#insurance
Track insurance costs, premiums, and coverage details
How tree care companies should structure their books — separating workers' comp class 0106 payroll, allocating bucket truck and chipper hours per job, reserving for e-mod surges, and pricing crews off a true burdened cost-per-hour rate.
Section 1033 lets non-farm businesses defer gain on property that is destroyed, stolen, or condemned if the proceeds are reinvested in qualifying replacement property within 2, 3, or 4 years. This guide covers the election mechanics on Form 4797, the similar-or-related-in-service-or-use vs. like-kind tests, the carryover-basis recapture trap, and the bookkeeping needed to survive an IRS look-back.
Workers' compensation premium is recalculated every year using your actual payroll, and unprepared small employers routinely owe five-figure true-ups. This guide walks through the NCCI premium formula, the standard exception rules, the overtime carve-out math, owner and officer exclusion forms, the subcontractor COI rules that trigger the largest audit hits, and how to dispute a Final Audit Statement.
A working guide to ILITs and Crummey powers — covering Section 2042 incidents of ownership, the annual gift tax exclusion, the 5-or-5 rule, hanging powers, the Section 2035 three-year lookback, and the administrative discipline that keeps life insurance death benefits estate-tax-free.
A practical walkthrough of Schedule F for farmers and ranchers, covering crop insurance deferral under Section 451, weather-related livestock relief (Section 451(g) and 1033(e)), Section 175 soil and water conservation deductions capped at 25% of farm gross income, Section 179 and bonus depreciation, and Schedule J income averaging using elected farm income across three base years.
Section 165(i) lets disaster-affected taxpayers deduct a current-year casualty loss on the prior year's return, turning an 8-to-16-week refund into rebuild cash. A practical guide to Form 4684, the six-month election deadline, the 2026 OBBBA changes, and the recordkeeping that holds up under IRS audit.
How Section 165(i) lets taxpayers in federally declared disaster areas deduct casualty losses on the prior year's return via Form 4684 and Form 1040-X — election mechanics, the six-month deadline, safe-harbor valuations, and when the prior-year election actually beats waiting.
Section 7702B defines tax-qualified long-term care insurance — age-indexed premium deductions up to $6,200 per person in 2026, tax-free benefits under the per diem cap, Section 1035 exchanges from old life or annuity contracts, and hybrid life-LTC structures for aging owners and retirees.
Section 7702B sets the federal rules that decide whether a long-term care policy delivers deductible premiums, tax-free benefits, and tax-free 1035 exchanges. This guide breaks down the 2026 age-indexed deduction limits, the $430 per-diem cap, hybrid life-LTC mechanics, and the planning patterns that move trapped cash value into care coverage without recognizing gain.
Section 7702A's 7-pay test reclassifies overfunded cash-value life insurance as a modified endowment contract, switching lifetime distributions to LIFO ordering, taxing policy loans as ordinary income, and adding a 10% penalty before age 59½. The classification is permanent and cannot be reversed after the 60-day refund window.
How Section 79 actually works in 2026 — the $50,000 employer-paid group-term life exclusion, the IRS Table I rates (unchanged since 1999) that turn excess coverage into W-2 Box 12 Code C imputed income, plus the straddle rule, the $2,000 dependent de minimis, and the 2% S-corp shareholder trap.
ERISA Section 409 imposes personal liability on 401(k) plan fiduciaries, and the corporate veil does not shield small business owners. This guide explains the prudent-expert standard, the Tibble v. Edison duty to monitor, and how hiring a Section 3(38) investment manager shifts investment discretion — and most related liability — away from the plan sponsor.
