Real Estate Strategies

The 2025 court decision, Kwong v. United States, is quietly gaining traction among tax professionals for exactly these reasons. Its implications could be far-reaching, potentially opening the door to refund claims, penalty abatements, and revived tax deadlines that many assumed were long closed. But there’s a catch: the opportunity to act may be time-sensitive, and the window to preserve claims could begin closing in just a few short weeks. Here’s what the court actually decided and why it matters now.

Two veteran clients with seemingly similar financial profiles can end up with very different outcomes, simply based on where they live and how informed they are. Much of that difference comes down to smaller, state-specific benefits that tend to sit just outside the typical planning checklist. But when layered alongside federal veteran benefits, they can reshape major decisions like where to buy a home or settle long-term. For advisors working with military families, recognizing how these state benefits show up in real life can go a long way in helping veteran clients feel seen, understood and better supported in the decisions ahead.

As tax professionals, we must recognize a profound truth that most Americans never fully grasp: The United States doesn't have a single tax system, it has two fundamentally different systems operating in parallel. Understanding this dichotomy is perhaps the most important insight you can share with your clients, as it forms the foundation for virtually every advanced tax strategy.

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.

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.

As I write this, the most recent Tax Court opinion on a syndicated conservation easement deal is Jackson Stone South LLC. Good chance there will be another before I finish. Estimates indicate that there are over a thousand docketed cases. Jackson Stone can serve as a pretty good example of how the conservation easement opinions have been going, basically not well for the taxpayers. So we will take a look at it, but mainly I want to look at what tax practitioners have to reflect on.

One of my greatest frustrations as a tax writer is that I just don’t have the time to cover everything that I notice. Early in my blogging career, when I was younger and had more energy, I set myself on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule like the college professors I envied. Even that did not keep up with everything I noticed, so periodically I would do a post that had short blurbs about interesting things I didn’t dig further on. Here is an example from 2010 of a post that covers an entity not considered a church by the IRS, S corp shareholder basis issues, definition of alimony and two Chief Counsel Advices on TEFRA issues. So here are some things for 2025, that I opened a file on but never managed to make an article with.

So as I did last year, I have reviewed a multitude of year-end tax tips articles. One of them is a real standout that you should be sure to check out. If you missed it, you should definitely roll back to the November 15 edition and go over Dominique Molina’s piece, which focuses on what you need to do sooner rather than later in response to OBBBA. It provides more detailed, relevant, actionable advice that you won’t see anywhere else than any of the multitude of pieces I have reviewed. As for the rest, I will give you a basic rundown of what I call the SOSO (same old, same old) and a few suggestions that stand out as different that I will get into a little more along with some thoughts of my own.