Category: Small Business
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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…
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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…
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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)…
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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…
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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/
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How to help employees on Obamacare
How does a small business employer help an employee who receives subsidized Obamacare coverage but still struggles to afford the cost of out-of-pocket costs including the large deductibles? The easiest way is to set up an employer-sponsored supplemental insurance coverage. This option is increasingly popular because it is exempt from most types of tax regulations…
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College Pro Bookkeepers
CPA-supervised college students handle remote accounting with great advantages to small business owners. In 1971 a college student named Greig Clark founded College Pro Painters, giving other college students a chance to pay for their schooling and to secure post-graduation careers. I recall that their story was part of the early advertising message and I…
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Would your church or synagogue benefit from a financial tune-up?
Yesterday I finished an engagement setting up a high performance accounting system for a local religious congregation with more than 1,000 members. My total fee was $1,650. The work took about 90 days because of required coordination with the bank and other software systems. They now has a reliable online accounting, verified membership list, automated…
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Tax tip to prevent identiy theft
If you are a small business person operating as a sole proprietor, LLC or partnership then the IRS requires you to provide your business name and address and tax ID along with an attestation statement to anyone who pays you more than $600 during the year. The tax form used to provide this information of…
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Easy Button for Small Business Accounting
Forty percent of small business owners said that dealing with bookkeeping and taxes are the single worst parts of owning a company according to a survey conducted by SCORE. Yesterday I spent two hours showing a small business client how to automate most bookkeeping tasks and save thousands of dollars on bookkeeping costs. I introduced our session…