Author Archives: mgracey

The IRS is providing penalty relief to the millions of taxpayers it says may have fallen short of their total tax liabilities for 2018 due to the revamp of the U.S. tax code under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Thanks, in part, to the efforts of the accounting profession, including of the American […]

The prospect of having a vacation property that you can use as your own personal retreat for part of the year and lease to others in return for rental income during other times is appealing to many individuals. However, it is important to understand the tax implications of renting your residential property, whether it be […]

Eligible employees who enrolled to participate in their employers’ health care flexible spending arrangements (FSAs) for 2019 will be able to contribute and use up to a maximum of $2,700 tax-free dollars to pay for certain medical expenses not covered by their health insurance plans this year. That’s a $50 increase from the 2018 FSA […]

Effective Jan. 1, 2019, Florida’s sales tax rate on the total rent that commercial real estate owners charge and receive from tenants is 5.7 percent, a decrease from 5.8 percent in 2018, and 6.0 percent in 2017.  Real property rentals subject to the reduced rate include commercial office space, retail, warehouses and certain self-storage units, excluding storage […]

With the start of the 2019 tax season, businesses must educate employees, implement controls and take other steps to avoid falling victim to a growing wave of identity theft and W-2 scams. Identity thieves have been targeting small businesses at an alarming rate. Not only are criminals stealing business data to open credit card accounts […]

The IRS announced the annual inflation adjustments to various provisions of the tax code for 2019. You should consider each of these changes very carefully as you plan for tax efficiency this year and when you prepare your 2019 tax returns in 2020. Tax Rates The top tax rate of 37 percent applies to individual […]

Sept. 28, 2018, marked the end of the IRS’s Voluntary Offshore Disclosure Program (OVDP), which provided reticent taxpayers with protection from criminal prosecution and an opportunity to pay reduced penalties when they came forward to report and pay taxes on unreported foreign income and assets. As a result, the IRS has put into place new, […]

Taxpayers affected by disasters, such as fires, floods or hurricanes, may need to reconstruct their records to prove they suffered losses for tax purposes and to qualify for federal assistance and insurance reimbursement. Following are some resources to help individual obtain copies of documentation that they may have lost as a result of a disaster […]

One of the welcome provisions contained in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) is a doubling of the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions for the years 2018 through 2025. Nevertheless, on Jan. 1, 2026, the law calls for those amounts to roll back to their inflation-adjusted 2017 levels. Due to the temporary […]

As you ring in a New Year and prepare for the April tax filing deadline, it is critical you recognize that this season brings with it a heightened risk of identity theft and cyber fraud for which you must take necessary precautions to protect yourself, your businesses and your clients. Criminals are continuously coming up […]