Assume you bought a stock for $5K that has appreciated to $30K.  If you sell the stock and donate $30K to charity, then you have to recognize $25K of gain and might be able to deduct some or all of the $30K if you itemize.  Instead of selling the stock and donating cash, consider donating the stock to charity and telling them to sell it to generate the cash they need.  If you do, then you don’t recognize any of the gain and still might be able to deduct some or all of the $30

You can pay no Federal tax on the gain recognized from the sale of stocks and securities held for over 1 year to the extent you make less than around $124K as a married couple this year.  So, if you are married and have joint income of $100K this year, you can sell stocks and recognize long-term capital gain of around $24K and pay no Federal tax on it.  Any gain over $24K would be taxed for Federal purposes.  When consider taking advantage of this, be aware that the extra inc

You normally don’t get a deduction for the purchase of a 2 nd  home that you use for personal purposes.  If you want to change that, then buy the home this year, get it rented out as an AirBNB or VRBO at least 2 times with average customer stays of 7 days or less and spend 100 hours this year dealing with the home.  If you meet these tests, then you normally can deduct 100% of the cost of furnishings and around 25% of the cost of the home this year.  After the year is over, y

Assume you operate your business as an S Corp and personally own 100% of the building you rent to the S Corp. If you’ve had an unusually high profit this year, you can use the “mailbox rule” to accelerate next year’s rent deduction. On December 31, your S Corp can write a check for 12 months of rent and place it in the mail. This allows the S Corp to take the rent deduction in the current year. When you receive the check in your mailbox on January 2 of the following year, the

If you had an unusually large profit this year, consider: Prepaying up to 12 months of next year’s expenses, like rent or insurance – you can’t make a deposit towards next year’s expenses, but if you legally owe the money already and can pay it this year, then pay it Stop billing customers, clients, and patients Buy office equipment Remember, whatever you charge to your credit card this year for your business is a deduction this year Make a large inventory purchase this year

Cryptocurrency is not subject to wash sale rules like stocks are.  Lets say you bought a coin for $10 and it is worth $5 and you want to continue to hold the coin.  Sell the coin this year and recognize a loss of $5 that you can deduct, then immediately repurchase the coin for $5.  You can use this $5 loss that you recognized to offset other gains or income you had this year.  Contrast this with a stock:  when you sell a stock and then re-purchase it within 30 days, you can’t

The Federal tax credit for making most normal energy-efficient improvements to your home will expire at 12/31/2025.  If you were planning on making these improvements soon, see if you can get them installed by 12/31/25.  The credit for certain items or groups of items maxes out at 3.2K in 2025.

If you make under 150K single or 300K joint, then you don’t have to pay tax on the ½ of your time-and-a-half.  The non-taxable amount of overtime is 12.5K per person if they qualify.  This is effective for all of 2025.

If you make under 150K single or 300K joint and work in normally-tipped industries, then you might not have to pay tax on tips reported to you on a W-2, 1099, or other tax-reporting form.  The deduction is 25K per person if they qualify.  This is effective for all of 2025.

Originally, you could use 529 funds tax-free for college expenses only.  Now you can also use them for K-12 education, homeschool expenses, exam prep, exam fees, student loan repayments, Roth rollovers, computers, books, trade school, K-12 tutoring, and professional credentialling….basically everything related to lifetime education.  There are certain limits on some items, but the list is a lot longer than it used to be.  For Indiana taxpayers, there is now less reason than e

The Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit, offering up to a 30% credit of the cost of qualifying improvements, will no longer be...

These accounts are essentially a Traditional IRA that allows children to save money in a tax-advantaged manner without having to have...

Effective 1/1/26, all Bronze and Catastrophic plans offered on ACA Exchanges will be considered HSA-compatible.  As we have wrote about...

The new “No Tax on Social Security” law really is just an extra 6K deduction for taxpayers aged 65 or older.  Any taxpayer aged 65 or...

Before a recent law change, individuals were allowed to deduct 10K maximum on their personal tax return.  Now, individuals can deduct 40K...

Due to a recent law change, you can again now deduct 100% of the cost of your new or used truck or SUV with a gross vehicle weight rating...

Due to a recent law change, individuals can deduct up to 10K of interest on new vehicle loans if the vehicle was assembled in the US and...

Most employees incur expenses to do their jobs. You might drive for your job or use your cell phone or home internet or maintain a home...

If you earn over $161K (Single filers) $240K (Joint filers), then you cannot directly contribute new money to a Roth IRA. You might be...

Tax season can often feel overwhelming and stressful, especially for individuals and businesses trying to navigate through the complex...