Category: Small Business
-
Security upgrade for WordPress hosted small business web site
This week I noticed an apparent attempted brute force attack on this web site with over 10,000 blocked log-in attempts. This caused me to question and re-evaluate my data management plan and Privacy and Security protocols. This review is for my own satisfaction only, these is no indication that any of my systems or data have…
-
My 2017-2018 economic and political forecast
“It’s still the economy, stupid” My fundamental forecasting premise is that the current federal administration’s fate and effectiveness in this divided country ultimately lies in the direction of the economy. Given the basic current macroeconomic factors: high stock market low interest rates high level of entitlements, and the low level of unemployment, I conclude that current…
-
Support for ADP clients
Many of us think of ADP as a payroll company, and for good reason. The company is the market share leader in payroll processing and handles 1 in 6 of all paychecks issued in the United States. But in reality, ADP has transformed into a Human Resources management platform with over 100 specialized applications running…
-
Trends in my blog traffic: strengths and weaknesses
I noticed a simple but striking pattern in the popularity and readership of my blog posts over the past year and thought I would share here for what it may be worth to others. The traffic report is compiled by Jetpack as a WordPress add-in for traffic on about 1,300 blog posts recorded since November…
-
Dealing with opposing values in business
I briefly considered working with a business adviser who impresses me as brilliant. Yet business brilliance and social leadership do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. I realized that his values are exactly opposite mine as expressed in this social media post. Separately, I’ve also taken steps recently to distance my business from customers and vendors who do…
-
Signs of further division in tax practice
I recently resigned from a large online group of tax professionals that I had grown to rely upon for daily advice and news. My past work in the tax field has primarily focused on political forecasting (efforts that were not so successful lately, by the way) and small business lobby efforts. My future plans revolve around…
-
Fantastic opportunity to save on taxes and insurance
Great news for health care costs: Small businesses can immediately combine the benefits of the the recent December 13, 2016 federal health care law with Trump’s new January 20, 2017 executive order to save money on health insurance and taxes. The new law reverses prior IRS positions to give us new opportunities for savings. The…
-
Pros and Cons of a One Person Pension Plan
This post summarizes the pros and cons of a one person private pension plan (sometimes called a “Solo Defined Benefit Plan”) for a successful small business owner as opposed to other self-employed retirement savings options. Pros Potentially larger immediate tax deduction; perhaps in the range of 3 times to 5 times larger than a 401(k)…
-
Tip for 1099-MISC processing
I just finished the required 1099-MISC year end processing work for my on businesses because the new due date is January 31 this year. This task is pretty easy within QuickBooks. It took less than 15 minutes and cost less than $15. But I noticed one snag: it is difficult to tell which vendors are…
-
Taxation of S corporation shareholder health insurance
Taxation of health insurance for S corporation shareholders is one of the most discussed and convoluted topics in the accounting industry. This article by Shaw and Associates in Colorado presents the topic in a useful format for setting up a payroll system that I’ve not seen in other presentations: http://www.kevinshawcpa.com/s-corporation-shareholder-health-insurance-instructions/