Depreciating Residential and Commercial Real Estate
When you own rental property, depreciation is your best friend. One reason depreciation is so valuable is that, unlike deductible rental property expenses such as interest and maintenance, you get to claim depreciation year after year without having to pay anything beyond your original investment in the property. Moreover, rental real property owners are entitled to depreciation even if their [...]
New Stimulus Law Grants Eight Tax Breaks for 1040 Filers
As you doubtlessly know, Congress recently passed a massive new stimulus bill that was enacted into law on December 27, 2020. Most of the public’s attention has been focused on the bill’s authorization of additional stimulus checks and new PPP loans and other aid targeted to struggling businesses. But Form 1040 American taxpayers who are not in business are struggling [...]
New PPP Loan
Did you miss out on the first two opportunities to receive your tax-free Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) cash? Many did miss out. Why? One reason: the word “loan.” Who wants a loan? No one. Well, almost no one. But who wants a cash gift, tax-free? If you do, read on for the details. But first, you should know that the [...]
COVID-19 Grants: Taxable or Not?
Billions of dollars in grants are being doled out to individuals and businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recently enacted second stimulus bill has increased these grants, including $25 billion in rental assistance for individuals, a new round of Small Business Administration (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) advances, and new grants for shuttered entertainment venues such [...]
S Corporation Owners – How Much Salary is the Right Amount?
S Corporation Owners - How Much Salary is the Right Amount? You likely formed an S corporation to save on self-employment taxes. If so, is your S corporation salary nonexistent? too low? too high? just right? Getting the S corporation salary right is important. First, if it’s too low and you get caught by the IRS, you will pay not [...]
What Is SECURE Act and Stretch IRA?
What Is Stretch IRA? Last December, the imaginatively named Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act became law. The SECURE Act was intended mainly to expand opportunities for individuals to increase their retirement savings and to simplify the administration of retirement plans. Fine. Good. But the act also included a big unfavorable change that kneecapped the so-called stretch [...]