Edition 42

You don’t have to be a tax geek to know the IRS has trouble picking up the phone. Old habits die hard. If you have a tax question, what do you do? You call the IRS. Good luck with that. You’ll be on hold for a long time if you can get through at all. The IRS initiated a call-back feature, but it’s not always available. The hold music is uninspiring; sometimes, after holding for hours, you get the dreaded “courtesy disconnect.” Yikes! Let’s face it. The IRS has a full plate; years of doing more with less have crippled the agency. Congress is quick to excoriate the IRS for poor service but keeps piling on more tasks (without necessary funding). Luckily, the IRS is working hard to provide more and better online applications and resources. There’s a lot out there, some well-known, some not so well-known, click here to take a tour and discover which shortcuts will help you most.

It’s challenging at times to understand the passive activity loss guidelines. Many taxpayers are not fully aware of the rules or how they could affect investments and transactions. There are some details that, if not taken care of in advance, could have serious detrimental tax effects. The way to handle self-rentals in relation to the passive activity loss rules is one of these subtleties. Although many professionals know the self-rental regulations, there are some circumstances that can result in a loss of desired tax benefits. To continue learning about a general overview of the self-rental provision and the passive activity requirements and how to maximize your deductions from them, keep reading. You will also learn the effects of selling an operating company with a self-rental property still on the books.

Office security. It’s for you and your small business clients. Sometimes small business clients who have relatively low-tech operations don’t think they need to think much about office security. That’s just not true. Almost every small business has some level of liability exposure for theft of client information or their own information (banking, credit cards, account passwords, etc.)—even businesses that don’t consider themselves “web based” or “high tech” may have client or company proprietary information they want to keep secure and private. Often business owners focus on cyber security (and with good reason). But a good, comprehensive security plan creates a safety triangle around important information and the property that holds it. The three sides of this triangle are cyber security, physical security, and (at the base of it all) operations security. Keep reading to secure your future!

We’re hosting a live open discussion forum to help educate you on the new Inflation Reduction Act! The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) makes some big promises: lower energy costs, provide tax credits for electric vehicles, negotiate cheaper medications for seniors, deliver faster tax refunds, and create more responsive IRS agents! How all these promises are paid for and how they impact the average American are already the topic of intense debate and, in some cases, the cause of outright fear! In fact, there has been so much concern and debate around this new bill that we’ve decided to hold a town hall on the subject! Keep reading to get all the details...