The IRS has continued to improve its online portals for individual taxpayers, and they're now functionally useful - still far from perfect, but in an anything-is-better-than-nothing kind of way it's a dramatic step up.

Phantom income often arises when using a passthrough entity. Often a problem for LLCs, S Corps, and partnerships, phantom income occurs when the business entity reports a yearly profit, yet the owner or investors in the business do not receive cash reflecting the allocation. The IRS still taxes the full amount of the business’s income, creating tax on unreceived income for business members.

‘Think outside the box’ is ubiquitous advice in al fields. Here’s the catch: very few of us actually do think outside of the box with any regularity. And even if we do manage to think outside of the box, it’s not enough by itself. For a restaurant to be successful, we must master the duality of being able to think both in and out of the box to solve a host of problems.

“It’s not a lie, it’s an adjustment. It’s the rule of three….if a guy tells you how many girls he’s hooked up with, it’s not even close to that. You take that number and divide by three, then you get the real total. So if Kevin’s saying it’s been three girls, it’s more like one. Or none!....The Rule of three, it’s an exact science. Consistent as gravity.” – American Pie