Tax problem solver

If you play a major role in a closely held corporation, you may sometimes spend money on corporate expenses personally. In general, you can’t deduct an expense you incur on behalf of your corporation even if it’s a legitimate business expense. That’s because you can only deduct expenses that are your own and the corporation is a separate legal entity. And the corporation won’t generally be able to deduct them either because it didn’t pay them. One solution is to arrange to have the corporation reimburse you for expenses you incur. Turn the receipts over to the corporation and use an expense reimbursement claim form or system. Then, the corporation can deduct the reimbursement amount.

“Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars and their personal information to tax scams,” according to the IRS. The scams may come in through email, text messages, telephone calls or regular mail. Criminals regularly target both individuals and businesses and often prey on the elderly. Important: The IRS will never contact you by email, text or social media channels about a tax bill or refund. Most IRS contacts are first made through regular mail. Be on guard for any suspicious messages. Don’t open attachments or click on links. Contact us if you get an email about a tax return we prepared. You can also report suspicious emails that claim to come from the IRS at [email protected].

Common Tax Filing Mistakes With all the complexity in the tax code, it is easy to make a mistake. Here are some common ones, and what you can do to eliminate the possibility of them happening to you.

If you’re age 65 and older and have basic Medicare insurance, you may need to pay additional premiums to get the level of coverage you want. The premiums can be costly, especially for married couples with both spouses paying them. But there may be an advantage: You may qualify for a tax break for paying the premiums. However, it can be difficult to qualify to claim medical expenses on your tax return. For 2023, you can deduct medical expenses only if you itemize deductions and only to the extent that total qualifying expenses exceeded 7.5% of adjusted gross income. We can determine whether you should claim the standard deduction or claim medical expense deductions on your tax return.