The federal government is eliminating paper checks in favor of electronic payments, though most taxpayers won’t be affected since 93% already use direct deposit. An executive order requires federal agencies to transition to electronic funds transfer, and the IRS began phasing out paper refund checks for individuals on September 30, 2025. Taxpayers who file without banking information may face delays and additional steps, and while alternatives exist for those without bank acc

Effective Dec. 24, 2025, USPS will define the postmark date as the date of first automated processing, which may be later than the drop-off date. Because tax filings are considered timely only if postmarked on or before the due date under IRC §7502, taxpayers should mail documents at least two days early or obtain a manual postmark at a USPS retail counter, or use Certified or Registered Mail. For example, dropping mail in a box at noon on the 15th could result in a postmark

If you have a family member with low income, they may be able to pay no Federal tax when selling stock that has been held for over 1 year.  Assume you have a 25 year old child with little income and you have a large gain in a stock or security you hold.  Instead of selling the stock, paying tax on it, and giving the child money, consider gifting the appreciated stock or security to your child and having them sell it.  If you do, your child might be able to sell the stock, and

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...