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Section 225 doesn’t make overtime tax-free

“They say politicians campaign in poetry, but they govern in prose.” Jeremy Wells, EA, CPA, opens Episode 37 of Tax in Action with that line, and it frames the new overtime deduction well. “No tax on overtime” is the poetry. IRC Section 225 is the prose. Overtime isn’t exempt from…

Your client lost it all at the casino, so why do they still owe tax?

Your client hands you a Form W-2G showing $75,000 of slot winnings. “I lost all of it,” the client says, “so there shouldn’t be anything to report, right?” Jeremy Wells, EA, CPA, recently encountered a similar case at his firm. As the conversation unfolded, the client’s combined wins and losses…

How to Use AI in the Month-End Close Without Losing Your Audit Trail

“It’s rare these days for an AI company to actually want to demo the product,” Blake Oliver, CPA, said at the start of this Earmark Expo. “Maybe it’s because there is not that much there in a lot of cases.” Savant Labs showed its product anyway. After Shaan Mistry (VP…

How Do Accounting Firms Stay Valuable When Everyone Has the Same AI Tools?

If polished output becomes as easy to produce as heating up dinner, what will clients still pay your accounting firm for? David Leary calls this AI’s “microwave moment.” Anyone can get useful results without the setup that once required technical skill. But easier tools don’t guarantee better service. They can…

What is every ‘yes’ on your calendar really costing you?

For years, Marit Burmood, CPA, EA, worked toward a seat on the advisory board for a tax group she taught. Only the most knowledgeable people sat on it. When the invitation finally came, “I knew in my heart this might not be the best move,” Marit says. She said ‘yes’…

Intuit is going high and low—and accountants are in the middle

Intuit’s fiscal 2026 fourth quarter results include two numbers that tell an interesting story. Revenue rose 14% to about $4.4 billion, beating the company’s guidance of 10% to 12%. Yet the number of paying QuickBooks Online customers grew only about 3% globally, reaching 8.9 million. Meanwhile, average revenue per customer…

How Finance Leaders Can Tell Whether AI Is Really Paying Off

Your AI bill tells you what you spent, but not whether anything got better. That divide worries finance leaders. Mike DePrisco, President and CEO of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), speaks with hundreds of CFOs and finance leaders around the world. Their questions have evolved from whether to use…

Is your answer about what QuickBooks can’t do already out of date?

A client asks whether QuickBooks can handle multiple units of measure, consolidated reporting, or AIA-style billing. We answer from memory, then discover the product changed. With Intuit releasing features this quickly, what was true six months ago may not be true today. That’s the backdrop for Episode 160 of The…

Building a people-first CPA firm while technology changes the work

Matt Kidd, CPA, of Kidd Advisors hosted a tax-day party at an Irish pub near his Livonia, MI office. About 50 clients and prospects came. The tab was roughly $3,000. Many guests are $500 annualtax return clients. Matt joked that they “probably ate and drank the profit margin” out of…

AI Can Do More Accounting Work. Who Will Stand Behind It?

In a survey covered by CFO.com, 55% of respondents earning $150,000 to $200,000 a year support replacing CEOs, CFOs and other senior executives with AI. But Blake Oliver points out someone still has to read the analysis, correct it and decide what happens next. On Episode 508 of The Accounting…

The Monthly Marketing Playbook That Keeps Firms Visible All Year

AI makes it easy to produce more marketing content. It also makes that content easier to ignore. That creates a serious challenge for accounting firms. Business owners aren’t simply buying tax returns or financial reports. They want someone they can trust to help them understand risk, cash flow, and an…

Can you really buy a $400,000 accounting firm with just $20,000 down?

You may not have $400,000 sitting in the bank. You may not even have $40,000. Yet under the right conditions, you could buy a $400,000 accounting practice with about $20,000 of your own money. The deal still has to pass a lender’s review, produce enough cash to cover the debt,…

How Accounting Firms Can Win Attention When AI Writes Everything Else

Your firm can now use AI to produce 100 social posts in minutes. But if those posts sound like everything else in a prospect’s feed, no one reads them. That’s the challenge Micky Deming sees across accounting firm marketing. Micky founded Full Stadium Marketing and has worked in the field…

AI can fly your month-end close, but you still have to land it

It’s the third of the month. Bank statements have posted. Payroll exports and loan schedules are ready, and the close checklist is about to consume another week of staff time. Now imagine Meridian already imported the activity, reconciled the balance sheet accounts, booked the accruals, and rolled forward the supporting…

Is your generosity being treated as an entitlement?

Madeline Reeves spent more than four hours building a custom proposal. Her company, Fearless Foundry, had already completed the client’s branding, website, and marketing launch. Now the client wanted the team to take over everything. Madeline reviewed the new scope step by step and heard no objections. Then she sent…

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