#plain-text-accounting
Discover the power of version-controlled, human-readable financial records
Form 8606 is the IRS's running ledger of after-tax basis inside traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs. Skip it and the IRS treats your basis as zero, taxing the same dollars a second time at distribution. This guide explains how the form works, why the pro-rata rule punishes most backdoor Roth conversions, and how to keep your basis documented for the next 30 years.
How the federal kiddie tax pulls a child's unearned income above $2,700 in 2026 onto the parent's marginal rate via Form 8615. Mechanics, UTMA/UGMA pitfalls, full-time-student rules through age 23, and planning strategies using 529 plans, Roth IRAs, and gain timing.
A practical guide to Form 709 for 2026 gifts — who must file, the $19,000 annual exclusion, the $15 million lifetime exemption, gift splitting rules, the adequate disclosure standard that starts the IRS three-year clock, and the medical and tuition payments that escape reporting entirely.
Section 1014 of the Internal Revenue Code resets an inherited asset's cost basis to its fair market value on the date of death, erasing the decedent's lifetime appreciation from the tax base — a provision the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will cost the federal government $72.5 billion in 2026.
Net operating losses generated after 2021 carry forward indefinitely but can offset only 80% of future taxable income. This guide covers the calculation, the Section 461(l) excess business loss limit, Form 1045 vs. 1040-X, and the bookkeeping practices that keep an NOL defensible years later.
A plain-English guide to FBAR and FATCA for U.S. taxpayers — who must file, the $10,000 aggregate threshold, Form 8938 tiers, post-Bittner penalties capped at $16,536 per form, and how the Streamlined Procedures fix years of missed filings without penalty.
A decision framework for choosing between DIY bookkeeping software, professional services, and plain-text accounting—with concrete pricing benchmarks ($15–$800/month), transaction-volume thresholds, and the seven mistakes that drive cleanup costs.
A practical guide for CPAs and enrolled agents on building a bookkeeping pipeline that delivers tax-ready financials by mid-February — covering client segmentation, in-house vs outsourced models, standardized handoffs, and how plain-text accounting fits in.
A transparent walkthrough of how 2026 bookkeeping services combine AI categorization (handling 70-80% of transactions at over 95% accuracy) with human reconciliation, monthly financial reporting, and year-end tax packages.
An eight-state invoice lifecycle, five weekly AR metrics, and a 30-day rollout plan to cut DSO and protect small business cash flow — grounded in 2025 data showing US small businesses average $17,500 in unpaid invoices and get paid 8.2 days late.
An eight-step guide to migrating off QuickBooks without losing your audit trail, covering cutover timing, data export limits, parallel running, opening-balance imports, and how to evaluate replacements like Xero, FreshBooks, and plain-text tools such as Beancount.
The sales-to-AR ratio measures the share of revenue stuck in unpaid invoices. This guide explains how to calculate it, what good looks like by industry, and how to drive it down within one or two quarters.
