Feature Article

Just in – the IRS dropped a hot alert about the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), and it's time to pay attention . With the March 22, 2024, deadline creeping up for the ERC Voluntary Disclosure Program, it's crucial for those who mistakenly filed a claim to take action. This program lets businesses repay just 80% of the claimed amount, so it's a chance to make things right. If your clients filed a claim that's still in the pipeline, it's time for a double-check. Review the guidelines ASAP and withdraw the claim if it doesn't pass muster.

Tax shelters offered high income taxpayers an easy way to reduce and even eliminate federal income taxes at the individual level. The growing tax avoidance schemes, many questionable in nature, threatened to collapse the U.S. tax system. Hence the need for tax reform and the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA). New rules cannot keep a tax professional down. Real estate was once again the favorite tool for reducing taxes. Enter cost segregation. Couple that with bonus depreciation and the automatic change of accounting method using Form 3115 , and you have a recipe for serious tax reduction. The tax shelters of the 1970s were often questionable. Cost segregation is still a valid way to accelerate deductions for income property owners. But none of that compares to the tax benefits available under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the IRA).

Lane Grigsby is back in the “news” as one of the major backers and advisers of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, but that’s not what gets the chairman of Cajun Construction in Think Outside the Tax Box. For that, we have a recent decision in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote the opinion, and it’s all about the research credit.

Somebody I consult for threw a kind of oddball fact pattern at me. Their client, “Terry,” owns a big house with many rooms in a kind of resort type area. Terry rents the rooms out on a short-term basis averaging three or four days and provides no other services. Between this and that, Terry ends up spending about 15 hours a week. The big concern comes from Terry buying a cost segregation study, which will mean a big loss. Can Terry use the loss in the year incurred, or will it be suspended? And is the income subject to self-employment tax in the future? I thought the answers to those questions were the same, but we learned from the Chief Counsel’s Office, one of those things is not like the other.

Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the federal government is giving out tens of billions of dollars in tax credits to incentivize taxpayers to purchase electric vehicles. As with any government program, claiming the benefits can be complicated. Since Congress used tax credits to deliver the program, and the personal tax credits are income-limited, tax planning can help a taxpayer who would otherwise not qualify for these benefits. This article will briefly overview the two personal electric vehicle tax credits, followed by several tax planning strategies to unlock these credits for taxpayers who may not otherwise qualify.

The S corporation is a powerful tool for small business owners to manage their business efficiently and reduce payroll taxes on owner’s profits. The primary benefit small business owners get, when organized as an S corporation, is the opportunity to avoid payroll taxes on distributions after paying reasonable compensation. A reasonable wage/salary is a must for shareholder-employee/s. However, the shareholder-employee soon discovers that the lower her wage is, the lower the payroll taxes. Why not pay no wage? Or only a token wage? Of course, the IRS knows those tricks and requires the company to pay “reasonable compensation” to shareholder-employees so they’ll submit proper payroll taxes. The IRS can adjust wages to reflect reasonable compensation. Family members of the shareholder must also receive reasonable compensation for services rendered. In this article we will begin by debunking urban legends surrounding S corporation reasonable compensation followed by calculating a reasonable compensation package before finishing with a strategy.

Question: Should I even bother assisting my clients with filing new ERC claims? Answer: In light of the IRS's recent moratorium on processing new Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims and the introduction of a withdrawal option for certain employers, it's understandable that you might be wondering whether to assist your clients with filing new claims. The answer, like a well-prepared tax return, is nuanced and deserves a detailed examination.

Any company engaged in e-commerce, i.e., selling online, knows that the ability to reach buyers and customers remotely can juice the bottom line. State and local tax jurisdictions around the country know that, too, especially the bottom line of their sales tax coffers. Now every state with a statewide sales tax has a threshold past which remote sellers must collect and remit state sales tax. Failure to do so can incur big penalties, or worse, and there’s a lot to know based on where and what you sell online.