Tax & Accounting Insights for Irvine, CA. Expert Guidance from Bharmal CPAs
How to Deduct Home Office Expenses
You likely know that the home-office tax deduction provides tax savings to business owners. It turns otherwise nondeductible personal expenses into valuable business deductions. When you operate your business as a proprietorship, you simply deduct home-office expenses on Schedule C, but when you operate your business as an S corporation, you face special rules to achieve the same benefits. And [...]
Corporate Vehicle in Personal Name
You may be thinking of buying a new or replacement vehicle. This brings up some tax issues to consider. First, should you own the vehicle in your personal name, or should you have your corporation own the vehicle? Let’s say that it makes financial sense for you to own the vehicle personally. In this case, you could deduct the vehicle [...]
Tax Savings for Rewarding Your Employees
There’s really nothing more valuable to a business than good employees, particularly those who stick with you for years and years. One way to honor those employees is to give them a meaningful present or award. The tax code includes a special carve-out for “employee achievement awards,” which means that when you buy something for your employees in recognition of [...]
Tax Savings Plan for Your Child’s College Education
Funding your retirement and paying your child’s college education are two of the biggest financial challenges you’ll face in your life. Conventional wisdom says that it’s best to (1) fund your retirement before your child’s college and (2) use your retirement savings for your retirement and not your child’s college expenses. We agree with the conventional wisdom and strongly urge [...]
Business Mileage Deduction
When it comes to your tax records, there’s one record that you really should keep, and it’s easily overlooked. It’s the mileage log. In an IRS audit, the mileage log often creates the first impression of your tax records. Whether you use the IRS mileage rate method or the actual expense method, you need a written record that proves your [...]
Buying a Business? Tax Planning for Noncompete Agreement
When you buy a business, you probably don’t want the former owners competing with you—at least not for a while. To prevent the competition, you will likely enter into a non-compete agreement with the former owners. The agreement has tax implications that you need to consider. As the buyer, you or your business entity must amortize amounts allocated to non-compete [...]