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WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced that the optional standard mileage rate for automobiles driven for business will increase by 3 cents in 2025, while the mileage rates for vehicles used for other purposes will remain unchanged from 2024. Optional standard milage rates are used to calculate the deductible costs of operating vehicles for business, charitable and medical purposes, as well as for active-duty members of the Armed Forces who are moving. Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be: 70 cents per mile driven for business use, up 3 cents from 2024. 21 cents per mile driven for medical purposes, the same as in 2024. 21 cents per mile driven for moving purposes for qualified active-duty members of the Armed Forces, unchanged from last year. 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations, equal to the rate in 2024. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-increases-the-standard-mileage-rate-for-business-use-in-2025-key-rate-increases-3-cents-to-70-cents-per-mile

I used to keep paper copies but now just pdf's - and a pdf of all client original documents and another of signature pages (paper kept for the requisite years). Electrons stack much more tightly than pages. Clients get paper and pdfs including EF Acks (I also keep acks). I want to have everything needed to research a return without having to open the program if at all possible.

I started mine around age 5 or 6. Shredding; paid by the inch. When they got older, filing, printing, and as teens answering phones. since we all three sound identical on the phone, they got real good at fielding general inquiries. Specific queries were handed off to me.

Just upgraded from three 24 inch monitors to three 32 inch curved monitors. Measured horizontally, it's just shy of 7 feet of screen space, because screens are measured horizontally. My eyes are so happy! (Excuse the mess!)

Remember that the W-2 wages were reduced before FIT, SIT, FICA, and Medicare. So, even if the childcare exclusion gets added back to wages (because they don't qualify or don't qualify for it all) that they still save the FICA and Medicare. Depending on their tax bracket, they might do better taking the credit instead of the exclusion. If the non-working spouse is a student or is job hunting, they get some benefit. Covid rules were more generous. [Most of my clients have grown kids, so I rarely use this exclusion/credit anymore, so forgive me if I didn't report the most current rules.]

written consent from the Tax Department (Form TR-960, Consent to Dissolution of a Corporation) https://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/doingbus/tr125.htm

You want to file that child's tax return if you are putting the child's wages into a Roth (which is why you hire the kid in the first place IMHO). It starts the clock on the five year period of ownership for the Roth. Whether or not the work is legit by a 5 year old is not what I am addressing. Tom Longview, TX

Most states have exceptions in their child labor laws to the age restrictions for family businesses. Many 5 year olds are capable of helping out in a family business and I'd have no problems taking a deduction for reasonable pay. However, most 5 year olds wouldn't be capable of getting a full garbage bag into a dumpster or operating a vacuum cleaner that is as tall as they are.

I am totally paperless, and I always keep pdfs that serves as the archive copy. The reason to do this is because program updates, law clarifications, and retroactive law changes subsequent to filing can change any return that is generated by the program when it is reopened. I use the document manager and print everything to pdf that I then print the client paper copy for them. The client copy pdf is usually an abbreviated copy where I've decided what is necessary and also those backup worksheets ("keep for your records") that I deem useful to provide, and that pdf contains exactly what is given to them. The preparer copy pdf has much more: the entire return plus all of the computer-generated notes, preparer notes, due diligence, backup worksheets not actually e-filed, and transmission reports.

I started my kids at about age 10 waving a sign in front of my office and shredding docs from prior years. They filled out a timecard and got paid on payroll at minimum wage. No PR taxes. Gave them a W2 at the end of the year. All wages went into a Roth. I took the deduction. The work was legit and it was great training for the kids. Both still have those Roth IRAs, but one of them used part of it for college tuition. Tom Longview, TX