Guide library

IRS guides by industry

Restaurants and Bars

Tip reporting, Form 8027, FICA on unreported tips, the 45B credit and the new tip deduction rules.

Restaurant Tip Reporting: What the Owner Is Actually Responsible For

Your servers report their tips. You report, withhold and pay on what they tell you. Here is where the owner's legal duties start and stop under IRC 6053 and 3121(q).

Form 8027 and the 8 Percent Tip Allocation Rule

If your restaurant normally had more than 10 employees, the IRS wants an annual report of receipts and tips, and it wants you to allocate tips when reported tips fall short of 8 percent.

IRS Aggregate Tip Assessments: Employer FICA on Tips Nobody Reported

The IRS can bill a restaurant for employer Social Security and Medicare on tips its servers never reported, using the card-slip tip rate. Here is how that works and how to push back.

The FICA Tip Credit: Getting Back the Tax You Pay on Your Servers' Tips

Restaurants pay employer Social Security and Medicare on tips they never touch. IRC 45B gives much of it back as a credit. Here is the math on Form 8846 and the traps in it.

TRAC, TRDA and SITCA: Voluntary Tip Agreements With the IRS

Tip reporting agreements can protect a restaurant from employer FICA assessments on unreported tips. The old programs are closed to new employers and the replacement is still a proposal. Here is where things stand.

No Tax on Tips: What the New Deduction Means for Restaurant Payroll

The IRC 224 tip deduction is your employees' deduction, but your W-2s decide whether they can claim it. Here is what changed for restaurant payroll, POS tip screens and service charges.

How the IRS Audits a Restaurant's Sales

Restaurant audits are income audits. Examiners test whether every sale made it onto the return, using your POS data, your bank deposits, your card statements and, if needed, your food and liquor purchases.

Construction Contractors

Subcontractor classification, 1099 penalties, federal contract levies and what auditors look for on job sites.

Inside the IRS Construction Industry Audit Technique Guide

The IRS publishes a playbook for auditing contractors. It tells examiners where contractors hide income, how retainage and long-term contracts get misreported and why cash jobs draw attention.

When Your Subcontractors Are Really Employees: The IRS Worker Classification Fight

Paying crews on a 1099 is common in construction. If the IRS decides they were employees, the bill comes under IRC 3509, and your defenses depend on what you filed and how you treated similar workers.

Contractors, 1099s and Backup Withholding: The Penalties Nobody Budgets For

General contractors pay a lot of subs. Every one of them is a 1099, a W-9 and, if the TIN is wrong, a backup withholding duty. Here are the 2026 thresholds, the penalty amounts and how B-notices work.

When the IRS Takes 100 Percent of Your Federal Contract Payments

Contractors who work for the federal government face a harsher levy than anyone else: up to 100 percent of each payment, continuously, and often before any hearing. Here is how the program works and how to stop it.

IRS Levies on Contractor Receivables and Retainage

For a contractor, the most dangerous levy is not on the bank account. It is the notice that goes to your general contractor or project owner and grabs what they owe you. Here is how it works.

Trucking and Owner-Operators

Form 2290, heavy truck excise tax, per diem audits, fuel tax credits and driver classification.

Form 2290 Problems: Unfiled Heavy Vehicle Use Tax, Late Penalties and Schedule 1

If you run a truck at 55,000 pounds or more, you owe the heavy vehicle use tax every year, and your state wants a stamped Schedule 1 before it registers your rig. Here is how to fix a missed or wrong Form 2290.

Truck Driver Per Diem: The 80 Percent Rule and How Audits Go Wrong

Drivers under DOT hours-of-service rules get a better meal deduction than anyone else in the Code. The special per diem rate makes it easy to claim. The audit comes down to proving where you were.

Owner-Operator or Employee? How the IRS Classifies Truck Drivers

Carriers pay a lot of drivers on 1099s. The IRS decides classification by control, not by the lease. Here is the test, the statutory driver rule most people never heard of, and what reclassification costs.

The 12 Percent Heavy Truck Excise Tax: Who Owes It and When

The first retail sale of a heavy truck, trailer or tractor carries a 12 percent federal excise tax. Dealers usually handle it. But fleets, upfitters and anyone who builds, leases or rebuilds equipment can end up owing it.

Fuel Tax Credit Claims in Trucking: Reefer Units, Off-Highway Use and the Double Penalty

Some fuel a trucking company burns is not used to move the truck down the highway, and federal fuel tax on it can be claimed back. Claim too much and the penalty is twice the excess. Here is where the line is.

Medical and Dental Practices

Medicare payment levies, Form 1099-MISC mismatches, provider classification and practice audits.

What the IRS Looks at When It Audits a Medical Practice

Physician and dental practices get audited on income matching, building leases with the owners, travel and vehicles, and how providers are paid. Here is what examiners can see before they ever call.

When the IRS Levies Your Medicare Payments

A medical practice that owes the IRS can lose 100 percent of its Medicare reimbursements to an automated levy. Here is how the Federal Payment Levy Program reaches Medicare, what it cannot touch and how to get it stopped.

Medical 1099 Mismatches: When Insurer Reporting Does Not Match Your Return

Insurers report what they pay your practice in box 6 of Form 1099-MISC. When the payee name or TIN is wrong, or the money passed through to someone else, the IRS sees income you did not report. Here is how to fix it.

Physicians, PAs and Nurse Practitioners on a 1099: The IRS Classification Risk

Practices pay many clinicians as independent contractors. The IRS looks at control, not credentials, and physician owners of a professional corporation are employees by statute. Here is how the rules apply in medicine.

Real Estate Agents

Statutory nonemployee status, real estate professional audits and expense substantiation.

Real Estate Agents as Statutory Nonemployees: What IRC 3508 Means for Your Taxes

Most real estate agents are not employees of their brokerage for any federal tax purpose, because Congress said so in IRC 3508. That status comes with self-employment tax, estimated payments and IRS problems that W-2 workers never face.

Real Estate Agents and the Real Estate Professional Audit

Agents who own rentals often claim real estate professional status to deduct rental losses against commissions. It can work. When it is challenged, the fight is about documented hours, not about the law.

Real Estate Agent Expense Audits: Cars, Closing Gifts, Meals and the Home Office

Agents spend real money to earn commissions, and most of it is deductible. But the Code imposes special proof rules on exactly the expenses agents rely on most. Here is what the auditor will ask you to show.

Cash Businesses

Form 8300, structuring, bank deposit audits, Form 1099-K mismatches, salons and barbershops.

Form 8300: When Your Business Takes More Than $10,000 in Cash

Any business that receives more than $10,000 in cash in one transaction, or in related transactions, must file Form 8300 within 15 days. Contractors, event venues and cash-pay medical practices can trigger it without realizing.

Structuring: Why Keeping Cash Deposits Under $10,000 Can Be a Crime

Cash business owners sometimes keep deposits under $10,000 to avoid a bank report. That habit, by itself, can be a federal crime, even when every dollar was earned legally and reported on the return.

The Cash Business Audit: How the IRS Uses Your Bank Deposits Against You

When an examiner does not trust a cash business's books, the next step is your bank statements. Here is how the bank deposits method works, when the IRS is allowed to use it and how to defend against it.

Form 1099-K Mismatches: When Your Card and App Income Does Not Match Your Return

Card processors and payment apps report your gross receipts to the IRS on Form 1099-K. Gross means gross: before fees, refunds and chargebacks. Here is why the numbers rarely match your books, and how to reconcile them before the IRS does.

Salons and Barbershops: Tips, Booth Rent and the New Rules Since 2025

Salons run on cash, cards and tips, with a mix of employees and booth renters. The 2025 tax law changed the math for both: a new FICA tip credit for beauty employers and a tip deduction for stylists. Here is how the pieces fit.

Every industry

IRS Debt Options for a Business That Is Still Open

Restaurants, contractors, truckers and practices that owe the IRS usually need to keep operating while they fix it. Here are the real options, the rules the IRS uses in 2026, and how tax liens fit in.