Author: Tony Novak
-
How to establish a ‘No hate’ policy for your organization or small businesses
updated July 19, 2017 We’ve reached a point in our national discourse when it has become clear that even small organizations and business owners may need to establish clear anti-hate policies for employees, customers and visitors. While there are no standardized procedures for this process, this blog post suggests a few points to get started.…
-
How to handle income tax debt
There are three basic strategies for handling past-due income tax debt: Offer in compromise Payoff over time Dismissal in bankruptcy The only way to appropriately access these options is to take a ‘big picture’ view of your overall financial status and expectations in light of specific IRS program requirements. It is never easy but most…
-
Yiddish Curses for Republican Jews
(I copied, edited and reformatted this lighthearted humor from Facebook but do not know the original source. The original was attributed to Rabbi Aaron Spiegel). May you sell everything and retire to Florida just as global warming makes it uninhabitable. May you live to a hundred and twenty without Social Security or Medicare. May your…
-
A short term fix for Obamacare
Today’s Wall Street Journal carried an editorial on a simple solution to ease the paid of high health care expenses for some people: ease the restrictions on non-qualifying health insurance like the type sold at Freedom Benefits. Popular plans like short-term medical insurance and limited benefit or mini-med insurance do not meet the requirements of…
-
Expansion of mini-med insurance
For some years my business Freedom Benefits has predicted the expansion of a type of minimalist medical insurance that does not meet the federal standards established by the Affordable Care Act. Some call these plans “mini-med insurance”. For many years the most popular type was Core Health Insurance. It is still a popular and attractive…
-
“Retail Food Facility” Complaint
I was surprised to receive a Notice of Violation today from the Cumberland County Board of Health for our small business based on a complaint by a local seafood business. I have a home and an adjacent business on the Delaware Bay shore in rural southern NJ. The facility is shared with other individual business…
-
Primer on Tax Transcripts
In this age we know that information is power. Tax transcripts are increasingly important for providing primary information to efficiently handle federal tax issues. As a tax adviser, I find that the level of federal tax information available to clients is poor and is often dominated by misinformation and misunderstanding. Tax transcripts give us the most…
-
Aetna locked in legal battle over ACA pullout
An interesting lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania last week against Aetna Inc., a Connecticut-based insurance company that has been one of the nation’s largest alternate insurance choices for decades. Aetna pulled out of the individual health insurance markets in 11 states claiming that this was a business decision to prevent the company from losing money.…
-
Small Business Payroll Services
I see plenty of room for improvement is small business payroll processing. About 2 in 5 of all small businesses eventually wind up with problems and penalties due to payroll tax errors. The issue can usually be avoided by ensuring that service is provided by a reputable payroll service that is supervised by a responsible…
-
Health plans for New Jersey Farmers
This is a pre-publication draft of an article intended for print media. New Jersey’s farmers have it tough when it comes to negotiating a path through health care reform. New Jersey insurance markets have been expensive, compared to other states, since the 1990s. Health plans for self-employed people provide in-network care only and this can…