Deciding when to start receiving Social Security benefits is one of the most impactful choices you'll make in retirement planning—and 2025 brings new rules, tax considerations, and potential opportunities. While benefits can begin as early as age 62 or be delayed until age 70, the decision should reflect not only your financial needs but also
A new Executive Order signed by President Trump on March 25, 2025 requires every federal agency to stop issuing and accepting paper checks by September 30, 2025. From that date forward, tax refunds, Social Security, vendor payments, and even taxes or fees you send to the government must move through secure electronic channels (direct deposit,
From a tax point of view, Real Estate investments can have significant tax advantages if you meet the real estate professional requirement as you might be able to offset active or earned income from one spouse against the active or earned losses of the other spouse. For high earning couples, one can be a high
More and more regulations are added for employers that hire independent contractors, freelancers and other gig economy workers. California (CA) – Freelance Isn't Free Act (AB 2257) back from 2020 plus the Freelance Worker Protection Act (FWPA) that took effect earlier this year. Requires written contracts for certain professions, included in a list such as
President Trump has publicly supported a Federal tax increase to 39.6% (currently, 37%) on the wealthiest Americans. The proposal is to increase the Federal tax bracket by 2.6% of individuals making more than $2.5 million (married couples more than $5 million). This change is intended to generate roughly $60 billion over 10 years, which could
If you read our blog, you might be already familiar the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) and some of the tools such as the FBAR (Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts when you have an aggregate of $10,000 in foreign accounts), the CTR (Currency Transaction Reports where financial institutions report currency (cash or coin) transactions
Last month, the U.S Department of Education released a press release to indicate how they would target the borrowers in default and one of the options of repayment is the wage garnishment. The press released pointed to "... More than 5 million borrowers have not made a monthly payment in over 360 days and sit
In the IRS IR-2025-53 released mid April 2025, the IRS provided details on the multiyear strategy. Per the communication, "... since the inception of the IRS Whistleblower Office in 2007, the Whistleblower Office has made awards of over $1.3 billion based on the collection of more than $7 billion attributable to whistleblower information. In fiscal
Our Managing partner Victor Garrido has been recognized as Best in State CPA by Forbes in its first edition. As mentioned in the Forbes article, “... The Forbes editorial team has devoted the past year to recognizing our first-ever Forbes Best-In-State CPAs. Our sequel to last year’s inaugural Forbes Top 200 CPAs list, this Best-In-State List
We are almost at the end of tax season 2024 and some taxpayers are waiting for their refunds, but what about the government taking that money? There are certain scenarios where the government can take your refund. This process, called a tax refund offset, is managed by the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) and might happen
