Dear Clients and Friends: We are writing to inform you of a significant new tax deduction taking effect in 2018 under the new tax law. It should provide a substantial tax benefit to individuals with “qualified business income” from a partnership, S corporation, LLC, or sole proprietorship. This income is sometimes referred to as “pass-through” […]
Author Archive | Tom O'Brien
Thank You
We would like to use this space to thank our clients and friends for the opportunity to have served them during this past year. Whether called upon to provide accounting, auditing or tax services, business or personal financial planning or perhaps just to listen, we will always do our best to provide quality service. We […]
Tax Reform
The President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform has finally issued its report and, surprisingly, found the current tax system to be flawed and in need of some tinkering. We asked the leading Republican Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, for his thoughts on reforming our our current income tax code. The Duck’s response:
Magic: Social Security Benefits
How do you know if your Social Security benefits are taxable? The answer requires MAGIC — (the Modified Adjusted Gross Income Calculation). The “magic” number, generally, is your adjusted gross income (excluding your social security benefits) plus
Happy Holidays
That you are now reading this letter means that you have opened our package and have noticed our Annual Tax Organizer. While you may have a tremendous urge to complete it immediately, we suggest you concentrate initially on the first question posed to you – What is your filing status? Our heroes in Congress and […]
Qualifying What?
As you know, we have lobbied extensively over the years for simplification of the Internal Revenue Code, Congress responded several years ago with the Working Families Tax Relief Act (orWFTRA to those of you with unique tongue structure). The Act attempted to simplify the definition of a dependent child (to our knowledge, no occupants of […]
Education is Taxing
Remember years ago when there were no tax breaks for tuition and other college expenses? Today the education arena is one of the most complicated due to the credits, exclusions and deductions that are available. While a doctorate in taxation is not required, it might be useful in understanding some of the recent tax law […]
What?!?
As you know, our firm has lobbied extensively for simplification of the Internal Revenue Code. It now appears that our efforts may come to fruition. Congress passed the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 (or WFTRA to those of you with unique tongue structure). The new law attempts to amend Section 152 of the IRC by […]
Still Deceased?
Several months ago, we wrote about a request from the IRS to one of our deceased clients for an income tax return along with the related taxes. Since our client had passed about three years ago, we questioned the methods being used by the IRS in raising revenue from the departed. In response to our letter alerting the IRS […]
R.I.P.
In an effort to generate revenue from any source, the Internal Revenue Service continues to solicit funds from those no longer able to pay. We recently received a copy of a letter from the IRS requesting a 2002 income tax return from a client who had previously passed away. That the word “Deceased” appeared after […]
