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• Pocket a Tax Break for Making Energy-Efficient Home Improvements

  Pocket a Tax Break for Making Energy-Efficient Home Improvements An estimated 190 million Americans have recently been under heat advisory alerts, according to the National Weather Service. That may have spurred you to think about making your home more energy efficient — and there’s a cool tax break that may apply. Thanks to the Inflation…

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• Moving Mom or Dad Into a Nursing Home? 5 Potential Tax Implications

  Moving Mom or Dad Into a Nursing Home? 5 Potential Tax Implications More than a million Americans live in nursing homes, according to various reports. If you have a parent entering one, you’re probably not thinking about taxes. But there may be tax consequences. Let’s take a look at five possible tax breaks. 1. Long-Term…

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• Selecting A Qualified Auditor For Your Employee Benefit Plan

  Selecting A Qualified Auditor For Your Employee Benefit Plan Does your organization offer health care and retirement benefits for its employees? Benefit plans with 100 or more participants are generally required to have their annual reports audited under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Here’s some guidance to help plan administrators fulfill…

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• Retirement Account Catch-Up Contributions Can Add Up

  Retirement Account Catch-Up Contributions Can Add Up If you’re age 50 or older, you can probably make extra “catch-up” contributions to your tax-favored retirement account(s). It is worth the trouble? Yes! Here are the rules of the road. The Deal with IRAs Eligible taxpayers can make extra catch-up contributions of up to $1,000 annually to…

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• Inheriting Stock or Other Assets? You’ll Receive a Favorable “Stepped-Up Basis”

  Inheriting Stock or Other Assets? You’ll Receive a Favorable “Stepped-Up Basis” If you’re planning your estate, or you’ve recently inherited assets, you may be unsure of the “cost” (or “basis”) for tax purposes. How do the rules work? Under the current fair market value basis rules (also known as the “step-up and step-down” rules), an…

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• Solo Business Owner? There’s A 401(k) For That

  Solo Business Owner? There’s A 401(k) For That If you own a successful small business with no employees, you might be ready to set up a retirement plan. Now a 401(k) might seem way out of your reach — only bigger companies can manage one of those, right? Not necessarily. Two Ways to Contribute With…

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• The Best Way To Survive An IRS Audit Is To Prepare

  The Best Way To Survive An IRS Audit Is To Prepare The IRS recently released its audit statistics for the 2022 fiscal year and fewer taxpayers had their returns examined as compared with prior years. But even though a small percentage of returns are being chosen for audits these days, that will be little consolation…

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• Hiring Family Members Can Offer Tax Advantages (but be careful)

  Hiring family Members Can Offer Tax Advantages (but be careful) Summertime can mean hiring time for many types of businesses. With legions of working-age kids and college students out of school, and some spouses of business owners looking for part-time or seasonal work, companies may have a much deeper hiring pool to dive into this…

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• Are You Married and Not Earning Compensation? You May Be Able to Put Money in an IRA

  Are You Married and Not Earning Compensation? You May Be Able to Put Money in an IRA When one spouse in a married couple is not earning compensation, the couple may not be able to save as much as they need for a comfortable retirement. In general, an IRA contribution is allowed only if a…

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