Rental activity is passive by default, even if you work on it every week. It becomes nonpassive only if you qualify as a real estate professional, with more than 750 hours and more than half your working time, and materially…
If you never file, the IRS can prepare a return for you under section 6020(b), built only from income reported by employers, banks and brokers. It generally leaves out dependents, itemized deductions, credits and basis, so the tax is usually…
Sometimes. An IRS Chief Counsel memo allowed a theft loss deduction for compromised-account, pig butchering and phishing scams, because the money was tied to a transaction entered into for profit. It disallowed romance and kidnapping scams as personal casualty losses….
For most married couples, filing jointly costs less, because filing separately shuts off the education credits and the student loan interest deduction and shrinks Roth IRA room. Filing separately can win in narrow cases: large medical bills on a lower…
The extended tax deadline of October 15, 2026 only moves the date to file your 2025 return. Tax owed was still due April 15, so interest, compounded daily at 6% and then 7%, and the 0.5% monthly late-payment penalty have…
A short-term rental averages seven days or less per guest stay, which takes it outside the passive rental rules. If you also materially participate, its loss may offset wages. A long-term rental is passive by default: losses generally offset only…
Trader tax status is a facts-and-circumstances test: you must seek daily trading profits, substantially and with continuity. It moves your trading expenses to Schedule C. It does not lift the $3,000 capital loss cap or the wash sale rule —…
A SEP IRA gives a sole proprietor about 20% of net earnings from self-employment. A solo 401(k) gives the same 20% plus an elective deferral of up to $24,500 for 2026 — so it puts away more at every income…
New Jersey now claims ANCHOR, Senior Freeze and Stay NJ on one combined form, the PAS-1, due November 2, 2026. Homeowners under 65 and most renters are filed automatically. Senior homeowners and disability recipients are not, and must file themselves….
A CP14 is the IRS’s first bill: you filed a return, the tax was not paid in full, and this is the balance with penalty and interest to date. Pay within 21 calendar days of the notice date and no…
