Succession Planning: Are You Ready?
Many business owners procrastinate putting a well-conceived succession plan in place. The reasons are understandable. It can be difficult to plan for your replacement and deal with your mortality. Here [...]
Insuring Employees Who Drive Their Own Cars
In many companies, employees drive during the course of their jobs — to make deliveries, call on customers or pick up supplies. In some cases, they use their own cars, [...]
TCJA temporarily lowers medical expense deduction threshold
With rising health care costs, claiming whatever tax breaks related to health care that you can is more important than ever. But there’s a threshold for deducting medical expenses that [...]
2 Tax Credits Just for Small Businesses May Reduce 2017 and 2018 Tax Bills
Tax credits reduce tax liability dollar-for-dollar, potentially making them more valuable than deductions, which reduce only the amount of income subject to tax. Maximizing available credits is especially important now [...]
Standard Mileage Rates for 2018 Up from Rates for 2017
The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2018 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes. Beginning [...]
Can you deduct home office expenses?
Working from home has become commonplace. But just because you have a home office space doesn’t mean you can deduct expenses associated with it. And for 2018, even fewer taxpayers [...]
Tax Reform 2018
The new tax reform law— commonly referred to as the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" (TCJA) —is the most significant tax legislation in decades. Now businesses and individuals are trying [...]
Don’t Be a Victim of Tax Identity Theft: File Your 2017 Return Early
The IRS has just announced that it will begin accepting 2017 income tax returns on January 29. You may be more concerned about the April 17 filing deadline, or even [...]
Marital Status and Your Tax Return
When a couple gets married or gets divorced, taxes are probably not the first thing on their minds. But many decisions that couples make do affect their tax returns — [...]
The TCJA temporarily expands bonus depreciation
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) enhances some tax breaks for businesses while reducing or eliminating others. One break it enhances — temporarily — is bonus depreciation. While most [...]
Even if your income is high, your family may be able to benefit from the 0% long-term capital gains rate
We’re entering the giving season, and if making financial gifts to your loved ones is part of your plans — or if you’d simply like to reduce your capital gains [...]
401(k) Retirement Plan Contribution Limit Increases for 2018; Most Other Limits are Stagnant
Retirement plan contribution limits are indexed for inflation, but with inflation remaining low, most of the limits remain unchanged for 2018. But one piece of good news for taxpayers who’re [...]
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Key Provisions Affecting Individuals
On December 20, Congress completed passage of the largest federal tax reform law in more than 30 years. Commonly called the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (TCJA), the new law [...]
When Can You Deduct Theft Losses?
The tax law allows you to deduct your personal losses resulting from casualties and thefts within certain limits. And a "theft" for tax purposes isn't strictly limited to house burglaries [...]