All over the Place ...

Our work here can sometimes feel over the place – not that this is a bad thing.

In fact, it is one of the parts of my job that I find most interesting. It can be numbing to do the same thing over and over. Here, though, I get to work with many different clients who face many different issues, so helping them always comes in a unique form.

This is something that seems to be hitting many taxpayers as we rush toward the end of 2018. Many people have heard of the some of the tax law changes implemented by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and many used some political calculus to determine how they felt about them. Now, however, they are getting much more interesting in knowing how those changes are going to affect them personally.

As we have said many times, there is not one answer that we can give to cover everyone. Personal answers will be needed. And those personal answers may also change how you go about that political calculus.

So if you need some of that one-on-one attention, please reach out to us BEFORE the calendar turns to 2019.

Now in the interests of continuing to be all over the place, here are a few quick-short items.

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Ohio has become the first state in the nation to start accepting Bitcoin as tax payments from many businesses.

I am not an expert in cryptocurrency, so do not want to give any financial advice on how sound of an investment it is. I would only say that in general the volatility in Bitcoin’s value seen over this year goes to show that one should go into investing in this area with a realization of what kind of risk-reward spectrum you are on.

A move like this by a state, though, only adds legitimacy to the concept and helps the long-range forecast of success for these new currencies.

Maybe this could even lead to us one day understanding just what blockchain is anyway.

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Now I’m not really sure if this time of year opens one up to higher risk of identity theft. There is definitely talk about it, though, as more people make more online transactions during the holiday season.

I am sure, however, that it does always do one good to take common-sense actions to protect your information no matter what the calendar says.  And if your holiday shopping has made you realize that you should be taking some added measures, here is a little primer the IRS recently put out in the spirit of the season.

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Late last week the IRS began an Instagram account. Now sure, I can’t find any real fault in the agency using as many means as it can to reach more people with more timely information, but it was never a platform I imagined was cut out for tax news dissemination.

And no one really wants a heap of tax professional selfies.

Some of us do have some rather cute cats, though …

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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