Practical tax, accounting and business guidance from the ESBS team.
Explore updates and insights on tax planning, business accounting, investments, entity structures, payroll, real estate, and other financial matters affecting individuals and business owners.
Evening Star Bookkeeping Services has acquired Sherwood R. Veith, CPA's accounting and tax practice. Here is what existing clients can expect during the transition.
Read MoreA business can show a healthy profit on its income statement and still struggle to make payroll. Understanding the difference between profit and cash flow can help owners avoid this kind of surprise.
Holding a foreign bank or investment account can trigger reporting obligations beyond a standard tax return, including FBAR and Form 8938 filings.
Tax returns are only as accurate as the records behind them. Consistent bookkeeping throughout the year tends to produce a smoother, more reliable filing season than a rush of reconstruction in the spring.
A shareholder's tax basis in an S corporation is not the same thing as the capital account shown on the company's books. Confusing the two can lead to reporting errors.
The purchase price minus the sale price is rarely the full story when a rental property is sold. Depreciation recapture, suspended losses, and basis adjustments often play a significant role in the final tax outcome.
A partner's basis in a partnership interest affects losses, distributions, and the eventual sale of the interest. Tracking it accurately matters more than it might seem.
Holding foreign mutual funds or ETFs through a foreign brokerage account can trigger specialized U.S. reporting rules known as PFIC rules.
The tax treatment of a business sale often depends heavily on decisions made in the purchase agreement itself. Once the agreement is signed, many of those decisions are difficult or impossible to change.
S corporation status is often discussed as a way to reduce self-employment tax, but the decision involves payroll obligations, basis tracking, and administrative costs that should be weighed together, not in isolation.
A Schedule K-1 often includes far more than the summary numbers on the front page. The supplemental pages can carry information that affects your return.
Tax preparation reports what already happened. Tax planning looks at what is still possible to change. Understanding the difference can help clients get more value from both.
Business owners with more than one entity often have income, losses, and basis items scattered across several returns. Reviewing these returns together, rather than in isolation, can help catch items that a single-entity review might miss.
