About ten years ago, I enjoyed one night at the hospital. The bill was only $17,000 (before discounts). My share of the bill was $0, so my medical expenses from that hospitalization were zero. If you don’t spend the money, you can’t deduct it. Dave Fazio has a cautionary tale on what out-of-pocket medical expenses [...]

I finally received my copies of my new book, Tax Strategies for the Small Business Owner. While Amazon has had the book for a month, my publisher, APress, now has it in stock. What’s in Tax Strategies for the Small Business Owner? The book is a practical guide to taxes, emphasizing what a small business [...]

Kenneth Hoesch was an attorney in Zeeland, Michigan. Mr. Hoesch specialized in trusts and estates. This is definitely an important specialty area; the correct application of trusts can increase the amount of money that flows to beneficiaries and decrease the money lost to federal and state estate and inheritance taxes. Unfortunately, Mr. Hoesch had other [...]

The IRS Office of Appeals describes its mission as, [T]o resolve tax controversies, without litigation, on a basis which is fair and impartial to both the Government and the taxpayer in a manner that will enhance voluntary compliance and public confidence in the integrity and efficiency of the Service. A case decided in Tax Court [...]

So you want to become a landlord in the District of Columbia. I saw an interesting piece on Slate that noted that a Washington, DC couple had to get three different sets of paperwork completed to rent out their condominium. As he noted in his conclusion, Red tape, long lines, inconvenient office hours, and other [...]

Two weeks ago, a court ruled that the IRS had no legal grounds to regulate unenrolled tax preparers. The IRS filed a motion seeking a stay of the court’s injunction against the IRS. Late yesterday, Judge James Boasberg (the same judge who made the ruling two weeks ago) denied the IRS’s motion. The IRS argued [...]

Mortgage debt forgiveness was part of the “Fiscal Cliff” bill that passed Congress on January 1st. If you sell your primary residence in a short sale (or your home is foreclosed), the cancelled debt (up to $400,000) is generally not subject to federal taxation. California had a similar provision (but only up to $250,000); however, [...]

Thursday, January 31st, is the deadline for employers and others to put most 1099s and all W-2s into the mail or otherwise deliver them to recipients. This is a postmark deadline. This means that it might still be a week or more before you actually receive the 1099. There are some exceptions to this rule. [...]

Seriously, would you? Assume you owed a customer $1,000. The debt goes back over a year, and now you’re ready to pay. The customer notifies you that she’s moved, and provides you with her new correct address. How many of you would mail the return to the old incorrect address and wait for the check [...]

From multiple sources comes word that the IRS will not accept returns with Form 8863 (Education Credits) at this time. Any returns with this form will also be delayed until (probably) March mid-February. While this form is not on the IRS list of forms that cannot be accepted on Wednesday, January 30th, both a post [...]