As promised, this week concludes my Home Office Deduction Safe Harbor column. If you are not using the safe harbor calculation, you must figure the amount of your deduction on IRS Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home. Deduct 100% of expenses that are directly related to the home office. This can include… Read More
For small business owners, home office deductions can be an important tax break. Instead of renting space, many businesses can be operated from home, lowering the business’s overhead costs and reducing the owner’s tax liability. Until 2013, home office deductions have required a calculation method that involved depreciation and other factors. It brought confusion and… Read More
There are a few accounting guidelines to remember when you conduct barter transactions. First, all barter income is dealt with on a cash basis. The IRS treats barter as income received whether you use accrual-basis or cash-basis accounting. You must report and pay taxes on barter income for the year in which it accrues. If… Read More
Since it is difficult to get an exact match where two businesses need equal amounts of each other’s products or services, the opportunities for direct barter transactions are limited. That’s where a barter exchange network comes in. The network deals in units of currency called trade dollars. The goods and services of one company in… Read More
If a business makes payments of bartered services to another business (except a corporation) of $600 or more in the course of the year, these payments are reported on Form 1099-MISC. For example, an attorney represents a painter for nonpayment of business debts in exchange for painting the attorney’s law offices. The amount reportable by… Read More
“The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.” Adam Smith Bartering is the trading of one product or service for another. Usually there is no exchange of cash. Barter may take place on an informal one-on-one basis… Read More
Pennsylvania law provides that the court shall not appoint as guardian of the estate of a minor the parent of the minor, except that a parent can be appointed as a co-guardian with another co-guardian. A guardian of the person is a sort of substitute parent. For so long as the ward (the minor child… Read More
Do you have minor children? Who will take care of the children if you die? This is the number one reason for you to make a will. Michael Jackson left a will in which he nominated his mother, Katherine Jackson, as guardian of his three children, Prince Michael Junior, aged 12, Paris Michael Katherine, 11,… Read More
Class C funds are like Class B funds except that the back-end load is lower than found in Class B shares (typically around one percent) and is eliminated in a much shorter time, typically a year. However, their management and 12 b-1 fees are higher than those of Class A shares. C shares tend to… Read More
Mutual Funds that have a “load,” that is a charge associated with investing in the fund, are generally sold in three classes: A, B and C. They differ in the commission the broker is paid by the buyer for the sale, when it is paid, and the size and duration of annual fees taken by… Read More