Missed your quarterly estimates this year? You’re not alone. The IRS underpayment charge is nondeductible, compounds daily, and snowballs fast. Writing a big check today will stop new penalty accrual from this point forward, but it won’t erase the penalties tied to the quarters you already missed.

There is, however, a lawful way to make it as if you paid each quarter on time. It relies on how the tax code treats withholding from retirement distributions.

The Core Idea

Tax withheld from certain retirement-plan distributions is treated as if it were paid evenly throughout the tax year, regardless of when you actually withhold. That timing rule lets you retro-allocate withholding to April/June/September/January and eliminate underpayment penalties for earlier quarters.

You can use that rule in two primary ways.

October 2025

If you’re age 70½ or older, you can transfer money directly from an IRA to qualifying charities. Those transfers are Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs). Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), QCDs now protect even more tax benefits by keeping AGI/MAGI low while still satisfying charitable goals.

Below is the upgraded, precise version you can publish.

QCDs in One Minute

• A QCD is a transfer from your IRA directly to a U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity (churches, universities, operating charities).
• Tax result: the amount never hits income. That typically beats taking a taxable IRA distribution and trying to itemize the gift.
• No double-dip: you do not claim a charitable deduction for a QCD.
• Eligibility: you (owner or beneficiary) must be 70½+ on the date of the transfer.
• Payment path: custodian → charity (checks payable to the charity or direct electronic transfer).
• Annual cap (2025): $108,000 per person (inflation-adjusted). Spouses with their own IRAs each have a separate cap.
• Accounts that qualify: traditional, rollover, inherited, and (rarely optimal) Roth IRAs.
• Accounts that do not qualify directly: 401(k)/403(b)/457(b) plans. If needed, do a direct rollover to an IRA first, then QCD.
• SEP/SIMPLE nuance: QCDs can come from SEP/SIMPLE IRAs only in years with no employer contributions (inactive plans).

Inherited IRAs qualify for QCDs once the beneficiary is 70½+.

October 2025

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) didn’t just keep Opportunity Zones alive. It made the program permanent, tightened zone eligibility, and changes investor incentives starting January 1, 2027. Below is the upgraded, client-ready explainer with a now-vs-later comparison, a timeline, and the fine print sophisticated readers expect.

Snapshot: Now vs. 2027

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) permanently extended a harsh TCJA rule: no deduction for “miscellaneous itemized deductions,” including hobby expenses. That’s brutal for dog breeders, because the IRS often labels breeding as a hobby. Translation: income gets taxed, expenses don’t. Hobby income is reported separately on Schedule 1, but most related costs are simply nondeductible.

There is a narrow carve-out: if you sell inventory (puppies), you can reduce taxable hobby income by direct costs tied to those sales. Beyond that, hobby treatment is a tax dead end.

Good news: you don’t have to accept hobby status. If you structure and run breeding as a business, you unlock deductions and escape the OBBBA/TCJA penalty box.

What Counts as a “Business” (for Tax Purposes)

A business is an activity you pursue regularly and continuously with a primary objective of making a profit. You don’t need to show profits every year, and it can be part-time, but the intent to earn has to be real and supported by your behavior.

We often receive questions about record retention, so let's take a moment to clarify what you need to know.

Overall, the Federal law requires you to maintain copies of your tax returns and supporting documents for three years. This 'three-year law' leads many to believe that this 3-year period is set in stone and all-inclusive, but it is NOT.

Short version:

OBBBA adds a temporary, targeted deduction for tips. It’s not a universal “no tax on tips.” Many tipped amounts are still taxable, and payroll taxes still apply.

Here’s the clean, CFO-level breakdown you can put in front of clients.

BOI e-Filing Alert: A federal court order issued on February 19, 2025, has reaffirmed that businesses must file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report. The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its BOI reporting requirement have been deemed unconstitutional in court rulings, but the legal battles continue. This law has been in and out of court multiple times, with decisions reversing course along the way. It is our opinion that these requirements will change again, but at this time, businesses must comply with the filing requirement to avoid penalties. File your BOI HERE

As you may be aware, the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) requires many businesses to file a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report with FinCEN. However, not all businesses are required to file.

This article will help clarify who must file and who is exempt so you can determine whether you need to take action.

Who Must File a BOI Report?

Any domestic or foreign business entity that was formed by filing with a Secretary of State (or equivalent office) is required to file, including:

After filing your taxes, you may start wondering...

Where is my refund?

The answer depends on how you filed your return:

• E-Filing will have your refund faster... your refund should be issued between two and three weeks.
• If paper filing via US Mail, this process will slow down the refund... your refund will be received in approximately six to eight weeks of filing a paper return.  In the last 2 years, the process has been considerably lower.

You can check on the status of your refund by clicking on the links below.

Check your Federal Refund... click here

Check your State Refund...
 CA - Click Here
 AZ - Click Here

The IRS has issued 282 pages of proposed digital asset reporting regulations, along with official IRS explanation of the provisions, which cover a range of digital asset issues where there have been questions. Issues addressed include expansive definitions of brokers and a requirement that proceeds from the sale of digital assets be reported to the IRS starting in 2026, on new Form 1099-DA for transactions on, or after January 1, 2025.

What is a Digital Asset?

With the rise of blockchain technology, the term "digital assets" refers to digital tokens or cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many others, which represent various forms of value or access rights on a blockchain.

Noteworthy aspects of the proposed regulations include:

• The IRS has proposed numerous ques ons on various digital asset topics and is requesting public comment for a public hearing scheduled for November 7
• Tiebreaker rules for brokers help to determine how to report a digital asset transaction that can also be classified as a non-digital asset transaction:
  • If a transaction could be classified as either a securities transaction or a digital asset transaction, then starting January 1, 2025, the broker must report the transaction as a digital asset transaction (on Form 1099-DA)
  • If the transaction could be classified as either a real estate transaction or a digital asset transaction, then the transacion must be reported as a real estate transaction (under existing rules)
• The definition of “digital asset” is expansive and includes non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and stablecoins
• Digital assets requiring broker reporting do not include:
  • Digital assets used in “closed systems” (such as video game tokens that can be purchased with real currency but can be used only in-game and that cannot be sold or exchanged outside the game for real currency); or
  • Distributed ledger technology or similar technology for ordinary commercial purposes that do not create a new transferrable asset, such as inventory tracking or processing orders for purchase and sale transactions
• There is no de minimis excep on for broker repor ng on new IRS Form 1099-DA.

We will keep you updated as these new rules develop!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call our offices at 855-922-WeDo (9336)

The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was signed into law on July 4, 2025, and with it comes many new tax provisions that may directly affect you.

There are many tax provisions contained in OBBBA beyond the ones we have highlighted here.

Extension of expiring tax provisions

The center point of OBBBA is a permanent extension of most of the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that apply to individual taxpayers and were scheduled to expire at the end of 2025. These provisions include, among many others:

• Lower income tax brackets with the top rate at 37% instead of 39.6%;
• The higher standard deduction, with an additional $6,000 deduction for taxpayers age 65 and over ($12,000 for married taxpayers who are both age 65 and older);
• The $750,000 mortgage interest limitation, with a renewed deduction for mortgage insurance premiums;
• The elimination of 2% miscellaneous itemized deductions, which includes investment advisor fees, tax preparation fees, and unreimbursed employee business expenses (except that qualified educators will be allowed to deduct many of their unreimbursed expenses);
• The increased Child Tax Credit, with modifications that make the credit more attractive;
• Permanent extension of the §199A 20% qualified business income deduction for business owners, with minor modifications; and
• The increased unified estate and gift tax exclusion, with a bump up to $15 million on January 1, 2026.

State and local tax deductions

The itemized deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) is temporarily increased from $10,000 to $40,000 for five years. The increased deduction is reduced for higher earners. Taxpayers who are owners of passthrough business entities and make a passthrough entity elective tax election can still use the election to maximize their SALT deductions.

We’ve heard the same questions you have:

The short answer: no.

What’s Actually Happening, no benefit cuts have been announced.

Retirees and beneficiaries will continue to receive their monthly checks. Administrative reshuffling is underway. Some Social Security offices are being consolidated or reorganized, but this does not affect the benefit amounts people receive. The Trust Fund challenge remains. Projections suggest that around 2033–2034, the trust fund could be depleted if Congress takes no action. If that happened, incoming payroll taxes would still cover about 75–80% of benefits. But historically, Congress has stepped in before any reductions took effect.

What This Means for You: Your benefits are safe today.

There are no laws or rules on the books cutting current payments. Future adjustments are political, not automatic. Changes to retirement age, payroll taxes, or benefit formulas are likely on the table long before checks get reduced. Stay the course. For planning purposes, assume Social Security will remain a foundation of retirement income—while building other savings and strategies to keep flexibility in the future.

Bottom line: Social Security is not “closing” and there are no benefit cuts planned.

The program does face long-term funding issues, but that’s a challenge for Congress to solve—not a reason for current recipients to panic.

As required by law, in every Form 1040 instruction booklet there's a section that shows where our federal government gets its money and where it is spent. As taxpayers it makes sense to know this information. Here is the data for the government's fiscal year ending September 30, 2023, as reported by the IRS in the 2024 instruction booklet for Form 1040:

Observations

• Annual deficit spending remains a consistent problem. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, annual deficits cannot be sustained. Fortunately the annual deficit of $1.694 trillion is lower than the pandemic deficit of $3.129 trillion in fy 2020, but it must all still be paid back. The largest spending bucket continues to be social programs that includes Social Security, Medicare and Retirement benefits (62% of all outlays).

• Government borrowing costs more. With interest rates going up the past couple of years, a couple of things is happening. First, those who save are now being rewarded for this financial behavior with higher interest rates on their savings. But this interest rate increase is now costing borrowers more and the government is one of the biggest borrowers out there. Fully 11% of outflows is used to pay interest on the debt. This is up from 5% in 2020. That means an additional 6% of government spending is not available to work to solve current needs versus a short three years ago.