One of the threads we've been following in this blog is the impact of the ever-increasing sharing economy on taxes.Services such as Uber and Lyft for ride-hailing and Airbnb for short-term housing rentals have become remarkably popular in a very short time. But they...
Month: July 2016
Taxes on cancelled debt, part 2: Graduate and professional students
In the first part of this post, we began discussing how forgiveness of student loan debt can lead to a big tax bill for the debtor.The case concerned the grief-stricken parents of a recent college graduate.After their son died suddenly of a brain tumor, the lender...
Cancelled debt as income, part 1: case raises student loan issue
The IRS has long taken the position that cancelled or forgiven debts are generally taxable income.To be sure, there are certain exceptions to this. For example, in recent years Congress has granted relief for struggling homeowners who have gone through a foreclosure...
Taxing part-year residents: What if you have a second home elsewhere?
There are a couple of different scenarios by which Massachusetts can try to tax you as a full-year resident, even if you don't live here all year round.One is if your domicile (legal residence) is here for the entire year, even if you spend some time elsewhere, such...
3 Tips for 1099s in the “gig economy”
Listing a guest bedroom on Airbnb or picking up some side income driving for Uber? You need to be thinking about taxes already. Whether or not you receive a 1099 in January, you have the responsibility of reporting income and supporting deductions.You may be paying...