Houston Tax Attorney Keith Cothroll words to live by.
New tax law makes itemized deductions virtually meaningless
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act increased the standard deduction from $6,500 to $12,000 for single filers and $13,000 to $24,000 for taxpayers who are married filing jointly rendering the itemized deductions under Schedule A virtually meaningless for most taxpayers. Unless...
New tax law lets businesses depreciate their assets 100%
The Tax Reform Act of 2017 made some changes to the depreciation rules for businesses. Under certain conditions, a business can deduct all of the depreciable assets of in the year that they place the item in service instead of the usual straight line method or other...
IRS issues new guidelines with respect to entertainment expenses and meals
The IRS issued a notice recently (Notice 2018-76) to provide guidelines for taxpayers who wish to deduct entertainment or meals expenses. This notice is temporary until the regulations are written to coincide with the tax law changes made under the Act in 2017....
What do you do with a 1099C anyway??
Have you ever received a 1099C for cancellation of debt and wondered what to do about it? Well, for starters, the reason why you likely got the 1099 C is because you negotiated your credit card down or any other debt that you have for less than what you legally owed...
Tips to avoid problems when deducting charitable contributions
One of the most popular deductions is the charitable contribution deduction, but the IRS has a lot of rules relating to these deductions. First, the organization that you are claiming a charitable contribution to must be qualified under section 170(c) of the Internal...
IRS Voluntary Offshore Disclosure Program ends 9/28!!
What is the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program? The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program or OVDP is a program designed to allow taxpayers to get relief from exposure to potential criminal liability and/or substantial civil penalties due to a willful failure to...
New Business Deduction 20% of qualified business income may be available to you!
The IRS has proposed a brand new deduction, the section 199A deduction, that may allow sole proprietorships, partnerships, trusts and S corporations to deduct 20 percent of their qualified business income. The deduction is available to those who file a joint return...
Hurricane Tax Survival Tips
Taxpayers typically think of 1000 other things when preparing for a storm other than what happens if the storm wipes out their tax records. How are you going to file next year if your records are destroyed because of a flood or other natural disaster? This week’s blog...
What happens when the IRS disallows your business expenses under the “hobby rule”
A common source of audits that I’ve seen in the past is where taxpayers claim Schedule C business expenses for side jobs selling a myriad of different things including cosmetics, nutritional supplements and other industries. The problem arises when the IRS sees...
Statute of Limitations has now been extended to file suit or claim against IRS for wrongful levy
IRS Tax Tip 2018-123 lays out the details on the change in the law. The former deadline to file against the US for a wrongful levy used to be nine months, but now it has been extended to two years. There are a few things to keep in mind though regarding this change....