New Tax Q&A Website – TaxQueries.com

While I realize I have not posted any new articles lately, there have been some great questions on this site lately and I have enjoyed answering them as they have inspired some ideas for future posts.  Thank you for the great questions!  I would definitely encourage you keeping posting any questions you may have [...]

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Office In Home and Mileage Deductions

There is often a lot of confusion surrounding an office in home and the mileage deduction and the difference between commuting and business miles.  I have heard many accountants over the years selling the deductions like in an infomercial, claiming that by simply setting up an office in the home used exclusively for the business [...]

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Tax Return Adjusting Entries

When you get your corporate, LLC, partnership, or other business tax return from your CPA or tax preparer, do they give you adjusting entries to import or manually input into your accounting system?  Do they review your QuickBooks file and advise you on how to record the transactions in a more effective manner?
Adjusting journal entries [...]

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Oregon IDA Tax Credit

Tis’ the season for making your final charitable contributions for the year and helping out your community at the same time.  If you are going to make only one contribution this year, I would highly suggest contributing to Oregon’s Individual Development Account (IDA) Initiative.
 With a normal charitable contribution, you get an itemized deduction on the [...]

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Oregon Political Contribution Credit

It is this time every year that I start getting advertisements from different political action commitees advertising the Oregon political contribution credit while requesting contributions to their PAC.  Many people just toss these mailings; however, if you haven’t already made a polictical contribution during the year – giving $50 ($100 if married filing joint) to [...]

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Year-End Planning for 2008

With a little over a month remaining in 2008, it is important to start year-end planning for tax year 2008 as there are still a number of things you can do to save on taxes and avoid costly mistakes.  
If your income has increased from 2007 or you have some big, one-time gains, it is [...]

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New Bicycle Commuter Fringe Benefit

I was scanning the ever-popular Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (aka The Bail Out Bill) and going through all the tax provisions they buried in with it, and I stumbled upon a small new fringe benefit that I figured would be interesting for Portlanders.
The Act allows employers to provide employees who commute to work [...]

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Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 – Part 2

Well, here is the bad news I promised on the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008 and that is the closing of a “loophole” that was a great piece of tax planning for clients with rental properties.  I fail to see the “assistance” in this tax act…
Under current law, you can take a property that [...]

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Office in Home Depreciation

When meeting with new clients that have sole proprietorships or single-member LLCs,  I often find that their prior accountant or CPA had them take depreciation on the portion of their home used for an office in home.  I am not necessarily against taking the deduction, but I do think it is not right for everyone [...]

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The IRS Does Not Value Your Time

This is a simple tax issue but surprisingly one that I get a lot of questions on.  Here is the common scenario…
I get a call from a small business owner who recently provided their services to a school at no cost as a “charitable contribution” (or at least in their mind).  The question is always [...]

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