Voices

In the blogs: Business taxes changing

Purchased vs. licensed tax software; the Trump impact on taxes; a Canadian perspective on filing U.S. taxes; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Changing Business Tax Scene

  • Summing It Up (http://blog.freedmaxick.com/summing-it-up): Purchased or licensed software can sure alleviate a lot of problems in business. Too bad whether to charge sales tax—or even charging it incorrectly—isn’t always one of them. For you and your biz clients: Are you paying the correct sales tax on your software purchases/licenses or your software maintenance agreements?
  • John R. Dundon II EA (http://johnrdundon.com/): Business structures determine a lot about the present and future of a company. A look at how each of those structures comes with its own income tax reporting requirements.
  • Solutions for CPA Firm Leaders (http://ritakeller.com/blog/): Business Mirrors Parenthood Dept: How “do as I say, not as I do” often won’t work in a firm.
  • M&A (http://taxaid.com/blog/): A look at 13 new IRS compliance campaigns for taxpayers affected by the Large Business and International division, specifically a move from individual audits of multinationals to broader considerations involving risk assessment.
  • Federal Tax Crimes (http://federaltaxcrimes.blogspot.com/): Some lessons from the big data from the Panama Papers and tax haven secrecy, both for people avoiding taxes but also for those dodging the microscope of piles of illegal cash and assets.
  • Roth & Co. (http://rothcpa.com/blog-index/): A look at a recent rapid editing of the Iowa Department of Revenue’s FAQ page for Sec. 179 de-coupling guidance.
  • IRS Tax Trouble (http://www.irstaxtrouble.com/category/tax-blog/): Remember trading stamps? The register spit them out in strips when you or your parents bought the groceries, you licked them (the stamps), pasted them in books and six months later went to some weird store and came out with a wood-paneled clock radio. Well, today’s discount loyalty programs might be little like that from a tax perspective.
Sign in front of IRS building in Washington, D.C.
The IRS building in Washington, D.C.

Trumpeting

  • Don’t Mess With Taxes (http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/): Amid Trump’s loud promises to cut the overall tax burden on American businesses, “effusive description notwithstanding, some corporate tax reform would be welcome … It’s also been accepted, grudgingly by many on Capitol Hill, that from a political standpoint, any tax cuts also must extend to individual taxpayers.” How it looks like rich folks might benefit the most.

File It

  • Tax Girl (http://blogs.forbes.com/kellyphillipserb): What do styling photos for an Instagram account, moving expenses for a pet dog and the cost of covering up a tattoo to keep a job have in common? Your clients can’t deduct them (among other outlandish wish-I-coulds), no matter how much sense it appears to make in a given client’s tax situation.
  • TurboTax (http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com): Remind your client—who may well be exhausted right now from midnight feedings—that the new bundle of joy can also bring new bundles of savings when it comes to taxes.
  • Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): How a hypothetical tale of one U.K. resident’s good luck in Vegas offers a revealing tale on casinos being no longer allowed to issue ITINs. Thank the PATH Act, and expect that in some instances obtaining an ITIN will be anything but easy.
  • The Income Tax School (http://www.theincometaxschool.com/blog/): As someone who rides a New York City subway that refers to us as a “customer” rather than a “passenger” (the latter to us implying a greater sense of responsibility for our safety and timely arrival), we welcome a preparer’s look at the “Distinction between Customer or Client.” Guess which one buys from you more often?
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Tax season Tax Corporate taxes Tax prep software Sales tax software IRS
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