Author: Tony Novak
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Reasons for an employer to improve employee benefits
Most of my employee benefit comments focus on effects to the employee. This post briefly lists some of the advantages to the employer. Shows that the employer is ‘in tune’ with employees’ lives. Helps to attract and retain good employees. Employees making decisions on employment offers often overweight the importance of employee benefit issues vs.…
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Responding to false tax and accounting advice
I ran across a social media post tonight that was blatantly false. What’s the big deal? We see that every day, right? This specific post on LinkedIn bothered me because the topic was IRS taxes. The post provides entirely incorrect information that a non-professional reader would not likely recognize as false. The author lists advanced…
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Passport threatened by IRS?
Have you received notice from the IRS that your passport will be revoked? Was you passport application declined because of unpaid taxes? Take action immediately to address a crisis soon affecting almost a half million Americans. The best approach is to use an experienced professional representative to negotiate a solution. Don’t wait; act quickly to…
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20 Simple and Inexpensive Things You Can Do to Improve Your Firm’s Employee Benefit Plan
There are likely plenty of easy ways to make your employee benefit plan dollars go further: Host an occasional, informal and voluntary on-site meeting where employees can ask an independent adviser questions about their benefits. Host occasional, informal and voluntary on-site educational programs so employees understand the link between benefit plans, taxes and their overall…
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Do not despair
I took comfort in John McCain’s final message this week. I do tend to despair in seeing that our lives, our finances, our whole planet are in far worse shape than ever before while some of those around us don’t even recognize the problem. Many of the people who continue to enable government to destroy…
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New way to pay student loans – tax free!
I’ve been practicing in the employee benefits field for 37 years and I can’t remember being as surprised as I was reading IRS Private Letter Ruling 201833012 released on last Friday. Never before has there been any tax advantage to student loan payments (typically made to an outside financial company) through connection with an employer plan.…
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The most important tax tip of the year
Take advantage of the most generous part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, known as Section 199A by; 1) Exploring whether your business CAN benefit, and 2) Settling protocol to make sure that your business DOES qualify based on the 184 pages of proposed regulations just released this month. The important thing is to…
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Simplest tax tip: your name
Use your full legal name consistently on all tax forms to save time and headaches. Listen to the podcast.
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Concern over unsustainable tax policy
Most accountants, as far as I can tell, are concerned about unsustainability of our national deficit spending. This recent tax cut was a big step in the wrong direction. My latest podcast discusses the basics.
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Concern over Tether
I’ve written a series of posts on the theme that investors have good reason for concern about cryptocurrency investments. The latest concern is Tether. Here’s what we know: Tether is the second largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin. Tether claims to be backed by US dollars, therefore eliminating market value fluctuation risk. Despite its massive market trading…