Company stock sitting in a 401(k) can be distributed in kind so the appreciation is taxed at long-term capital gains rates instead of ordinary income, while a full IRA rollover taxes every dollar as income later. The net unrealized appreciation election under IRC §402(e)(4) turns on one lump-sum distribution and one triggering event. Here is the 2026 math.
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A gain rolled into a qualified opportunity fund today defers only to December 31, 2026, with no basis step-up, so the deferral is gone almost as soon as you claim it. Wait until 2027 and OBBBA's OZ 2.0 gives a rolling five-year deferral plus a 10% step-up, 30% in a rural fund. The 180-day rules are what let a 2026 gain make the trip. Here is the math.
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OBBBA made the excess business loss limitation permanent and reset its threshold, so for 2026 a noncorporate taxpayer can deduct only $512,000 of net business loss on a joint return against nonbusiness income, down from $626,000 in 2025. Everything past the cap becomes an NOL carryforward usable against no more than 80% of future income. Here is the §461(l) math and why it bites the cost-segregation and short-term-rental crowd hardest.
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A rental with an average guest stay of seven days or less is not a 'rental activity' under §469, so its losses are not automatically passive. Materially participate, and a cost segregation study can drop a six-figure loss straight onto your W-2 income, no 750-hour real estate professional test required. Here is the 2026 math and the three places it quietly fails.
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A vehicle rated over 6,000 pounds escapes the $20,300 luxury-auto cap that cripples ordinary cars. But the Section 179 deduction for it stops at $32,000 in 2026, and the tool that actually writes off the full SUV is 100% bonus depreciation, which the One Big Beautiful Bill Act just made permanent. Here is the 2026 math and the door-jamb label that decides it.
Read postOBBBA raised the SALT deduction cap to $40,000, then phases it down to $10,000 for incomes over $500,000. For a business owner who pays more than that in state tax, the pass-through entity tax election still deducts every dollar at the entity level, above the cap and outside the phaseout. Here is the 2026 math.
Read postOBBBA reset the AMT exemption phaseout thresholds to $500,000 and $1,000,000 for 2026 and doubled the phaseout rate to 50%. The number of incentive stock options you can exercise before the alternative minimum tax kicks in just shrank, and the marginal rate above the threshold is now an effective 42%. Here is the new crossover math.
Read postTwo years of living in a former rental does not turn the whole gain tax-free. Since 2009, §121(b)(5) splits the gain between the years you rented and the years you lived there, and the depreciation you claimed never qualifies at all. Here is the three-step math to run before you move in.
Read postBrokers do not include the bargain element from an ESPP disqualifying disposition in the cost basis reported on Form 1099-B. Here is how the ESPP disqualifying disposition cost basis problem creates double tax, the Form 8949 code B adjustment that fixes it, and how to claim a refund before the §6511 window closes.
Read postTreasury Regulation §1.469-2(f)(6) recharacterizes rental income from property leased to your own S corporation as non-passive, while rental losses stay passive. Here's how the self-rental rule for S corp owners traps cost segregation deductions, what the Williams case settled, and how the §1.469-4 grouping election under Rev. Proc. 2010-13 unwinds it.
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IRC §280A(g) lets you rent your home to your S corporation for up to 14 days a year, deduct the rent on the business return, and exclude the income on your own. Here's how the Augusta rule works, the rate that survives an audit, and what the Sinopoli case teaches about doing it wrong.
Read postOBBBA created a 12-month window for qualified small businesses to undo the TCJA's Section 174 R&E capitalization and pull back three years of federal tax. Here's how the OBBBA Section 174 small business election works under Rev. Proc. 2025-28, the §280C(c) recoupling step that catches most preparers, and how state conformity changes the size of the refund.
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