“Tax Protestor Arguments” – Can You Really Avoid Federal Income Tax?
When it comes to tax advice, be careful whom you trust. There is some remarkably bad and wrong and hazardous-to-your-health information out there that—despite being repeatedly debunked—just will not go away. Some of those ideas are clearly erroneous, but others can snag even very bright people. Consider the case of Carter White Rae, a dentist in Michigan. He followed some [...]
Tax Saving Opportunities for Helping Your Child Buy a House
Have you ever thought of helping your child buy a home? Here are five thoughts: Gift. You and your spouse can each gift $14,000 to your child and to the child’s spouse for a down payment. This gives you a tax-free gift of $56,000 using the gift exclusion, and your child and his or her spouse have $56,000 for the [...]
Tax Savings for Buying a Business
When you buy a business, you have much to consider. To start with, you need to consider the type of entity that owns the business now and the type of entity you will use to operate the business. On top of that, every asset of the business you are going to buy impacts your tax results. Let me suggest that [...]
Creating a Partnership For Your Business
Are you thinking of creating a partnership for your business? Let us start with some good news: Forming a business partnership is usually tax-free. Of course, this is tax law, so you must meet the basic requirements for a tax-free formation, and you need to avoid the situations that cause you to owe taxes on the transfer of property. Requirements [...]
How to Deduct Home Office Expenses
You likely know that the home-office tax deduction provides tax savings to business owners. It turns otherwise nondeductible personal expenses into valuable business deductions. When you operate your business as a proprietorship, you simply deduct home-office expenses on Schedule C, but when you operate your business as an S corporation, you face special rules to achieve the same benefits. And [...]
Corporate Vehicle in Personal Name
You may be thinking of buying a new or replacement vehicle. This brings up some tax issues to consider. First, should you own the vehicle in your personal name, or should you have your corporation own the vehicle? Let’s say that it makes financial sense for you to own the vehicle personally. In this case, you could deduct the vehicle [...]