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
The Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs) were established at the Federal level in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Note that there might be also Opportunity Zones at the State and Local level with different tax advantages, so do not mix them but you could take advantage of several of them. The QOZs were
If you are a business owner, it might be positive to employ your kids or other family members in the business. Especially, if you are already supporting these individuals at your higher tax rate, it might be quite beneficial to have an expense for the business and save on the taxes paid a lower rate
To close the year 2024, we bring to your attention a case on the news (NYTimes) a mind blowing case where a tax preparer through a network of franchises ATAX stole more than $145 million from the IRS. Back in April 2024, the IRS make the case public and issued a press release (see link
Since the pandemic, there is a higher mobility on the working force and even companies switching headquarters to more tax friendly environments. As a member of the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission, we considered extremely relevant the comparison of State and Local taxes in different territories. Taxes is one of the factors for business and individual
You need to be extremely careful on how you get in business with. You might end up being liable for ghost income, funds stolen from your partners and many other issues. In the Maggard v. Commissioner, (TC Memo 2024-77), James Maggard co-founded an engineering consulting partnership, the initial co-partner left buying him out, and then,
First, what is this harvesting? – no, you do not need to live in a farm. Tax loss harvesting is selling investment with a loss (take that capital loss) and apply against the capital gain of profitable investments. Example 1: Sold share of X Inc with a $5k loss (purchased at $7k and sold at
At this point, our readers should be aware that there are certain industries that are more subject to examinations like restaurants and retail industries, especially if cash intensive and low controls in place. You can see numerous tax evasion schemes related to restaurants in the news, United States Attorney's Office of each State and the
In the IRS IR-2024-262, the IRS estimated that there is a tax gap of around $696 billion for 2022. Even if the IRS mentioned in their communication that 85% of taxpayers are compliant, the 15% remaining is broken down in the following three areas (extracted directly from IRS communications): "... Non-filing, which means tax not
In the recent IR-2024-299 released at the end of November, the IRS indicated that the 1099-K threshold is delayed again. The 1099-K form is used by Third Party Settlement Organizations (TPSOs) like Venmo and similar cash apps and credit card processing vendors. The thresholds will be: 2024 - $5,000 2025 - $2,500 2026 - $600
