When it comes to your business, maintaining financial security is one of the key ingredients to success. One of the best ways you can ensure fiduciary security and integrity for your startup is to seek out the advice of financial professionals, including a CPA.

The May 17 deadline for filing your 2020 individual tax return is coming up soon. It’s important to file and pay your tax return on time to avoid penalties imposed by the IRS. Here are the basic rules.

April 15 is not only the deadline for filing your 2020 tax return, it’s also the deadline for the first quarterly estimated tax payment for 2021, if you’re required to make one.

Many people are more concerned about their 2020 tax bills right now than they are about their 2021 tax situations. That’s understandable because your 2020 individual tax return is due to be filed in less than three months (unless you file an extension).

The IRS announced it is opening the 2020 individual income tax return filing season on February 12. (This is later than in past years because of a new law that was enacted late in December.) Even if you typically don’t file until much closer to the April 15 deadline (or you file for an extension), consider filing earlier this year. Why? You can potentially protect yourself from tax identity theft — and there may be other benefits, too.

The new COVID-19 relief law that was signed on December 27, 2020, contains a multitude of provisions that may affect you. Here are some of the highlights of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which also contains two other laws: the COVID-related Tax Relief Act (COVIDTRA) and the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act (TCDTR).

When it comes to taxes, December 31 is more than just New Year’s Eve. That date will affect the filing status box that will be checked on your 2020 tax return. When filing a return, you do so with one of five tax filing statuses.

Contributing to a tax-advantaged retirement plan can help you reduce taxes and save for retirement. If your employer offers a 401(k) or Roth 401(k) plan, contributing to it is a smart way to build a substantial sum of money.

Are you thinking about selling stock shares at a loss to offset gains that you’ve realized during 2020? If so, it’s important not to run afoul of the “wash sale” rule.

Although planning is needed to help build the biggest possible nest egg in your traditional IRA (including a SEP-IRA and SIMPLE-IRA), it’s even more critical that you plan for withdrawals from these tax-deferred retirement vehicles.

Many people have Series EE savings bonds that were purchased many years ago. Perhaps they were given to your children as gifts or maybe you bought them yourself and put them away in a file cabinet or safe deposit box. You may wonder: How is the interest you earn on EE bonds taxed? And if they reach final maturity, what action do you need to take to ensure there’s no loss of interest or unanticipated tax consequences?

Many Americans receive disability income. You may wonder if — and how — it’s taxed. As is often the case with tax questions, the answer is … it depends.

The key factor is who paid for the benefit. If the income is paid directly to you by your employer, it’s taxable to you as ordinary salary would be.

When a couple is going through a divorce, taxes are probably not foremost in their minds. But without proper planning and advice, some people find divorce to be an even more taxing experience. Several tax concerns need to be addressed to ensure that taxes are kept to a minimum and that important tax-related decisions are properly made. Here are four issues to understand if you’re in the midst of a divorce.

If you invest in mutual funds, be aware of some potential pitfalls involved in buying and selling shares. You may already have made taxable “sales” of part of your mutual fund investment without knowing it.

If you file a joint tax return with your spouse, you should be aware of your individual liability. And if you’re getting divorced, you should know that there may be relief available if the IRS comes after you for certain past-due taxes.

As a result of the current estate tax exemption amount ($11.58 million in 2020), many estates no longer need to be concerned with federal estate tax. Before 2011, a much smaller amount resulted in estate plans attempting to avoid it. Now, because many estates won’t be subject to estate tax, more planning can be devoted to saving income taxes for your heirs.

As you may have heard, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act allows “qualified” people to take certain “coronavirus-related distributions” from their retirement plans without paying tax.

So how do you qualify? In other words, what’s a coronavirus-related distribution?

In some cases, investors have significant related expenses, such as the cost of subscriptions to financial periodicals and clerical expenses. Are they tax deductible? Under the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, these expenses aren’t deductible through 2025 if they’re considered expenses for the production of income. But they are deductible if they’re considered trade or business expenses. (For tax years before 2018, production-of-income expenses were deductible, but were included in miscellaneous itemized deductions, which were subject to a 2%-of-adjusted-gross-income floor.)

The economic impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is unprecedented and many taxpayers with student loans have been hard hit.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act contains some assistance to borrowers with federal student loans. Notably, federal loans were automatically placed in an administrative forbearance, which allows borrowers to temporarily stop making monthly payments. This payment suspension is scheduled to last until September 30, 2020.

COVID-19 has changed our lives in many ways, and some of the changes have tax implications. Here is basic information about two common situations.

If you’re planning your estate, or you’ve recently inherited assets, you may be unsure of the “cost” (or “basis”) for tax purposes. Under the fair market value basis rules (also known as the “step-up and step-down” rules), an heir receives a basis in inherited property equal to its date-of-death value.

Traditionally, spring and summer are popular times for selling a home. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a slowdown in sales. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that existing home sales in April decreased year-over-year, 17.2% from a year ago. One bit of good news is that home prices are up. The median existing-home price in April was $286,800, up 7.4% from April 2019, according to the NAR.

COVID-19 is changing the landscape for many schools this fall. But many children and young adults are going back, even if it’s just for online learning, and some parents will be facing tuition bills. If your child has been awarded a scholarship, that’s cause for celebration! But be aware that there may be tax implications.

If you’re getting close to retirement, you may wonder: Are my Social Security benefits going to be taxed? And if so, how much will you have to pay?

It depends on your other income. If you’re taxed, between 50% and 85% of your benefits could be taxed. (This doesn’t mean you pay 85% of your benefits back to the government in taxes. It merely that you’d include 85% of them in your income subject to your regular tax rates.)

As the pandemic drags on, most office workers are being asked to continue staying home. While more businesses are opening for in-person transactions, those who really can work remotely are generally being asked to do so.

Employers may be seeing a decrease in some expenses as a result of having empty, or nearly empty, offices. No more need to keep the snack kitchen stocked or buy yet another birthday cake.

On July 31, the federal government provided updates on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA).

During a press conference on July 31, the Prime Minister announced that the government plans to transition current participants of the CERB program to Employment Insurance (EI) when the CERB program comes to an end.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation, and is committed to supporting Canadians throughout it. The CRA understands that individuals and businesses might be dealing with difficulties in meeting their financial obligations, including paying tax debts they may have incurred prior to the crisis. In addition to measures already announced, the CRA is extending the payment deadline and applying relief to interest on existing debt.

On June 25, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that it would carry out a tax review of six years of U.S. real estate transactions in order to find any tax non-compliance from Canadian taxpayers. CRA is looking for “real estate and property data in bulk form, in order to identify current and historical records, mortgage transactions, property taxes, real property records and deeds.”

When the first versions of cryptocurrency were formulated back in the 1980s, scant evidence of concern could be found from the government. In 2017, after the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration criticized the IRS for failing to develop a coordinated virtual currency strategy, the IRS announced concern over “massive” underreporting of income generated by cryptocurrencies.

The federal general (and M & P) corporate income tax rate remains 15 percent. Provincial and territorial general (and M & P) rates remained mostly steady but decreased in Alberta and Quebec for December 31, 2019 year-ends. The general (and M & P) rate in Alberta decreased from 12 percent to 11 percent after June 2019 and will continue to decrease, to 10 percent after 2019, 9 percent after 2020, and 8 percent after 2021. Quebec’s general (and M & P) rate decreased from 11.7 percent to 11.6 percent after 2018 and will further decrease to 11.5 percent after 2019.

Have you heard of W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E? Read on to learn more.

U.S. companies that make payments to non-US contractors are typically required to withhold tax on those payments. The company, referred to as the withholding agent, is responsible for deducting and withholding that tax from the contractor’s income and paying it to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The 2018 federal budget introduced measures to simplify the new taxation regime for passive investments held inside a private corporation. These changes bring some long-anticipated clarity to a significant aspect of Finance’s recent private corporation tax proposals. The new rules provide that the amount of income eligible for the small business tax rate will be reduced depending on the amount of investment income held.

To incorporate or not to incorporate? The answer really depends on your particular situation, but we will cover some of the main pros and cons so you can make a decision.

You will be considered a United States (US) resident for tax purposes if you meet the substantial presence test for the calendar year. This test boils down to counting your days in the US. You can also be considered a US resident if you have a lawful permanent residence (a green card) in the United States.