Individual Strategies

Charitable Deduction Rules – No Excuses – Acknowledgements

There is a story I heard even before I started doing tax work when I was a hotel night auditor. It was about a guy named Joe who ran a luncheonette where he also sold newspapers and candy bars and the like. Joe’s Place was across the street from Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, a Catholic parish. Joe would see Father Mulcahey carrying a heavy bag every Monday morning. The good father was heading to the bank with the Sunday collection.

One day Joe invited him in for a cup of coffee and proposed a win/win. Joe was always running out of change on Sundays. So how about if Father Mulcahey has the ushers count the coins and bring them over, Joe would write a check for the coins, and the father will just have Joe’s check to bring to the bank on Monday? Then, Joe would deduct the check written to the church as a charitable deduction. It was a great plan and it worked well for several years until the IRS audited Joe and a skeptical IRS agent called on Father Mulcahey about Joe apparently being Our Lady’s biggest donor. After all, he had the canceled checks.

So if a canceled check to church on Sunday won’t work to document your charitable deduction, what will? Keep reading to find out!

Subscribe to Read the rest of the article

Think Outside the Tax Box provides tax reduction strategies along with practical implementation advice in order to reduce your clients’ federal tax bill with ease.

Already have an account? Sign in

CURRENT EDITION

The Wild West of Employee Retention Credits (ERC): Outlaws, Deputies, and Cowboys

Dominique Molina, CPA MST CTS

Gather ’round, pardners! The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) has been the latest gold rush in the tax frontier, drawing business owners, tax deputies, and even a few sly outlaws. But as the dust settles, the IRS—our law keeping sheriff—is on the hunt for any who might’ve bent the rules. In this frontier of finance, knowing who’s who can keep you out of trouble as the IRS rounds up dubious claims.

Selected Techniques to Monetize Tax Attributes

Ted Stotzer

In the prior article “Tax Trends in M&A and What It Means for Your Clients,” we had discussed certain techniques to, e.g., maximize net operating loss (“NOL”) and interest expense deduction utilization in the context of M&A transactions. This article examines certain additional strategies to monetize expiring, latent, or otherwise disallowed tax attributes.

Do Those Tricks Really Work?

Peter J Reilly CPA

On the website for Axium Wealth, Charles Dombek tells us that: “Most CPAs are historians that tell their clients how much they make, how much they owe, when and where to file their taxes, and oftentimes how to write large checks at the last minute when you least expect.” When it comes to Axium, though: “We help clients recover dollars they unnecessarily pay in State and Federal income taxes.” Axium also helps clients diversify capital into off-market passive real estate and alternative investments. Before Axium, there was The Optimal-Financial Group LLC. Of course many of the readers of Think Outside The Tax Box are CPAs, or EAs or others who both help their clients be compliant and advise on ways to minimize their liability. When I was practicing I would call the things I might suggest my “bag of tricks.”