As you likely know by now, your travel meals continue under tax reform as tax-deductible meals subject to the 50 percent cut. And tax reform did not change the rules that apply to your other travel expense deductions. One beauty of being in business for yourself is the ability to pick your travel destinations and […]
Here’s the updated strategy on deducting business meals with your clients or customers: deduct your client and business meals as if tax reform never took place. At first glance it appeared that the new tax law that went into effect on January 1, 2018 would disallow business meal deductions along with entertainment. Looking deeper it
Mileage Log Required for Vehicle Tax Deductions When it comes to your tax records, there’s one record that you really must keep, and it’s easily overlooked. It’s the mileage log. In an IRS audit, the mileage log often creates the first impression of your tax records, and not having a good log is the biggest
Tax reform changes the alimony game. This may or may not have any relevance to you, but if it does, you will want to move quickly. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) eliminates tax deductions for alimony payments that are required under post-2018 divorce agreements. More specifically, the TCJA’s new denial of alimony tax
Here’s a link to an important article about keeping a eye on your social security earnings records. There are strict time limits on fixing any errors in your social security earnings record that you need to be aware of. Not correcting the error(s) in a timely fashion could cost you benefits for a lifetime. http://socialsecurityintelligence.com/check-your-social-security-earnings-statement-before-its-too-late/
Time Limit to Correct Social Security Earnings Statement Before It’s Too Late! Read More »
Traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) became available in 1974 and have been around ever since. This makes your odds of inheriting a traditional IRA pretty good. The purpose of this letter is to look at some of the rules that apply when you inherit an IRA from someone other than your spouse. Traditional
How To Handle a Traditional IRA Inherited from a Non-Spouse Read More »
I was asked about a parent helping a child buy a home, and that triggered the following five thoughts. Gift. You and your spouse can each gift $14,000 to your child and to the child’s spouse for a down payment. This gives you a tax-free gift of $56,000 using the gift exclusion, and your
How to Help Your Adult Child Buy a Home – the Tax-Friendly Way Read More »
There is some remarkably bad and wrong and hazardous-to-your-health information out there that—despite being repeatedly debunked—just will not go away. Some of those ideas are clearly erroneous, but others can snag even very bright people. Consider the case of Carter White Rae, a dentist in Michigan. He followed some bad advice and ended up
When it comes to tax advice, be careful whom you trust… Read More »
Five suspects have been arrested for involvement in a growing IRS impersonation scam that has bilked an estimated $36.5 million from 6,400 victims nationwide, federal officials said Tuesday. I have personally received many calls from clients and others saying that they have been contacted by the IRS to “pay up or go to jail”. As