Business Strategies

Recent Hobby Loss Developments

Section 183, which limits or entirely eliminates deductions attributable to activities not entered into for profit, may be coming in for more attention from an invigorated IRS. Section 183 is commonly referred to, not without reason, as the hobby loss rule. Based on my extensive study of the case law, I believe that practitioners widely misunderstand 183. I have noted cases where taxpayers had not gotten a heads up from their adviser. More commonly there is a misunderstanding of 183(d), a presumption in favor of taxpayers that is rarely relevant at all, but which the agency can never use against them. Most important is the failure to appreciate that it is the objective of making a profit not the expectation that is necessary. With that in mind here are the most recent developments...

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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.

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CURRENT EDITION

2025 Tax Surprises You Shouldn’t Overlook

Annette Nellen, CPA, CGMA, Esq.

There are a few tax rules new for 2025 that may catch some individuals and their tax advisers by surprise. These changes have not received lots of attention either because they are overshadowed by related changes that are more significant, or they were enacted a few years back with a future effective date that arrives in 2025. This article covers changes for 2025 that you will want to be sure to share with clients to avoid surprises at a later date.

Leaving the United States, Part I: Expats

Keith Schroeder, EA

When Americans speak of leaving America, they generally are expressing a desire to live elsewhere in the world for cultural reasons or due to cost of living. These people are called expatriates, aka expats. For clarity, a mere visit to another country does not make you an expat. To be an expat, the move needs to be long-term and often includes working or retiring in the new country. Expats live somewhere outside the U.S., but still have a tax obligation to the U.S. and possibly the country they move to. That will be the focus of this article.

Tax Preparer Hit with Stiff Sentence

Peter J Reilly CPA

John Anthony Castro is a colorful character. He entered several Republican primaries seeking the Presidential slot after failing to win the primary for a Senate seat representing Texas. He sued to have our once and future President Donald Trump be removed from the ballot on Fourteenth Amendment Section 3 grounds. As we can easily infer, those suits went nowhere. But more than anything, John Anthony Castro was a tax guy with a virtual practice with locations in four cities. Not anymore. Now he is resident in a Bureau of Prisons facility – the Federal Medical Center Fort Worth. On October 30, 2024, Judge Terry Means sentenced Castro to 188 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release and restitution of $277,243, following his conviction on 33 counts of “Aiding and Assisting in the Preparation and Presentation of a False and Fraudulent Return.” Does the sad story of John Anthony Castro hold any lessons for us? Perhaps.