Guides

Straight answers, written by the people who’d file it.

1,423 plain-English guides on cross-border moves, US and Canadian returns, and small-business money. Each one ends in what to do next, and says when a written Position Check is the smarter first step.

Capital gains RRSP TFSA Departure tax Estate tax FBAR LLC Principal residence

CROSS-BORDER A Canadian Corporation With a U.S. Shareholder

What applies to you
What it costs if you wait
What to do next

Fairlight Accounting · US + Canadian Tax Desks

1,423 guides

Small Business Tax

Roofing Contractor Deductions: The Materials, the Trucks, the Fall Protection, and the Storm Season That Arrives All at Once

September 29, 2026

A roofing contractor's costs are materials by the square, crews on ladders, trucks and dump trailers, and a safety program OSHA makes mandatory. Storm work — a hail event that fills the calendar for a season — adds insurance-paid jobs, supplements, and a cash surge that hides the year's real profit. Here is each deduction category, the elections, and the bookkeeping that keeps storm season readable.

Small Business Tax

Roofing Contractor Entity Structure: The LLC, the S Election, and the Workers' Compensation Line That Decides the Arithmetic

September 29, 2026

A roofing contractor's entity decision starts from a liability profile that ends businesses — falls, leaks, storm-season disputes — and a payroll whose workers' compensation cost changes every number in the S election worksheet. The LLC or corporation is the floor; the election pays once profit clears a superintendent's salary; and the crew's classification, which the carrier's audit will test, decides whether the payroll exists. Here is the analysis for a solo roofer, a residential company, and a storm-chasing operation.

Small Business Tax

Roofing Contractor Estimated Taxes: The Hail Year, the Depreciation Holdback, and the Quiet Year That Follows

September 29, 2026

A roofing contractor's income is the least predictable in the trades: a hail event can triple a year's revenue in one season, insurance checks arrive in two pieces months apart, and the year after a storm can be half the size. The estimated-tax setup has to survive both. Here is the safe harbor and reserve for a storm business, the cash-method timing on insurance jobs and holdbacks, and the recompute that keeps a hail year's tax from landing in April of a quiet one.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

RRIF Minimum Withdrawal: The Table and the Rules

September 29, 2026

RRIF minimum withdrawal explained: the prescribed factor table by age, the formula under 71, the spouse's-age election, when the first withdrawal is due, withholding on amounts above the minimum, and the treaty rules for non-residents in the United States.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

RSP vs RRSP: What the Terms Mean and How the Plan Works

September 29, 2026

RSP vs RRSP explained: why banks say RSP and the CRA says RRSP, how the registered retirement savings plan works — contribution room, the deduction, tax-deferred growth, withdrawals — and how the United States treats an RRSP for a Canadian who moves south.

Small Business Tax

S Corporation vs LLC: The Tax Differences

September 29, 2026

S corporation vs LLC explained: an LLC is a legal entity and an S corporation is a tax election, how each is taxed by default, the self-employment tax difference, reasonable compensation, the QBI interaction, and when an LLC should elect S status.

Small Business Tax

Salon and Barbershop Deductions: The Chairs, the Product, the Tips, and the Booth Renter Who Isn't Your Employee

September 29, 2026

A salon or barbershop runs on one of three staffing models — booth renters who are their own businesses, commission stylists who are employees, or hourly employees — and the model decides most of the return: whether the owner reports rent or payroll, who deducts the product, and how the tips flow. Add the retail line with its sales tax, the equipment and build-out, and the licensing every state requires, and the deductions have a shape the other service trades don't share. Here is each category by model.

Small Business Tax

Salon and Barbershop Entity Structure: The LLC, the S Election, and the Owner Behind the Chair

September 29, 2026

A salon owner's entity decision depends on whether the owner is behind a chair or behind the desk: an owner-stylist's reasonable salary is a working stylist's earnings plus management, which consumes most of a small salon's profit, while an owner who manages a salon of employees has the payroll the S election needs and a manager's salary against a larger distribution. The liability — a chemical burn, a slip, a renter's client — makes the LLC the floor. Here is the analysis for a solo suite, a mixed salon, and an employee salon with retail.

Small Business Tax

Salon and Barbershop Estimated Taxes: Daily Cash, Holiday Season, and the Year the Renters Became Employees

September 29, 2026

A salon's income is daily and steady — appointments every day, paid at the chair — with a holiday-season peak, a January dip, and a retail line that spikes in December. The estimated-tax setup is the easy case with two salon-specific items: the rent-versus-payroll model that shapes the profit, and the year a classification cleanup converts renters to employees and changes every number. Here is the routine for an owner-stylist on Schedule C and an S corporation salon with staff.

Small Business Tax

Schedule C Explained: Profit or Loss From Business

September 29, 2026

Schedule C explained line by line: who files it, gross receipts and returns, cost of goods sold, the Part II expense categories, the home office line, vehicle information, and how the net profit flows to Schedule SE and Form 1040.

Small Business Tax

Section 1244 Stock: Ordinary Loss on Small Business Shares

September 29, 2026

Section 1244 stock explained: how founders and early investors deduct up to $50,000 ($100,000 joint) of loss on qualifying small business stock as an ordinary loss instead of a capital loss, the requirements, and the traps.

Small Business Tax

Section 1245 vs Section 1250 Recapture: The Difference

September 29, 2026

Section 1245 vs section 1250 recapture: equipment recapture is ordinary income, building recapture is capped at 25 percent — what each section covers, how the computations differ, and the traps at the boundary.

Small Business Tax

Section 179 Deduction: Limits, Vehicles, and the Income Cap

September 29, 2026

Section 179 explained: the election to expense equipment in the year of purchase, the annual dollar limit and phase-out, the business income limitation, the vehicle rules, and when bonus depreciation is the better choice.

Small Business Tax

Section 197 Intangibles: 15-Year Amortization Explained

September 29, 2026

Section 197 intangibles explained: goodwill, customer lists, franchises, and covenants not to compete amortized over 15 years, what is excluded, the anti-churning rule, and recapture on sale.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Severance Pay Tax in Canada: Retiring Allowance Rules

September 29, 2026

Severance pay tax in Canada explained: how a retiring allowance is taxed, the lump-sum withholding rates (10, 20, 30 percent), the RRSP transfer for pre-1996 service, the difference between severance and salary continuance, and the non-resident and cross-border treatment when the employee has moved to the United States.

Small Business Tax

Short-Term Rental Entity and Estimated Taxes: The LLC Per Property, the Lender's Consent, and the Season the Bookings Follow

September 29, 2026

A short-term rental host's entity question is mostly liability — an LLC per property, with the mortgage lender's consent — because rental income on Schedule E carries no self-employment tax for an S election to save. The estimated-tax question is a season that follows the destination, platform payouts that arrive after the stay, and a cost-segregation year whose loss can eliminate the host's tax on wages. Here is both, for a single-property host and a multi-property operator with a Schedule C management arm.

Small Business Tax

Short-Term Rental Taxes: Schedule E or Schedule C, the Seven-Day Rule, the Fourteen-Day Rule, and the Loophole That Isn't One

September 29, 2026

A short-term rental's tax treatment depends on three tests most hosts have never heard of: whether substantial services make it a business on Schedule C (with self-employment tax) rather than a rental on Schedule E; whether an average stay of seven days or less takes it out of the passive rental rules so a materially participating host can deduct losses against wages; and whether personal use limits the deductions. Add the fourteen-day rule, the depreciation life question, the occupancy taxes, and the cleaning fees, and the return has its own logic. Here is each rule and how they combine.

Small Business Tax

Small Business Tax Deadlines 2027: The Full Calendar

September 29, 2026

Every 2027 federal tax deadline for small businesses in one table: sole proprietor, partnership, S corporation, and C corporation returns and extensions, quarterly estimates, payroll forms, information returns, and the weekend and holiday rule.

Small Business Tax

SSTB vs Non-SSTB: How the QBI Phase-Out Differs

September 29, 2026

SSTB vs non-SSTB above the QBI threshold: an SSTB loses the deduction entirely across the phase-out range, a non-SSTB keeps it subject to the W-2 wage and UBIA limits — the two paths compared with the 2025 law's changes.

Small Business Tax

State Unemployment Insurance (SUI): Rates and Experience

September 29, 2026

State unemployment insurance explained: how states set an employer's SUI rate, the new-employer rate, experience rating and why layoffs raise it, the wage bases, quarterly reporting, the states with disability insurance (SDI), and how SUI earns the FUTA credit.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

TFSA vs Roth IRA: What Each Country Recognizes

September 29, 2026

TFSA vs Roth IRA explained: how each account works in its own country, why the United States does not recognize the TFSA (its growth is taxable to a U.S. person), why Canada recognizes a Roth IRA only with a treaty election and only for pre-move contributions, and what to do with each account when you cross the border.

Small Business Tax

Therapist and Counselor Private Practice Taxes: The Home Office, the Telehealth Licenses, the Insurance Panels, and the Sliding Scale

September 29, 2026

A therapist, counselor, or psychologist in private practice runs one of the leanest professional businesses — an office or a home office, a laptop, a telehealth platform, a license in every state where clients sit — with a compliance layer (HIPAA, the licensing board, the insurance panels' credentialing) and a revenue mix of insurance reimbursements, self-pay, and sliding-scale fees. Here is each deduction, the multistate question telehealth created, the collections lag from the panels, and the specified-service label that shapes the entity.

Small Business Tax

Therapist Private Practice Entity and Estimated Taxes: The PLLC, the S Election in the Phase-Out Range, and the Panel Payments That Lag

September 29, 2026

A solo clinician's entity decision sits in the one place the specified-service rules make interesting: the QBI phase-out range, which higher-earning clinicians and group owners reach, and where the S election's salary and the retirement contribution both move the deduction. The estimated taxes run on session income with a collections lag from the insurance panels, no withholding, and a September that is the practice's slowest month. Here is both, for a solo clinician on Schedule C and a group practice with associates.

Small Business Tax

Tree Service Company Deductions: The Bucket Truck, the Chipper, the Climbing Gear, and the Insurance That Prices the Trade

September 29, 2026

A tree service company is equipment-heavy and injury-prone: bucket trucks, chippers, stump grinders, cranes, and climbing gear on the asset side; the highest workers' compensation rates in the landscape trades and a general liability policy priced for falling limbs on the cost side. Storm work adds lumpy revenue; firewood and mulch add a product line. Here is each deduction category, the depreciation elections for six-figure equipment, and the compliance costs that are deductible because they're mandatory.

The content on this page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional tax, accounting, or legal advice. See our full legal disclaimer.