Business Strategies

CPAs routinely help clients improve tax efficiency, yet one of the most consequential advisory questions is whether the business itself could remain operational after a significant uninsured loss. Tax planning improves after-tax cash flow and strengthens annual performance, but continuity planning determines whether the enterprise can withstand disruption long enough to recover. When an adverse event threatens operations, liquidity and stability often matter more than marginal tax savings. For that reason, the discussion of risk funding deserves to sit alongside traditional tax strategy in any comprehensive advisory relationship.

A lot of client meetings still start with the same assumptions: W-2 in a U.S. state, mortgage nearby, a 401(k), maybe some RSUs, and a college-savings plan. Yet many of those “simple” clients now own an apartment in another country, freelance for a foreign company, or have parents wiring money from overseas. The tax code does not see those details as background color; it treats them as organizing facts. This is where citizenship, residency, and domicile quietly step onto center stage. For planners, the challenge is not memorizing every cross-border rule. It is knowing when a client is no longer “just domestic” and shifting your planning framework before you stumble into penalties, double taxation, or blown opportunities.

Recent developments in the Section 183 (Hobby loss) area have not led me to change my basic conclusions. Taxpayers who have a sincere objective of ultimately making a profit should not hesitate to claim losses from the underlying activities. That is so even if you believe that profits are improbable. It is critical that they meet the standard of behaving in a businesslike manner. The other regulatory factors should not be ignored, but often there is not that much you can do about them. Reilly’s 18th Law of Tax Planning – Honest objective trumps realistic expectation.

Income shifting strategies address taxation at its most fundamental level by directing income to taxpayers in lower brackets or with offsetting deductions. Unlike many tax strategies that merely time recognition or enhance deductions, effective income shifting can permanently reduce the tax burden on a given dollar of income—often creating tax savings that compound year after year. In this article, we'll explore systematic approaches to income shifting that create extraordinary value for clients while maintaining impeccable compliance.

We’ve all said it: “Once busy season ends, we’ll fix this.” But the pressure never leaves, it just shifts. Extensions, quarter-end, planning season, and year-end come one after another. When a firm wants to grow, the real challenge is not, “Can we get more clients?” but, “Can we deliver quality service at scale without overburdening our team or diminishing client experience?” This is the true capacity problem behind growth.

Many taxpayers have lived with a frustrating mismatch since the Section 163(j) limitation tightened after 2021 – the business may generate plenty of cash, yet its interest deductions are limited because adjusted taxable income (“ATI”) is too low, e.g., due to capex. The 2025 restoration of depreciation and amortization addbacks makes ATI planning relevant again, especially for groups that own valuable intangible property (“IP”), and the choice of legal entity to house group IP may have very different tax consequences as discussed in this article.

In recognition of the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, let’s review 250 years of tax history. Our nation’s tax systems have evolved over two and a half centuries as ways of doing business and living have changed. Also, expectations of services the public wants and needs from the government have grown, resulting in tax changes to generate increasing amounts of tax revenue. Along the way, lawmakers have considered principles of simplification, equity, fairness, economic growth and effective tax administration that have shaped our tax laws. This article offers questions and answers to cover a range of interesting aspects of our federal tax history.

Two recent Tax Court opinions , both about the same transaction, reinforce the importance of a contemporaneous written acknowledgement (CWA) to solidify charitable contributions. It is a good illustration of Reilly’s Fourth Law of Tax Planning – Execution isn’t everything, but it’s a lot.