Financial Issues to Consider During and After a Divorce
Divorce is one of the most traumatic events that can occur in a person's life. The emotional aspects of the break-up are difficult to handle, and the stress can be [...]
Handle with Care: The Nanny Tax Rules
When you hire a nanny, housekeeper or other domestic worker, pay close attention to the tax rules. Over the years, there have been news stories about political appointees and others [...]
Stretch Your College Student’s Spending Money With the Dependent Tax Credit
If you’re the parent of a child who is age 17 to 23, and you pay all (or most) of his or her expenses, you may be surprised to learn [...]
Vehicle-Expense Deduction Ins and Outs for Individual Taxpayers
It’s not just businesses that can deduct vehicle-related expenses. Individuals also can deduct them in certain circumstances. Unfortunately, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) might reduce your deduction compared [...]
5 Last-Minute Ideas to Lower Your 2018 Taxes
It's almost Tax Day! But don't despair; there still may be time to make some moves that will save taxes for your 2018 tax year. Here are five tax-saving ideas [...]
Should You Switch Your Business to C Corporation Status?
Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the federal income tax rate on C corporations is now a flat 21%, for tax years beginning in 2018 and beyond. [...]
I-9 Audits Are On the Rise: Be Prepared
Audits of I-9 records quadrupled in 2018 over the prior year (the federal fiscal year). That means nearly 6,000 employers were audited, which led to several dozen civil and criminal [...]
Beware the Ides of March — If You Own a Pass-Through Entity
Shakespeare’s words don’t apply just to Julius Caesar; they also apply to calendar-year partnerships, S corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) treated as partnerships or S corporations for tax purposes. [...]
Some of Your Deductions May Be Smaller (or nonexistent) When You File Your 2018 Tax Return
While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) reduces most income tax rates and expands some tax breaks, it limits or eliminates several itemized deductions that have been valuable to [...]
Surviving an Earnout Provision in a Business Sale
If you are selling a business, the buyer may want to pay part of the price through an earnout provision. This is a contractual arrangement in which the seller receives [...]
2018 Income Tax Withholdings: Too Much, Too Little or Just Right?
Did you withhold enough money from your regular paychecks in 2018? If you withheld too little — or, didn't pay enough estimated taxes if you're self-employed — you could have [...]
Why You Shouldn’t Wait to File Your 2018 Income Tax Return
The IRS opened the 2018 income tax return filing season on January 28. Even if you typically don’t file until much closer to the April 15 deadline, this year consider [...]
Stop Wasting Money
Benjamin Franklin once said, "a penny saved is a penny earned."¹ The modern upgrade to that observation might be that $100 not spent is more like $143.² One way to [...]
Depreciation-related Breaks on Business Real Estate: What You Need to Know When You File Your 2018 Return
Commercial buildings and improvements generally are depreciated over 39 years, which essentially means you can deduct a portion of the cost every year over the depreciation period. (Land isn’t depreciable.) [...]