Geiger Tax & Accounting

Geiger Tax & Accounting Geiger Tax & Accounting specializes in individual tax preparation, business tax preparation, payroll, sales tax, and new business startups.

The hobby-loss rule is one of the most punishing outcomes in the tax code: if the IRS reclassifies your side business as...
09/04/2026

The hobby-loss rule is one of the most punishing outcomes in the tax code: if the IRS reclassifies your side business as a hobby, your income stays fully taxable but your expenses become nondeductible (permanently, as of 2026). The IRS uses a nine-factor test that boils down to one question — are you in it to make a profit? There's a safe harbor: show a profit in three of the last five years and you're presumed to be a business. What actually protects you is running it like one: a separate account, real books, a written plan, and course-correction when you lose money. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/hobby-loss-rule-side-business-audit

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

If you own an LLC or run as a sole proprietor, you can generally deduct 100% of your health insurance premiums above the...
09/03/2026

If you own an LLC or run as a sole proprietor, you can generally deduct 100% of your health insurance premiums above the line — meaning it lowers your AGI whether or not you itemize. It's one of the better deductions available to the self-employed, and two rules quietly knock people out of it. First, the deduction can't exceed your net business profit, so a lean or loss year shrinks or erases it. Second, the spouse-coverage trap: if you were eligible to join a spouse's employer plan, you're disqualified for any month that coverage was available — even if you turned it down. How your LLC is taxed and whose name is on the policy matter too. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/self-employed-health-insurance-deduction-llc

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

The 20% qualified business income (QBI) deduction is now permanent under OBBBA — and if you run an S-corp, your salary q...
09/02/2026

The 20% qualified business income (QBI) deduction is now permanent under OBBBA — and if you run an S-corp, your salary quietly controls how much of it you actually get. Below the income threshold, you take the full 20%, simple. Above the threshold, the deduction is limited by W-2 wages, including the salary you pay yourself. That creates a real tension: a higher salary can support a bigger QBI deduction but costs you payroll tax, while a lower salary saves payroll tax but can shrink QBI. Service businesses face a harder ceiling. Above the threshold, there's a salary that optimizes the whole picture — worth modeling before you set year-end pay. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/qbi-deduction-s-corp-salary-optimization-2026

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

A new Tax Court case makes a point every business owner should hear: personal expenses paid with business money are taxa...
09/01/2026

A new Tax Court case makes a point every business owner should hear: personal expenses paid with business money are taxable to the person who benefits — even if that person never wrote the check and was never on payroll. In this case, a family member benefited from company spending and got taxed on it. The mechanism is a "constructive distribution": business funds used for someone's personal benefit are treated as income to that person. The everyday version is running the car, the vacation, or a relative's costs through the business. It feels efficient; it's taxable. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/personal-expenses-paid-by-business-taxable-distribution

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

If you're an LLC member, don't assume the "passive member" language in your operating agreement settles your self-employ...
08/31/2026

If you're an LLC member, don't assume the "passive member" language in your operating agreement settles your self-employment tax. It doesn't. Whether your share of the profits is hit with the 15.3% SE tax turns on what you actually do in the business — and the courts are genuinely split. The IRS keeps challenging active members who claim limited-partner treatment, winning some cases and losing others, so the area is unsettled. A label in the agreement won't protect you if you're materially involved in running the company. In New York the state and city layers can add to the exposure. This is worth deciding deliberately before year-end. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/passive-partner-self-employment-tax-llc-members

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

People treat an LLC like an automatic wall between the business and their personal assets. It's not unconditional. Court...
08/28/2026

People treat an LLC like an automatic wall between the business and their personal assets. It's not unconditional. Courts can "pierce the veil" and reach you personally when you've treated the business like a personal account — commingling funds, keeping no real records, undercapitalizing it, paying personal bills out of the business. Single-member LLCs draw extra scrutiny because "it's just his alter ego" is an easier argument with one owner and no formalities. What keeps the protection intact is acting like a real company: a separate account, real books, adequate capital, contracts in the LLC's name, and an operating agreement you actually follow. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/llc-liability-protection-veil-piercing

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

Here's one almost no one sees coming: the Federal Priority Statute (31 U.S.C. 3713). When a business is insolvent and ow...
08/27/2026

Here's one almost no one sees coming: the Federal Priority Statute (31 U.S.C. 3713). When a business is insolvent and owes federal taxes, the government's claim comes first — and if you, as an officer with control over the checkbook, pay other creditors ahead of the IRS, you can be held personally liable for those unpaid taxes. It feels like survival (pay the landlord, pay the supplier), but it's exactly the behavior the statute punishes. If your business is struggling and owes the IRS, get advice before you decide who gets paid. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/federal-priority-statute-personal-liability

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

There's a federal proposal to ease how workers are classified under wage-and-hour law — and a lot of business owners are...
08/26/2026

There's a federal proposal to ease how workers are classified under wage-and-hour law — and a lot of business owners are reading it as "the 1099 pressure is off." It isn't. That change lives at the Department of Labor. Your real classification risk lives at the IRS (back payroll taxes) and in New York (one of the strictest tests in the country), and those are completely separate fights. The thing that actually protects you is classifying by the facts and documenting it. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/dol-contractor-rule-change-doesnt-fix-your-1099s

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

#1099

The IRS paid out $123.5 million in whistleblower awards last year — and most of those tips didn't come from strangers. T...
08/25/2026

The IRS paid out $123.5 million in whistleblower awards last year — and most of those tips didn't come from strangers. They came from people who had access to your books: a bookkeeper, a former partner, a fired employee, an angry ex-spouse. What triggers a report is exactly what an insider would notice — unreported cash, personal expenses run through the business, employees who don't really exist. And you won't get a heads-up; a whistleblower audit looks like a normal one. The only real protection is the boring one: report everything, keep personal and business separate, and don't give anyone a story to tell. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/irs-whistleblower-program-business-owner-risk

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

The IRS lost about 28,000 employees in 2025 — roughly a quarter of its workforce. For business owners, the mistake is re...
08/24/2026

The IRS lost about 28,000 employees in 2025 — roughly a quarter of its workforce. For business owners, the mistake is reading the resulting silence as good news. It usually isn't. Refunds, amended returns, penalty abatements, and notice responses are all moving slower, and while your file sits in a queue, interest and penalties keep compounding. A delayed refund is your cash parked with the IRS; a delayed abatement is interest running on a penalty you might not even owe. The move: send things certified, keep proof of every filing, and follow up in writing. Read more: geigertax.com/blog/irs-staffing-shortage-business-owner-impact

General info, not tax advice — talk to a preparer about your situation.

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