How do I get an EIN verification letter without calling the IRS? Designated officials on your IRS Business Tax Account can now log in and download an EIN verification letter instantly — no more calling and waiting weeks for Letter 147c in the mail. If you have ever tried to open a business bank account,…
How do foreign entities e-file 1042-S and 1099 forms after FIRE is retired? Through the new IRS Foreign Filer TCC Registration System. It gives foreign filers whose authorized users have no U.S. SSN or ITIN a way to obtain a Transmitter Control Code and transmit information returns electronically through IDES. The way U.S. information returns…
How do central organizations report their subordinates to the IRS in 2026? With new IRS Form 15644. Under Revenue Procedure 2026-8, every central organization that holds a group exemption letter must file Form 15644 each year, at least 30 but not more than 90 days before the close of its annual accounting period. If your…
Are all Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts still safe to use? Yes — but a specific subset just became a reportable tax shelter. On July 8, 2026, Treasury and the IRS issued final regulations naming certain CRAT listed transactions, requiring participants and material advisors to disclose them or face penalties. Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts have long…
Do I have to ask the IRS for penalty relief anymore? Not for the most common relief. Starting summer 2026, the IRS is replacing First Time Abate with automatic penalty relief — the new Automatic Exemption from Penalty (AEP) will waive failure-to-file, failure-to-pay, and failure-to-deposit penalties for eligible taxpayers during return processing, with no request…
Does the new Opportunity Zone regime just extend the old rules? No. The IRS Opportunity Zone transition rules in Notice 2026-40 keep the December 31, 2026 deferred-gain date, but reinvested QOF gains restart the 10-year clock and ongoing projects now need a written working-capital plan in place by year-end. The IRS has finally drawn a…
Do seasonal and part-time workers change my payroll tax obligations? No — hiring seasonal employees does not create a lighter set of federal payroll rules. Wages paid to summer, holiday, and part-time help are subject to the same federal income tax withholding, Social Security, and Medicare taxes as wages paid to your full-time staff. The…
What is a Trump Account and how do I open one for my child? A Trump Account is a new federally authorized investment account for children, created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as IRC Section 530A. The Trump Accounts guide below walks families through the $1,000 federal seed deposit, $5,000 annual contribution cap,…
What tax steps should newlyweds take after the wedding? Update your name with Social Security, file a fresh Form W-4 with each employer, tell the IRS if you moved, and model your return under both joint and separate filing status. This newlywed tax checklist walks through each step so next spring is calm, not chaotic….
Who can claim the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit? Starting January 1, 2027, individual taxpayers can claim the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit — a federal credit of up to $1,700 for cash donations to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs) in a participating state. Twenty-eight states have already opted in. Beginning next year, a new line item…
Will California start charging sales tax on my SaaS subscriptions? Under a 2026 budget trailer bill (SB/AB 122), yes — as drafted, the California SaaS sales tax would extend the state’s 7.25% (plus district) sales and use tax to prewritten software and Software-as-a-Service beginning January 1, 2027, sourced to the purchaser’s California billing address. If…
Do I have to file a gift tax return for money I put in a Trump Account? In most cases, no. Under IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-25, the Trump Account gift tax safe harbor treats qualifying cash contributions as current-interest gifts within the $19,000 annual exclusion, so most families skip Form 709 entirely. The launch of…
Who qualifies for the new $25,000 federal tip deduction? The tip deduction 2026 is an above-the-line deduction for workers in customarily tipped jobs — waiters, bartenders, stylists, rideshare drivers and roughly 70 other IRS-listed occupations — worth up to $25,000 of qualified tips for tax years 2025 through 2028, subject to income phaseouts. For decades,…
When is a California resident beneficiary of a discretionary trust actually taxed on trust income? Only when the trustee decides to distribute. In its new Legal Ruling 2026-01, the FTB confirmed that California discretionary trust tax under R&TC section 17742 hinges on whether the beneficiary’s interest is “contingent” — and while the trustee holds sole…
Does my state follow the new federal OBBBA tax breaks? Not automatically. OBBBA state conformity varies widely — some states adopt the new federal rules on R&D expensing, bonus depreciation, and Section 179, while others decouple. A deduction you claim on your federal return may be added right back on your state return. The One…
What are the 2026 retirement plan limits? The 401(k) elective deferral limit rises to $24,500, the age-50 catch-up to $8,000, and a new “super catch-up” lets employees aged 60–63 add $11,250. The 2026 retirement plan limits also bring a major SECURE 2.0 change: high earners must now make catch-up contributions as Roth. If you sponsor…
What are the new 2026 tips and overtime deduction rules for employers? For tax years 2025 through 2028, employees can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips and up to $12,500 of qualified overtime pay ($25,000 for joint filers). The tips and overtime deduction is claimed on the employee’s return, but it creates new payroll…
What do the new DOL opinion letters say about wage-and-hour rules? On May 28, 2026, the Department of Labor issued four FLSA opinion letters answering when meal breaks and clock-in lines must be paid, whether a salaried exempt employee can take a second hourly role, and how percentage-of-earnings bonuses satisfy overtime rules. If you run…
Do you owe tax when you rent out your vacation home? It depends on how many days. Understanding vacation home rental tax starts with one number: 14. Rent the place 14 days or fewer a year and the income is tax-free; rent it more and the income is taxable — but you can deduct expenses,…
What is the FASB changing about hedge accounting in 2026? On June 17, 2026, the FASB issued a proposed hedge accounting update to Topic 815 with three targeted changes: hedging interest rate risk on held-to-maturity securities, using any tenor of SOFR, and expanding eligible net investment hedging instruments. Comments are due August 17, 2026. If…
What rights do you have when dealing with the IRS? Ten of them. The Taxpayer Bill of Rights groups long-standing protections in the tax law into ten fundamental rights — from the right to be informed to the right to a fair and just tax system. They are adopted in Internal Revenue Code § 7803(a)(3)…
Can you defer tax when you sell investment property? Often, yes. A Section 1031 exchange lets you defer capital gains tax when you swap real property held for business or investment for like-kind real property. The trade-off: strict deadlines — 45 days to identify a replacement and 180 days to close — and, since 2018,…
Do private companies have to change their income tax disclosures? Yes — in part. FASB ASU 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures, requires all entities to disclose income taxes paid (net of refunds) by federal, state, and foreign jurisdiction — and by any individual jurisdiction equal to or greater than 5%…
Are the Opportunity Zone rules changing? Yes. In IRS Notice 2026-40, the Treasury Department and the IRS announced that they intend to issue proposed regulations on Qualified Opportunity Zones under Internal Revenue Code §§ 1400Z-1 and 1400Z-2, as amended by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). The notice provides transitional guidance for investments made…
Is the SALT deduction cap going away in 2026? No. Federal courts continue to uphold the SALT deduction cap, with a New Jersey federal court dismissing another constitutional challenge in May 2026. But there is relief: the One Big Beautiful Bill raised the cap from $10,000 to $40,000 beginning in 2025, with a 1% annual…
Can I open and manage a Trump Account online? Yes. The IRS now lets taxpayers view and submit Trump Account elections directly inside their IRS Individual Online Account using Form 4547, Trump Account Election(s). A Trump Account is a new tax-advantaged account for a child under 18 with a valid Social Security number, created by…
What is the SEC’s proposed filer status overhaul? On May 19, 2026, the SEC proposed collapsing public-company reporting into two categories — large accelerated filers (LAFs) and nonaccelerated filers (NAFs) — raising the LAF public float threshold to $2 billion and exempting NAFs from ICFR auditor attestation. If you advise public companies, the SEC filer…
How does FASB ASU 2025-06 change accounting for internal-use software? The FASB issued ASU 2025-06, Intangibles—Goodwill and Other—Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Targeted Improvements, to modernize software cost guidance written in 1998 for today’s agile development. The biggest change: it ELIMINATES the old project-stage (waterfall) model for deciding when to start capitalizing costs. Instead, capitalization begins…
Is Congress about to change how crypto is taxed? Not yet — but it’s actively working on it. In June 2026, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on a slate of digital-asset tax bills aimed at fixing gaps in how cryptocurrency is taxed. The proposals include: a de minimis exception so small…
What were the key international tax developments in early-to-mid June 2026? The OECD pushed forward on the global minimum tax (Pillar Two) — releasing practical fixes to the GloBE Information Return (GIR) XML schema for first filings, an updated 2026 consolidated commentary, and new transfer-pricing guidance on intragroup services. In the EU, the Court of…
