, and Your Employees
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. Is this possible? Yes. Are there some rules on this? Yes. Are the rules difficult? No....
Make Sure You Grab Your Home Internet Deduction
If you do some work at home, you’re probably using your home internet connection. Are your monthly internet expenses deductible? Maybe. The deduction rules depend on your choice of business entity (proprietorship, corporation, or partnership). Deduction on...
Is Your Sideline Activity a Business (Good) or a Hobby (Not Good)?
Do you have a sideline activity that you think of as a business? From this sideline activity, are you claiming tax losses on your Form 1040? Tax Law Will the IRS consider your sideline a business and allow your loss deductions? The IRS likes to claim that...
Principal Residence Gain Exclusion Break
Here’s a look at how to apply the $250,000 ($500,000, if married) principal residence tax break when getting married or divorced, or when converting another property into your home. In both marriage and divorce situations, a home sale often occurs. Of course, the...
Tax-Home Rules You Should Know
When you travel out of town overnight, you need to know the tax-home rule. The IRS defines your tax-home, and it’s not necessarily in the same town where you have your personal residence. Tax Law If you have more than one business location, one of the locations...
Taxation of 529 College Savings Account Withdrawals
The big advantage of 529 plans is that qualified withdrawals are always federal-income-tax-free—and usually state-income-tax-free too. What you may not know is that not all 529 withdrawals are tax-free qualified withdrawals, even in years when you have heavy college...
Save Your Employee Retention Credit
In what clearly must have been a mistake, the IRS issued Notice 2021-49 to deny the employee retention credit (ERC) on the wages paid to most C and S corporation owners. According to the IRS: • Your corporation can qualify for the ERC on the wages paid to a more than...
