Tax Warrior Chronicles

By: Eric R. Elmore

In 1990, the City of Philadelphia was immersed in a financial crisis and on the verge of bankruptcy. Randall Cunningham led the Eagles to the playoffs and the city’s first skyscrapers, Liberty One and Two, were completed—much to Billy Penn’s chagrin. 1990 is also the year Drucker & Scaccetti was born. Join us in celebrating our 30^th anniversary as we look at 30 other significant events from 1990. How many do you recall?

Here is a list of some top events from around the world that occurred in 1990.  They are in no specific order, nor it is an exhaustive list.  

1. The first web server founded the World Wide Web and the first web page is written.
2. Germany reunified

By: Beth Gaasbeck, CPA, MBA and Robert N. Polans, CPA, MT, PFS

Welcome to Part II of our two-part blog discussing the SECURE Act and its impact on retirement and estate planning.  The Act was signed by the President on December 20, 2019, and is effective as of January 1, 2020. Today’s focus is on the not-so-good parts of the Act.

In Part I, we summarized notable provisions of the Act, focusing on the increase in the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) age and the removal of age restrictions for making IRA contributions (the good news).  Today we’ll discuss the changes to the RMD rules for inherited retirement plans and the elimination of the “Stretch IRA” (the bad news). Let’s start by

By: Beth Gaasbeck, CPA, MBA and Robert N. Polans, CPA, MT, PFS

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (the SECURE Act) as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, effective 1/1/2020.  Not exactly a Holiday present, there are favorable and unfavorable provisions impacting your retirement planning.  In this two-part series, we will take a closer look at the highlights under the  law.

Several notable provisions include:

• Increase in the age to take required minimum distributions from 70 ½ to 72
• Removal of age restrictions for making IRA contributions
• Shortened timeline for taking post-death required

By: Steven R. Rossman, CPA, MST

Running your own business can be very satisfying and rewarding; and with the emergence of the “Gig Economy,” more of you are moving from being an employee and receiving a W-2 to being self-employed.  Whether you have a side hustle or own a small business, today’s post should help with managing the tax and income-reporting process.

What do you do, when do you do it and how frequently must you do it? How do you know if you are compliant, and what kind of planning can you do ahead of time? These are all valid questions for newly self-employed taxpayers, and here are some answers:

1. Keep detailed/accurate records and don’t mix your personal and business

No matter the culture or language, our message is clear; Happy Holidays and best wishes for a healthy and  prosperous New Year! Please click on the image for a delightful greeting from our staff.

By: Eric R. Elmore

Recent tax code changes were supposed to make filing easier. Now the IRS is reviving Form 1099-NEC, Non-employee Compensation, which has been absent since 1982. It’s aimed at reducing confusion, but does it really? Here’s how and when this latest change may affect you.

With the reinstatement of Form 1099-NEC, the IRS is truly trying to simplify filing, but sometimes the Service can’t get out of its own way. The revamped form will replace certain parts  of Form 1099-MISC, which is  a one-size-fits-all contractor filing mechanism.  This change presents timing and deadline challenges for filers.

Since enactment in late 2015, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act

By: Eric R. Elmore

Amidst all the talk about impeachment and the hard-line partisan politics in Washington was a pearl of good news for the American taxpayer. Over the weekend, congressional leaders and the White House agreed to extend, through 2020, the group of tax provisions commonly known as "tax extenders." What does this mean for you?  Let’s take a look…

The agreement is a year-end tax package that renews expired incentives for businesses and individuals as part of legislation to avert a federal government shutdown.

The tax extender legislation would be an amendment to the government funding bill, which will be up for a Congressional vote this Friday. The vote must occur on

By: Chris Catarino, CPA, MT

ALERT! The article below was written prior to Treasury’s release of the final Opportunity Zone regulations on December 19, 2019 and has not been updated to incorporate any items that may have changed. Stay tuned for more as The Tax Warriors pour through the 544 pages of new guidance, which you can access here. Happy Holidays from the IRS!

At Drucker & Scaccetti, December is always abuzz with tax planning as our clients’ annual tax pictures come into better focus and strategies can be designed and implemented to increase Santa's allocated budget. But in the Opportunity Zone (OZ) context, year-end is even more critical. Below are 3 things you need to know

Last week, we reported an important change on Form 1065 requiring partnerships to report tax basis partners’ capital accounts starting with 2019 filings. Since many partnerships do not currently report or even track this information, the change could be extremely problematic. However, the IRS has slightly changed course, making the change a bit more palatable, but the over-arching challenge still remains.

In Notice 2019-66, the IRS announced that the new requirement to report partners’ shares of partnership capital on the tax basis method will not be effective for 2019, but will be effective beginning in 2020 (for partnership taxable years that begin on or after January 1, 2020).  For

By: Rosie Flite

As 2019 winds down, the upcoming Holidays are at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Between planning gifts, meals, and travel arrangements, many forget the importance of year-end tax planning.  With that in mind, we offer seven (7) strategies that may save everyone money when April 15th comes around in 2020.

1. Avoiding Estimated Tax Underpayment Penalties

To avoid the IRS charging penalties for underpaying estimated taxes, individuals must meet at least one of these three criteria:

• a person's total tax due after withholdings is less than $1,000, or
• they have paid in at least 90% of their taxes for the current year, or
• the individual has paid in at least 100% of the