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Selling your home for the first time is a big milestone 🎉. Along with the excitement (and maybe a little stress), it’s totally normal to wonder: Will I owe taxes on this sale? The short answer for most first-time sellers: probably not . Thanks to generous IRS rules, many homeowners can sell their primary residence without paying capital gains tax at all. However —  details matter, and understanding them now can save you both money and headaches later. Let’s break it all down

A key question for many taxpayers is whether to hire a paid preparer, or to use tax software. Tax software offers a cost-effective and convenient alternative to hiring a professional. These programs are best used for straightforward tax returns, such as single filers reporting W2 income, using the standard deduction. However --- if any of these situations include you: multiple sources of income have any self-employment or gig-based income have dependents own a rental property

Have you heard that one coworker (we all know who I’m talking about) that complains about getting stuck in a higher tax bracket because of a pay raise or bonus? Have you ever wondered if there was any basis to that complaint? Let us define our terms real quick. The IRS does use graduated tax rates, so that a household earning $20k annually is taxed at a lower rate than one earning $200k. There are 7 tax brackets  with tax rates starting at 10% for taxable income below $12k,

Sometimes the offer letter surprises you with the word Contractor, where you were expecting to see Employee. What does that mean? As with everything taxes, there is no quick answer for which is “better”, but knowing the difference will keep you compliant and (hopefully) keep your taxes down. Paperwork Employers need a completed W4 for all employees, while businesses need a completed W9 for contractors. Employee pay statements will include Social Security and Medicare deducti

Several tax benefits for new parents to be aware of, designed to ease their financial burden: One of the most significant is the Child Tax Credit (CTC) , which allows parents to reduce their federal income tax for each qualifying child under the age of 17. For the 2025 tax year, the credit can be up to $2,200 per child. This is a refundable  credit, so even if your tax burden is $0, up to $1,700 will be paid to qualified taxpayers. Another important tax benefit for new parent

I’ve read through the 800+ pages of the One Big Beautiful Bill, for the items relevant to most US taxpayers. 5 quick bits of Good News: 1.       SALT cap on Schedule A raised from $10k to $40k – big help to homeowners in high-tax states such as CA, NJ and WA. 2.       Seniors – all taxpayers 65 and older qualify for an additional $6k deduction. This replaces the prior senior adjustment of $1,950. 3.       Interest paid on auto loans – now deductible from taxable income, up t