I recently attended a class held by the IRS which focused on many issues that we face as taxpayers and practitioners but the most alarming was the current epidemic, Identity Theft, and identity theft scams. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. It’s…
There are two common ways you may discover you are a victim of the ever-growing identity theft epidemic. When your tax preparer goes to e-file your tax return, it may get rejected with an error message saying another return has already been filed under your SSN, or you receive a notice from the IRS…
My wife and I have been actively planning for our kids’ college educations for a while. As for many people, creating a plan to efficiently save enough for our kids’ college careers is a difficult task. We found that creating and maintaining a 529 savings plan can help. In fact, it’s one of the most…
The Limited Partnership (LP) business entity type is an interesting one and is useful in the right situation. To compare and contrast, an LP is valuable because it offers many of the same tax planning benefits as a general partnership or LLC, but also many of the same limited liability protections as a corporation. This post is…
Business life insurance policies are common to an accountant, but I never knew the real-world application or benefit of them until recently. I got married this past summer and my wife and I started looking into life insurance policies. I asked our agent about partnership life insurance out of curiosity and realized it’s something more business…
This week, Fresno welcomes back one of its largest conferences, the Central California Women’s Conference. It’s truly a cornerstone event and one that our firm looks forward to every year. Looking towards this event and learning more about former first lady, Maria Shriver, the event’s keynote speaker, I reflected on one of Maria’s famous quotes.…
Choosing a new (or new-to-you) car is exciting, and one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll make. You may be wondering, “Should I lease or buy a car?” As such, you should consider all your options and how they’ll affect your lifestyle. What’s the most cost-effective way to drive the car you want? Choosing between…
Have you considered investing in cryptocurrency but wonder what the tax ramifications will be? Although the IRS is still playing catch-up with crypto technology, they have issued some basic guidance (Notice 2014-21) which helps us answer this question. The IRS has ruled that cryptocurrencies are to be considered “property” for tax purposes, rather than “currency,”…
The recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) introduces two elections, one to defer gain from the sale of property that is reinvested in an investment in a Qualified Opportunity (QO) Fund and another to permanently exclude gain from the sale or exchange of the investment in the QO Fund. These elections can provide…
All good business owners know that time is a valuable asset, so you need ways to make accounting easier. Investing copious amounts of time into QuickBooks isn’t always the best option. We’re firm believers that you shouldn’t have to do a lot of data entry style accounting to reap the benefits of great financial information. There are several…