The 2026 version of Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate, looks the same as the prior-year version. However, the instructions now include information about the new deductions for tips, overtime and car loan interest, along with the new senior deduction. Taxpayers eligible for one or more of these deductions can make adjustments to their withholding on line b of Step 4 of the form, which...
As discussed on pages 103 to 104 of the Tax Year 2025 M+O=CPE Individual Tax Reference Book, the New York Secure Choice Program is now operational, and the program requires New York employers with 10 or more employees who do not offer a qualified retirement plan to automatically enroll their employees in this new state-sponsored retirement plan. Employers with 30 or more employees are required...
As discussed on pages 47 to 50 of the Tax Year 2025 M+O=CPE Individual Tax Reference Book, Trump accounts are effective for the 2026 and later tax years and are for children under the age of 18 as of the close of the calendar year. We also discussed these accounts in our prior post on December 9, 2025. Parents and guardians that wish to make the election to open a Trump account and to elect to...
As discussed on pages 96 to 98 of the Tax Year 2025 M+O=CPE Individual Tax Reference Book, taxpayers who received inflation refund checks during 2025 must include them in the calculation of their federal income tax liability if they itemize their deductions for the 2025 tax year. New York State has issued Forms 1099-G, Certain Government Payments, for the 2025 tax year, which report the amount...
As discussed on pages 53 to 58 of the Tax Year 2025 M+O=CPE Individual Tax Reference Book, the credits for Energy Efficient Home Improvements are terminated after 2025, and for the 2025 tax year, there is a new requirement for the credit: Taxpayers must provide an identification code related to the qualified item(s) placed in service during 2025. (The solar credit is also terminated after 2025, b...
As discussed on pages 79 to 81 of the Tax Year 2025 M+O=CPE Individual Tax Reference Book, the IRS announced that it is phasing out paper tax refund checks and the use of checks to pay tax balances due. The IRS recently issued a fact sheet that provides more details about this phaseout (https://www.irs.gov/pub/taxpros/fs-2026-02.pdf). Refunds: In the fact sheet, the IRS indicates that when ...
As discussed on pages 29 to 34 of the Tax Year 2025 M+O=CPE Individual Tax Reference Book, the new deduction for overtime pay is limited to employees who receive overtime that is required by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Determining if an employee is subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act will be one of the challenges facing practitioners this tax season. The IRS recently i...
The IRS has announced that it will reopen the e-file system on January 26, 2026. Individual income tax returns from the 2025 tax year, can be e-filed once the system reopens. In addition, if a client needs to file a prior-year return that is beyond its due date, returns from the 2024 and 2023 tax years can also be e-filed once the system reopens. If a client needs to file a late return from th...
The 2026 New York State wage base for the unemployment tax is $17,600. Page 137 of the Tax Year 2025 M+O=CPE Individual Tax Reference Book incorrectly lists it as $13,000.
As discussed in our post on January 7, 2026, the owner reporting requirements under the New York State’s LLC Transparency Act apply only to limited liability companies (LLCs) that are organized outside of the of the United States and doing business in New York. New York has now launched a site that summarizes the new rules and where foreign LLCs can submit reports about their owners. See: ht...
