Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team.
Form 5471 carries automatic $10,000-per-corporation initial penalties capped at $60,000 per year for U.S. persons who own, control, or serve as officers of foreign corporations. Covers the five filing categories, modular schedules, GILTI's rename to NCTI for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025, and the Streamlined and Delinquent Submission routes back into compliance.
Section 1014 of the Internal Revenue Code resets an inherited asset's cost basis to its fair market value on the date of death, erasing the decedent's lifetime appreciation from the tax base — a provision the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will cost the federal government $72.5 billion in 2026.
ASC 350-40 (350/40) capitalize-vs-expense in one table: expense preliminary, capitalize development, expense post-implementation — plus ASU 2025-06.
SECURE 2.0 Act provisions taking effect in 2026 and 2027 — mandatory Roth catch-ups for earners over $145,000, RMD age pushed to 75 for those born after 1960, $35,000 lifetime 529-to-Roth rollovers, and up to $16,500 in small business retirement plan startup credits.
A SAFE is a contract granting future equity with no maturity or interest, while a convertible note is a loan with 4–8% interest and an 18–24 month maturity that becomes due if no priced round closes — and Y Combinator's 2018 post-money SAFE locks each investor's ownership at Investment ÷ Cap, dilution that hits founders, not prior SAFE holders.
A CPA paid himself $24,000 while taking $200,000 in S-Corp distributions, lost in the Eighth Circuit, and owed six figures in back payroll taxes and penalties. Here is how the IRS evaluates reasonable compensation, the audit red flags, and a defensible methodology for setting an S-Corp owner salary.
How Qualified Opportunity Funds defer capital gains, deliver tax-free appreciation after a 10-year hold, and what changes for new investments under OBBBA's permanent Opportunity Zones 2.0 rules starting January 2027.
The 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax kicks in once MAGI crosses $200,000 single or $250,000 joint—thresholds frozen since 2013. This guide explains who pays NIIT, how Form 8960 calculates it, which income types count (interest, dividends, capital gains, passive rentals) and which don't (wages, IRA distributions, muni interest), plus planning levers to cut exposure.
You moved out of New York but the state still taxes your remote pay. Learn how the convenience-of-the-employer rule, reciprocity agreements, and
Total exposure per misclassified worker now commonly lands between $15,000 and $100,000 once federal back taxes, FLSA back wages with liquidated damages, and state penalties stack. Here is what the 2024 DOL final rule changed, how the IRS and state ABC tests differ, and how Section 530 and the VCSP can cap retroactive liability.
A practical guide to Form 709 for 2026 gifts — who must file, the $19,000 annual exclusion, the $15 million lifetime exemption, gift splitting rules, the adequate disclosure standard that starts the IRS three-year clock, and the medical and tuition payments that escape reporting entirely.
How small businesses record foreign exchange gains and losses under US GAAP (ASC 830) and IRC Section 988, with sample journal entries, realized vs. unrealized treatment, period-end revaluation, and a practical monthly close workflow.
