Latest Posts on Diane's Blog

Unless Congress Acts Soon, You’ll Pay Tax If You Lose Your Home to Foreclosure

If you lose your home to foreclosure, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or short sale, you will likely have something called cancellation of debt income.  This is also known as COD income.  COD income is taxable.

But, thank goodness, Congress acted with something called the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act.  This act says that if you have COD income from your home and it was due to original indebtedness or was... Read More »

C Corporations Will Be the Wave of the Future

Your tax plan is going to go through a big change in 2013. It doesn’t matter who wins the election, there are already economic trends in play that will be making changes that will take decades to change. That is if anyone even wants to try. Meanwhile, there are a couple of things that we know are true.

1. If you want different results, you’re going to have to do something different. The average American is going... Read More »

2. Taxpayer Pays TWICE For Embezzlement

   November 1, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs
   

   More small businesses are lost due to embezzlement than any other reason. There is something tragic about a small business owner who takes a risk when no one else would, provides a job for people, invests in a community, skips a paycheck and benefits when his employees never do and then, finally, against all odds makes enough to take a profit. And then an employee steals it. That’s what embezzlement is. It’s a person that... Read More »

3. Chances Are Your Tax Plan Will Be Worthless in 3 Months

   October 31, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs
   

   We did a webinar last month on Taxmageddon. I’ve gotten questions on what that means and where that word comes from. Taxmageddon is a word that was first coined by the Washington Post and refers to the financial and tax cliff that occurs January 1, 2013. That’s when we have dozens (in fact, close to 100) changes happening to the tax law because of expiring tax acts. And did we mention Obamacare taxes?... Read More »

4. Big Change Coming for Tax Preparers Next Year

   October 30, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs
   

   The new plan for tax return preparers was supposed to be enacted at the beginning of 2012. The IRS delayed it one year and this next year is THE year. Non-licensed tax preparers will no longer be allowed to prepare tax returns for others. You can still prepare your own tax return. This law just makes it mandatory that paid preparers show some level of competence before they start preparing returns. I normally am pretty... Read More »

5. Should You Have a Form 1099 Independent Contractor?

   October 29, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs
   

   If you're an employer, you may have already discovered that there are plenty of reasons to have independent contractors instead of employees. An independent contactor means:

   1. It's easier to pay them,
   2. You don't owe payroll taxes,
   3. You don't have to pay workers compensation (sometimes – check this for the rules in your area),
   4. You don't have to pay unemployment insurance,
   5. You don't have to fund a pension, and
   6. You can pay yourself benefits as an owner/employee and not have to cover... Read More »

   7. 5 Tax Tips for Year-End Tax Planning

      October 26, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs
      

      When do you do your year-end tax planning? For a lot of people, if they talk about 2012 taxes before 2013, they're doing great. This year is going to be different though. Taxes are going up and if you don't plan now for 2012, you're going to lose the window of opportunity. That's why we're starting our year-end tax planning series early this year. So, let's start with 5 tax tips for 2012, that you MUST put... Read More »

   8. Taxmaggedon and the Real Estate Investor

      October 25, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs
      

      The Washington Post first coined the phrase "Taxmaggedon" to refer to all the tax changes coming our way January 1, 2013. Real estate investors are especially going to hit hard. There are 3 major changes coming in 2013. First, the capital gains rate is going to increase. This will move from 15% to 20%. However, there is also a surtax if you income kicks over $200K for single and $250K for married. That surtax is... Read More »

   9. An IRS Letter You WANT To Get

      October 23, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs
      

      I opened up my mail one day this past Spring and there it was – an IRS audit notice. It was a little confusing though, because it stated that it was an audit of our 2009 individual return, but there were some questions about 2010. There was also a deadline just a few weeks in the future and a long laundry list of things to pull together. I've represented hundreds of clients in various IRS dealings... Read More »

   10. How to Get a “Do Over” From the IRS

       October 22, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs | 1 Comment
       

       First the bad news: There is a penalty if you fail to file your tax return on time. There is also a penalty if you don't pay your tax in full. Now the good news: The IRS will cancel out that penalty if you have been in compliance for the three years prior to the problem and, if you ask for it. The IRS has recently had their hand slapped for failing to tell taxpayers about... Read More »

   11. Using a C Corporation in 2013 and Beyond

       October 10, 2012 | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs | 2 Comments
       

       One of the strategies we discussed in our Taxmageddon webinar was using a C Corporation. As soon as I brought up that strategy, we got deluged with questions. Here are a few that came in after the webinar was over. The Taxmageddon webinar is up at our Insider's Club right now. If you're not yet a member of the Insider's Club, you can join for just $9.97 per month. You will receive regular online video and... Read More »

   12. Itemized Deduction Changes in 2013

       | Posted in Diane's Blog, USTaxAid's Blogs | 2 Comments
       

       There are well over 100 changes occurring to your taxes in 2013. This past Saturday I had a webinar called "What Taxmageddon Will Mean To You." Make no mistake, one way or another, these changes will impact you. Over the next few weeks, we're going to cover the questions that we received. Here's one I received after the event was over: "I listened to the webinar today (Saturday) and I was quite surprised about all of the tax... Read More »