Finance leaders who came up through traditional accounting paths are entering a landscape where CFO competencies now extend well beyond technical precision. Finance leaders who came up through traditional accounting and controllership paths are entering a landscape where technical precision is the floor, not the ceiling. The CFO is now expected to sit at the strategic center […]
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HSA as a Retirement Tool: How to Maximize the Triple Tax Advantage
An HSA funded consistently over a 30-year career and invested rather than spent can accumulate more tax-efficiently than almost any other account available. That’s not a hypothetical. It’s what the structure of the account makes possible. Most clients don’t use it that way. What it takes to actually maximize it starts with the contribution limits, moves through the investment question, and ends with how […]
Gift Tax Returns Explained: A Practical Guide to Form 709
A gift tax return — Form 709 — trips up more practitioners more often than expected, partly because the filing trigger isn’t just about owing tax. A client made a large gift last year. Now the question lands on the desk: does this require a return? Clients can owe nothing and still have a filing […]
Surgent Joins UWorld to Build the Future of Accounting Education with a Complete Learning Ecosystem
UWorld’s Comprehensive Exam Review Courses + Surgent’s Expansive Continuing Professional Education and Exam Prep Courses = A World-Class Solution to Redefine How Accounting and Finance Professionals Learn, Grow, and Succeed Surgent Accounting & Financial Education is now part of UWorld, a global leader in comprehensive academic and professional education. We’re excited to offer our extensive […]
401(k) Planning in 2026: Contribution Limits, Plan Types, and Key Rules for CPAs and Advisors
The 401(k) remains the most widely used employer-sponsored retirement vehicle in the country. Contribution limits went up in 2026, a new Roth catch-up requirement for high earners took effect, and the foundational rules on plan design, vesting, and nondiscrimination testing remain as consequential as ever. Here’s a current reference on how the numbers and rules look this year. 2026 […]
529 Plans in 2026: Education Savings, Estate Planning, and What OBBBA Changed
Section 529 plans have been a core education savings tool since 1996. The basic structure hasn’t changed: contributions grow tax-deferred, and qualified distributions come out federal income tax-free. What has changed, thanks to the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) signed July 4, 2025, is the scope of what those plans can cover and who benefits from them. Two […]
What Happens After April 15? A CPA’s Guide to Post-Tax-Season CPE Planning
Tax season ends. The filing deadlines pass. And for most CPAs, the first real window to address CPE compliance opens up on April 16. For practitioners who’ve been heads-down since January, the stretch between mid-April and June 30 is typically the most productive CPE period of the year. Reporting deadlines vary by state, but the post-busy-season window […]
Section 1202 Qualified Small Business Stock in 2026: New Rules, Higher Stakes, Strict Requirements
Section 1202 has been around since 1993. For most of that time it was a niche provision, useful in the right circumstances but constrained by a rigid five-year holding period and dollar thresholds that hadn’t kept pace with inflation. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law July 4, 2025, changed that. Three […]
HSAs in 2026: Contribution Limits, Tax Advantages, and What Changed Under OBBBA
Health Savings Accounts have always offered a compelling tax structure. But 2026 brings both higher contribution limits and the broadest expansion of HSA eligibility in recent memory, thanks to amendments the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) made to IRC Section 223 when it was signed into law on July 4, 2025. The basics haven’t changed. What […]