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...

The role that used to be called a butler has grown. A senior household employee today may run the homes, manage vendors, book travel, handle the family's calendar, pay bills, and also schedule meetings for the business the family owns. That mix is practical. For tax purposes it raises a question that has to be answered on paper: which employer pays this person, and which return deducts the wages? This post covers how to handle a household employee whose duties are split between personal and business work, what the IRS looks for, and the records that support the split. It is not advice on how to define the job or what to pay, and it is not employment law advice. It is the set of decisions your preparer and payroll provider need settled. Why the split matters Wages for personal household work are not deductible. Wages for work done for a trade or business generally are. That difference creates pressure to run more of the person's pay through the business than the work support...

Entities that once had a clear job tend to outlive it. A management company formed to run a family's finances, an LLC that employed household staff, or a holding company for a business that was sold can keep filing returns, paying state fees, and running payroll accounts long after anyone uses them. When the family decides to close one, merge it into another, or hand the work to an outside firm, the tax side has its own sequence, and skipping a step leaves a filing obligation open. This post covers the federal and state filings involved in closing or consolidating an office or management entity, how the move affects payroll and staff, and the records to keep afterward. It does not advise on whether to close, merge, or keep an entity. That is the family's decision with counsel. This is what the returns and payroll accounts need once the decision is made. Start with the inventory Before anything is closed, list what the entity actually has: Its legal name, EIN, state of for...

Households with complex finances eventually decide which tasks to handle with their own staff and which to hand to outside firms: bookkeeping, bill pay, payroll for household employees, tax preparation, investment reporting, insurance review. The choice is about cost and control, and the family makes it. The tax side is simpler than it looks: some responsibilities transfer with the task and some never do. A family can outsource household payroll and still be the employer liable for the tax. It can hire a bookkeeper and still be the person who signs the return under penalty of perjury. This post covers the tax consequences of keeping functions in-house or outsourcing them: who stays responsible, what records each choice produces, and what the household should require from any provider. It does not recommend in-house staff or any provider, and it is not legal or investment advice. What never transfers Responsibility for the return. The taxpayer signs the return under penalty of pe...

Families that create an office or a formal management structure often start with a charter: a document stating the office's purpose, who it serves, who makes decisions, and how it is overseen. Drafting a charter is counsel's and the family's work. But a charter also answers questions every tax preparer needs answered, often in places the preparer never sees. Who is the employer? Which entity pays for what? Who signs returns and authorizes payments? Who can talk to the IRS? If the charter and the tax records disagree, the tax records are what the IRS reads. This post covers what a preparer needs from a family office charter, or from any written description of how a household's finances are run. It is not a drafting guide and it does not tell a family what its charter should say. It lists the tax facts a charter should make clear, so the people preparing returns can work from the same page. Seven questions a preparer needs answered 1. Which entity is the office? Nam...

Households with significant assets usually end up with one of three arrangements for managing their finances: a single-family office (SFO) that the family owns and staffs, a multi-family office (MFO) that serves many families for a fee, or a set of outside advisors coordinated by the family or by one trusted person. The choice is about service, control, and cost, and those are not tax questions. But each arrangement has different tax consequences: who the employer is, which entity pays the fees, whether those fees are deductible, and what returns and payroll filings follow. This post covers the tax and entity consequences of each arrangement for 2026. It does not recommend one, it does not evaluate any provider, and it is not investment or legal advice. It is what your preparer will need to know once the family has chosen. The fee deductibility problem For individuals, investment management and advisory fees are miscellaneous itemized deductions under IRC Section 212. The 2017 law...

Many owners spend years with the business and the household sharing one set of books in practice, if not on paper. The company card pays for a family trip and gets "cleaned up" later. Profits sit in the operating account because that is where they landed. Then something changes: a large distribution, a second property, a child's tuition, a partial sale. The household now has needs the business was never set up to track, and the tax return starts showing it. This post covers the tax signs that personal finances have outgrown the business, and the records that separate the two. It is not entity advice and it is not a recommendation to restructure. It is a framework for noticing when the line between business and household has blurred, and for knowing which questions go to your preparer and which go to counsel. Why the line matters for tax An entity only gives you what it was formed to give you if it is treated as separate. That applies to liability protection, which is...

When a household owns a vacation home, a boat, an aircraft interest, an art collection, or a small operating business, the question of which entity holds it usually gets settled quickly and revisited only when something goes wrong: a claim, a sale, a death, or a tax notice. By then the choice has already decided how income is reported, which returns get filed, what happens to losses, and how cleanly the asset passes to the next owner. This post covers the tax and record-keeping side of a common choice: holding an asset in a simple personal LLC, or inside a holding company structure that owns several entities. I am an Enrolled Agent, not an attorney. Liability protection, titling, and trust design belong to counsel. What follows is the tax and cash hygiene that has to work no matter which structure counsel recommends. What the structure has to do Separate liability. A problem with one asset should not reach the others. This is counsel's question. Report income correctly. Th...