Americans are great at taking perfectly serviceable holidays and turning them into excuses for parties. On Super Bowl Sunday, millions of Americans who couldn’t tell you the difference between a safety and a concussion protocol guzzle one-too-many beers with their chicken wings. A month later, on St. Patrick’s Day, millions of Irish-for-a-day drinkers belly up to their favorite fake Irish bar to down pints of Guinness and shots of Jameson. Next on the calendar is Cinco de Mayo, when all those same St. Paddy’s fans become Mexicans for a day to down bottles of Corona and pitchers of margaritas. (We can’t wait to see what the hospitality industry dreams up when they discover Talk Like a Pirate Day lurking on the September calendar.)
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Bucket of Tax
Summer is coming soon, and sports fans across America have a lot to look forward to. Basketball’s 13-month-long season is (finally) starting to heat up. (Do regular-season games even matter? Next you’ll tell me there’s a summer league, too.) Hockey playoffs are coming to a close. Baseball is in full swing, and NFLers are about to report to training camps. Stop at any bar or water cooler in the land, and you’ll hear talk of wins, losses, and plays that you just have to see.
Pizza Pizza
In 2016, the curtain rose on Ben Affleck’s movie, The Accountant. Spoiler alert: he’s not just an accountant. Sure, the character Christian Wolff spends his workdays laundering money for the mob. But what accountant doesn’t do that? (Well, besides us.) No, the real surprise is that he’s a stone-cold killer, taking out 28 characters in the course of a meandering, two-hour plot. If you watch closely enough, you’ll even see one guy get killed twice.
Understanding Disaster Losses for Your Taxes
We seem to be living in an age of natural disasters. Floods, fires, hurricanes, tornados, and other disasters often dominate the news. If a disaster strikes you, the tax law may help. It’s important to note that there are differences on how personal losses and business losses are treated and deducted under our current tax […]
What I Did on Summer Vacation
Over the last month, we’ve discussed several videos circulating on social media purporting to help you save money on taxes. Today, we’re going to see how one would-be influencer mishandles the basic concept of “substance over form.”
Summer is here, and that means vacation travel. Unfortunately, vacations are pricey. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get a deduction for those beach nirvana expenses? Never fear, Anna from Instagram is here to show you the way: “Here’s how you’re actually gonna be able to write off travel with any of your family members!”
More Social Media Secrets Revealed
Last week, we looked at the Venn diagram with unlikely circles representing “social media influencers” and “sound tax advice.” If you missed it, you’ll be shocked, shocked to discover very little overlap.
But just in case you thought it was safe to open TikTok again, here’s another example of a too-good-to-be-true social media tax claim that turns out to be, well, too good to be true.