Blog

Impact of the Fiscal Cliff Deal

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (“Fiscal Cliff Deal”) passed by Congress and signed by the President will provide individuals and small business owners greater certainty with regard to taxes as the law makes permanent over 85% of the Bush Tax Cuts. Unfortunately, the Fiscal Cliff Deal failed to address the federal government’s excessive […]

Business Use of Home

If a sole proprietor uses their home for business and meets the use test defined by the IRS, they may be able to deduct their business-use percentage of certain expenses on Form 8829. Similarly, employees of businesses may be able to deduct the business use of their home (subject to the 2% of AGI limit) […]

Deductibility of Home Mortgage Interest

Home mortgage interest includes any interest paid on a loan secured by your home. The total amount paid by a taxpayer, even if reported on Form 1098, is not always fully deductible. Do you know how much to deduct? Home mortgage interest may be deducted if all of the following conditions are met: The taxpayer […]

Strategies to Minimize Medicare Surtaxes

The Affordable Care Act created two new taxes which were assessed beginning in 2013. Most taxpayers chose to ignore the impact the new Medicare surtaxes would bring because they had hoped that the new law or some of its provisions would be successfully challenged in court or would be repealed by newly-elected politicians after the […]

Bookkeeping: The Foundation of Small Business Success

Bookkeeping is as important as sales to the success of any business. If you want to grow your small business, it is imperative that you keep and maintain an accurate set of financial records. Does your small business maintain accurate and timely records? Small businesses that prosper continually monitor their financial numbers. They create an […]

Critical Tax Planning Advice

An unprecedented number of tax law changes will occur in 2013 due to the expiration of numerous tax provisions and the implementation of new taxes. Do you know what scheduled changes are currently looming in 2013? If Congress and the President fail to extend, enact or repeal any tax provisions before the end of the […]

Filing Past Due Tax Returns

Taxpayers who requested an extension to file their calendar year U.S. income tax return have until October 15th of the following year to file their tax return on time. Have you filed your U.S. income tax return? Taxpayers who failed to file their income tax return by the extended due date should still file their […]

Partner’s Basis in a Partnership

Every taxpayer who has an ownership stake in a partnership needs to continuously track their tax basis in the partnership. Do you know the tax basis of your partnership interest? Determining and tracking the tax basis in a partnership interest (i.e., the cost for tax purposes of an ownership share in a partnership) is critical […]

Pass-Through Losses

Losses passed through from partnerships and S corporations are reported on Schedule E, page 2, but cannot be deducted unless they exceed the partner or shareholder’s basis in the trade or business, and the losses are both at risk and generated from a nonpassive activity. Is your ownership in a partnership or S corporation nonpassive? […]

Capital Gain Harvesting

If the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire at the end of 2012, tax rates on long-term capital gains will increase substantially in 2013. To combat the increase in future taxes on their investment portfolio, taxpayers should consider and determine whether capital gain harvesting is an appropriate tax planning strategy for their situation. Have […]