#tax-planning
Strategic tax planning to minimize liability and maximize savings
Chimney sweep businesses earn 60-70% of annual revenue in a five-month window (September-January), so reserve fund planning, per-service-line margin tracking, and the IRS annualized income installment method for estimated taxes matter more than they do for evenly-billed businesses.
Ecuador's SRI automatically recategorized roughly 70,000 RIMPE taxpayers on July 1, 2026 — about 14,000 moved from Negocio Popular to Emprendedor and 56,000 were pushed into the General Tax Regime — here's how to check your new bracket and what changes.
Equipment rental fleets should capitalize purchases as depreciating assets tagged to individual unit IDs, apply MACRS as the default recovery schedule, use Section 179 (up to $2,560,000 in 2026) plus 100% bonus depreciation to front-load deductions, and track time and financial utilization per asset to know which units are actually earning their keep.
CoreWeave depreciates GPU servers over 6 years, Lambda over 5, and Nebius over 4 — a difference in useful-life estimates that can shift reported profit by tens of millions of dollars per 10,000-GPU fleet without any cash changing hands, and sits at the center of Michael Burry's $176 billion overstated-depreciation claim against major AI infrastructure spenders.
Illinois eliminated its 200-transaction economic nexus threshold under HB 2755 effective January 1, 2026, leaving a single $100,000 revenue test and offering a limited amnesty window from August 1 to October 31, 2026 for unregistered remote sellers.
Powerboat and pontoon rental income is reported on Schedule C, not Schedule E, which subjects net profit to the full 15.3% self-employment tax — a distinction that shapes how these seasonal businesses should handle depreciation, off-season cash reserves, and an eventual S-corp election.
A 1% federal excise tax applies to cash-funded international money transfers starting January 1, 2026, but bank, debit, and credit card transfers are exempt — here's how small businesses can avoid it.
Section 125 cafeteria plans must pass three IRS nondiscrimination tests each year — eligibility, benefits and contributions, and the 25% key employee concentration test. This guide covers the 2026 thresholds ($220,000 officer and $160,000 HCI compensation, $3,400 FSA and $7,500 DCAP limits), what a failed test costs your top earners, and when a Simple Cafeteria Plan under Section 125(j) lets employers with 100 or fewer employees skip testing entirely.
Cost segregation studies routinely move 16–24% of a self-storage facility's purchase price off the 39-year schedule into 5- and 15-year property. With 100% bonus depreciation permanently restored by the OBBBA for property placed in service after January 19, 2025, a $1 million acquisition can produce roughly $200,000 in first-year deductions — about $74,000 in tax savings at a 37% rate. Here's how the studies work, what they cost, and the recapture math to run before selling.
The 2026 Social Security wage base rises to $184,500 from $176,100, pushing the maximum employer-side Social Security tax per employee up $520.80 to $11,439, and resets to zero separately for every employer a highly paid employee joins mid-year.
A freelancer earning $80,000 net self-employment income can shelter roughly $43,070 in a Solo 401(k) versus $18,570 in a SEP IRA in 2026 — the gap comes entirely from the $24,500 employee-deferral bucket that SEP IRAs don't offer.
Under SECURE 2.0, workers who turn 60-63 in 2026 can defer up to $35,750 into a 401(k) — but anyone whose prior-year FICA wages topped $150,000 must make the entire catch-up as Roth, and loses it entirely if their plan lacks a Roth option.
