One of subjects that seems to come up when doing people's taxes and I see that they have changed jobs that had retirement plans is: What did you do with your retirement plan at your previous employer?

I have also found it amazing how many people have not even thought about it, or know what their options are.  So, here is a short primer on your options.

#1 - 401(k) rollover: Keep you savings with your previous employer's plan

And the evil in the world just keeps chugging along.  Case in point: 

In the wake of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, the IRS has warned in a Oct 15th statement that fraudsters have been exploiting the generosity of individuals looking to help disaster victims by soliciting donations through fake charitable organizations.  These scams are designed not only to steal donations but also to harvest personal and financial data from unsuspecting Americans, which opens the door to identity theft.

The Inflation Reduction Act created the corporate AMT, which imposes a 15% minimum tax based on book income rather than taxable income on corporations with adjusted financial statement income (AFSI) of more than $1 billion beginning after Dec. 31, 2022. The Treasury Department estimates that approximately 100 of the largest U.S. corporations will pay the corporate AMT annually.

The IRS can take the fun out of just about anything.  Case in point:  Last week, baseball phenom Shohei Ohtani became the first major league player to start the “50-50 club” by hitting 50 home runs and stealing 50 bases in a single season.   And when he did that, one lucky fan in Miami caught the 50th home run ball and walked away with it even though he had the opportunity to give it to the Dodgers. No one yet knows whether the lucky fan will keep the ball or sell it. Should he decide to sell it , it could be worth hundreds of thousands, or even more than a million dollars.

Crowdfunding has become a very popular way for individuals to raise capital. It typically involves funding a project or venture by raising contributions from a large number of people, typically through online crowdfunding sites. Crowdfunding campaigns fund a broad range of projects, from producing a product or new technology to supporting a charitable cause.  Those supporting a product using can buy the product at a reduced price.

Many provisions in the 2017 tax law are slated to expire after 2025. Donald Trump wants the 2017 law made permanent.

Kamala Harris is sticking with this pledge:

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has updated the beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting FAQs on their website. Some of the latest additions are:

This week, we have created a new partnership with a company called Capsule.

People use Capsule to store information about people and organizations that they do business with and any necessary details related to them such as communications, documents, contact details, notes and more.

When you’re interacting with customers or sharing details with coworkers, Capsule helps you to be more informed about your interaction history and ensures everyone in your organization is on the same page.

The IRS is cracking down on more tax cheats this year but they don't enforce this standard on thousands of their own employees.

One of the subjects that politicians and the main street media love to push is that the rich don't pay their fair share of taxes.  But is that really true?  I thought I would give you some real statistics and let you decide.  Here is the latest data available from the IRS for 2021, in which the tax burden on high-incomers rose:

The top 1% of individual filers paid 45.78% of all U.S. federal income taxes, although they created only 26.3% of the total adjusted income.  These are people that had an AGI of more than $682,577.