Raymond Hall, EA

Halloween is a good night to count the things that should have stayed buried. In a household with more than one entity, the usual ones are dormant LLCs that still owe state fees, payroll accounts with no employees, and returns filed every year out of habit for an entity that does nothing. None of them is frightening on its own. Together they cost money every year and create notices nobody expects. This post covers how to find the dormant entities and accounts in a household's tax life, what each one still costs in 2026, and the filings needed to close each properly. It does not advise on whether to keep or close any entity, and it does not address liability protection, which is a question for counsel. It is an inventory, with prices attached. What makes an entity a zombie An entity is dormant when it no longer has a purpose, an asset, or an activity, but it still exists on a state's records or the IRS's. Common examples: An LLC formed for a property that was sold year...

Most of the advice about hiring household help focuses on the candidate. This post focuses on the household. Before a family adds a house manager, nanny, chef, or caregiver to payroll, a few questions about its own tax setup decide whether the first year goes smoothly. One of them is uncomfortable: whether someone has already been paid off the books, and what to do about it. This post is a readiness check for the household's side of becoming an employer: cash flow for taxes, who approves payroll, which states are involved, the record system, and how to correct prior years where household wages were not reported. It does not evaluate candidates and it is not employment law advice. It is a list to work through with your preparer before the offer goes out. Part one: the household's own tax setup Can your estimated payments absorb Schedule H? Household employment taxes are paid with your Form 1040 through Schedule H. A full-time employee at $80,000 adds about $6,120 of employe...

When a household budgets for a house manager, nanny, chef, or caregiver, the number on the offer letter is usually the only number anyone writes down. The real cost is higher. Employer payroll taxes, state unemployment, workers' compensation, benefits, and the cost of running payroll all sit on top of the salary, and none of them is deductible for personal household work. This post builds the full 2026 cost of a household employee, line by line, and lists the records that support each number. It does not cover whether to hire, what to pay, or how to measure the value of the work. Those are the family's decisions. It covers what the tax and payroll side adds, so the budget and the return agree. Line 1: cash wages Start with gross cash wages, including overtime and any bonuses. Bonuses, holiday gifts of cash or gift cards, and payments for extra events are all wages. If the household agreed to a "net" salary (what the employee takes home), the gross wage is higher, ...

A household that hires a household manager, house manager, or personal assistant usually thinks of it as a staffing decision. The tax system treats it as something else: the household has become an employer. That brings federal and state payroll obligations, a new schedule on the individual return, and records that have to hold up if the IRS or a state unemployment agency asks. This post covers what changes for tax purposes when a household hires a manager or other domestic employee, the 2026 thresholds, and the records to set up before the first paycheck. It is not hiring advice, it does not cover how to find or evaluate a candidate, and it is not employment law advice. Wage and hour rules, contracts, and immigration questions belong to an employment attorney. Is the person your employee? For tax purposes, a worker is your household employee if you control not only what work is done but how it is done. IRS Publication 926 is the guide. A house manager who works on your schedule, a...

Many families hold an annual meeting about their finances. Whatever else it covers, one part of it can be both short and useful: an annual tax and estate document check-in. Thirty to sixty minutes, once a year, with the right people and a fixed list. The goal is not to decide investment or estate strategy. It is to confirm that the documents are current, that each person knows what they will receive and file, and that anything that changed during the year reaches the preparer and counsel before year end. This post gives an agenda for an annual family tax and estate document check-in, what to bring, and how to record the outcome. It is not a guide to family governance, and it is not tax or legal advice for any person. It is a structure for a meeting that produces a list of actions with names and dates. When and who Hold it in October or early November. Third quarter estimates are paid, extended returns are filed (the extended deadline for 2025 individual returns was October 15, 202...

Families sometimes build an education plan for the next generation covering investing, philanthropy, and family history. Those subjects belong to the family and its advisors. The tax and document part of that plan is narrower and more practical: what a young adult needs to know to file their own returns correctly, read the forms they receive, keep the records they will need later, and work with a preparer. Heirs who learn this early are less likely to miss filings, lose basis, or sign documents they do not understand. This post outlines tax and document literacy for heirs and young adults in households with entities, trusts, or several states. It is not a financial education program, it does not cover investing, and it is not legal advice. It is a checklist of tax skills, in rough order, with 2026 figures where they apply. Stage one: their own return Start with what applies to them now. Filing requirement. A young adult must file if gross income exceeds the standard deduction f...

A family deciding between candidates for a senior financial role, such as a household chief financial officer, controller, or office lead, will usually score them on competence, fit, and integrity. That evaluation belongs to the family and its advisors. But there is a second scorecard worth running before an offer goes out: a tax and payroll checklist for the role itself. Senior hires often handle the household's tax records, payments, and IRS correspondence. The terms of the job decide who files what, who can sign, and who is responsible if a payroll deposit is missed. This post is a pre-offer tax and payroll checklist for a senior household or office hire, and a short list of tax-related questions a family can ask any candidate about how they handle tax records. It does not evaluate candidates, it is not hiring or employment law advice, and it does not recommend any person or firm. Part one: the role checklist Score each item before the offer. The answers go to your preparer...

Advisors and articles often cite asset thresholds for when a family should consider a dedicated office: $100 million, $250 million, $500 million. Those numbers are about cost and staffing, and they are outside what an Enrolled Agent advises on. What a preparer can see is a different set of thresholds: the points where the household's filing obligations, payroll, entity count, and state footprint become too much to manage informally. Those thresholds arrive much earlier than any asset figure, and they show up on the returns first. This post covers the tax and filing signs that a household's administration has outgrown informal handling, and an honest test of whether the records are ready for any change in structure. It is not advice on whether to form a family office, and it does not recommend a structure. It is a way to read your own returns for signs of strain. Thresholds the return shows Number of returns Count every federal and state return the household and its entiti...

Households with several entities, accounts, and advisors pay a cost when nobody owns the records. It rarely looks dramatic. It looks like a penalty notice for a missed state filing, an amended return after a late K-1, a lost carryforward, an extension every year because documents arrive in pieces, or a preparer billing extra hours to reconstruct what should have been on file. Each one is small. Together they add up, and some of them cannot be undone. This post puts numbers on what disorganized records cost at tax time, using 2026 penalty and interest rules, and lists the controls that prevent them. It is not a pitch for any system or service. It is a way to see where the money leaks. Penalties with a price tag Late filing and late payment The failure-to-file penalty is 5% of unpaid tax per month, up to 25%. The failure-to-pay penalty is 0.5% per month, also up to 25%. When both apply in the same month, the filing penalty is reduced by the payment penalty. Interest runs on top: th...

Most households with more than one state, entity, or income stream do not have a tax problem so much as a record problem. The return gets filed, but nobody can say in October which accounts exist, which entities still file, who holds the signed documents, or whether this year's estimates match this year's income. A one-page annual review fixes that. It takes about two hours once the inputs are gathered, and it makes the next filing season shorter for everyone involved. This post covers what goes on the page, where each answer comes from, and how to score it. It is not a financial plan, an investment review, or a substitute for the preparer's own engagement checklist. It is the household's side of the work: the facts your preparer and counsel need, kept in one place. Why one page A binder gets built once and then goes stale. A single page gets updated because it is short enough to finish. The goal is not completeness in the page itself. The goal is that every line p...