Ted Benna, called “the father of 401(k)s” was one of my first business mentors when I left Wall Street in 1997 and started my own firm serving small businesses in the Doylestown, Pennsylvania area. His comments today in ThinkAdviser on the impact of the new SECURE Act are ‘spot on’: • “Hopefully the operating efficiencies a […]
Keep it simple: if you primarily provide your labor to someone for pay then you are an employee. If you run a licensed business, with typical business features like a business plan, advertising, business insurance, and pay business taxes then you likely work as an independent contractor. I’m aware that some people are making a […]
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) are praised for financial savings and flexibility
This blog post uses examples of real current small business clients. I’m taking this opportunity to reinforce that the stories and examples that I use in frequent public posts are never presented in a way that compromises the privacy or identity of the business or individual. Small business owners feel the financial pressure of overhead […]
Last summer we were surprised to learn that IRS approved a way to allow employers to assist their employees with student loan payments on a tax-advantaged basis. I covered it in this blog post. Now a range of new proposals are on the table that are likely to propel this benefit forward. Two of the […]
Forbes published an article yesterday on the important topic of the gig economy and, in general, the loss of financial security and employment benefits that accompanies this trend. This is a huge issue in out lives that, in my opinion, is not getting nearly the attention required by advisers like me. It is foolish for […]
These are the numbers we commonly use in planning this year’s tax free employee benefits: 401(k) pre-tax contribution limits = $19,000 401(k) catch-up contribution limit = $6,000 IRA contribution limits = $6,000 Annual Health Savings Account contribution limit for individuals = $3,500 Health Savings Account contribution limit for family coverage = $7,000 High Deductible Health […]
This blog title is a slogan used by the world’s most popular personal and small business software maker. For my purposes as an adviser, I’m using it here to refer to the accounting for essential financial transactions between an employer and employee: payroll, taxes and employee benefits. Small businesses have wide latitude in some areas of […]
Small business employers who choose to offer health benefits to employees will find more options available in 2019 under rules proposed late last year for adaptation this year. The IRS and Treasury Department clarified that employers who meet other conditions will be allowed to offer reimbursement of individual health insurance on a tax-free basis. These […]
I’m sending this email message to my smallest business payroll clients: In planning for 2019 services, I’ve noticed that payroll processing fees have risen sharply for me. This seems to be an industry trend apparently related to spreading out the cost of state and local tax compliance issues for some companies but doesn’t otherwise affect […]