I do have some investments but nothing on margin. What about tax preparation software? I usually spend around $150 on TurboTax Premium - is that deductible if I itemize?

Unfortunately, tax preparation fees including software like TurboTax aren't deductible for individuals anymore. That deduction was eliminated for tax years 2018-2025 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, if you have self-employment income or rental property income, you can still deduct the portion of your tax prep fees related to those business activities on Schedule C or Schedule E. But for regular personal tax preparation, those costs aren't deductible currently.

Bunching works really well! We do this with our church donations - double up in December and January of the same tax year, then skip a year. Our CPA ran the numbers and we save about $1,800 every two years compared to giving the same amount spread evenly. Just make sure your charities are cool with the irregular donation schedule.

This subsidy cliff term is exactly what I've been experiencing but didn't have a name for! Do you know of any good resources that explain this phenomenon more? Or are there any efforts to address this problem in policy discussions?

The "subsidy cliff" is well-documented in healthcare policy discussions - the Kaiser Family Foundation has excellent resources explaining how it works, particularly with ACA marketplace subsidies. Urban Institute and Brookings also have published research on this topic. There are ongoing policy discussions about smoothing these cliffs through more gradual phase-outs of benefits rather than hard cutoffs. Some proposals include expanding premium tax credits, creating public options for various services, or implementing more universal programs that eliminate means-testing altogether. Unfortunately, these solutions require significant policy changes that have been difficult to achieve in our current political environment.

This is partially true but oversimplified. The top 1% pay about 40% of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 50% pay about 3%. The issue isn't that the wealthy don't pay taxes - it's that our tax system has inefficiencies, loopholes, and different treatment for different types of income. Capital gains being taxed lower than wages is a policy choice that benefits investors disproportionately.

The idea of renegotiating my equity stake is interesting. My partner and I have been operating this way for years without really thinking about the tax consequences. Do guaranteed payments still incur self-employment tax like salary would?

Yes, guaranteed payments do incur self-employment tax similar to salary. That's the downside compared to distributions. However, unlike regular salary which needs to meet "reasonable compensation" standards, guaranteed payments can be tied to specific services or capital you provide to the business. They're especially useful when partners contribute unequally in ways not reflected by ownership percentages. For the equity restructuring, you might consider a gradual approach where your percentage increases over time based on predefined performance metrics. This could help align your tax situation with the economic reality without creating a sudden shift in the business relationship.

I've done this. The key is proper documentation - you need a written loan agreement with reasonable interest and a realistic repayment schedule. Without that, the IRS might reclassify it as a distribution anyway.

But doesn't the business vs personal use percentage still apply even if you use standard mileage rate? Like if the car was 70% business and 30% personal, wouldn't that affect how the gain/loss is calculated when selling?

Yes, the business/personal percentage absolutely still applies. With standard mileage, you're only claiming deductions on the business portion anyway (your business miles). When you sell the car, you need to allocate any gain or loss based on that same business use percentage. So in your example with 70% business use, only 70% of any gain or loss would be business-related. But remember, the standard mileage deduction you've taken over time has already reduced your basis for the business portion of the car, which is why many people end up with a gain instead of a loss when they sell, even if they sell for less than they paid.

What form did you use to report this? Was it Schedule D or Form 4797? My accountant used Schedule D for my business vehicle sale which doesn't seem right.

This is super helpful, thank you! How detailed do the developer time logs need to be? We track time by project but not specifically by "R&D activity" - would that be a problem?

Developer time logs don't need to be broken down to specific "R&D activities" - project-level tracking is usually sufficient as long as you can demonstrate which projects involved qualifying R&D. The key is being able to show that the projects involved technical uncertainty, experimentation, etc. What really strengthens your case is having documentation that shows the process: initial technical requirements, documentation of challenges/uncertainties faced, testing procedures, and outcomes (whether successful or failed). Failed experiments actually strengthen R&D claims since they demonstrate the experimental nature of the work.

DON'T use TurboTax for R&D credits! We tried that last year and it missed so many qualifying expenses. The software is decent for basic returns but R&D credits are way too specialized, especially with the new capitalization rules. The software doesn't ask enough detailed questions to properly identify qualifying activities.