On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 into law. It reached the President's desk upon passage in the House by a vote of 225 to 201 on December 23. This followed passage in the Senate on December 22 by a vote of 68 to 29. The heavily negotiated omnibus legislative package includes all appropriations for the federal 2023 fiscal year. The Act does not include any major tax provisions or tax extenders. However, the omnibus bill does include the long-awaited SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022.

Consulting, freelancing, starting a side business, there’s a lot of talk about flashy terms like these nowadays. This week’s article from Forbes Advisor gets a little more into the weeds, offering a detailed look into the sole proprietorship, one of the simplest business entities you can form. It goes over the definition, tax benefits, and risks of a Sole Proprietor. No matter what type of business you are involved in, always know the taxes involved.

Taxes usually aren’t much fun. They’re even less fun when one cannot afford to make payments without serious financial hardship. Don’t worry, the good old IRS has some ways to still get its money. This article, written by the IRS, details some avenues for paying your taxes when you can’t pay all at once, including getting a loan, payment plans, penalty relief, and more.

Happy New Year!

And get ready for the tax filing season.

Hopefully, you followed some of the suggestions outlined in Publication 552 to organize your records. If you did, great! This will make filing your tax returns a lot easier this year. It also means that you and your tax advisor can spend more time on tax and financial planning issues for 2023 vs. looking back to 2022.

Enjoy the Holidays!

We are going to take a break from our tax and business tips this week. Instead, the family of Bradstreet & Company would like to wish you and your family the most joyous holiday season and best wishes for 2023.

I’m sure many of you have heard that the IRS has received $80 billion in funding. There’s been a lot of talk about what that means, with some saying that there will be over 80,000 new agents with guns and that there’s going to be a lot of audits. This informative article from The Wall Street Journal lays out what exactly is going to change and provides helpful context. We just hope it means they’ll finally start answering our phone calls without having to hold for 3 hours.