Business Strategies

The influencer marketing industry was able to grow during Covid as many advertisers had to adjust or cancel their marketing campaigns. This was because more people were sitting at home consuming content on social media. This new opportunity for smaller influencers has created a new group of taxpayers who need to know their new filing obligations. They’ll also be open to tax planning strategies that you have to help them reduce their tax liability.

For me, the most exciting Tax Court opinion of 2025 was Judge Joseph Goeke's supplement to his 2024 opinion in the case of Gary M. Schwarz. With a $1,851,878 tax deficiency, it is the largest hobby loss opinion since 2019. (The really big dollar cases tend to settle.)

The most successful accountants aren’t the ones who pitch the hardest, they’re the ones who listen the most. When you ask better questions, you can diagnose problems that clients didn’t even know they had, which then helps us clarify outcomes instead of listing services. When we shift from “convincing” to “consulting,” discovery calls stop being “sales” conversations and start becoming advisory conversations. And advisory conversations naturally lead to advisory engagements.

In tighter job markets, recruits are often offered signing bonuses (and sometimes moving expenses) to join a firm. Sometimes construction workers temporarily relocate to jobs in other states while they are employed by the company that hired them in their home state. This article reviews some of the foundational tax concepts to consider when evaluating sourcing of income for state tax purposes.

The Cohan rule is named for George M. Cohan. George Michael Cohan (1878 – 1942) was a theatrical producer. In the decade before World War I, he was called the “man who owned Broadway” and is considered the father of American musical comedy. In 1940 he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his contribution to morale during World War I with his songs “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Over There,” the first time the medal was awarded to someone in an artistic field. But his most enduring legacy may be the tax rule that shared its name.

Let’s be direct: AI is one of the most powerful capacity tools tax professionals have seen in decades. Used correctly, it buys you time you can reinvest into high-value advisory: planning, structuring, audits, negotiations, strategy, client education, and relationship building. But here’s the catch that you as an elite tax practitioner already understand: aggressive planning requires rigorous defensibility. If you’re going to use AI to accelerate complex planning work, your defense file must be stronger, not weaker. This playbook gives you that: a practical framework that keeps you safe while you scale.

The mere mention of a WISP makes most tax professionals want to suddenly lose their internet connection. It sounds bureaucratic, technical, and deeply unfun. But here’s the good news: creating and maintaining a WISP does not have to feel like a compliance root canal. And ignoring it can turn into something far worse than an IRS audit. Let’s talk about why you need one, what it’s actually supposed to do, and how to get it done without wrecking your sanity in the middle of filing season.

Part of preparing to leave a high state tax is facing up to the fact that the tax collectors of high-tax states can be kind of clingy. There is more to changing your residence for tax purposes than simple steps like a new driver’s license and a change in voter registration.