Author: tonynova
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Employers may be liable for uninsured Obamacare expenses
Is your small business at risk for failure to notify employees of health coverage options? The Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law in 2010 eventually became synonymous with the term “Obamacare”. The law brought so many changes to individuals, employers, health insurance companies and health care providers that it wouldn’t even be practical to attempt to summarize…
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Editor: “My position was eliminated”
Another reminder that the world is changing I received a surprising email this week from a great editor saying “my position was eliminated” and that this was “due to due to a change in the way content will be delivered, declining ad revenues and cost savings through outsourcing”. Our long working association had proved to me that…
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How to maximize tax savings for business owners
This post is based on a consultation I had today that echos a very common business planning theme: A successful small business owner wishes to begin a retirement savings plan to make the most efficient use of the business’ profits. The goals are simple: Maximize the owner’s account contribution, Maximize tax savings (avoid current income taxation),…
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The true cost of tax preparation software
My credit union ran an advertisement for TurboTax software offering a discount of “up to $20” on the purchase price of the more expensive versions. Yet most people know that the cost of software is only a small portion of the total cost for people who choose to file their taxes using this approach. Intuit,…
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OnlineAdviser gets a makeover
As I reviewed my first year in business (2015) it was obvious that I had 3 distinct problems with the business model and my personal habits. It was not completely unexpected. I operate a different and largely untested type of accounting practice under the brand name OnlineAdviser that relies almost exclusively on online technologies. While I…
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New small business support network announcement
NEW FREELANCERS SUPPORT NETWORK IN FORMATION – I am forming a peer-to-peer freelancers support network that is intended to be a closed membership online group of self-employed people whose primary focus and commitment is to help each other in business by sharing information, advice and expertise on an ongoing basis as needed. The atmosphere is…
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The problem with accountants
Accountants generally enjoy a reputation as the ‘most trusted adviser’. But the problem is that we do our work, get out and move on. That work might be the income tax return, bookkeeping work, or some other well-defined engagement. General financial advice is too often an unplanned side benefit of our work. Accountants who don’t define and…
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Disaster Recovery as a Service for small businesses
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) can be a cost effective insurance policy for small businesses. Instead of having to buy and maintain separate servers, SAN, storage, network, firewall, rack space, the business can store copies of data and backups of that data on remote cloud-based services. This offers redundant methods of recovery from a wide range…
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Top ten tax saving strategies for 2016
Our U.S. federal income tax law includes a number of built-in strategies available to reduce income tax liability. Your ability to legally reduce your own income tax bill depends on your level of understanding and utilization of the opportunities available in five key areas of financial planning: Source of income and the legal format of…