Category: crisis management
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Rules for CPAs who handle clients’ PPP loans
Last year the AICPA issued ethics guidance to CPAs who handle PPP loan application and forgiveness applications for their business clients. This has become a significant issue for me lately. The guidance reminds practitioners that assisting the client in this capacity is considered a nonattest service requiring application of the independence and related rules in…
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4 new concerns for small business owners
(The short Facebook Live presentation of this topic is published at https://fb.watch/2Y8-AzhgVE/ ). Here’s where we are in the small business world today based on brand new developments in the past month. It does not inspire confidence for a smooth start to 2021: 1) SBA’s special priority small business PPP application acceptance processing period begins…
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Safety planning for 2021 post-pandemic: a personal choice
By all accounts, we are not yet halfway through the worst of the COVID pandemic as we soon enter the cold weather season. The most basic point of what we now know is that it spreads easily through the air with prolonged contact. Even indoor ventilation systems pose a significant spread risk. We also know…
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Covid small business disaster story update
My list of Covid small business accounting horror stories is down to just three remaining open and unresolved: 1) A bank that extended a PPP loan application to 4 1/2 months and still counting; apparently due solely to lack of internal process control. I follow up with them every two to three days. All involved…
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Update on pandemic payroll tax deferrment
New guidance on the so-called pandemic payroll tax deferment issued by IRS last week does not change previously issued guidance to small business employers. The new IRS guidance strengthens the argument that employers should not make any change in payroll tax practices at this time. Deferent of payroll taxes, if not paid timely in early…
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Didn’t receive an economic impact payment?
Some people are still waiting for their $1,200 economic impact payment from the federal government. IRS confirms that a data entry error in 2019 TurboTax may be to blame. Forbes’ Rob Berger as been following the issue in a series of posts. Intuit, the makers of the software issued a statement “We are working closely…
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What’s going on in D.C. and how does it affect your South Jersey business?
Yesterday the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce sponsored a discussion program with government policy experts from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce titled “What’s going on in D.C. and how it affects your business?”. If you own a small business in New Jersey (like me) the basic question is likely ‘How bad will it be?’ This…
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Small Business Guidance on Payroll Withholding Postponement
This weekend the President issued an Executive Order to postpone employer’s payment of wage taxes. The advice that I and every other small business tax adviser, to my knowledge, immediately issued to clients was to take no action until we receive further guidance. Most tax experts believe that only Congress has the power to stop…
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Round Two of Small Business Recovery
Two months ago the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the “HEROS Act” that included financial resources to small businesses struggling to restart after the disruptive effects of pandemic shutdown. While the entire bill is not likely to become law because of objections by U.S. Republican Senators, the small business portions of that…
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Main Street Lending Program Q&As
I’ve received a lot of questions about the new Main Street Lending Program. This post is meant to provide general non-technical information as a starting point in evaluating whether the program may work for your business. What is the Main Street Lending program? A program established by Congress run through the Federal Reserve offering loans…