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...

Families looking for senior household staff often work through an agency. The word "agency" covers very different arrangements. Some agencies find a candidate, collect a fee, and step away. Others employ the worker and bill the family for the hours. The difference decides who files payroll returns, who issues the W-2, and who the IRS and the state look to if taxes go unpaid. This post covers how the main agency arrangements are treated for tax purposes, what the household should get in writing, and the records each arrangement needs. It does not evaluate or recommend any agency, and it is not advice on how to search for or select staff. Contracts with agencies are a matter for counsel. The question the IRS asks For a household worker, the IRS asks who controls what work is done and how it is done. IRS Publication 926 addresses agencies directly: if an agency provides the worker and controls what work is done and how it is done, the worker is not your employee. If the fami...

Households that hire a full-time employee often choose between someone who lives on the property and someone who comes in each day. The choice is about the family's life and the job. The tax rules treat the two arrangements differently, starting with whether the room and meals count as wages and continuing into overtime, state withholding, and what the household has to document. This post covers the federal tax treatment of lodging and meals provided to household employees, how live-in status affects payroll and the new overtime deduction, and the records to keep. It does not advise on which arrangement to choose, and it is not employment or housing law advice. Wage and hour rules for live-in workers vary by state and belong to an employment attorney. The starting rule: everything of value is wages Unless an exclusion applies, anything a household employer provides to an employee as pay is wages, whether it is cash or not. That includes housing, meals, a car, and phone service....

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, ...

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...

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 households give in the last six weeks of the year, often in a hurry, and often by whatever method is closest to hand. For 2026 that habit costs more than it used to. The 2025 tax law changed how charitable deductions work starting this year, and the rules now reward giving that is planned, documented, and matched to the right vehicle. This post covers the 2026 federal rules for charitable deductions, the main giving vehicles and how each is taxed, and the records each one needs. It is not advice on which causes to support, how much to give, or whether to set up a foundation. Those are the family's decisions, and the structure of a foundation or trust belongs to counsel. This is what the return needs once the family has decided. What changed for 2026 Three changes from the 2025 law (Public Law 119-21) apply to gifts made in 2026 and later: A floor for itemizers. Charitable contributions are deductible only to the extent they exceed 0.5% of adjusted gross income. A househ...

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 household with a preparer, an estate attorney, a corporate attorney, an investment advisor, and an insurance agent has five professionals who each see part of the picture. Most tax problems that reach a notice or an amended return were not caused by anyone's mistake in their own area. They came from a decision made in one area that nobody told the others about: a trade that created a wash sale across accounts, a trust funded without a new EIN, an entity formed without anyone asking how it would be taxed, a move that the investment advisor learned about after the year's gains were already sourced. This post covers how to coordinate advisors around tax events: which decisions need more than one professional, how information should flow, and what written authorizations let advisors talk to each other and to the IRS. It is not a recommendation to hire anyone and it does not replace any advisor's own engagement terms. It is a framework for making sure the tax result of a dec...

Households with uneven income rarely run short of money over a full year. They run short on particular dates. A K-1 shows income in September with no distribution behind it. A property tax bill and a January estimated payment land in the same month. A sale closes in November and the tax on it is due in April, but the proceeds have already been committed. The fix is not a bigger cash balance. It is a calendar that shows when tax money is needed, and an account that holds it until then. This post covers how to build a tax cash calendar for a household with several income streams, how to size a tax reserve, and what records keep it honest. It is not investment advice and it does not recommend where to hold cash. It is about matching tax obligations to the dates they are actually due. Why a flat cash rule fails A rule like "keep six months of expenses in cash" assumes spending is even across the year. Tax is not. For a household with lumpy income, most of the year's tax ...

Households with several accounts, a few partnership interests, and a trust or two receive a stack of statements every quarter. Most of it goes unread. That is usually fine for investment purposes, because someone else is watching performance. It is not fine for tax. The return depends on a handful of facts buried in that stack: basis, holding periods, K-1 timing, state sourcing, and foreign accounts. When nobody pulls those facts out during the year, they get reconstructed in March under deadline pressure. This post covers how to turn the quarterly stack into a tax reporting view: what to extract, when, and who needs it. It is not a review of investment reporting software and it is not investment advice. It is about the documents your preparer needs and the order they arrive in. What the stack is actually for, from a tax view Investment statements answer "how did we do." A tax view answers different questions: What was sold, when, at what basis, and was the holding per...