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There’s finally good news for the residential housing market: The U.S. Commerce Department recently announced that new residential construction surged in April to its highest level in more than seven years in the United States. Although homebuilding revenue remains well...

If you are getting a refund this year, here are four good reasons to choose direct deposit: 1.   Convenience. With direct deposit, your refund goes directly into your bank account. There’s no need to make a trip to the bank to deposit a check. 2.   Security. Since your refund...

Taxpayers who run up tax losses in a business must be prepared to prove that one of the material participation tests was passed to avoid having the losses characterized as a passive activity loss (PAL) that cannot be currently deducted. Adequate contemporaneous records that...

For individuals and businesses, social media can be a great boon — but it can also be destructive. You can’t control what a disgruntled customer might say about your business on social media. But what if one of your employees trashes your company online or reveals...

A recent U.S. Tax Court decision drives home the important point that current deductions aren’t allowed for most expenses incurred while a new business is still in the start-up phase. Other decisions have dealt with the same issue in recent years. So, the proper federal...

If you don’t pay attention to the details, the tax consequences of a sale may be different from what you expect. For example, if you bought the same security at different times and prices and want to sell high-tax-basis shares to reduce gain or increase a loss to offset other...

If you allow employees to telecommute, be sure to consider the potential tax implications. Hiring someone in another state, for example, might create sufficient nexus to expose your company to that state’s income, sales and use, franchise, withholding, or unemployment taxes. And...

The IRS announced on May 26 that cyber criminals gained unauthorized access to information on approximately 100,000 tax accounts through the “Get Transcript” application on its website. The data may include taxpayers’ wage and tax return information, Social...

If your college-age child is or will be receiving financial aid, congratulations. Now, you’ll probably want to know if the financial aid is taxable. Keep in mind that the economic characteristics of college financial aid, rather than how it is titled, will determine its...

Do you pay Medicare insurance premiums or are you getting close to the age when you’ll become eligible for Medicare coverage? A recently enacted law made changes that will cause some upper-income people to pay higher premium surcharges in the future. This article explains...