Taxes

Small Business Owners Can Protect their Bottom Line from Taxes with a Defined Benefit Pension Plan. NurPhoto via Getty Images Paying fewer taxes is imperative for small business owners and the employed. The year 2020 will be challenging for many business owners, but if your business is still bringing in a nice income, you could

Woman dealing with taxes on her retirement savings. Getty Are you setting yourself up for a tax problem caused by your retirement savings? Too often, people hear the tax-deductible and tax-deferred side of the story and assume that means tax-free. Not so, unfortunately. Recently a new client shared that she had made a withdrawal after

Income on a K-1 flickr Editorial/Getty Images If you ever receive a K-1 from a partnership, send it to your accountant without looking at it and expect that your accountant is tracking things thoroughly, pay attention. If you do your own return, pay even closer attention. IRS efforts to tighten up partnership reporting may be

WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 27: The Internal Revenue Service headquarters building appeared to be mostly … [+] empty April 27, 2020 in the Federal Triangle section of Washington, DC. The IRS called about 10,000 volunteer employees back to work Monday at 10 of its mission critical locations to work on taxpayer correspondence, handling tax documents,

Woman Wrapping Present in Money Getty The deduction for charitable contributions is a centenarian that’s been through a lot since its 1917 inception. The coronavirus crisis could set the stage for the next major revision of section 170, and the most popular option seems to be expanding the deduction. It’s unsurprising that there’s now a call

TOPLINE The flood of new retail investors making speculative stock trades are not behind the market’s recent rally, according to new research from Barclays which found that many of Robinhood users’ top picks tended to underperform. Robinhood customers piling into a stock usually resulted in lower returns, Barclays found. Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

If you have a taxable estate, consider yourself fortunate. I often tell clients, “paying estate taxes is a good problem to have.” It is better than the alternative – dying with few or no assets. But sometimes little thought is given to who will pay these estate taxes. An estate tax is a one-time tax

In a recent interview, attorney Steven J. Oshins and CPA Bob Keebler described the current estate planning environment as a “perfect storm”. The unified credit amount is $11.4 Million per person; the interest rates are at an unprecedented low of 0.6% (June 2020);  the CARES Act waives the Required Minimum Distributions from Retirement Plans; market volatility

Closeup of weightlifter clapping hands before barbell workout at the gym Getty In the latest episode of Willis Weighs In, Benjamin Willis, contributing editor for Tax Notes Federal, and Jasper Smith, executive editor for commentary for Tax Notes, discuss Ben’s journey from the foster care system in Providence, Rhode Island to one of the tax industry’s must-watch thought

Getty On March 20, 2020, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin extended the tax filing and payment deadline for federal income tax to July 15, 2020. This relief includes estimated payments for the first and second quarters. You can find more information and guidance here. Some states have also extended filing and payment deadlines – but not all of

TOPLINE The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged on Wednesday and indicated that they’ll likely remain near zero until at least 2022 as the economy tries to recover from the coronavirus recession. The central bank expects the economy to shrink by 6.5% this year. Jacquelyn Martin/ASSOCIATED PRESS KEY FACTS The Fed painted a grim view of

Economic Security Planning, Inc. Today’s column addresses questions about Social Security’s assumptions about continuing income when estimating future benefits, spousal benefits before retirement benefits, disability benefits, totalization and spousal benefit eligibility. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc, which markets Maximize My

Tax returns are due April 15 most years, but 2020 has hardly been a normal year. The IRS moved the big April 15 tax filing deadline to July 15, but that will be here before you know it. There was widespread speculation that the IRS would extend the July 15 deadline further, but the IRS

Getty You can go from house poor — spending too much or at least more than you’d like on housing — to becoming house rich and you don’t necessarily need to downsize your home to extract more value from it. In our case, we upsized our home while still netting a big sum. Covid-19 has

POLAND – 2020/03/23: In this photo illustration a Bitcoin logo seen displayed on a smartphone. … [+] (Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images If you are a cryptocurrency “trader” in the eyes of the IRS, you may be able to greatly benefit from a frequently overlooked tax

Getty According to Johns Hopkins, the United States has confirmed nearly two million cases of COVID-19. With many businesses closed and taxpayers still waiting on stimulus checks, scammers are capitalizing on the shaky economic climate to cheat and steal. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reminding taxpayers to be on guard against tax fraud and other related financial

Deaths from excessive force by police should be investigated like medical mistakes or airline … [+] crashes, says a law professor who studies organizational accidents. Getty While the police officers involved in the death of George Floyd face criminal charges, those consequences for excessive force by police are unusual. After analyzing data on police prosecutions,

null Getty Democrats and Republicans are demanding answers from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the heels of a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The report, released last week, identified 879,415 high income nonfilers, defined by the IRS as those with income of at least $100,000

Economic Security Planning, Inc. Today’s column addresses questions about whether it’s still possible to delay filing till 70 if a spouse files at 66, getting both retirement and child-in-care spousal benefits, the calculation of divorced spousal benefits, the earnings test and uncompleted online applications. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and

TOPLINE New estimates from the Congressional Budget Office show that extending the extra $600 unemployment benefits until 2021 would boost consumer spending but stifle growth in other areas.  The US Capitol on March 26, 2020, in Washington, DC. AFP via Getty Images KEY FACTS The CBO estimates that if the benefits are extended until January