MBO CPAs Venice, FL

07/24/2026

Marriage changes your taxes in real ways, but not every change comes from the joint-filing box you check on your return.

The Roth IRA phase-out for joint filers is $242,000 to $252,000 in 2026, well above the $153,000 to $168,000 range for single filers, though the joint range isn't quite double, which can mean a modest marriage penalty for two high earners.

The spousal IRA is a genuine joint-filing rule: a non-working or lower-earning spouse can fully fund their own IRA based on the couple's combined earned income, as long as the return is filed jointly.

When one spouse earns far more than the other, the lower earner's income fills the bottom of the joint tax brackets instead of stacking on top, which is where a real marriage bonus shows up. Two similar high earners can see the opposite: the 35% joint bracket ceiling isn't double the single ceiling, which is the classic marriage penalty.

Filing separately blocks several credits outright, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, education credits, and the Child and Dependent Care Credit, so choosing joint is often less a bonus than avoiding an MFS penalty.

The Child Tax Credit is up to $2,200 per qualifying child under 17, phasing out at $400,000 of joint income versus $200,000 for other statuses, though the full amount still depends on eligibility and tax liability.

A family HSA holds $8,750 in 2026, but that comes from HSA-eligible family coverage, not from filing status.

Transfers between spouses who are both U.S. citizens are unlimited and never a taxable gift, and each spouse's $15,000,000 estate tax exemption can pass to a surviving spouse if the estate elects portability.

Which of these did you already know applied to you?



*The content shared here is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on your specific situation.*

07/23/2026

Maybe a Roth conversion is not the best

A $300,000 IRA taxed at 37% costs $111,000 to convert to a Roth.

Drop the portfolio 25% first and the same conversion costs $83,250, a $27,750 difference for converting the exact same account, assuming it recovers inside the Roth.

One way to lower the tax cost is converting after a temporary market decline, which is available to almost anyone with a tax-deferred account.

The second technique is genuinely niche. It only applies if you already hold a privately valued asset, like a business interest or real estate, inside a self-directed IRA.

A qualified independent appraisal can apply discounts for illiquidity, lack of control, and minority interest, each commonly running 10% to 40%, before you convert the asset.

Those discounts can stack, which is how a $100,000 private investment can sometimes convert at a fraction of that value on paper.

Neither method is free of risk. A market decline can keep falling, or recover before you act, and the money set aside to pay the conversion tax may have dropped too.

A private asset also needs documentation an appraiser will stand behind, not a number that just sounds convenient. The IRS scrutinizes these.

Would you time a Roth conversion to a down market, or does the uncertainty cancel out the appeal?



*The content shared here is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on your specific situation.*

07/16/2026

For you business owners

The midyear change follows an increase in gasoline prices, according to the IRS. It is the first such midyear adjustment since 2022.

07/14/2026

⚖️ Medicaid, not Medicare, is the primary payer for about 6 in 10 nursing facility residents in the U.S.

To qualify, most states cap countable assets at roughly $2,000 for a single applicant, which is why families consider spending down.

Spending down legally means using money on things Medicaid allows, like purchasing a qualifying prepaid funeral arrangement, repairing the home, paying off debt, or paying for care itself.

Gifting is different. Most states use a 60-month lookback when an institutionalized person applies for long-term-care Medicaid, but state rules, exceptions, and lookback periods can differ.

The IRS annual gift exclusion of $19,000 does not apply, so a gift the IRS ignores can still draw a Medicaid penalty.

Married couples generally keep more, because a community spouse allowance lets the at-home spouse retain a protected share of assets.

Asset limits, allowances, and penalty math all vary by state, so an elder law attorney is usually worth the fee before any money moves.

Has your family faced the nursing home funding question, and what did you decide?



*The content shared here is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on your specific situation.*

07/03/2026

Getting a little more Pennsylvania Speedweek Action in tonight from Williams Grove Speedway! Catch all the action live on DIRTVision!

06/03/2026

🧱 An inherited traditional IRA must be fully emptied within 10 years for most non-spouse heirs, a rule the SECURE Act put in place in 2019.

The stretch IRA, which let heirs spread withdrawals across their own lifetime, is gone.

How the heir times withdrawals inside that 10-year window is where the real tax bill is decided.

On an $800,000 IRA, spreading withdrawals evenly keeps a household earning $180,000 mostly in the 24% bracket, for about $186,000 in federal tax.

Waiting and pulling the entire balance in year 10 stacks $800,000 on top of that income in a single year, reaching the 37% bracket and roughly $256,000 in tax.

That is about $70,000 more for the same inheritance, and it comes entirely from timing.

These figures are federal only, state income tax is on top, and a growing balance raises the amounts further.

One trap: if the original owner had already started required minimum distributions, the heir must take a distribution every year, and missing one carries a 25% penalty on the shortfall.

The planning lever for the original owner is a Roth conversion during their lifetime, which leaves heirs the same 10-year clock but tax-free withdrawals.

Five groups are exempt from the 10-year rule entirely: surviving spouses, minor children until they reach majority, disabled or chronically ill individuals, and heirs less than 10 years younger than the original owner.



P.S. Every Friday I send a short email with the week's top post, my take on the best article I read, and what I'm writing about on the site. Link in the comments.

*The content shared here is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial advice. Consult a licensed professional before making decisions based on your specific situation.*

05/20/2026

Upcoming race in memory of Steve Smith. You don't want to miss this one.

05/20/2026

📊 This is an updated version of a post I ran about 3 months ago. One figure in the original caption was wrong: the IRA catch-up contribution for those 50 and older is $1,100 in 2026, not $1,000. SECURE 2.0 indexed that limit starting in 2024.

The 401(k) deferral limit is $24,500 for 2026. The standard catch-up for ages 50-59 and 64+ is $8,000, bringing the total to $32,500.

The new SECURE 2.0 super catch-up for ages 60-63 is $11,250. A 62-year-old maxing out a 401(k) can contribute up to $35,750 in 2026 when combined with the base deferral.

IRA contributions are $7,500 for 2026, with a $1,100 catch-up for those 50 and older for a total of $8,600. The catch-up is now indexed to inflation.

Three items are marked NEW because they came from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, not the annual inflation adjustment. The senior deduction gives taxpayers 65 and older an additional $6,000 deduction, phasing out above $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint). The SALT cap increased from $10,000 to $40,400 for most filers through 2029. The estate tax exemption was permanently raised to $15,000,000 per person, replacing a scheduled drop to roughly $7,000,000 that was set to happen this year.

The 0% capital gains rate for married filers applies to income up to $98,900 in 2026. The annual gift exclusion is $19,000 per recipient.

All figures apply to the 2026 tax year, with returns due in April 2027.



P.S. Every Friday I send a short email with the week's top post, my take on the best article I read, and what I'm writing about on the site. Link in the comments.

04/20/2026

Remember to talk to your CPA before adding your kids to your deed or transferring your house to your kids.

💰 Adding a child to your deed transfers ownership during your lifetime. The child receives your original cost basis on the transferred portion, not the stepped-up basis they would get if they inherited at death.

The tax math depends on how the transfer is structured. If you deed the entire home to your child (as shown in the image), they inherit 100% of your original basis. On a home bought for $80,000 and worth $350,000 at death, that is a $270,000 taxable gain and up to $40,500 in federal capital gains tax at the 15% rate.

The more common move is adding a child as a joint tenant, which typically transfers 50% ownership. In that case, only the child's half carries the original basis. The parent's half still receives a stepped-up basis at death, reducing the taxable gain to roughly $135,000 and the tax to roughly $20,250.

Adding a child to the deed also exposes the home to the child's creditors, divorce proceedings, and lawsuits. The transfer may trigger Medicaid's lookback period depending on state law.

One exception worth knowing: if the child lived in the home as a primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years before selling, the Section 121 exclusion can shelter up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 if married filing jointly).

A TOD deed avoids the basis problem entirely. No ownership transfers during your lifetime. The beneficiary gets a full stepped-up basis at death. TOD deeds for real estate depend on state law, and not every state allows them.

04/19/2026

📊 The IRS can tax income that was never distributed to you in four distinct scenarios, and each works through a different mechanism.

The mutual fund scenario surprises people every December: a fund manager sells appreciated positions throughout the year, then distributes the realized gains to all shareholders of record — including people who bought shares in November and held them for weeks. The fund can finish the year down 10% and still generate a taxable distribution.

The K-1 phantom gain in real estate is particularly disorienting because investors track two numbers: what they put in and what they got back. If those two numbers look like a loss, they expect a loss on their return. What they don't track is what depreciation deductions did to their tax basis in the years between.

Forgiven debt has one major exception: if you were insolvent at the time of forgiveness — meaning your total liabilities exceeded total assets — the canceled debt income can be excluded, up to the amount of insolvency. This requires filing Form 982 and documenting your financial position at the time of cancellation.

The K-1 business income scenario applies to any pass-through entity. S-corps, general partnerships, and limited partnerships all work this way. The business can have a profitable year on paper, retain all the cash for reinvestment, and issue K-1s that create tax liability for every owner.

None of these four scenarios involve a tax error. They are working as designed.

The insolvency exclusion for canceled debt and the suspended passive loss offset for real estate phantom gains are the two most commonly overlooked ways to reduce the tax hit.