Summary: Today’s tax pros typically earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Those sorts of classes prepare future tax pros to put the “right” numbers in the “right” boxes on the “right” forms. But those core skills are becoming less and less valuable all the time. Technology used to help us do that work more efficiently. Now, …
The Evolution of the Tax Professional Starts Here Read More »
Summary: Mutual funds have an expensive Achilles heel for investors who don’t feel like sharing their gains with Uncle Sam. A recent lawsuit shines a light on just how badly their pooled structure hurts you. It turns out mutual funds are the only investment where you can lose money and wind up still paying taxes! …
Summary: 401(k)s and similar qualified retirement plans let you deduct your contributions, which lets you invest more. If your employer matches part of your contribution, that’s even better. But there are specific limits on how much you can contribute, no matter how much you’ll need down the road. Sometimes, when Washington changes tax laws, …
Summary: The Wall Street Journal reports that last July, a whistleblower filed a complaint charging the company “knowingly persuaded business owners to underreport their income and taxes.” It turns out AmEx was pitching businesses to use their cards for business expenses, deduct the fees, transfer the points to a certain card, then convert the points to tax-free cash. …
Summary: The average price of a new car climbed $3,301 in 2020 and $6,220 in 2021. Even used car prices, which typically rise about 1% per year, have soared 45%, to an average of nearly $26,000. But it’s causing all sorts of problems for the rest of us, who have to pay extra taxes on those shrinking …
Summary: Washington struggles to find new ways to pay for our own empire. Lawmakers have looked at taxing carbon outputs, taxing wealth, and even taxing increases in wealth without success. But why jump through all those hoops when you can just put people to work? It’s Spring Break, and millions of Americans are doing their best …
Summary: As part of their 2023 budget, Congress floated a “hybrid” tax on increases in wealth. Specifically, they proposed going all Will Smith on households worth $100 million or more, slapping them with a “Billionaire minimum tax” of 20% on their full income – including unrealized appreciation on their stock. In 1942, Captain Louis Renault, commander …
Summary: This weekend, Hollywood’s elite gathered to do what they do best: celebrate themselves at the Oscars. There’s one unsung group, though, that still isn’t getting the red carpet they deserve, and that’s the tax professionals who make the movie money machine go ‘round. The Academy won’t ever award a statuette for Best Performance Lobbying a …
Summary: It shouldn’t surprise you to learn how big a role the IRS is going to play in chasing Putin’s cronies. The IRS Criminal Investigations (CI) unit, with 3,000 employees, has launched more than 20 cases related to oligarch money laundering since 2017. Those efforts will kick into overdrive as sanctions tighten. Vladimir Putin’s …
Summary: Gas tax defenders agree that giving up the tax would make great politics. But they point out it would benefit those who drive the biggest and least efficient vehicles most. But oil companies, already making record profits, would try to pocket as much of the tax savings as they could keep for themselves. …
