COVID-19 Relief? Negotiations Continue
As of late Thursday, December 17, U.S. lawmakers were still attempting to reach a final compromise, but had not got there yet. The latest incarnation of COVID-19 relief has expanded to include direct payments to most individuals of $600, raising the bill’s cost from $748 billion to $900 billion. Reminder: there is significant good news […]
Congressional Compromise? $908 Billion for COVID Relief in Two Bills
U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has endorsed a coronavirus aid package presented by a bipartisan group of legislators in the amount of $908 billion, dropping her demands for a minimum of $2.2 trillion in spending. As things stand now, the initial $908 billion package has been split into two bills – provisions for […]
What a Biden Presidency Might Mean for Estate Taxes, Wealth Transfers, and Inherited Assets
President-elect Joe Biden campaigned on (among other things) a wide variety of proposed changes to the tax code, for individuals, for businesses, and for the treatment of estates and wealth transfers. Below are some of Biden’s ideas for the last category: With regard to estate taxes, a proposed return to 2009 treatment, which would mean […]
What a Biden Presidency Might Mean for Business Taxes
As the year-end approaches, we want to make you aware of some of the potential changes to business taxes which President-elect Joe Biden campaigned on. These are not concrete policy proposals as yet, but they are suggestive of the direction a new Administration might take. These possible changes include: An increase to the corporate income […]
New IRS Guidance – Expenses Paid with PPP Loan Proceeds Are Not Deductible
Last Wednesday, November 18, 2020, the IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2020-27 and Revenue Procedure 2020-51, which formalize the guidance in Notice 2020-32, issued in late April of 2020 – see our May 6, 2020 blog post on the subject. The PPP program was supposed to make the lives of business owners easier during the pandemic, […]
What a Biden Presidency Might Mean for Individual Taxes
Assuming that current predictions are accurate, on January 20, 2021, we will see the 46th President of the United States inaugurated. During his campaign, Joe Biden promised tax increases – only on the wealthiest individuals and corporations – over the next decade of some ~$3.5 trillion. On the campaign trail, Biden’s platform on individual tax […]
2021 – Tax Policy and the All-Important Senate
While the results of the 2020 general election are still in question, with several states yet to complete vote-tallies, every major news organization has called the win for Democrat Joe Biden, and I think we must take the view, at this point, that he is the likely winner. Joe Biden has promised a tax increase […]
SBA Issues New Requirements for PPP Loan Justification
We keep saying the fat lady hasn’t sung yet on guidance concerning loans disbursed pursuant to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and we keep being proved right. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced on October 26, 2020, that it would be sending out mandatory questionnaires to borrowers, both for-profit and non-profit, whose loans were […]
Can Our Smartphones Make Us Less Smart?
We all know better than to use our cellphones while driving – the distraction it represents has been proven clearly. In many states, including our own, it’s even been made illegal. But I recently became aware of a more ominous potential effect, as illustrated in a study published in 2017 in The University of Chicago’s […]
How to Save Money in a Difficult 2020 With Tax Planning
It’s time to plan for our 2020 taxes – remember, many deductions and tax credits must be in place by December 31, 2020, to take advantage of them for this tax year. The provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), signed into law by President Trump in December of 2017, are mostly still […]