Because you are in business, you likely have the opportunity to improve your tax deduction for long-term care insurance. In fact, you might achieve a 100 percent deduction. If you are married, the 100 percent deduction can include your spouse.

With proper planning, you can use two exceptions to add a Section 105 plan, FSA, or HRA to your HSA.

The inside buildup of cash value in your life insurance policy coupled with loans against the policy can create an unexpected taxable outlay on your part.

The IRS changed its 1040 instructions to allow the proprietorship and single-member LLC a self-employed health insurance deduction for Medicare Part B. The impact on the S corporation owner is not as favorable.

The new under-age-27 health insurance coverage grants windfalls, pitfalls, and planning opportunities.

Tax law creates trouble for selected fringe benefits that the S corporation gives to a more than 2 percent shareholder. The loss of benefits and accompanying complications are factors to consider in the selection of the S corporation as your choice of business entity.

As a business owner, you should have your health insurance in a tax-advantaged position. If it is not possible or practical to utilize the Section 105 medical reimbursement plan, consider the health savings account.

Here is the big picture on how the health savings account (HSA) works for the proprietor, S corporation owner, and C corporation owner. The good news is threefold: (1) the tax deduction for the high-deductible insurance, (2) the tax deduction for the HSA investment account, and (3) the tax-deferral and tax-free use of the HSA investment account.

You need to strategize your purchase of high-deductible insurance to maximize your HSA tax-favored investment portfolio.

The health savings account (HSA) offers the opportunity to save on insurance costs and create an investment nest egg. To learn how the HSA could work for you, do some easy arithmetic, like we show you in this article.

Tax law grants tax-free income status to the proceeds from income replacement disability insurance policies. You pay a price for this tax-free income: You may not deduct the premiums. Special treatment applies to overhead disability and also S corporation payments on behalf of “more than 2 percent” shareholders.

Many one-owner and husband-and-wife-owned businesses opt for discriminatory health insurance plans for their businesses. The new health care law eliminates that discrimination for new plans but allows grandfathered plans to continue as before.

Prepaying expenses has been a most overlooked tax planning strategy because it is misunderstood. Proper use of the new safe-harbor prepayment rules can guarantee the prepayment deduction. Continued use of prepayments combined with strong investment returns can produce a nice addition to your net worth.

Learn when to tax deduct flood damage as a casualty loss or repair deduction and avoid capitalization. The law gives business owners an advantage when they fix up their business property after a floor or other casualty.

When using tax preparation software, be alert to automatic calculations that could place improper amounts on your tax returns.

Big changes have happened to financial instruments in the last few years. You can take advantage of a new tax law that allows one to exchange one annuity for another, and save in tax deferments.

Take it from Richard Cotler: if you operate as a corporation, make sure to keep your personal and corporate expenses separate. Asking a court of law to separate your personal and business expenses is an expensive and time-consuming task. And you absolutely should keep the personal expenses clearly identified or, better yet, not on the corporate books at all.

As a surgeon, you might get malpractice tail insurance (insurance that covers malpractice claims should you quit and go to another hospital). We suggest having the hospital pay the insurance costs, even if they deduct your pay, to protect yourself from the AMT.

Tax law calls the wreckage and totaling of your vehicle both an involuntary conversion and a casualty. Special rules allow you to treat the involuntary conversion as either a sale or a trade-in. Thus, your first step in this process is to find your gain or loss and then decide how you want to claim your tax benefits.

In this court case, the taxpayer was self-employed when he made the original sales. The original sales produced the renewal commissions. Thus, the taxpayer was self-employed with respect to the renewal commissions.

Interest paid on a life insurance loan to buy a home does not count as deductible mortgage interest.