#tax-planning
Strategic tax planning to minimize liability and maximize savings
Oil and gas lease bonuses, delay rentals, and royalties are all ordinary income reported on Schedule E — but royalties qualify for 15% percentage depletion that can continue after your basis hits zero. How each payment is taxed, where it goes on your return, and the state traps to avoid.
Missouri's SALT Parity Act lets partnerships and S corps pay tax at the 4.7% top individual rate on Form MO-PTE, moving the deduction past the federal SALT cap. Here are the 2026 rules, deadlines, and filing traps.
A 4.08% muni yield equals a 6.00% taxable yield in the 32% bracket. How to run the tax-equivalent yield math on business reserve cash, and where munis beat FDIC-insured savings.
A married couple co-owning an unincorporated business is taxed as a partnership by default, but the qualified joint venture election lets each spouse file a separate Schedule C and Schedule SE instead — no Form 1065, and both spouses earn Social Security credits. Both spouses must materially participate, and businesses held in an LLC or corporation cannot use it.
A life settlement payout splits into three slices — basis tax-free, gain up to cash surrender value as ordinary income, the rest as capital gain. Here is how a business reports it, plus Forms 1099-LS, 1099-SB, 8925 and Section 101(j).
Since 2018, trading in a business vehicle is a taxable sale, not a tax-free swap — the trade allowance minus your adjusted basis is gain, depreciation is recaptured as ordinary income on Form 4797, and the new vehicle's depreciable basis is its full cost.
Staying under 183 days in a country does not make you a non-resident anywhere. U.S. nomads still owe worldwide income tax, the 2026 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion caps at $132,900 and never covers the 15.3% self-employment tax, the tax-home test disqualifies perpetual travelers, and FBAR triggers at $10,000 aggregated across all foreign accounts.
Enrolling in Medicare Part A after age 65 backdates coverage up to six months, turning HSA contributions made during that window into excess contributions subject to a 6% yearly excise tax. This guide covers the 2026 prorated limits, the Form 5329 penalty, how to withdraw the excess before the filing deadline, and the six-months-ahead shutdown plan.
Cross-tested profit sharing lets a 55-year-old owner take a 13.2% allocation while staff receive the 4.4% gateway minimum — how new comparability 401(k)s pass IRS testing, what they cost, and when they backfire.
An S corporation K-1 loss is deductible only up to your stock basis plus debt basis, and a personal guarantee of a corporate bank loan creates zero debt basis. This guide covers the two basis buckets, the $25,000 open-account-debt threshold, the repayment gain trap, and the documentation that keeps a shareholder advance from being reclassified as equity.
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.
Since March 31, 2026, El Salvador's Decreto 531 requires temporary residents to spend only 90 calendar days a year in the country instead of roughly nine months. Here is how the three main residency routes compare, what territorial tax and the U.S. foreign earned income exclusion actually cover, and the ledger habits that keep presence days, income sourcing, and renewal files audit-ready.
