Category: Small Business
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The $100 bill is doomed
The U.S. Department of Treasury says that we have a Trillion dollars in circulation in paper $100 bills. We’ve known for a while that much of this is kept outside of the United States and that a large portion of the $100 bills actually in circulation are used for illicit activities including drug trade, human…
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How to help employees pay for individual health insurance
Small business employers often help employees afford the cost of individual health insurance rather than enroll employees in the company’s own health insurance policy. This is often the least expensive way to ensure that employees find the best coverage at the lowest price. For employees this employer involvement is often the best way – sometimes the…
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A simple individual health insurance alternative for small contractors
Help is available to convert employer-paid individual health insurance to the new IRS-permitted payment plans Many small businesses do not offer employee health insurance but want to help employees afford their own individual health insurance. Small contracting businesses are among many who formerly paid for or reimbursed part of the cost of individual employee health insurance.…
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Too many chefs spoil the financial plan
The saying goes “Too many chefs spoil the broth”. I saw that concept play out twice this month with the tax liabilities of two small businesses. These otherwise successful entrepreneurs used too many financial advisers without designating one of them as the chief financial officer in charge. The results were nearly disastrous. Potential disaster #1: S-corp cash…
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What to do if your W-2 includes taxable health benefits
Summary: Employer-paid health benefits included as W-2 taxable wages is an accounting error that appears to flourish this year due to misinterpretation of tax laws surrounding the Affordable Care Act by small business accountants. The error financially hurts employees by overstating tax liability and reducing eligibility for various tax credits. Fix the error by talking to…
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An idea to improve telephone support in my 1 person practice
I’m trying a new experiment to improve service to callers who do not reach me by phone. For telephone calls that I miss and the caller does not leave a message (typically about 3-5 calls per day), I am using the desktop version of Verizon Messenger (because my business calls are forwarded to the cell…
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Why are tax attorneys so expensive?
The Wall Street Journal ran an article this week about the number of attorneys billing at $1,000 to $1,500 per hour. It turns out that there were more tax attorneys in the list than any other type. Why? In my own practice, the primary consideration in setting a fee is an estimate of the likely…
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Three benefits of operating as an LLC
If you are self-employed, there may be at least three benefits of operating your business as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). In most states the cost is roughly about $200 to form a LLC and about $100 per year to maintain it. The potential benefits are: Liability protection – This is the usual reason, to…
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My QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification for 2016
QB ProAdvisor I just completed the 2016 re-certification for QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor. It was a 4 hour webinar on Sunday, then 5 self-study modules that take about 6 hours, then 5 online exams of 15 questions each, The five tests were easier this year than last year because I had taken some years off from…
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Health care law changes the way we look at personal financial security
February 1, 2016 marked a milestone in the field of tax and financial planning for middle income Americans. The way that we will look at our health care planning and financial liabilities begins to shift today and perhaps forever. Yesterday the open enrollment season for the Obamacare health insurance exchanges closed leaving about 1 in…