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Working from home has become commonplace. But just because you have a home office space doesn’t mean you can deduct expenses associated with it. And for 2018, even fewer taxpayers will be eligible for a home office deduction. Changes under the TCJA For employees, home office expenses are a miscellaneous itemized deduction. For 2017, this [...]

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), individual income tax rates generally go down for 2018 through 2025. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your income tax liability will go down. The TCJA also makes a lot of changes to tax breaks for individuals, reducing or eliminating some while expanding others. The total impact of [...]

Whether you had a child in college (or graduate school) last year or were a student yourself, you may be eligible for some valuable tax breaks on your 2017 return. One such break that had expired 12/31/16, was just extended under the recently passed Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018: the tuition and fees deduction. But [...]

Are you a high-income small-business owner who doesn’t currently have a tax-advantaged retirement plan set up for yourself? A Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) may be just what you need, and now may be a great time to establish one. A SEP has high contribution limits and is simple to set up. Best of all, there’s [...]

S corporations must comply with several strict requirements or risk losing their tax-advantaged status. Among other things, they can have no more than 100 shareholders, can have no more than one class of stock and are permitted to have only certain types of shareholders. In an estate planning context, it’s critical that any trusts that [...]

With rising health care costs, claiming whatever tax breaks related to health care that you can is more important than ever. But there’s a threshold for deducting medical expenses that may be hard to meet. Fortunately, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) has temporarily reduced the threshold. What expenses are eligible? Medical expenses may [...]

Individual taxpayers who itemize their deductions can deduct either state and local income taxes or state and local sales taxes. The ability to deduct state and local taxes — including income or sales taxes, as well as property taxes — had been on the tax reform chopping block, but it ultimately survived. However, for 2018 [...]

As posted to the Naomi Brockwell You Tube Channel on 2/10/18 Naomi Brockwell sits down with Dr. Ron Paul at the recent Satoshi Roundtable in Cancun to discuss the importance of  cryptocurrency.  Dr. Paul has championed the concept of having a currency that the government can't control long before the advent of cryptocurrencies.  He references [...]

With bonus depreciation, a business can recover the costs of depreciable property more quickly by claiming additional first-year depreciation for qualified assets. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), signed into law in December, enhances bonus depreciation. Typically, taking this break is beneficial. But in certain situations, your business might save more tax long-term by [...]

As posted by Thomson Reuters on 2/12/18 On 2/9/18, Congress passed, and the President signed into law, H.R. 1892, the "Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018" (the Budget Act). In addition to providing a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through 3/23/18, this 2-year budget contains a host of tax law changes. The Budget Act [...]

As posted by Thomson Reuters on 1/23/18 Enacted on 12/22/17, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) added §199A, which applies to tax years 2018-2025. Under this new provision, individuals, estates, and trusts may deduct up to 20% of their Qualified Business Income (QBI) from sole proprietorships (including farms) and pass-through entities. This means that [...]

As posted to the Harry S. Dent, Jr. You Tube Channel on 1/26/18 https://youtu.be/_NyXg2egGds Harry Dent takes a look back at what we saw play out in 2017 . . . and uses his trademark "cycle analysis" to look ahead to what 2018 will have in store for the markets, currencies and industries across the [...]

Some insurance companies offer employee dishonesty coverage to protect businesses against loss of money and property due to criminal acts by employees. This can be valuable protection. But before you buy a policy, it’s important to understand what you’re getting. What it does In addition to covering businesses against theft of money, property and securities, [...]