Individual Strategies

When Does Married Filing Separately Make Sense?

If your clients are married, at this time of year they’re probably choosing to file their taxes under the status of Married Filing Jointly. But is MFJ the best move? Married folks have other options; one of them is Married Filing Separately (MFS). Despite this status sounding like someone’s dressing for divorce court, it can be useful in certain circumstances – or harmful.

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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

Kovel: Attorney-Client Privilege for Tax Professionals

Keith Schroeder, EA

Twice in my four-decade career, two special agents from IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) entered my office armed with a search warrant, firearms at their side. In both cases, it started the same way.

Gone Phishing: Don’t Get Scammers Catch You!

Amber Gray-Fenner, EA NTPI Fellow USTCP

Today’s criminals are using more than hooks and lines (more like huge trawling nets), and they are looking for small as well as really big fish. If you think your tax practice is too small to be a target, you’re wrong. And you probably know that. You are probably well aware of the phishing and smishing (using SMS/text messaging) attempts that try to gain access to your firm’s computers and/or computer network.

Data Security: Understanding Your Responsibilities

Joshua Youngblood

Are you aware of your responsibilities when it comes to securing data? Do you know what your software vendor is doing with your data—and, more importantly, your client’s data? Signing up for a new service or software is often done without any thought of the consequences to the data that you are legally required to protect. The average tax professional uses many different types of software and services when working with a client. Many tax pros are unaware that this often requires consent to be obtained prior to using their client’s information and that failure to do so can result in significant fines and even criminal penalties.