When it’s time to consider your business’s future, succession planning can protect your legacy and successfully set up the next generation of leaders or owners. Whether you’re ready to retire, you wish to step back your involvement, or you want a solid contingency plan should you unexpectedly be unable to run the business, exploring different succession strategies is key. Here are five options to consider, along with some of the tax implications.

Have you ever invested in a company only to see its stock value plummet? (This may become relevant in light of recent market volatility.) While such an investment might be something you’d rather forget, there’s a silver lining: you can claim a capital loss deduction on your tax return. Here are the rules when a stock you own is sold at a loss or is entirely worthless.

Staying compliant with payroll tax laws is crucial for small businesses. Mistakes can lead to fines, strained employee relationships, and even legal consequences. Below are six quick tips to help you stay on track.

Fraud schemes are always evolving. Once frauds are widely publicized and consumers and businesses learn to spot common scams, enterprising criminals change their tactics. So even if you could recognize the red flags of fraud a couple of years ago, you may be vulnerable to new or tweaked scams in 2025. For the health of your business, it’s essential to stay on top of fraud developments.

Some tax sins are much worse than others. An example is failing to pay over federal income and employment taxes that have been withheld from employees’ paychecks. In this situation, the IRS can assess the trust fund recovery penalty, also called the 100% penalty, against any responsible person.

For federal income tax purposes, the general rule is that rental real estate losses are passive activity losses (PALs). An individual taxpayer can generally deduct PALs only to the extent of passive income from other sources, if any. For example, if you have positive taxable income from other rental properties, that generally counts as passive income. You can use PALs to offset passive income from other sources, which amounts to being able to currently deduct them.