The 30% rule is roughly right and gets applied to the wrong number. Take 30% of net profit rather than of what clients paid you: on $90,000 of 2026 profit the federal bill is $19,316, and the third installment is due September 15.
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Your basis in an inherited house is its value on the day the owner died, not what the owner paid for it. On a house bought for $95,000 in 1994 and sold for $448,000 in 2026, that one rule turns a $48,582 federal tax bill into $666 apiece.
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Your employer withholds a flat 22% on severance because the payroll regulation says to, not because that is your bracket. On $120,000 paid to someone already at $220,000 of wages, the real federal cost is 33.7%, and the gap is $14,030.
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A CP2000 is a proposal, not a bill and not an audit. The matching computer that printed it never saw what you paid for the stock you sold, which is why a $92,000 sale can show up as $13,800 of tax you do not owe.
Read postThe IRS knows which side of a related-party exchange to look at, and it is the one holding cash. Buying replacement property from a relative who cashes out fails under Rev. Rul. 2002-83, and even a clean swap unwinds if either side sells inside two years.
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An earnout that never pays still spends your basis. IRC §453 allocates it across the maximum price, so a $3,000,000 earnout that comes in at zero reports $600,000 of gain you never had, and the offsetting loss takes 200 years to deduct.
Read postA new plant is 39-year property, so a $10,000,000 building opened in July 2026 buys a $117,700 deduction. IRC §168(n) turns the production floor into a year-one write-off, and the office wing is what you have to carve out.
Read postGoodwill that belongs to you personally is taxed once, at up to 23.8%. Goodwill your corporation owns is taxed at 21% and again on the way out, and the difference on a $4,000,000 allocation is $640,080.
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Act 60 exempts the appreciation that happens after you become a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico. The gain you carried in with you stays US-source for 10 years, and nothing about the move changes the federal rate on it.
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A company-owned policy that funds a buy-sell agreement is a corporate asset on the date of death, and the obligation to redeem the shares does not offset it. The Supreme Court settled that in 2024, and most shareholder agreements still have not caught up.
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A Roth conversion ladder is not one five-year wait. Every rung starts its own clock on January 1 of the year you convert, and spending a rung early costs 10% of whatever was taxable when you made it.
Read postA working interest in a drilling program deducts 60% to 80% of what you put in against your salary the same year, with no material participation test to pass. The alternative minimum tax claws part of it back, and §57(a)(2)(E) is why the write-off can never cut your AMTI below 60% of your pre-deduction income.
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