October 2026
Employee Retirement Plan Coverage: 2026 Options and Credits
Your employees are about to become eligible for your retirement plan, and you have heard that the good plans are only for big companies with big administrative budgets. Both halves of that are wrong. Read about your 2026 choices, the federal credits that can cover the cost of a new plan outright, and the state rules that may already have made the decision for you.
Reasonable Compensation Horror Stories: The Tax Man Cometh
A CPA who never touched his clients’ payroll still faced $130,000 in IRS preparer penalties because his S corporation clients took little or no salary. Read how the fight played out, what it cost him, and the paperwork that could have prevented it.
Health Insurance Application Does Not Control Your Tax Deduction
An insurance professional tells us the fine print on individual medical applications bars the self-employed health insurance deduction. See what that applicate attestation is doing, and why it does not reach your Form 1040.
Both the CPA and the IRS Are Wrong on This 2026 Home-Office Audit
Learn the home-office deduction under 2026 law. See the IRS words that win this audit, why the Soliman case stopped controlling 27 years ago, and the one 2026 change that decides whether you get any home-office deduction at all.
Commission Rebates in 2026: Cut Your Fee, Don’t Cut a Check
A commission rebate can save your customer money—but cost you extra taxes if you handle it wrong. See why cutting your fee at closing is the clean solution, and why writing a rebate check can create tax complications you don’t want.
Refinancing a Rental: Avoid a Bad Interest-Deduction Trace
Know the interest tracing rules under 2026 law. See why the property securing your loan has almost nothing to do with deducting the interest, why cash-out proceeds spent on personal items produce dead interest, and the repayment ordering rule that repairs the damage every time you pay down principal.
Proving Basis in Your Home: The 2026 Cost of Bad Records
How much would it cost you if you lose your home-improvement records? See the court case where $286,070 of claimed improvements shrank to $82,039, and discover why the tax code’s frozen exclusion amounts make basis records matter more every year, exactly what adds to and subtracts from your basis, and the 2026 version of the cancelled check.
2026 $500,000 Home-Sale Exclusion: Must You Be Married?
There’s a $500,000 home-sale exclusion opportunity under 2026 law for married couples filing jointly. See what you and your spouse have to do to turn the $250,000 exclusion into $500,000, and what to do when only one of you qualifies.
Jack Up Your Profits with Historic Rehab Tax Credits in 2026
Rehab a certified historic building, and the federal government could hand you 20 percent of what you spend for the rehab, dollar for dollar against your tax. But the credit arrives over five years, the passive loss rules can trap and delay it, and selling too soon claws it back. Here’s how to structure the deal so the credit lands in your pocket.
September 2026
2026 Section 199A: Proprietorship or S Corporation?
Will your business operation create the 20 percent tax deduction for you? If no, and if that’s because of (1) too much income, and (2) lack of wages and/or depreciable property, a switch to the S corporation as your choice of business entity may produce the tax savings you are looking for.
2026: Get the Government to Pay You for Hiring Your Child
You can pay your child to work in your business—and get paid for paying your child. Yeah, we know. You think this sounds too good to be true, but it’s true. For how the government pays you and why this works, read this article.
Drive Time Increases Odds of Deducting Rental Property Losses
Your rental properties provide tax shelter when you can deduct your losses against your other income. One step to deducting the losses is to pass the tax code’s 750-hour test, and one step to finding the hours you need may be your drive time. Here are the 2026 rules, the cases that let you count the drive time, and the second loss limit waiting for you after you pass the test.
2026 Section 199A: Is Your Service Business Out of Favor?
The Section 199A deduction is permanent now, and for 2026 the income thresholds are higher and the phase-in range is 50 percent wider than it used to be. That matters most if you run an out-of-favor specified service trade or business. This article gives you insights. It covers the consulting definition and the de minimis rules that let you split one business into two.
2026 Paid Family Leave Credit: Does the Owner Qualify?
The paid family and medical leave credit is permanent now, and for 2026 there is a second way to compute it that can pay you tax dollars in a year when not one employee takes a day of leave. But whether you, the owner, can create a credit on your own leave comes down entirely to your choice of entity.
2026 Tax Guide to Deducting Long-Term Care Insurance
You can protect yourself against the financial consequences of chronic illness or disability by purchasing long-term care insurance. The premiums are not cheap, but tax law may let you write off some or all of the cost. Which of the three possible deductions you get depends on your choice of business entity, and the 2026 numbers and rules make getting it right matter more than ever.
Three Tests That Decide Your Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction
The self-employed health insurance deduction reduces adjusted gross income without requiring you to itemize, but it turns on three tests that are easy to fail: (1) whether the plan is established under your business, (2) whether you were eligible for subsidized employer coverage in a given month, and (3) whether the policy is medical care insurance in the first place. Here is how each test applies to S corporation owners, partners, and sole proprietors.
How the Pungs Lost a $194,400 Home over $2,242
The U.S. Supreme Court held that property owners whose property is sold for unpaid property taxes are entitled to the surplus proceeds from the sale but not to the property’s fair market value. As long as the sale is fairly conducted, the auction price measures just compensation, even when the property sells for a fraction of what it is worth. For how this works, and why you likely want to avoid it, read this article.
When Your Spouse Dies: The Tax and Medicare Hits Arrive Later
The death of a spouse raises your income taxes and your Medicare premiums—but maybe not on the schedule you assume. Federal law lets you file a joint return for the year your spouse dies, and sometimes for two more years after that. Learn the real timeline, the deductions you lose, the Medicare surcharges that follow two years later, and the moves to make while the joint-return window stays open.
August 2026
Twitchco: This Court Case Gives Your ERC Protective Claim Teeth
In our July article, we told you to report your 2026 ERC refund as income, pay the tax, and file a protective refund claim. Now meet Twitchco, a court case holding that the IRS cannot use the tax benefit rule to tax a deduction that was wrong in a year the statute of limitations has closed. Twitchco gives your protective claim real teeth—if your facts match.
Sell Now, Pay the IRS Later: Defer Capital Gains for Decades
The moment you sell your valuable asset, the IRS comes to dinner. And they bring a very large appetite. But there’s a little-known trust strategy that can legally postpone that tax hit for years—even decades. Most sellers never hear about it until after the closing, which is exactly when it’s too late.
How to Find Your 2026 Section 199A Deduction with Multiple Businesses
Calculating your Section 199A deduction with one business is complicated. With multiple businesses—including businesses with losses—it gets trickier still. This article explains the rules for multiple businesses, shows how aggregation can rescue or enlarge your deduction, and cautions you to enter each business separately in the 2026 Section 199A calculator when you don’t elect aggregation.
Protect Your Home-Office Deduction from Spouse, Second Business
With one business use of the home office and no personal use, you qualify for the home-office deduction. Add a second business, a W-2 job, or a spouse and every use of that office must qualify on its own—or you lose the deduction. Now that tax law permanently denies employees the home-office deduction, the stakes are higher than ever.
S Corp. Owners: Don’t Lose 2026 Dental, Vision, Medicare Breaks
Here’s a follow-up to our 2026 S corporation health insurance update: your dental insurance, your vision insurance, and your Medicare premiums all qualify for the exact same treatment as your major medical coverage—the same three-step W-2 method, the same Schedule 1 deduction, and the same two hurdles. See the proof, straight from the tax code and the IRS.
Dealer or Investor? Deducting the Loss on Your First Flip
Your first fix-and-flip just sold at a loss, and your accountant says you can deduct only $3,000 a year—but that is not necessarily true. If you qualify as a real estate dealer, you deduct the entire loss this year against ordinary income—and trim your self-employment tax in the bargain.
How to Get the IRS to Pay Your Attorney Fees
Even if you beat the IRS, getting it to pay your attorney fees is anything but automatic. Learn the seven legal hurdles you must clear, the costly traps that can derail your claim, and the strategies that can dramatically improve your odds of recovering your fees and costs.
Tax Plan: Buy $500,000 of Goods on December 20 and Expense Them
Buy $500,000 of goods on December 20 and deduct them this year? A reader challenged our advice, pointing to IRS Publication 334’s warning that small-business tax accounting must still “clearly reflect income.” This follow-up explains why the deduction survives that language—and the one bookkeeping detail that makes or breaks it.
July 2026
ERC Refund in 2026: One Great Way to Handle It
If you get your Employee Retention Credit (ERC) refund now, it’s likely too late to amend your 2020 and 2021 tax returns to reduce those wage deductions for the ERC refund. If you can’t amend, you are looking at a double benefit. The IRS says no double benefit, but that may not be true.
Tool for Your Use: Updated 2026 Section 199A Calculator
When planning your Section 199A tax deduction, avoid difficult calculations and save time by using the updated 2026 Section 199A Deduction Calculator. In this article, you’ll find the rules you need to know to find your QBI, Section 199A wages, and Section 199A property that can figure into your Section 199A deduction possibilities.
2026 Health Insurance for S Corporation Owners: A Complete Update
Here’s the 2026 update on the health insurance deduction for S corporation owners: the three-step W-2 method, the box 5 “earned income” trap, the Section 318 family attribution surprise, the QSEHRA/ICHRA options for rank-and-file employees, and the expired enhanced premium tax credit.
The Home-Office Deduction for Three Square Feet
Have you ruled out taking the home-office deduction because you believe your home is too small? You should think again. Don’t skip this article. A workspace no larger than a single file cabinet can be enough to qualify.
Tax Deduction for Classic or Antique Cars Used in Business
How does the tax law treat the classic or antique car when you use it for business? Can you deduct it just as you would any car you use in business? Learn how some tax law changes enabled the classic or antique car as a business asset, much to the IRS’s chagrin, and why that can work to your advantage.
Four Tactics That Turn Suspended Passive Losses into Tax Deductions
When you finally sell a rental property, the tax law hands you a gift: the passive losses it denied you in earlier years—technically, your “suspended” passive losses—are released for deduction. But hidden traps can delay or destroy those deductions, and as of 2017 a second limit now stands between you and the full write-off. Learn the right way to sell, gift, or die. The dying part is so you can pass on rental property to your heirs without losing the suspended losses.
Myth: Rent Furniture to Your Corporation and Save on Taxes
Renting furniture to your corporation is supposed to be the savvy way to get money out of the corporation. We ran the math on a $100,000 purchase and the “savvy” move turns out to be a myth—here’s the proof.
How to Avoid Penalties on Late IRA RMDs
Missing an IRA required minimum distribution (RMD) can trigger steep IRS penalties—but many taxpayers don’t realize those penalties can often be reduced or even eliminated. Learn the key deadlines, correction rules, and waiver strategies that can help you avoid costly mistakes and keep more of your retirement savings.
How Small Businesses Can Expense Inventory Costs
Small businesses may have more flexibility with inventory deductions than many owners realize. This article explains when inventory costs can be deducted sooner—and the tax traps that can cause a business to lose this valuable treatment.