From the firm
Short, practical articles on the planning questions business owners ask us most. Pick a category, or search for the thing you are trying to work out.
15 articles
On the Peninsula, the largest tax decision a household faces is often the sale of a home it has owned for twenty years. The right advisor is the one who starts that conversation early.
Read the articleSearch for a tax advisor in Torrance and the titles blur together. For a business owner, the choice decides whether anyone looks at your numbers before the year closes.
Read the articleMany business owners skip the home office deduction because they think it invites an audit, or because they also rent an office. Neither has to stop you. Here are the IRS tests, the mileage rule that comes with them, and the records that back it all up.
Read the articleTwo new federal limits take a bite out of charitable deductions starting in 2026. The gift is the same; the tax savings are smaller. Here is how to size them before year end.
Read the articleCongress created a federal credit that pays you back dollar for dollar for donating to K-12 scholarship organizations. The IRS has now proposed the rules, and California residents can use it even though California has not signed up.
Read the articleCreating a loss is a common way to cut a high tax bill, but only part of a large loss counts in the year you create it. For 2026 the federal cap on that part went down, and California is likely to land somewhere else.
Read the articleThe IRS publishes exactly how many returns it audits each year, broken down by income. The numbers are lower than most business owners fear, higher than you might like at the top, and they separate a real audit from the far more common mismatch letter.
Read the articleMore business owners are asking about real estate as a way to cut taxes - real estate professional status, short-term rentals, cost segregation. These can work. They are not always the right move, and the reasons are worth understanding before you buy.
Read the articleEvery December the same question arrives: what should I buy before the 31st? It is the wrong question, and the arithmetic shows why in about ten seconds.
Read the articleMost Palos Verdes business owners run their companies down the hill and their tax planning out of a filing folder. By the time the return is prepared, every decision that mattered is closed.
Read the articleOnce your profit hits $100,000, you should become an S corp. We have seen business owners well past $100,000 for whom it made no sense, and business owners nowhere near it for whom it made a great deal of sense. Profit is not the test.
Watch and readYou can be an excellent attorney and still have no real tax plan. Here are the six gaps we see most often in California law practices, and what closes them.
Read the articleThe honest answer is now, whatever today’s date is. That is not a sales line, it is a statement about how much of the year is still yours to change.
Read the articleThe two get sold as one package, but they are done at different times and have very different effects on what you pay. Confusing them is why business owners overpay for years.
Watch and readThere’s a difference between someone who files your taxes and someone who plans them. Most business owners are paying for the first and assuming they’re getting the second.
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