Club Dues

The IRS says no deduction if the principal purpose is to provide entertainment. Dues paid to country clubs, athletic clubs, airline and lunch clubs would never be deductible. Dues paid to  public service organizations like  Rotary are in a different category and are deductible.  If you take a business client to dinner or golf at your country club, the cost of the meal and golf would be 50% deductible.

The Best Tax Shelter

You can exclude up to $500,000 of gain in the sale of your personal residence from your taxable income if you file jointly. You can exclude half of that if you are single. This is one of the best tax deals around, and would be even better if the real estate market was more robust and taxpayers were sitting on these kind of gains like many were before 2008. What are the requirements for this good deal? They're not too bad. You can only do it once every 2 years. You have to have owned and used the property as your principal residence for 2 out of the 5 years prior to the sales date. So is it time to start packing boxes and get that tax free income?

I received a letter from the IRS. What do I do?

The first thing to do is not to panic. Many notices can be cleared up with a simple phone call or submission of some documents. Many times the IRS is wrong in their calculations or there is a misunderstanding. You need to be responsive by contacting the IRS on a timely basis. Usually you have 30 days from the date of the notice. They take it as a sign of disrespect if they don't hear from you. I recommend that you give the notice to your CPA to handle.