Blog & Newsroom

Ask the Expert: I recently moved. I set up mail forwarding with the U.S. Postal Service, is there anything else I need to do?

Setting up mail forwarding is a great start, but there are a couple more steps you should take:

T'is the season! Tax season that is. It’s also identity theft season. Last year over 100,000 people discovered that their identity had been stolen when they attempted to file their taxes. While the IRS and other tax jurisdictions have worked diligently to reduce the number of fraudulent filings, there is still a lot that you can do to protect yourself from identity theft.

The sad reality is more than 50% of marriages end in divorce. The median duration of a marriage in the United States is 11 years. Divorce is a reality and there are some important things you need to know from a financial and tax perspective.

Tax season is here, once again! I anticipate that this season will be different than tax years of the recent past due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”). While a lot has changed, there are a few things about tax season that never change – mistakes.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably heard about the battle between the President and Congress over funding for a southern border wall. The government “shutdown” created by the impasse has created a lot of uncertainty about many government-provided services.

Historically, in the U.S., only goods were subject to sales tax. But as the economy has shifted from a production to a service-based economy (beginning in the 1950s), some services became subject to sales tax. 

Current Law:

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 limits individual taxpayer's state and local tax (SALT), itemized deduction to $10,000 (including real estate taxes). The previous law allowed an unlimited deduction. This change may be detrimental to many individual taxpayers who relied heavily on these deductions in the past.

State Work-Arounds:

Some states have considered "work-arounds" to combat this limitation. Select states (California, Connecticut, Illinois, New York and New Jersey, thus far) have created state

Every year at this time, you start to hear more about the importance of year-end income tax planning in radio and television commentary. For many people with more complex businesses or investments, the beginning of the 4^th quarter of the year signals the time to start to organize their tax documents and to set-up an appointment with their advisors to review results.

This year is different! This year, tax planning should be important to everyone, not just for those that have complex tax situations. The implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has impacted every taxpayer. While we have all heard about it, not everyone has an applied working knowledge of what the impact will be in the first annual income tax filing season, which begins in about three months.

For many individuals, September means it is time to look for a new car since the upcoming year’s automobile models are introduced.

On June 21, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in South Dakota vs. Wayfair (“Wayfair”).   The fallout of this decision will significantly change the way online vendors handle sales and use (“S&U”) tax for out-of-state consumers going forward.  It will, therefore, also affect online consumers.  Are you impacted!?