Blog - Linkenheimer LLP CPAs & Advisors

The Great Starbucks Gift Card Incident of 2025 (And Why Your Holiday Inbox is a Minefield)

Picture this: Thanksgiving week at an accounting firm. Everyone’s wrapping up projects before the holiday, planning their Black Friday strategy, when suddenly—Christmas came early! A $25 Starbucks gift card lands in everyone’s inbox. “How thoughtful!” they all said. “The firm really gets us!”

Spoiler alert: The firm didn’t send it. It was part of our monthly employee phishing campaign tests.

A quarter of the team had already clicked that link, ready to fuel their pumpkin spice addiction, before someone asked the fateful question: “Hey, did anyone else’s card not work?”

Welcome to our very own holiday phishing attempt. Nothing happened (other than those who clicked the link got signed up for extra cyber security training), but watching some smart minds fall for a fake latte was… educational (and mildly entertaining).

Why the Holidays Are Hacker Christmas

Here’s the thing—that fake gift card didn’t work because we’re gullible (we do cyber security training for all staff, through out the year). It worked because it was PERFECTLY timed. During the holidays, our defenses are down and our expectations are […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2025-12-03T20:54:47+00:00December 2nd, 2025|AI, Tech|0 Comments

How Will Taxes Affect Your Merger or Acquisition?

Whether you’re selling your business or acquiring another company, the tax consequences can have a major impact on the transaction’s success or failure. So if you’re thinking about a merger or acquisition, you need to consider the potential tax impact.

Asset sale or stock sale?

From a tax standpoint, a transaction can basically be structured as either an asset sale or a stock sale. In an asset sale, the buyer purchases just the assets of a business. This may happen if a buyer only wants specific assets or product lines. And it’s the only option if the target business is a sole proprietorship or a single-member limited liability company (LLC) that’s treated as a sole proprietorship for tax purposes.

Alternatively, if the target business is a corporation, a partnership or an LLC that’s treated as a partnership for tax purposes, the buyer can directly purchase the seller’s stock or other form of ownership interest. Whether the business being purchased is a C corporation or a pass-through entity (that is, an S corporation, partnership or, generally, an LLC) makes a significant difference when it comes to taxes.

The flat 21% corporate federal income tax rate under […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2025-12-02T16:26:37+00:00December 2nd, 2025|M&A|0 Comments

New Deduction for QPP Can Save Significant Taxes for Manufacturers and Similar Businesses

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) allows 100% first-year depreciation for nonresidential real estate that’s classified as qualified production property (QPP). This new break is different from the first-year bonus depreciation that’s available for assets such as tangible property with a recovery period of 20 years or less and qualified improvement property with a 15-year recovery period. Normally, nonresidential buildings must be depreciated over 39 years.

What is QPP?

The statutory definition of QPP is a bit complicated:

QPP is the portion of any nonresidential real estate that’s used by the taxpayer (your business) as an integral part of a qualified production activity.
A qualified production activity is the manufacturing, production or refining of a qualified product.
A qualified product is any tangible personal property that isn’t a food or beverage prepared in the same building as a retail establishment in which the property is sold. (So a restaurant building can’t be QPP.)

In addition, an activity doesn’t constitute manufacturing, production or refining of a qualified product unless the activity results in a substantial transformation of the property comprising the product.

To sum up these rules, QPP generally means factory buildings. But additional rules apply.

Meeting the placed-in-service rules

QPP 100% […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2025-11-20T21:34:34+00:00November 20th, 2025|deduction, deductions, New Tax Laws|0 Comments

Shift Income to Take Advantage of the 0% Long-Term Capital Gains Rate

Are you thinking about making financial gifts to loved ones? Would you also like to reduce your capital gains tax? If so, consider giving appreciated stock instead of cash. You might be able to eliminate all federal tax liability on the appreciation — or at least significantly reduce it.

Leveraging lower rates

Investors generally are subject to a 15% tax rate on their long-term capital gains (20% if their income exceeds certain thresholds). But the long-term capital gains rate generally is 0% for gain that would be taxed at 10% or 12% based on the taxpayer’s ordinary-income rate.

In addition, taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) over $200,000 ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly and $125,000 for married filing separately) may owe the net investment income tax (NIIT). The NIIT equals 3.8% of the lesser of your net investment income or the amount by which your MAGI exceeds the applicable threshold.

If you have loved ones in the 0% bracket, you may be able to take advantage of it by transferring appreciated assets to them. The recipients can then sell the assets at no or a low federal tax cost.

Case study

Faced with a long-term […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2025-11-20T17:49:57+00:00November 20th, 2025|capital gains|0 Comments

The AI Time Machine Paradox: Why Your “Time-Saving” Tech Might Be Stealing It Instead

Remember when we all thought smartphones would give us more free time? Yeah, about that…

We’re seeing the same pattern play out with AI in business today. Every vendor promises their AI solution will “save you hours,” “boost productivity by 300%,” and basically turn your team into efficiency superheroes. But here’s what they’re not telling you: firms will spend the next year experimenting with AI to find more complementarity with humans (Wharton School), and that experimentation phase? It’s expensive—in both time and money.

The Hidden Cost Nobody Talks About

Picture this: You’re a growing business owner who just invested in AI tools to streamline operations. Six months later, you’re drowning in more meetings, more training sessions, and somehow less actual work is getting done. Sound familiar?

While AI tools are now commonplace, most organizations have not yet embedded them deeply […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2025-11-18T17:21:18+00:00November 18th, 2025|AI, Tech|0 Comments