Can you explain more about this accountable plan thing? I've never heard of it and I'm currently paying my workers extra to cover their gas when they drive between job sites, which I know isn't ideal tax-wise.

An accountable plan is basically a formal arrangement where your business reimburses employees for business expenses without that reimbursement counting as taxable income to them. To qualify, you need three things: business connection (expenses must be job-related), adequate accounting (employees must provide documentation like receipts), and return of excess payments (employees must return any excess reimbursements). For your situation with gas between job sites, instead of paying extra taxable income, you could reimburse actual mileage at the IRS rate (currently 67 cents per mile for 2023). The employee doesn't pay tax on this reimbursement, and you still get the deduction. You'll need employees to track their mileage and submit documentation, but there are easy apps for this. Much better than grossing up wages to cover gas which creates additional payroll taxes for both you and the worker.

I use QuickBooks Payroll for my remodeling business with 7 employees. It's decent for basic payroll but struggles with complex construction-specific reporting. For certified payroll on government jobs, I ended up using an add-on called LCPtracker. The main benefit is how it ties directly to my accounting, but the reporting for construction specifically is mediocre.

Thanks for the insight on QuickBooks. Good to know about the limitations with construction reporting. Does it at least handle job costing well? I need to track labor costs per project really carefully.

What about accumulated earnings tax though? If the C-corp retains too much profit without a business purpose, couldn't they get hit with that penalty?

You're absolutely right to bring that up. C-corporations that accumulate earnings beyond the reasonable needs of the business ($250,000 is generally the threshold) can face the Accumulated Earnings Tax, which is a 20% penalty tax. However, if the company can demonstrate specific, definite, and feasible plans for the retained earnings - like future expansion, equipment purchases, paying down debt, or even building reserves for contingencies - these can justify keeping cash in the business. It's important to document these plans in your corporate minutes and have financial projections to support them.

I've thought about S-Corp, but we have some complications - we have foreign investors from the angel round, and I believe S-Corps can't have non-US shareholders? Also, if we did ever want to raise more money in the future or pursue an acquisition by a larger company, my understanding is that C-Corp is more attractive to those types of buyers.

Not OP but I used FreeTaxUSA for crypto last year. It doesn't connect directly to exchanges like some premium services, but you can either enter transactions manually or import a CSV file if your exchange allows exports in that format. If you have tons of transactions, you might want to use a crypto tax service like CoinTracker or Koinly first to generate the required tax forms, then enter the summary into FreeTaxUSA.

Do they save your info from year to year? That's the only thing keeping me with TurboTax right now - I don't want to re-enter everything from scratch next year.

Yes, they definitely save your information year to year! You can import your previous year's return which pulls in all your personal info, employment info, etc. They even keep track of things like depreciation schedules and capital loss carryovers. The transition is pretty seamless if you're switching from another service too - just have a PDF of last year's return handy and you can pull most of the important info from there.

Do you know if I have to specify which coins I'm selling for the tax loss? Like if I have 3 different cryptocurrencies all at a loss, can I pick which ones to realize losses on and keep holding the others?

Yes, you can absolutely specify which coins you're selling for tax loss harvesting. You're not required to sell all your underwater positions - you can strategically choose which specific coins and even which specific lots if you've bought the same coin at different times. If you have three different cryptocurrencies at a loss, you can choose to sell just one or two and keep holding the other. You might base this decision on which coins you're least confident about long-term or which would give you the biggest tax benefit. Some tax software lets you optimize this by showing which sales would be most beneficial.

Yep, same forms as stock trades. Form 8949 is where you'll list all your crypto transactions, and then the totals carry over to Schedule D. Make sure you check the correct box at the top of Form 8949 depending on whether the transactions were reported on a 1099-B. For most crypto exchanges in 2025, you'll likely check box C since many still don't issue 1099-Bs (though this is changing). Keep all your transaction records because the burden of proof is on you!

This is really helpful! So there's a regular Child Tax Credit AND an Additional Child Tax Credit? My disability is SSDI if that matters. Would I still file a tax return even though my SSDI isn't taxable based on my total income amount?

Yes, there are two parts to the credit. The regular Child Tax Credit is non-refundable (only helps if you owe taxes), while the Additional Child Tax Credit is refundable (you can get it even without owing taxes). You should absolutely file a tax return even if your SSDI isn't taxable! That's the only way to claim the refundable credits you're eligible for. Many people on disability don't file because they don't have taxable income, and they miss out on these refundable credits. For 2022, you could get up to $1,500 per qualifying child through the ACTC.

For 2023, the rules are similar to 2022. The expanded 2021 version (which was fully refundable) has expired. You'll still be able to claim up to $1,500 per qualifying child as a refundable credit through the ACTC, even with only disability income. The total Child Tax Credit remains $2,000 per qualifying child for 2023, with up to $1,500 being refundable through the ACTC.