Guest Article

It has never been harder to do quality tax research than at any time in my 43-year career in tax accounting. In the 1980s, when I was part-time in the industry, there was no internet. Since I was part-time, I ordered Publications 1132, 17, and 334. The rest I found at the library. A few hearty souls might even remember when the post office had stacks of tax forms for the public. Once I went full-time for the 1989 tax season I needed more resources. CCH was my tool of choice. I still used IRS publications and the library. My handy reference guide of choice was, and still is, the QuickFinder. I never used TaxBook much, but it is another good resource for general answers. Then came the internet. The promise was that we would have the world at our fingertips. And for the large part we did, only we forgot some things we would rather keep at an arm’s length. The internet slowly allowed us to replace rooms in our office filled with tax guides and forms with online resources. Law offices and accounting firms often wrote tax articles on narrow tax subjects. Research was easier than ever. Then came AI.

If you spend any time in the world of cross-border taxes, you start to notice a pattern: the hardest problems usually begin with a deceptively simple question—who gets to tax you? And the answer is rarely as simple as “the country where I live.” That’s because tax systems don’t rely on just one concept to decide who belongs in their net. They use citizenship, residency, and domicile. These terms sound similar, and people often use them interchangeably in casual conversation, but in tax law they mean very different things. For globally mobile individuals, understanding the difference matters. You can be a U.S. citizen, a tax resident of another country, and still have your long-term home base tied to a different jurisdiction altogether. Each label can trigger different tax consequences, different filing obligations, and different planning opportunities.

The simplest way to reduce your taxable income from an S corporation is to take some of the gross receipts directly into your personal account without running them through the corporate books. Don’t mention this to your tax preparer and make sure they don’t find out. If you get caught by the IRS, though, hire an expert to explain why it is your preparer’s fault. This plan did not work all that well for a couple, both physicians, who were running two medical family medical clinics through an S Corporation called MedExpress. They ended up being liable for the fraud penalty which has the collateral effect of extending the statute of limitations indefinitely. At 75% the fraud penalty is as bad as it can get without losing your liberty.

Follow-up isn’t nagging. Follow-up is leadership. It’s how we stay relevant, reduce decision friction, and serve prospects who genuinely need help but are overwhelmed, distracted, or uncertain. And if we’re honest, it’s also where a lot of revenue is quietly lost—not because people say “no,” but because they drift. There’s an old saying: the riches are in the follow-up. In public accounting, that’s not hype. It’s math.

We all know how messy tax returns can get when couples who used to file jointly divorce and there are children (and tax credits) involved. It’s often difficult to explain the rules surrounding Head of Household filing status and the various tax credits available to parent-clients who have separated or divorced. But what happens when the clients misunderstand and decide to fight about it in family or divorce court? The following case study says “nothing good” can be a horrifying and frustrating answer to this question.

Remember the dreaded student loan “tax bomb?” For the past few years, it's been easy to forget about it. Thanks to a temporary federal tax exclusion enacted during the pandemic, borrowers who received student loan forgiveness between 2021 and 2025 generally didn't have to include that forgiven debt in their taxable income — leaving many borrowers (and their advisors) to wonder if the tax bomb would eventually disappear for good. Unfortunately, Congress allowed the temporary exclusion to expire. Beginning in 2026, forgiven student loan balances may once again be treated as taxable income. While that sounds like a major change, the reality is that most borrowers didn’t benefit from these tax-free years in the first place. For most borrowers, forgiveness is still years away, and there’s no crystal ball for what future federal policymakers may do. In the meantime, advisors may need to revisit planning conversations that many assumed were behind them. And depending on where a borrower lives, their federal tax bill may be only part of the story.

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.

Consider this article your periodic reminder that, for married taxpayers, filing jointly is an election and not the default (and certainly not the only) filing status option. It is important in a busy practice to remember to offer this option to clients who may benefit from filing separately, even if they don't ask.