Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team.
For 2026 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act sets the GST exemption at $15 million per person ($30 million per couple), with a flat 40 percent rate on transfers to skip persons; this guide covers skip-person rules, direct skips, taxable terminations, automatic versus elective exemption allocation, and how dynasty trusts achieve a zero inclusion ratio.
A 2026 guide to the U.S. generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax — the permanent $15 million lifetime exemption under the One Big Beautiful Bill, who counts as a skip person, the three triggering events, dynasty trust mechanics, and the Forms 709, 706, and 706-GS that grandparent-to-grandchild transfers require.
For 2026, taxable income under $201,750 (single) or $403,500 (MFJ) qualifies you for the one-page Form 8995. Above those thresholds, Form 8995-A applies W-2 wage, UBIA, and SSTB phase-in limits to the 20% QBI deduction.
Form 8995 is a one-page worksheet; Form 8995-A is a four-part return with four schedules. The line between them in 2026 is $403,500 for joint filers and $201,750 for everyone else — and crossing it adds W-2 wage limits, SSTB phase-outs, and aggregation math to the return.
Form 8886 carries a 75% penalty for undisclosed listed transactions, capped at $200,000 for entities, with no reasonable cause defense and a statute that stays open until one year after you file. Here's who must file, what counts as reportable, and how to handle late disclosure.
Form 8886 discloses reportable transactions to the IRS. Missing it triggers a Section 6707A penalty up to $200,000 per year for entities and keeps the assessment statute open indefinitely on listed transactions under Section 6501(c)(10). This guide breaks down the five categories, the penalty math, filing mechanics, and the foreign currency loss trap that catches accidental filers.
Form 8283 is required when total noncash charitable contributions exceed $500. Above $5,000, donors need a USPAP-compliant qualified appraisal and three signatures on Section B; over $500,000 the full appraisal attaches to the return. Section 170(o) can claw the deduction back if the charity disposes of tangible property within three years, and the 40% gross valuation misstatement penalty has no reasonable-cause defense.
Form 5498 reports IRA contributions, rollovers, Roth conversions, and the December 31 fair market value, and arrives in late May after you have already filed. A box-by-box reading of the fourteen lines, how to reconcile each with Forms 1099-R, 8606, and 5329, and the specific traps that trigger CP2000 notices and the 6% excess-contribution penalty.
Form 1099-DA, the IRS's first dedicated information return for digital asset broker transactions, is being issued for tax year 2025 during the 2026 filing season. A practical guide to the broker definition, the DeFi carve-out, the 2025 gross-proceeds-only phase-in versus 2026 basis reporting, the wallet-by-wallet basis tracking rule, and how to reconcile the form to your own records before filing.
A 2026 fiduciary's guide to Form 1041 — why trust brackets hit 37% at $15,200, how distributable net income routes taxable income to beneficiaries through Schedule K-1, and how the 65-day election cuts the tax bill after year-end.
Trusts hit the top 37% federal bracket at just $15,200 of taxable income, while a single individual does not until $609,350. This guide walks fiduciaries through Form 1041, distributable net income (DNI), Schedule K-1 allocations, the separate share rule, and the 65-day election used to shift income to beneficiaries at lower rates.
A working guide to the FDII (now FDDEI) deduction on Form 8993 — which U.S. C corporations qualify, how the Section 250 math drops the effective federal rate to 13.125% on foreign-derived income, the taxable income limitation, documentation the IRS expects, and how OBBBA simplifies the calculation starting in 2026 by removing the QBAI step and expense allocations.
