August 2025
Keep the OBBBA Biz Grid on Your Desktop
Massive tax changes just dropped—and they could cost (or save) you and your business thousands. Our OBBBA desktop Biz Grid cuts through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act chaos with bold, clear business takeaways you can act on fast.
The OBBBA Individual Tax Changes Grid for Your Desktop
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) made significant changes to your 2025 taxes (that’s this year’s taxes)—are you ready? Our five-page OBBBA Individual Grid breaks down what’s new, what’s gone, and what you can claim. Grab it now and get a handle on your 2025 and later taxes.
OBBBA: Convert Personal Vehicle to Business, Deduct Up to 100%
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act reinstates 100 percent bonus depreciation giving you favorable rules for converting your personal vehicle and other assets to business use. On the conversion, you can immediately qualify to deduct up to 100 percent of today’s fair market value on your existing personal vehicle (if it qualifies).
The OBBBA Increases the Tax Benefits of Employing Your Child
If you or you and your spouse own your business and you have children, you need to consider the financial benefits of hiring those children to work in your business. Some businesses benefit more than others, but almost all businesses likely come out ahead with this strategy. And every business needs to thank tax reform for the new increased standard deduction that a business owner’s child can use to pay zero in taxes.
OBBBA Adds a Possible Senior Tax Deduction (Ages 65 and Older)
Are you turning 65 by the end of 2025? The OBBBA could unlock up to $6,000 in bonus tax deductions—$12,000 for couples! Learn how to qualify and boost your savings with smart income planning.
OBBBA Enhances Your SALT Deductions
Frustrated by the $10,000 SALT cap? The One Big Beautiful Bill Act raises it to $40,000—but only for a few years and with income-based phase-outs. Learn how to maximize your deduction, leverage state workarounds, and combine benefits for tax savings.
OBBBA Charitable Giving Shake-Up: Winners and Losers
Thinking of donating to charity? The One Big Beautiful Bill Act brings sweeping changes—some that empower non-itemizers with new deductions, and others that raise costly hurdles for itemizers and corporations. Discover how these shifts could reshape your giving strategy—and why 2025 might be the smartest year to give.
OBBBA’s New 1099 Filing Rules
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes major changes to the filing requirements for IRS Form 1099-K and 1099-NEC. The threshold for 1099-NEC filing will be increased to $2,000 for 2026 and later. The threshold for filing Form 1099-K retroactively reverts to the rules in place before 2022—$20,000 in annual payments or 200 transactions.
How the OBBBA Impacts Your AMT Risk Starting in 2026
The TCJA reduced the odds of owing the AMT. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act changes that, starting in 2026. It lowers phase-out thresholds and doubles the phase-out rate, increasing AMT risk—especially for those with high capital gains or who exercise ISOs.
OBBBA Caps Mortgage Interest and Adds Mortgage Insurance
Wishing you could deduct more of your mortgage interest? The OBBBA keeps the cap tight—but adds a potential break for mortgage insurance premiums starting in 2026. Learn who qualifies and what’s phased out.
OBBBA Boosts Standard Deductions
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act locks in and boosts the standard deductions originally set by the 2017 TCJA, offering larger tax breaks starting in 2025. Single filers, married couples, and heads of household will all see increases, with annual inflation adjustments beginning in 2026. Additional deductions for seniors and the blind remain intact.
July 2025
Urgent: Want an Electric Vehicle? Act by September 2025
If you’re a business owner or self-employed professional eyeing an electric vehicle, don’t wait to make your purchase. A newly passed Senate bill would eliminate three major electric vehicle tax credits—including the powerful commercial vehicle credit—after September 30, 2025.
2025—Is This Your Last Chance to Claim the Solar Tax Credit?
Thinking about going solar? The U.S. House and the U.S. Senate passed H.R. 1, which cuts off your chance to claim the 30 percent residential clean energy credit on property placed in service after December 31, 2025. Find out why 2025 might be your last opportunity for this tax credit
Perhaps Your Last Chance for Home Energy Improvement Tax Credits
Time is running out! New legislation moving forward in Congress could eliminate valuable home energy improvement tax credits after December 31, 2025—meaning this may be your last chance to claim up to $3,200 a year in credits for upgrades like insulation, windows, and heat pumps. Learn how to take full advantage before it’s too late.
How to Qualify Conventions and Seminars for Tax Deductions
It’s easy to think that a business convention, seminar, or similar meeting is deductible when in fact it is not. The meeting could be in the wrong location. It might have the wrong people in attendance. Its purpose might not rise to the level needed for deduction. Protect your deductions for conventions, seminars, and similar meetings by knowing the rules in this article.
Retire Better: The Hidden Advantages of the Defined Benefit Plan
If you’re a high-earning solo business owner nearing retirement, a defined benefit plan might be the secret weapon for turbocharging your savings and slashing your tax bill. Discover why this overlooked strategy could be your best retirement move yet.
When Should Your S Corporation Have an S Corporation Subsidiary?
You might want your S corporation to own an S corporation of its own—a QSub. Tax law treats the QSub as if it doesn’t exist for income tax purposes, but treats it as a separate entity for employment tax purposes. On the legal side of the ledger, you have two separate corporations with two sets of legal protections.
Avoid the $20,000 Tax Mistake This Vacation Homeowner Made
Think your ski cabin or beach home rental qualifies for big tax deductions? Think again. This cautionary tale reveals how one owner’s $20,000 tax write-off vanished due to poor planning and weak documentation. Don’t let it happen to you.
Day Traders, Part 2: Electing Mark-to-Market Accounting
Thinking of turning your day trading into a tax-smart business? Discover how electing mark-to-market accounting can unlock powerful tax advantages—like deducting all your losses as ordinary income, avoiding the dreaded wash sale rule, and qualifying for the QBI deduction. Learn why this optional strategy might be your best financial move before year-end.
Understanding the Gift Tax: What You Need to Know
Whenever you give someone money or property for nothing—or for less than full value—you are making a gift with potential tax consequences. The federal gift tax exists to prevent high-net-worth individuals from sidestepping estate taxes by transferring wealth during their lifetime. While the tax can reach up to 40 percent and is paid by the giver, generous exclusions and exemptions mean that relatively few people ever owe it.
June 2025
Your Retirement Plan Exposes You to a $150,000 Penalty
You will need to file at least one IRS Form 5500-EZ if you have a one-participant retirement plan such as a solo 401(k)—that is, a qualified plan that covers only a business owner (and spouse), whether or not that business is incorporated, or covers only partners (and their spouses) in a business partnership.
Turn Your Corporate Vehicle into a Tax-Smart Asset
If your corporation owns the vehicle you drive, using it the right way can put real money back in your pocket. This article shows how proper handling of personal use, reimbursements, and deductions can help you avoid IRS pitfalls—and keep more of your hard-earned cash.
Year-End 1099-NECs Are Often Wrong—And How to Correct Them
Don’t let someone else’s mistake raise your tax bill. Incorrect 1099-NEC forms can cost you real money and potentially trigger an IRS audit—especially if they overstate your income. This article explains why these errors happen so frequently at year-end and gives you a step-by-step plan to correct the problem.
Vehicle Used for Business Can Produce a Big Surprise Deduction
If you’ve been using the IRS standard mileage rate to deduct or get reimbursed for business use of your personal vehicle, you may be sitting on a hidden tax break. That’s because the mileage rate includes embedded depreciation—which reduces your vehicle’s tax basis. When it’s time to sell or trade in your vehicle, this can translate into a surprisingly large and fully deductible business loss under Section 1231.
Why Landlords Should File Form 1099-NEC
Filing 1099-NECs can help you qualify for powerful tax breaks such as the 20 percent Section 199A deduction and immediate write-offs for repairs. Here’s why even small landlords should think twice before opting out.
Test Your Tax IQ: Tax-Deductible Cruise Ship Travel
You may deduct your costs of business travel. But what happens to your deductions when you travel by cruise ship? Do the rules change? Do the rules vary by business destination? The answer is that the tax-deduction rules change for cruise ship travel and they change depending on the business destination.
Life Insurance: You Don’t Have to Die to Collect
Think life insurance only pays out when you die? Think again. Discover how certain policies can offer living benefits—like tax-free cash—while you’re still around to enjoy it.
Pay Your PCORI Fee If You Have a 105-HRA, QSEHRA, or ICHRA
Business owners who have established 105-HRAs, Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements (QSEHRAs), and Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Accounts (ICHRAs) to reimburse their employees for medical expenses need to pay an annual fee to help support the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
Day Traders (Part 1 of 2)
Stock traders can qualify as day traders who are in the business of selling securities if they frequently buy and sell securities to profit from daily market movements. Unlike stock investors, day traders can take business deductions for their expenses and can elect to use mark-to-market accounting. To qualify as a day trader, your trading activity must be substantial, continuous, and regular.
May 2025
IRS Makes It Harder to Use the Section 530 Safe Harbor
Hiring firms can avoid paying back taxes and IRS penalties for misclassifying workers as independent contractors for employment tax purposes, by qualifying for the Section 530 safe harbor. But new guidance allows the IRS to consider non-tax treatment of the workers involved as well as whether the hiring firm used temporary employees, making it harder for hiring firms to qualify for Section 530 relief.
Protect Yourself: Digitize Tax Receipts
Protect yourself and your receipts by digitizing them. You will like the results. Without digitization, some of your receipts will disappear. Digitized receipts make the IRS smile, and of course, that makes you smile too.
Avoid Unwanted Partnership Tax Status: Elect Out
Think you’re just co-owning a property or project? The IRS might see it as a partnership—with tax headaches to match—unless you take one smart step to opt out.
Greed or Goodwill: Your Motive Makes a Scam Loss Deductible
If you’ve been scammed, the IRS might let you deduct your losses—but only if greed, not love or generosity, drove your actions. Learn the surprising rules around theft loss deductions and how the law draws a harsh line between profit-seeking victims and those just trying to help others.
Using Section 179 Deductions for Commercial Rental Properties
As bonus depreciation phases out, savvy commercial property owners are turning to Section 179 deductions to boost their tax savings. This strategy can allow for immediate expensing of qualifying real property improvements such as HVAC, roofs, and interior renovations.
Is the Professional Association a Tax Problem?
How does the professional association or the professional corporation compare with the regular C corporation and the S corporation?
QCD with IRA Checking Account—Easy, but Beware
Looking for a smart way to reduce your taxable income and support your favorite charities? Learn how using an IRA checking account can make qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) easier—just make sure you avoid a few common pitfalls.
Navigating Excess Business Loss Limits: What You Need to Know
The “excess business loss” rule limits how much business loss individual taxpayers can deduct each year, with any excess converted into a net operating loss (NOL) for future use. This restriction, in place through 2028, can delay tax benefits and impact planning for those with substantial non-business income.