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Just Good Business – Review Your Administrative Compliance
Tax season is in full effect, and it is likely that you are seeing and coping with the effects of poor administrative compliance on the part of your small business clients. Instead of bemoaning the fact that so many clients “don’t get it” use some of the time you’re spending on the return to prepare a list of administrative compliance items that the client needs to address. Then, set a (paid) planning appointment for later in the year to help the client address those items. If you do this, and if the client heeds your advice, next filing season more (if not always all) of the client’s administrative compliance will be in order by the time you start preparing their returns. It’s a win-win. Your client gets the opportunity to ensure that they are meeting administrative requirements that protect them from liability or penalties. You get cleaner paperwork (and peace of mind) moving into next filing season. Read on to learn more!
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CURRENT EDITION
Lessons Learned from the Tax Court: The Root of the Issue
When is a business really a business? As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said in 1964, “I know it when I see it.” The US Tax Court, however, maintains a slightly less subjective standard. The Roots were pretty sure they were running a bona fide business; the IRS, however, didn’t share the sentiment. And since we’re reading about them in a segment called “Lessons Learned,” one should assume it did not go the way the Roots would have liked.
The Lessons From The Supreme Court Zuch Opinion
There is a great scene in the movie On The Basis Of Sex. The actors portraying Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her husband, Martin Ginsberg, a very high-level tax attorney, early in their careers are reading in separate rooms. He comes in with something he wants her to read and she snaps that she doesn’t read Tax Court cases. In that moment she showed her future as a Supreme Court Justice. Not many Tax Court cases reach the Supreme Court. So when one does it’s exciting. And, as it happens, Commissioner of Internal Revenue v Zuch contains some practical lessons worth considering.
Fractional Art Investing Is Real — How To Advise Your Clients On The Tax Consequences
In mid-November a portrait of a young Vietnamese woman by the artist Gustav Klimt, which was part of the estate of the late Leonard Lauder (the cosmetics billionaire), was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $236.4 million. It set the record for the most expensive work of modern art ever sold at auction according to Bloomberg. That’s probably out of reach for most of our clients. But what if they could join together to buy an interest in the painting with an entity holding the asset? That’s the idea behind the burgeoning fractional art market. While, in general, the art market has been struggling for a few years, the fractional art market has been expanding. According to the website Digital Original, “Fractional art ownership is no longer a niche concept – it’s a growing investment trend that’s accessible, flexible, and supported by cutting-edge technology.” What, you may be asking, does this have to do with taxes? It may be more than you think for your high-net-worth clients. As a trusted advisor it’s important that you are aware of both the types of investment opportunities your clients may be buying into and the tax consequences.
SIMPLIFIED TAX STRATEGIES &
PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION
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.
