Drive Down Your Business Taxes with Local Transportation Cost Deductions

Understanding how to deduct transportation costs could significantly reduce the tax burden on your small business. You and your employees likely incur various local transportation expenses each year, and they have tax implications. Let’s start by defining “local transportation.” It refers to travel when you aren’t away from your tax home long enough to require sleep or rest. Your tax home is the city or general area in which your main place of business is located. Different rules apply if you’re away from your tax home for significantly more than an ordinary workday and you need sleep or rest to do your work. Your work location The most important feature of the local transportation rules is that your commuting costs aren’t deductible. In other words, the fare you...

Healthy Savings: How Tax-Smart HSAs can Benefit your Small Business and Employees

As a small business owner, managing health care costs for yourself and your employees can be challenging. One effective tool to consider adding is a Health Savings Account (HSA). HSAs offer a range of benefits that can help you save on health care expenses while providing valuable tax advantages. You may already have an HSA. It’s a good time to review how these accounts work because the IRS has announced the relevant inflation-adjusted amounts for 2025. HSA basics For eligible individuals, HSAs offer a tax-advantaged way to set aside funds (or have their employers do so) to meet future medical needs. Employees can’t be enrolled in Medicare or claimed on someone else’s tax return. Here are the key tax benefits: Contributions that participants make to an HSA are...

When Can You Deduct Business Meal and Entertainment?

You’re not alone if you’re confused about the federal tax treatment of business-related meal and entertainment expenses. The rules have changed in recent years. Let’s take a look at what you can deduct in 2024. Current law The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated deductions for most business-related entertainment expenses. That means, for example, that you can’t deduct any part of the cost of taking clients out for a round of golf or to a football game. You can still generally deduct 50% of the cost of food and beverages when they’re business-related or consumed during business-related entertainment. Allowable food and beverage costs IRS regulations clarify that food and beverages are all related items whether they’re characterized as meals, snacks, etc. Food and beverage costs include sales tax, delivery fees...

Self-Employment Tax: A Refresher on How it Works

If you own a growing, unincorporated small business, you may be concerned about high self-employment (SE) tax bills. The SE tax is how Social Security and Medicare taxes are collected from self-employed individuals like you. SE tax basics The maximum 15.3% SE tax rate hits the first $168,600 of your 2024 net SE income. The 15.3% rate is comprised of the 12.4% rate for the Social Security tax component plus the 2.9% rate for the Medicare tax component. For 2025, the maximum 15.3% SE tax rate will hit the first $176,100 of your net SE income. Above those thresholds, the SE tax’s 12.4% Social Security tax component goes away, but the 2.9% Medicare tax component continues for all income. How high can your SE tax bill go? Maybe a...

BOI Reporting Requirements Paused Again as of 12/27/2024

In a surprising turn of events, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a nationwide injunction that halts the enforcement of beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting requirements. This decision, made on Thursday, reverses an earlier order from the same court issued just days prior. The court's latest action aims "to preserve the constitutional status quo while the merits panel considers the parties' weighty substantive arguments," according to the court's order. This refers to the panel of judges who will ultimately decide the appeal regarding the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The CTA, enforced by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), mandates that reporting companies disclose detailed information about their beneficial owners. This legal back-and-forth began with a Texas federal district court's injunction on December 3, 2024, in the...

U.S. Appeals Court Reinstates Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirement

Following a significant federal Court of Appeals decision on December 23, 2024, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has once again mandated that reporting companies file Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI). However, recognizing the confusion and delay caused by a recent preliminary injunction, FinCEN has graciously extended the deadline for compliance. . Here's how it breaks down: . Companies Created or Registered Before January 1, 2024: You now have until January 13, 2025 to file your initial beneficial ownership information reports. This is an extension from the original January 1, 2025 deadline. . Companies Created or Registered Between September 4, 2024, and December 23, 2024: If your filing deadline fell between December 3, 2024, and December 23, 2024, you've been granted an extension to January 13, 2025. . Companies Created...

U.S. Appeals Court Reinstates Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirement

In a significant legal development, a U.S. Appeals Court has lifted a temporary block on the enforcement of a key anti-money laundering law, known as the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirement. This decision ensures that the January 1, 2025, deadline for reporting will proceed as planned. . On Monday, a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned a nationwide injunction set by U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant in Sherman, Texas. The injunction, issued on December 3, 2024, had halted the enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), following a legal challenge by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and several small businesses. They argued that the CTA was unconstitutional, but the appeals court disagreed. . The panel, consisting of Judges...

BOI Reporting Deadline Extension Proposed in House Budget Bill

Good news for small businesses: The deadline for filing Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reports might be extended by a year. The House of Representatives has proposed a continuing resolution that includes this extension, pushing the deadline from January 1, 2025, to January 1, 2026, for companies formed or registered before January 1, 2024. . This 1,500-page funding bill, aimed at preventing a government shutdown by extending funding through to March 14, 2025, is up for a vote soon. Section 122 of the document specifically addresses this extension, amending the existing law to reflect the new deadline. . AICPA's Role in Advocacy . Melanie Lauridsen, Vice President of Tax Policy & Advocacy at the AICPA, celebrated this move in a LinkedIn post, noting it as a long-fought victory. The AICPA, along with...

To File or Not to File: Navigating Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting after the Texas Injunction

The landscape of compliance with the Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) Reporting requirement under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) has changed dramatically following a recent federal court decision. Here’s what businesses need to know about the current status and next steps. . Background on the Corporate Transparency Act The CTA mandates that certain businesses report detailed information about their beneficial owners, officers, and control persons to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). This law, aimed at curbing money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion, was set to see its first major compliance deadline on January 1, 2025. However, the path to enforcement has hit significant roadblocks. . Legal challenges have been mounting, with multiple lawsuits questioning the constitutionality of the CTA. A pivotal moment came when the U.S. District Court for...

The Amount You and Your Employees Can Save for Retirement is Going Up Slightly in 2025

How much can you and your employees contribute to your 401(k)s or other retirement plans next year? In Notice 2024-80, the IRS recently announced cost-of-living adjustments that apply to the dollar limitations for retirement plans, as well as other qualified plans, for 2025. With inflation easing, the amounts aren’t increasing as much as in recent years. 401(k) plans The 2025 contribution limit for employees who participate in 401(k) plans will increase to $23,500 (up from $23,000 in 2024). This contribution amount also applies to 403(b) plans, most 457 plans and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan. The catch-up contribution limit for employees age 50 or over who participate in 401(k) plans and the other plans mentioned above will remain $7,500 (the same as in 2024). However, under the...