College can be expensive. According to the College Board, the average sticker price for tuition and fees at private colleges was $43,350 for the 2024–2025 school year. The average cost for tuition and fees for out-of-state students at public colleges was $30,780. For in-state students, the cost was $11,610. Of course, there are additional costs for housing, food, books, supplies, transportation and incidentals that can add thousands to the total.

Fortunately, a surprisingly high percentage of students at many schools receive at least some financial aid, and your child’s chances may be better than you think. So, if your child cashes in on some financial aid, what are the tax implications? Here’s what you need to know.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports there were nearly 447,000 new business applications in May of 2025. The bureau measures this by tracking the number of businesses applying for an Employer Identification Number.

If you’re one of the entrepreneurs, you may not know that many of the expenses incurred by start-ups can’t currently be deducted on your tax return. You should be aware that the way you handle some of your initial expenses can make a large difference in your federal tax bill.

They say age is just a number — but in the world of tax law, it’s much more than that. As you move through your life, the IRS treats you differently because key tax rules kick in at specific ages. Here are some important age-related tax milestones for you and loved ones to keep in mind as the years fly by.

Ages 0–23: The Kiddie Tax

The kiddie tax can potentially apply to your child, grandchild or other loved one until age 24. Specifically, a child or young adult’s unearned income (typically from investments) in excess of the annual threshold is taxed at the parent’s higher marginal federal income tax rates instead of the more favorable rates that would otherwise apply to the young person in question. For 2025, the unearned income threshold is $2,700.

If you or your employees are heading out of town for business this summer, it’s important to understand what travel expenses can be deducted under current tax law. To qualify, the travel must be necessary for your business and require an overnight stay within the United States.

Note: Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, employees can’t deduct their unreimbursed travel expenses on their own tax returns through 2025. That’s because unreimbursed employee business expenses are “miscellaneous itemized deductions” that aren’t deductible through 2025. In the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” passed by the U.S. House and now being considered by the Senate, miscellaneous itemized deductions would be permanently eliminated. Keep in mind that pending legislation could still change.

Do you believe you don’t need to worry about estate planning because of the current federal estate tax exemption ($13.99 million per individual or $27.98 million for married couples in 2025)? Well, think again. Even with this substantial exemption, creating a living trust can offer significant benefits, especially if your goal is to avoid probate and maintain privacy.

Here are some answers to questions you may have about this estate planning tool.

As the use of digital assets like cryptocurrencies continues to grow, so does the IRS’s scrutiny of how taxpayers report these transactions on their federal income tax returns. The IRS has flagged this area as a key focus. To help you stay compliant and avoid tax-related complications, here are the basics of digital asset reporting.

The Definition of Digital Assets

Digital assets are defined by the IRS as any digital representation of value that’s recorded on a cryptographically secured distributed ledger (also known as blockchain) or any similar technology. Common examples include:

• Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum,
• Stablecoins, which are digital currencies tied to the value of a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar, and
• Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which represent ownership of unique digital or physical items.

The IRS recently released the 2026 inflation-adjusted amounts for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Employees will be able to save a modest amount more in their HSAs next year.

HSA Basics

An HSA is a trust created or organized exclusively for the purpose of paying the “qualified medical expenses” of an “account beneficiary.” An HSA can only be established for the benefit of an “eligible individual” who is covered under a “high-deductible health plan” (HDHP). In addition, a participant can’t be enrolled in Medicare or have other health coverage (exceptions include dental, vision, long-term care, accident and specific disease insurance).

The gig economy offers flexibility, autonomy and a way to earn income, but it also comes with tax obligations that can catch many workers off guard. Whether you’re driving for a rideshare service, delivering food, selling products online or offering local services like pet walking, it’s crucial to understand the tax implications of gig work to stay compliant and avoid costly surprises.

Understanding Your Tax Status

One of the biggest differences between traditional employment and gig work is your classification. Most gig workers are considered independent contractors, not employees. This means that companies you work with typically don’t withhold income taxes, Social Security, or Medicare taxes from your pay. Instead, you’re responsible for tracking and paying these taxes yourself.

Many businesses turn to independent contractors to help manage costs, especially during times of staffing shortages and inflation. If you’re among them, ensuring these workers are properly classified for federal tax purposes is crucial. Misclassifying employees as independent contractors can result in expensive consequences if the IRS steps in and reclassifies them. It could lead to audits, back taxes, penalties and even lawsuits.

Understanding worker classification

Tax law requirements for businesses differ for employees and independent contractors. And determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor for federal income and employment tax purposes isn’t always straightforward. If a worker is classified as an employee, your business must:

• Withhold federal income and payroll taxes,
• Pay the employer’s share of FICA taxes,
• Pay federal unemployment (FUTA) tax,
• Potentially offer fringe benefits available to other employees, and
• Comply with additional state tax requirements.

Even well-run companies experience down years. The federal tax code may allow a bright strategy to lighten the impact. Certain losses, within limits, may be used to reduce taxable income in later years.

Who Qualifies?

The net operating loss (NOL) deduction levels the playing field between businesses with steady income and those with income that rises and falls. It lets businesses with fluctuating income to average their income and losses over the years and pay tax accordingly.

Even after your 2024 federal return is submitted, a few nagging questions often remain. Below are quick answers to five of the most common questions we hear each spring.

1. When Will My Refund Show Up?

Use the IRS’s “Where’s My Refund?” tracker at IRS.gov. Have these three details ready:

• Social Security number,
• Filing status, and
• Exact refund amount.

Stock, mutual fund and ETF prices have bounced around lately. If you make what turns out to be an ill-fated investment in a taxable brokerage firm account, the good news is that you may be able to harvest a tax-saving capital loss by selling the loser security. However, for federal income tax purposes, the wash sale rule could disallow your hoped-for tax loss.

Rule Basics

A loss from selling stock or mutual fund shares is disallowed if, within the 61-day period beginning 30 days before the date of the loss sale and ending 30 days after that date, you buy substantially identical securities.

Determining “reasonable compensation” is a critical issue for owners of C corporations and S corporations. If the IRS believes an owner’s compensation is unreasonably high or low, it may disallow certain deductions or reclassify payments, potentially leading to penalties, back taxes and interest. But by proactively following certain steps, owners can help ensure their compensation is seen as reasonable and deductible.

Different Considerations for C and S Corporations

C corporation owners often take large salaries because they’re tax-deductible business expenses, which reduce the corporation’s taxable income. So, by paying themselves higher salaries, C corporation owners can lower corporate taxes. But if a salary is excessive compared to the work performed, the IRS may reclassify some of it as nondeductible dividends, resulting in higher taxes.

Some tax sins are much worse than others. An example is failing to pay over federal income and employment taxes that have been withheld from employees’ paychecks. In this situation, the IRS can assess the trust fund recovery penalty, also called the 100% penalty, against any responsible person.

It’s called the 100% penalty because the entire unpaid federal income and payroll tax amounts can be assessed personally as a penalty against a responsible person, or several responsible persons.

Suppose you’re thinking about setting up a retirement plan for yourself and your employees. However, you’re concerned about the financial commitment and administrative burdens involved. There are a couple of options to consider. Let’s take a look at a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) and a Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE).

SEPs Offer Easy Implementation

SEPs are intended to be an attractive alternative to “qualified” retirement plans, particularly for small businesses. The appealing features include the relative ease of administration and the discretion that you, as the employer, are permitted in deciding whether or not to make annual contributions.

 With summer fast approaching, you might be considering hiring young people at your small business. If your children are also looking to earn some extra money, why not put them on the payroll? This move can help you save on family income and payroll taxes, making it a win-win situation for everyone!

Here are three tax benefits.

For federal income tax purposes, the general rule is that rental real estate losses are passive activity losses (PALs). An individual taxpayer can generally deduct PALs only to the extent of passive income from other sources, if any. For example, if you have positive taxable income from other rental properties, that generally counts as passive income. You can use PALs to offset passive income from other sources, which amounts to being able to currently deduct them.

Unfortunately, many rental property owners have little or no passive income in most years. Excess rental real estate PALs for the year (PALs that you cannot currently deduct because you don’t have enough passive income) are suspended and carried forward to future years. You can deduct suspended PALs when you finally have enough passive income or when you sell the properties that generated the PALs.

When we prepare your tax return, we’ll check one of the following filing statuses: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household or qualifying widow(er). Only some people are eligible to file a return as a head of household. But if you’re one of them, it’s more favorable than filing as a single taxpayer.

To illustrate, the 2025 standard deduction for a single taxpayer is $15,000. However, it’s $22,500 for a head of household taxpayer. To be eligible, you must maintain a household that, for more than half the year, is the principal home of a “qualifying child” or other relative of yours whom you can claim as a dependent.

Staying compliant with payroll tax laws is crucial for small businesses. Mistakes can lead to fines, strained employee relationships and even legal consequences. Below are six quick tips to help you stay on track.

1. Maintain Organized Records

Accurate recordkeeping is the backbone of payroll tax compliance. Track the hours worked, wages paid and all taxes withheld. Organizing your documentation makes it easier to verify that you’re withholding and remitting the correct amounts. If you ever face an IRS or state tax inquiry, having clear, detailed records will save time and reduce stress.

Suppose your adult child or friend needs to borrow money. Maybe it’s to buy a first home or address a cash flow problem. You may want to help by making a personal loan. That’s a nice thought, but there are tax implications that you should understand and take into account.

Get It in Writing

You want to be able to prove that you intended for the transaction to be a loan rather than an outright gift. That way, if the loan goes bad, you can claim a non-business bad debt deduction for the year the loan becomes worthless.

Have you ever invested in a company only to see its stock value plummet? (This may become relevant in light of recent market volatility.) While such an investment might be something you’d rather forget, there’s a silver lining: you can claim a capital loss deduction on your tax return. Here are the rules when a stock you own is sold at a loss or is entirely worthless.

How Capital Losses Work

As capital assets, stocks produce capital gains or losses when they’re sold. Your capital gains and losses for the year must be netted against one another in a specific order based on whether they’re short-term (held one year or less) or long-term (held for more than one year).

Are you starting a business with partners and deciding on the right entity? An S corporation might be the best choice for your new venture.

One Benefit of an S Corporation

One major advantage of an S corporation over a partnership is that shareholders aren’t personally liable for corporate debts. To ensure this protection, it’s crucial to:

• Adequately finance the corporation,
• Maintain the corporation as a separate entity, and
• Follow state-required formalities (for example, by filing articles of incorporation, adopting bylaws, electing a board of directors and holding organizational meetings).

If you made significant gifts to your children, grandchildren or other heirs last year, it’s important to determine whether you’re required to file a 2024 gift tax return. And in some cases, even if it’s not required to file one, you may want to do so anyway.

Requirements to File

The annual gift tax exclusion was $18,000 in 2024 (increased to $19,000 in 2025). Generally, you must file a gift tax return for 2024 if, during the tax year, you made gifts:

• That exceeded the $18,000-per-recipient gift tax annual exclusion for 2024 (other than to your U.S. citizen spouse),
• That you wish to split with your spouse to take advantage of your combined $36,000 annual exclusion for 2024,
• That exceeded the $185,000 annual exclusion in 2024 for gifts to a noncitizen spouse,
• To a Section 529 college savings plan and wish to accelerate up to five years’ worth of annual exclusions ($90,000) into 2024,
• Of future interests — such as remainder interests in a trust — regardless of the amounts, or
• Of jointly held or community property.

When it’s time to consider your business’s future, succession planning can protect your legacy and successfully set up the next generation of leaders or owners. Whether you’re ready to retire, you wish to step back your involvement or you want a solid contingency plan should you unexpectedly be unable to run the business, exploring different succession strategies is key. Here are five options to consider, along with some of the tax implications.

1. Transfer Directly to Family With a Sale or Gifts

One of the most common approaches to succession is transferring ownership to a family member (or members). This can be done by gifting interests, selling interests or a combination. Parents often pass the business to children, but family succession plans can also involve siblings or other relatives.

You may wonder if you can claim itemized deductions on your tax return. Perhaps you made charitable contributions and were told in the past they couldn’t be claimed because you didn’t have enough deductions to itemize. How much do you need? You can itemize deductions if the total of your allowable itemized write-offs for the year exceeds your standard deduction allowance for the year. Otherwise, you must claim the standard deduction.

Here’s how we’ll determine if you can itemize or not for 2024 when we prepare your return.

As a business owner, you may be eligible to claim home office tax deductions that will reduce your taxable income. However, it’s crucial to understand the IRS rules to ensure compliance and avoid potential IRS audit risks. There are two methods for claiming this tax break: the actual expense method and the simplified method. Here are answers to frequently asked questions about the tax break.

Who Qualifies?

In general, you qualify for home office deductions if part of your home is used “regularly and exclusively” as your principal place of business.

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) has long been a valuable tax break for families with qualifying children. Whether you’re new to claiming the credit or you’ve benefited from it for years, it’s crucial to stay current on its rules and potential changes. As we approach the expiration of certain provisions within the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) at the end of 2025, here’s what you need to know about the CTC for 2024, 2025 and beyond.

Current State of the Credit

Under the TCJA, which took effect in 2018, the CTC was increased from its previous level of $1,000 to $2,000 per qualifying child. The TCJA also made more taxpayers eligible for the credit by raising the income threshold at which the credit begins to phase out.

If an individual taxpayer has substantial business losses, unfavorable federal income tax rules can potentially come into play. Here’s what you need to know as you assess your 2024 tax situation.

Disallowance Rule

The tax rules can get complicated if your business or rental activity throws off a tax loss — and many do during the early years. First, the passive activity loss (PAL) rules may apply if you aren’t very involved in the business or if it’s a rental activity. The PAL rules generally only allow you to deduct passive losses to the extent you have passive income from other sources. However, you can deduct passive losses that have been disallowed in previous years (called suspended PALs) when you sell the activity or property that produced the suspended losses.

Businesses in certain industries employ service workers who receive tips as a large part of their compensation. These businesses include restaurants, hotels and salons. Compliance with federal and state tax regulations is vital if your business has employees who receive tips.

Are Tips Becoming Tax-Free?

During the campaign, President Trump promised to end taxes on tips. While the proposal created buzz among employees and some business owners, no legislation eliminating taxes on tips has been passed. For now, employers should continue to follow the existing IRS rules until the law changes — if it does. Unless legal changes are enacted, the status quo remains in effect.

A variety of tax-related limits that affect businesses are indexed annually based on inflation. Many have increased for 2025, but with inflation cooling, the increases aren’t as great as they have been in the last few years. Here are some amounts that may affect you and your business.

2025 Deductions as Compared With 2024

• Section 179 expensing:
  • Limit: $1.25 million (up from $1.22 million)
  • Phaseout: $3.13 million (up from $3.05 million)
  • Sec. 179 expensing limit for certain heavy vehicles: $31,300 (up from $30,500)
• Standard mileage rate for business driving: 70 cents per mile (up from 67 cents)
• Income-based phaseouts for certain limits on the Sec. 199A qualified business income deduction begin at:
  • Married filing jointly: $394,600 (up from $383,900)
  • Other filers: $197,300 (up from $191,950)