With year-end approaching, it is time to start thinking about moves that may help lower your tax bill for this year and next. This year’s planning is more challenging than usual due to changes made by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the SECURE 2.0 Act. With year-end approaching, it is time to start thinking about moves that may help lower your tax bill for this year and next. This year’s planning is more challenging than usual due to changes made by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the SECURE 2.0 Act. Whether or not tax increases become effective next year, the standard year ..read more

With year-end approaching, it is time to start thinking about moves that may help lower your business's taxes for this year and next.  C corporations should take into account the 15% corporate minimum tax. We have compiled a list of actions based on current tax rules that may help you save tax dollars if you act before year-end. Not all of them will apply to you or your business, but you may benefit from many of them. We can narrow down specific actions when we meet to tailor a particular plan for your business, In the meantime, please review the following list and contact us at your e ..read more

How to make doing good a little less frightening financially. Many individuals are familiar, at least somewhat, with the ability to take some (or all) of their required minimum distribution (RMD) from an individual retirement account (IRA) and donate it to a qualified nonprofit organization.  This process, known as making a qualified charitable distribution (QCD), eliminates the need to report the RMD as taxable income; this can be a way to avoid having the RMD increase taxable income and popping the taxpayer into a higher tax bracket.  Conversely, if the RMD that is directed to cha ..read more

Catching many businesses by surprise, this Act kicks in with filing requirements as early as January 1, 2024. Protecting privacy of the underlying business owners has been a key tenet of the incorporation and organizational laws of many states.  Regardless of the valid desires in many cases to provide that privacy protection, Congress determined that disclosure of entity ownership is required - despite the laws of individual states.  Out of concerns about foreign terrorists and money laundering going undetected, The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) was created by Congress to requir ..read more

Having a business fail for lack of employees was unheard of 10 years ago. The problem existed for many businesses long before the pandemic, but it certainly went to a whole new level from 2020 to the present.  Almost every business has dealt with the problem of the scarcity of good employees since the pandemic in 2020, and many businesses have been dealing with this issue for many more years.  Certainly since 2020, the issue has been compounded by the Great Resignation and the massive increase in remote working.  The ultimately painful and fundamental answer for businesses will ..read more

Improve profitability, reduce the opportunity for fraud, focus on your core business, eliminate excuses for tardy financial data - what's not to love about outsourcing your accounting? It’s a big step, no doubt. Turning over the bookkeeping and accounting responsibilities to a third party can seem like a scary proposition. The vast majority of business owners have had an accounting department as long as they can remember, and keeping status quo can be comforting.  But far too often status quo does not work.  How many times should a business owner be willing to risk making bad decisi ..read more

ESOPs have been around for years; they could be a solution for ownership transition. August 16, 2023 Gregory S. Dowell Possibly you have heard of an ESOP before (no connection to Aesop, the legendary Greek who spun fables filled with wisdom), but they sounded too complicated for your business.  At their best, ESOPs can create a market for a small business, foster a greater degree of employee participation and commitment, and maintain the culture of a business, rather than seeing that culture disappear via a merger.  As business owners struggle with succession planning in a very dif ..read more

by Gregory S. Dowell Updated May 16, 2023 Spring is the traditional kick-off to wedding season, and thoughts quickly turn to the wedding venue, gifts, the happy couple, and, of course, the guest list.  Lurking somewhere in the shadows, behind even that strange uncle you barely know, is another guest that needs to be considered:  The tax impact on the newlyweds.  To start, newlyweds will have two options for filing their income taxes in the year of marriage:  Filing status can either be married filing jointly, or married filing separately.  In the vast majority of c ..read more

Don't forget a birthday, anniversary, or any of these tax filing dates . . . It used to be pretty easy to figure out – tax returns for most entities were due on April 15 th every year. Over the years and for a variety of reasons – some good, some not so good – due dates have changed and a cheat sheet is needed to keep track of them. Here is a look at the major tax due dates throughout 2023: January 17, 2023. Individuals. Make a payment of estimated tax for 2022 if not enough 2022 income tax has been withheld. Use Form 1040-ES, or pay by various electronic means. This is the final installme ..read more

The IRS asks taxpayers to wait to file 1040s if they received rebate payments from their state in 2022. The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source ..read more