Category: Tax Planning
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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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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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Sample tax preparation and filing services engagement agreement
This page is outdated. A more recent version is available: Sample accounting services engagement agreement 2021
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US Treasury to introduce IRS “sucker cards”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that “Next week we will be unveiling the new 1040 and it will be a postcard as we promised.” After decades of moving Americans to a computerized online tax filing system the IRS is now reversing course and going back to promoting a physical post card based filing system…
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An overview of tax-free investments
Over the past few days I’ve spent time communicating with other financial writers online and skimming published articles on the topic of tax-free investments. In a world where most topics, especially most investment topics, are covered redundantly, it is surprising to learn that this topic has holes in media coverage and that much of the…
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Make small business payroll service pay for itself
Recently I published a series of short blog posts on the topic of payroll processing for small businesses. In summary, I’ve suggested that today’s automated payroll services are a fantastic value but that coördination and oversight by a small business compensation professional helps avoid problems and penalties that stem from miscommunication. I’ve suggested that the…
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Bigger isn’t better when it comes to tax advice
Small law firms and accounting firms sometimes feel ‘pushed out’ when it comes to a client’s largest transactions like the sale of a business or estate property. That’s usually not a good thing. “reliance on a promoter takes the good faith out of good-faith reliance.” – Tax Court Justice Holmes There’s a powerfully clear and simple…
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The battle to cut federal income taxes
Many of my clients are facing higher federal income taxes this year as a result of the so-called “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” that was passed by a slim minority of Republican lawmakers without the benefit of professional review that normally accompanies important fiscal social policy issues. While the law cuts taxes for most people,…
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Tax planning checklist for attorneys
The purpose of tax planning is to reduce tax liability by taking measures that cost less than the benefits received. The tax planning process typically begins with an analysis of the taxes paid now or in the last period, then moves to a pro-forma calculation of taxes in the current and future periods. It is always…
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Who benefits the most from tax planning?
Our tax laws provide more opportunity to some people than others. I find that some people can save tens of thousands of dollars with little effort through active tax planning while others might save only a thousand dollars or so. Obviously these high impact people are the ones that tax planners like me want to…