Tony Novak CPA

Category: Small Business

  • Successful equity crowdfunding isn’t free

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    Yesterday I met with a owner of a web site design business who told a story about a person who came to him recently asking for services at no up-front cost simply because he had a good business idea that he felt was sure to be successful. I get some of this same attitude coming from those…

  • Changing my political behavior

    Changing my political behavior

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    My lawyer and trusted adviser says that I can’t go around lashing out at everybody and then expect people to cooperate and work with me. It’s not like I have the charisma and charm of a folk singer. I have a tough time remembering that others do not have as high a tolerance for criticism…

  • US playing catch-up in small business crowdfunding

    US playing catch-up in small business crowdfunding

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    Other counties are still ahead of the US in small business crowdfunding. In the first half of 2016 Netherland alone, for example, raised almost $100 million (US) capital for over 700 purposes including small and medium sized businesses, social projects, creative projects and consumer lending. The majority of the capital raised went to small business…

  • Social media notification overload

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    Let’s say that you use social media to promote your business brand as most of us do today; let’s say you typically check in these sites a few times a day and – wham, you are smacked with notification overload! You find 57 notifications since you last log on, most of them completely meaningless. Yet there…

  • Insurance mirage

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    Financial planning textbooks teach us that insurance is the prefered way to reduce the risk of devastating consequences of rare events. Yet real life experience has proven time and again that insurance is unreliable for such an essential purpose. Over 30+ years as a financial adviser and business owner, I can only conclude that purchasing…

  • Taxation of crowdfunded transactions

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    There are five factors that affect the taxation of crowdfunded transactions: location (and possibly citizenship) of the parties organizational form of the issuer and the investor use of the funds timing of the transactions type of offering (debt, equity, purchase or gift) None of the underlying tax issues are complicated but the number of possible combinations…

  • Avoid payroll tax penalties!

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    A small nonprofit company owes almost $1,000 in tax penalties for the second time in 3 years because of lack of coordination between their accountant and their payroll services. They hired their payroll service directly without involving the accountant; that was the underlying problem. When the payroll service contract ended, so did their work and…

  • Digital Marketing: Week 3 update

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    tonynova
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    My unpopular opinion over Starbucks’ weak marketing to the over 50 crowd in week 2 is addressed to my classmates’ satisfaction and so now it’s on to a lesson on the impact of 3D printing. The digital marketing course takes 6-8 hours per week but I am please to be keeping up with it. I…

  • Sample professional payroll service agreement

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    tonynova
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    What do you get when you hire a professional accountant to handle your payroll accounting and wage tax issues? This is certainly a fair question since the level of service seems to vary widely between providers. Some payroll service providers, I understand, do not even put the details of their services in writing. The professional…

  • Crowdfunding for agriculture and aquaculture

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    A US-Greek agriculture company will attempt to issue $7 million in a crowdfunded offering this week. The money will be used to acquire small farm in Greece and convert them into organic producers. The company believes that it can run them more efficiently as one large enterprise. This has been a fundamental driver in consolidation within…