LGT's Profit Sense

You’ve got a fence around the job site. Your heavy equipment is turned off and the keys stored securely. Your materials are tied down and, where possible, kept out of sight. But what about your financial assets? Are you protecting those as carefully as your physical assets?

Passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) last year spread dismay in the nonprofit community. With several provisions in the law expected to depress charitable giving, nonprofits should mobilize to minimize the negative impact on their bottom lines.

Real estate industry among the big winners on new tax law

By passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in late December 2017, Congress granted the holiday wishes of many involved in real estate. While the TCJA brought good cheer for the business community in general, the real estate industry is particularly likely to reap some lucrative rewards.

Both the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("TCJA") and Congress’s massive new spending package received widespread media coverage, but a couple of provisions that incentivize investments in low income housing have largely gone under the radar. One provision in the tax law offers significant tax breaks for investors looking to defer or abate capital gains taxes, while the spending bill boosts the Low Income Housing Tax Credit ("LIHTC").

You would normally be right if you thought a dentist could not qualify as a “real estate professional”, allowed to deduct rental real estate losses — after all, the IRS thought the same thing. In this case you would be wrong, though. The U.S. Tax Court found that a dentist who also operated a real estate business qualified for the real estate professional exception, based largely on his extensive documentation of the hours he’d spent.

The passage of a new tax law in December was intriguing, if not downright exciting, news for most construction company owners. Now that the dust has settled, this article takes a look at some highlights, including reduced tax rates and boosted depreciation deductions. A sidebar points out that some valuable tax breaks have been eliminated or limited.

On May 1, 2018, Texas will begin a two-month tax amnesty program. If you have any potential exposure for any Texas back taxes, LGT would welcome the opportunity to discuss the program with you to determine whether it would be worth pursuing. Additional information about the program is below.

On February 2, 2018 we held our annual State of the Firm. The staff has been moving and shaking throughout the last year. Numerous employees have shown their potential and talent, and they were rewarded for it.

Are you ready to file your tax return(s)?

Avoid the rush! The sooner you can file, the easier your life will be, and the more your CPA will appreciate you. The easiest way to do that is to make sure you’re ready for them. Don’t wait until the last minute if you can gather your paperwork early. The less rushed your CPA is, the better off you’ll be.

With tax season upon us, it is important to be up to date on new tax scams that affect taxpayers. Many current scams involve new twists on the same old scam. The most prevalent one to be aware of for 2018 is a pervasive new telephone scam. Individuals are using taxpayer information to file false returns, sending the refund directly to the taxpayer. The taxpayer then receives a telephone call from an individual pretending to be with the IRS or in another position of authority and demands that the taxpayer returns the refund to a specified address due to an error.