Author: Tony Novak
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Biggest tax news of the year: 30 million will owe IRS this spring
The biggest tax news of the year came out buried inside the pages of a report issued last month by the General Accounting Office. I call this the ‘biggest news’ because it adversely affects almost 30 million people. The people most likely to be affected are upper middle income taxpayers – in other words, my…
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HRA for a sole proprietor business
(This inform is not updated to reflect 2019 proposed regulations so should be presumed to be partially obsolete). This podcast discusses the two main issues controlling a Health Reimbursement Arrangement in a sole proprietorship. Spoiler alert: it is possible but there are no income tax benefits for the business owner so it rarely makes sense…
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Three QuickBooks insights
Intuit is the world’s leading publisher of tax and accounting software. The company offers both self-serve and professionally assisted platforms. These published insights are useful: 1. QuickBooks dominates QuickBooks is used by 82% of small businesses that use accounting software. The market dominance speaks for itself, 2. Small business prefer getting help Nine out of…
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Capital gains indexing overview
The Treasury Department’s current proposal to index cap gains would certainly save a lot of money for some people. News coverage refers to the proposal as “Tax Cuts 2.0”. This single proposal would cut federal income taxes by $102 billion over the next decade. 86% of the savings would go to top 1% wealthiest people.…
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Simple tip: keep electronic bank statements
This might be the simplest tax tip I ever offer: Download and securely store copies of all your bank statements for all your accounts. Very few individuals and businesses actually do this but in the event of a tax audit, it will save a lot of time and worry. A few other tips along the…
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Abusive tax shelter still alive for the ultra-rich
This past week an interesting Appeals decision from a Tax Court case in the 9th Circuit was published in an older tax matter of Altera Corporation and Subsidiaries vs. IRS. I must immediately qualify the use of the word “interesting”. By any common usage this is not an interesting topic. This is a tax shelter…
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Accountant’s letter
Please read this if you are required to provide a letter from a Certified Public Accountant. I am pleased to provide accountant’s letters for various purposes. It may be a verification for litigation support or another type of legal proceeding, a letter for a mortgage lender, a bank loan or an employment issue. The American Institute…
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Are you hurt by the Trump tax hike?
Are you paying more in federal income taxes this year despite a promised tax cut? Across the nation over 8 million people fall into this category critically referred to in the news as the “Trump tax hike”. Here in New Jersey the situation is worse. By the next tax filing time in the spring of…
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Legal impact of residency and domicile
Taxes and a wide range of other legal and business issues are affected by the legal concepts of residency and domicile. Individuals who have physical connections to more than one state should carefully consider the implications of the laws in each state that may claim jurisdiction of any legal or business issue. In some cases it…