A project manager in Orem maxes her 401(k), then spends an April evening hunting her 1040 for the deduction. Where each account actually shows up, the 2026 limits and phase-outs, and what $32,000 of pre-tax savings is worth in Utah.
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A landlord selling a duplex after ten years finds $120,000 of her gain taxed at a higher rate than the rest. What the 25% slice is, the four exits that actually cut it, and the two popular moves that fail.
Read postA landlord with $32,000 of Schedule E profit wants the 20% deduction her S corp friends get. The IRS answer is a safe harbor with a 250-hour price tag and a logging habit most owners have not started yet.
Read postAn investor sells a rental, the proceeds land with a qualified intermediary, and a 45-day clock starts that no weekend will pause. Here is how many properties you can name, in what form, and what happens when you name too many.
Read postA landlord who never depreciated a rental does not amend eight old returns. One Form 3115, filed with the current year's return, deducts every skipped dollar at once as a §481(a) adjustment. Here is how the catch-up works and when you can actually use it.
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The AMT you pay to exercise and hold incentive stock options comes back. It is a §53 minimum tax credit you recover on Form 8801, faster if you sell the shares, and there is one case where it barely moves.
Read postStarting January 1, 2026, 401(k) catch-up contributions go in as Roth, not pretax, for anyone whose 2025 Social Security wages from that employer passed $150,000. The test has sharp edges, and a few groups walk through it untouched.
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The S election deadline passes quietly, and most owners only find out when the first S corporation return is being prepared and there is no acceptance letter in the file. Rev. Proc. 2013-30 fixes it retroactively, for free, if you follow its script exactly.
Read postThe IRS taxed your RSUs as wages at the vest-day price. The round trip back down is a capital loss you deduct at $3,000 a year, and a layoff usually means selling at the bottom. The asymmetry is fixable, but only in advance.
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The $600 threshold that has decided who gets a 1099 since 1954 is gone. For payments made in 2026 the number is $2,000, but royalties, attorney proceeds, and your W-9 routine did not get the memo.
Read postCompany stock is down and the losses look harvestable, but an RSU holder has a problem no index-fund investor has: the next vest is an acquisition whether you want it or not, and on a monthly schedule it always lands inside the 30-day window.
Read postThe new roof goes on the depreciation schedule for 27.5 years. The old roof can come off the return as a loss this year, plus the tear-off costs, but only if you claim it on the original return for the year the roof came off the building.
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