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#tax-compliance

Tax Compliance

Stay compliant with tax regulations and filing requirements

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13 min read

Volunteer Firefighter and EMT Taxes: Stipends, Per-Call Pay, Property-Tax Breaks, and LOSAP Awards

Volunteer firefighters and EMTs are usually employees for federal tax purposes, so stipends and per-call pay are W-2 wages. Section 139B excludes up to $50 for each month of service ($600 a year) plus qualified state and local tax benefits; LOSAP awards accrue tax-deferred under an $8,000 cap for 2026 and are taxed as ordinary income on payout with no FICA; only accountable-plan reimbursements stay off the W-2.

Mike Thrift

taxtax-compliancepayroll
12 min read

How to Reconcile Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay Settlements Without Losing Track of Revenue

BNPL settlements net fees at the source and deduct refunds from future payouts, so booking the bank deposit as revenue understates sales and breaks your 1099-K tie-out. This guide shows the clearing-account method — one account per provider, revenue booked gross on the order date, fees as their own expense — with a worked $10,000 Afterpay week and a monthly close checklist.

Mike Thrift

paymentsreconciliationrevenue-recognition
11 min read

Getting Paid for Bug Bounties: How Your HackerOne and Bugcrowd Payouts Are Taxed

Bug bounty payouts from HackerOne and Bugcrowd are ordinary income from the first dollar, and for 2026 platforms only issue 1099s at $2,000 per researcher — but the income is taxable with or without a form. Covers W-9 setup, the hobby-versus-business test that decides whether tooling is deductible, self-employment tax, and quarterly estimates.

Mike Thrift

taxtax-complianceself-employment-tax
13 min read

The Capital Construction Fund: How Commercial Fishermen Defer Tax on Vessel Money

The Capital Construction Fund lets commercial fishermen deposit fishing income before income tax under IRC Section 7518 and spend it tax-free on building or rebuilding a U.S. vessel — at the cost of reduced depreciable basis. This guide covers the 2-net-ton eligibility floor, the three internal accounts, qualified versus nonqualified withdrawals taxed at the top marginal rate plus interest, the 25-year clock, and the annual NOAA Form 34-82 filing.

Mike Thrift

tax-planningdepreciationself-employment-tax
11 min read

Chicago's Amusement Tax in 2026: What Venues, Streamers, and Ticket Sellers Must Collect

Chicago's amusement tax runs on three tracks in 2026 — 9% on live admissions, 10.25% on streaming and paid TV, 3% on registered ticket resales — plus a new 10.25% sports wagering tax and a $0.50 per-user monthly social media levy above 100,000 Chicago consumers. Here are the rates, the limits of the 1,500-seat exemption, the $100,000 remote-seller safe harbor, and the filing deadlines that trigger assessments.

Mike Thrift

tax-compliancetaxsmall-business
10 min read

China's New VAT Law Doubled the Small-Seller Exemption: What the RMB 1,000 Threshold Means for You

China's first VAT Law took effect January 1, 2026, doubling the per-transaction exemption for individuals to RMB 1,000 while keeping the RMB 100,000 monthly and RMB 300,000 quarterly thresholds — and forcing six categories of individual income to aggregate monthly instead. Here is how the thresholds work, why a supplier's VAT status can flip month to month, and what foreign-invested buyers should change in their contracts.

Mike Thrift

vatinternational-taxtax-compliance
12 min read

One Ticket, Two Tax Bills: Splitting Food From Admission at a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater

A bundled dinner theater ticket is two sales — a taxable meal and an admission many states exempt from sales tax but hit with a separate admissions or amusement levy. This guide covers the three state models (split the ticket, operator-as-consumer, tax the whole bundle), the complimentary-drink rules that tax comps at your cost, and a chart of accounts that keeps ticket, bar, and deferred revenue auditable.

Mike Thrift

creative-industriesrestaurantsales-tax
9 min read

Your Employees' Moving Expenses Are Never Deductible Again: OBBBA's Permanent Repeal and Your Relocation Policy

OBBBA Section 70113 permanently repealed the moving expense deduction and the tax-free employer reimbursement for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025 — every relocation dollar, including payments made directly to vendors, is now supplemental wages, with exceptions only for active-duty military PCS moves and intelligence community personnel.

Mike Thrift

payrolltaxemployee-benefits
11 min read

Section 129 and Section 127: Giving Employees $12,750 Tax-Free and Reporting It Right on the W-2

For 2026 the Section 129 dependent care exclusion rises from $5,000 to $7,500 and Section 127 student loan repayment becomes permanent, so an employer can move up to $12,750 per employee outside wages. This guide covers the written-plan and nondiscrimination rules, which W-2 boxes each benefit lands in — all dependent care in Box 10, excludable educational assistance nowhere — and the seven errors that turn a tax-free benefit into taxable wages.

Mike Thrift

payrollemployee-benefitstax-compliance
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