1. Game the Standard Deduction When filing your federal income tax return, you’ll need to decide whether to itemize or take the standard deduction. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) significantly increased the standard deduction amounts through 2025 and indexed them annually for inflation. For 2024, the basic standard deduction amounts are: Slightly higher…

Some business owners may be considering donating corporate stock to charities in 2024. Donations of public stocks are generally easy to value because their prices are listed on public stock exchanges. But valuations of private business interests are typically more complicated. Here’s some guidance on how valuators determine the fair market value (FMV) of closely held business shares and why…

Noncompete agreements can be valuable to a business, especially after a merger or acquisition. Estimating the value of these agreements has become more complicated in light of a controversial new final rule issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that will ban noncompetes for most employees and independent contractors, starting in September 2024.   Types of…