Category: Small Business
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IRS scam education
The Federal Trade Commission has a useful infographic to educate consumers on the risks of scammers pretending to be IRS collectors. It helps clarify that IRS does not call people suddenly and unexpectedly and attempt to scare them into paying by gift card or electronic transfer immediately to avoid arrest.
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Presidential election in a perfect world
In a perfect world free from the pressures of greed and big money influences, I would love to see a slate of top-quality presidential candidates based purely on merit and leadership potential that would give the American people real choice and an opportunity to focus on the approach that wish to take to guide our nation’s…
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Small business traditional lending is tightening
The latest survey of banking practices shows that while standards are easing for residential mortgages, auto and other personal loans, standards on business loans toughened in the fourth quarter of 2015. The trend seems to be hitting small business owners hard, especially those like remodeling contractors who may need to finance active projects. The Federal…
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New money-saving features in retail banking
The Wall Street Journal carried two interesting articles on retail banking today. I’m in the process of moving our business banking to Wells Fargo that shows up prominently in the list. Wells Fargo is doing a handful of things right. The real story is the growing list of time-saving and money-saving features offered by banks…
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More on CPA risk of unauthorized practice of law
I learned something new today on the topic of a CPA’s exposure to risk of unauthorized practice of law. In this case the matter is a small case civil dispute arising from a tax matter in Pennsylvania. This matter would be brought in the Magisterial District Court, so local court rules apply. The question was…
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New restrictions on partner’s employee benefits
Treas. Reg. § 301.7701-2T(c)(2)(iv)(C)(2), (TD 9766 May 4, 2016) has an adverse impact on planning of employee benefit plans for partners including participation in qualified retirement plans, health and welfare plans, and fringe benefit plans. The bottom line is that partners are not common law employees when the partnership owns a disregarded entity like an LLC that…
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Greenspan’s latest economic warning
Yesterday Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made some sharp comments in an interview on Fox News. I got the feeling this interview was meant as a sort of ‘final words of advice’ from perhaps the most influential economic leader of our era. Two points from the interview jump out at me. First, he says…
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The worst mistake a business owner can make
The worst mistake a small business owner can make is to pay employee wage taxes that were withheld from employee salary. The second worst mistake, in my observation, is to try to handle the problem yourself. I see cases where the business owners or managers are damaged for more than a decade as a result of mishandling…
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Bucks/Mont NARI membership committee notes
Notes from the membership committee meeting today 5/19/2016. As always see www.bucksmontnari.org for details.
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How to format a Profit and Loss Statement for a small business
An accounting question came up yesterday while I was preparing a compilation of year-to-date profit and loss statement for a new small business client. The business is just started and has some income to report but had incurred little actual expenses yet. The expenses were summarized simply listed as “Operating expenses” as a single line item…