Guest Article

Late on a Friday afternoon at the end of June 2024, the IRS dropped nearly 400 pages of new Digital Asset (née Cryptocurrency) Guidance. Most of it related to the forthcoming form 1099-DA. Along with the massive tome of terrible bedside reading, the service also published two new Notices and a Revenue Procedure. The Notices were about boring stuff, like temporary penalty abatement for backup withholding on digital asset transactions. This Revenue Procedure, however, will impact nearly every taxpayer that owned crypto prior to January 1, 2025. This procedure, RP 2024-28, has gone largely unnoticed thus far. On the surface, it seems like a godsend to taxpayers. Below the surface though, it is a ticking time bomb.

In late June, IRS announced it would be mailing out a time-limited settlement offer that would allow taxpayers who are haunted by an investment in a syndicated conservation easement to settle. As I write this, the terms of the settlement have leaked. They strike me as overly generous. It does seem that the syndicated easement campaign of the IRS is coming to a close.

No client’s ever happy about having to pay state income tax in addition to federal, but at least in the past that chore was straightforward: Make money in a state, probably the one where you live and work, and you owe tax on what you made if that state has an income tax. Enter the computer and the fax machine, later the modem, email and Zoom. Then enter the pandemic and widespread remote work from home that’s largely lingered after Covid faded. Cap it off with the new maneuver of moving from a high-tax state to a low-tax one but not completely severing all former work and life connections. It is any surprise, really, that states would try to squeeze tax revenue out of that using regulations still unchanged from the past? And for punishing what that state suddenly thinks are tax cheats? Do you have a client a state might be interested in? How many states? And how do you actually know?

M&A activity during Q1 2024 has experienced the strongest start in two years, with over $549B in global deal volumes, representing a 28% increase from Q1 of 2023. However, gone are the days of easy financing and 0% interest rates – the federal funds rate is currently between 5.25% - 5.50%, forcing taxpayers to rethink their deal structures and consider certain tax cost optimizing strategies, which are discussed in this article.

Digital marketing is always changing, and as accountants, we must find innovative ways to connect with our prospects and clients. Enter video marketing—a dynamic tool revolutionizing how financial professionals communicate complex concepts, build trust, and cultivate lasting client relationships. In this article, I will expand on the key benefits of video content, its transformative power for accountants, practical implementation tips, and strategies for measuring impact.

Cutting some clients loose is challenging yet vital. You can only hope for so long that a difficult client will improve before you have to make the decision that he or she simply isn’t worth it to your bottom line. Some clients also make it harder to service your good clients – if not risk your reputation and expose you to a malpractice claim. When you consider firing a client, you do have to trust your gut – but some objective measurements can point you to the right decision. Here are the signs of a bad (and potentially bad) client and formulas and tips to tell if you can do without their business.

What seemed to be a slow month turned out to have some intriguing developments, a new online petition generator for self-representeds, and new Judges joining the Tax Court bench (at long last).

The past month we've explored how side hustles can affect your client's taxes. You're now equipped to help them avoid most side hustle tax tussles, but there is one other major area of the gig economy that we must cover. That is when your clients decide to share their personal property for a fee. Don't confuse this concept of the share economy with your client renting out real estate, like we discussed in part 2. The IRS has a different definition for personal property, one that does not include real estate. Which, you guessed it, means there are different tax implications. To help you avoid tax tussles for your clients, we're going cover the following: ● What's the difference between personal property and real estate? ● Where do we report personal property rental income? ● What can we deduct from personal property rental income?