by Leif Jensen | Mar 8, 2017 | General |
I am currently working with a couple who both lost parents last year. The differences between the couple’s two parents are striking. For the first one the family knows where all of the assets are and the documents are current. But there are special...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 7, 2017 | General |
The simplest way to help protect yourself from tax-related identity theft this tax season is to file your tax return early. Thieves who are using stolen identities to seek refunds on fraudulent returns typically file the fake returns early in the filing season...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 6, 2017 | General |
An employee who earned an MBA degree gets good news from the Tax Court. The cost can be deducted as an employee business expense on Schedule A. A man who worked as a product marketing manager decided to get an MBA degree with a focus on management and finance....
by Leif Jensen | Mar 1, 2017 | General |
A taxpayer has a scheme to avoid paying overdue taxes backfires for a corporation. On the day a company that owed back payroll taxes decided to close shop, its president and 40% owner formed a new firm to conduct the same line of business with the same workers....
by Leif Jensen | Feb 28, 2017 | General |
In a recent tax court case it was revealed that taking a large bad debt deduction leads to IRS scrutiny in this case. Through his S corporation, an investor advanced funds to small companies in return for financial control and a minority equity interest. (I am...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 27, 2017 | General |
Apparently suffering financial hardship does not let you tap your IRA penalty-free, according to the Tax Court. A taxpayer under age 59½ who lost her job and took payouts from her qualified dollars to assist in supporting her family. Afterwards the IRS...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 23, 2017 | Case Study |
I started working with a transportation company when they were looking for someone to train them on QuickBooks (QB). They were looking to replace their bookkeeper and wanted me to train another employee on how to use QuickBooks, they also wanted this done discreetly....
by Leif Jensen | Feb 22, 2017 | General |
With all the talk and it is currently only talk, there is a question of what will happen with the gift tax? Most expect it to stick around in some form or another. It is considered to act as a backstop to help prevent income shifting from donors in high...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 21, 2017 | General |
Last Year I meet with a young man who was a financial advisor. I was impressed by how he presented himself but also how he described his process of working with his clients. It was not materially different from others I have worked with, but a certain earnestness...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 20, 2017 | General |
The Federal Reserve will be under tremendous pressure for the next few quarters to raise its benchmark lending rate faster than is has recently. Which will then have the trickle effect on higher costs on lines of credit, HELOC’s, mortgages, credit cards and down the...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 15, 2017 | General |
A couple of years ago, a couple of family members suggested going back to Disney for our vacation. So being the dutiful husband and father, I looked into it and the costs of a Florida trip and they were terrifying! The airfare and hotel costs were over double what a...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 14, 2017 | General |
The minimum wage continues to be a major issue to politicians as well as small business owners. But I was reading recently that in a 2014 study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it was found that raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 13, 2017 | General |
I have spent some time in the past quarter working with clients on their first business budget. They are looking to grow to the next level and a budget is a good tool for the assistance for this measure. But, drilling down a budget to its essence is really...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 8, 2017 | General |
Over my professional life I have run into a number of people who complain that they are successful, but are not happy. I sit and listen to them, but I have learned to keep my mouth shut. Because they obviously are not successful. They are successful by a measure...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 7, 2017 | General |
Do you handle your investments or do you hand that aspect of your life to a professional? Or do you have a professional investment advisor and still dabble with your investments? I am in the latter category. If you are like me, have you ever wanted to...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 6, 2017 | General |
I was reading an article and the author quoted some research from another author of self-published books. “Author Thomas C. Corley’s five-year study of self-made millionaires discovered that a majority of them have multiple streams of income. In fact, 65 percent...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 2, 2017 | General |
There appears to be a new war on cash and it is not limited to the US. In India there was a removal of old 500 and 1000 rupee notes, curbing the cash economy. In the US a withdrawal of $3,000 or more from any of your bank accounts in cash now requires the bank to...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 1, 2017 | General |
As Millennials give their elders grief about texting and verbal communications, it seems that some have an irrational fear of the telephone. Which is a basic piece of technology that their elders consider to be absolutely necessary for day to day communications....
by Leif Jensen | Jan 31, 2017 | General |
IRS Wraps Up the “Dirty Dozen” List of Tax Scams for 2016 IR-2016-29, Feb. 19, 2016 — The IRS today wrapped up its annual “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams with identity theft topping this year’s list but with phone scams and phishing...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 30, 2017 | General |
It is estimated that in 2013 there was 4.4zettabytes of data. This data apparently is growing at a rate of 40% a year. So for 2020 it is estimated that there will be 44 zettabytes of data available. So how much of that data is just a glut of useless...
