Home-Office Deduction If You Operate as a Corporation

Question What does the IRS audit manual say about the home office for an individual who operates his or her business as a corporation? Answer You will be interested in two boilerplate explanations from the Internal Revenue Manual that examiners use to explain why the IRS is denying the home-office deduction:1 We [the IRS] have […]

Health Savings Accounts: The Ultimate Retirement Account

Looking to save for retirement? The first account you should open and fund is not an IRA (regular or Roth) or 401(k). If you qualify, your first retirement account should be a Health Savings Account (HSA). Don’t let the name fool you.The HSA may be the ultimate retirement account. Not looking to save for retirement? […]

New Hope for Restoring and Fixing the Employee Retention Credit

As you may remember, two bad things happened to the Employee Retention Credit (ERC): On November 15, 2021, Congress retroactively repealed the ERC for the fourth quarter of 2021(except for start-up businesses). On August 4, 2021, the IRS issued the clearly irrational Notice 2021-49 stating that a corporateowner with certain living relatives does not qualify […]

Don’t Rob Yourself of the Home Internet Deduction

Given the connected nature of remote work these days, you likely use your home internet to do a little or a lot ofwork. In this article, you will learn how to deduct the cost of your home internet. The rules that apply to the home internetalso apply to all the other expenses incurred while working […]

Tax-Saving Tips

Is Your Sideline Activity a Business or a Hobby? Do you have a sideline activity that you think of as a business? From this sideline activity, are you claiming tax losses on your Form 1040? Will the IRS consider your sideline a business and allow your loss deductions? The IRS likes to claim that money-losing […]

Make Extra “Catch-Up” Contributions to Retirement Accounts: We Quantify the Benefit

After reaching age 50, you can make additional “catch-up” contributions to certain types of tax-advantaged retirement accounts. For the 2021 tax year, this opportunity is available if you’ll be age 50 or older on Friday, December 31, 2021. Specifically, with an employer-sponsored 401(k), 403(b), 457, or SIMPLE plan, you can make extra salary-reduction catch-up contributions […]

Ready, Set, Depreciate

When you buy real property (or personal property that lasts more than one year) to use in your business, you may have up to three options for deducting the cost: Regular depreciation Bonus depreciation IRC Section 179 expensing (technically, depreciation in advance) Regular depreciation takes several years. Bonus depreciation allows you, through 2022, to deduct […]

Vaccinated? Claim Tax Credits for Your Employees and Yourself

As the nation suffers from the ravages of the super-contagious COVID-19 delta variant, the federal government desperately wants all American workers and their families to get vaccinated. If you have employees, you probably feel the same way. Indeed, more and more employers are implementing vaccine mandates—a trend that will likely grow as the FDA gives […]