Blog Posts
Reverse Mortgages
Individuals who are unwilling or unable to sell their home, and need additional income during retirement,may benefit from a reverse mortgage. Payments received on a reverse mortgage are not taxable to the individual. Tax-free Income. A reverse mortgage can be used to...
How Social Security Benefits Are Calculated
Social Security retirement benefits are based on the following: Lifetime earnings Age at time of retirement Lifetime Earnings Higher lifetime earnings result in higher benefits. The highest 35 years are used to calculate average monthly earnings. Each year is indexed...
Employee or Independent Contractor?
In order for a business owner to know how to treat payments made to workers for services, he or she must first know the business relationship that exists between the business and the person performing the services. A worker’s status determines what taxes are paid and...
Business Expenses – Travel, Lodging and Meals
Deductible Expenses In order to be a deductible, business expenses for travel, lodging, and meals must be ordinary and necessary. An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your trade or business. A necessary expense is one that is helpful and...
Deduct Your Costs of Sponsoring Sports Teams
Have you wondered what it takes to deduct the costs of sponsoring a sports team? What if you play on the team? Could you pay for the team travel expenses? Revenue Ruling 70-393 states that the monies spent to outfit and support a sports team are similar to monies...
When the Second Office in the Home Is a Principal Place of Business
When possible, you want to claim that your office in your home qualifies as a principal place of business because this classification gives you the home-office deduction, and eliminates commuting from your home to your regular office. Current law gives you two ways to...
Employee Recreation and Parties Survive TCJA Tax Reform
When you know the rules, you can party with your employees and deduct 100 percent of the cost. Interestingly, if you feed your employees during a training program, your deduction is only 50 percent. Make sure you know the rules that give you the 100 percent deduction...
What Can I Do If My K-1 Omits 199A Information?
Tax reform’s Section 199A deduction often confuses small-business owners and tax professionals alike. It’s quite possible you’ll get a Schedule K-1 from a business that omits the information you need to calculate your deduction. What do you do? You have a big problem....
Terminating Your S Corporation Election
Tax reform may have you thinking of changing your S corporation to a C corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. With such a switch, you need to consider: How do I terminate the S corporation election correctly? What are the tax consequences to me? If you want...
Improvement Property Update
Qualified improvement property is any improvement to the interior portion of a building that is nonresidential real property (think office buildings and shopping centers) if you place the improvement in service after the date you place the building in service....