Category: Small Business
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4980D Small Business Excise Tax Liability
This is the original submitted version of the article published by New Jersey CPA magazine under the same title in the January 2016 edition. The published version was slightly shortened to meet space requirements in the print publication. Background The Affordable Care Act adds Section 9815 to the Internal Revenue Code that requires employer-provided health plans…
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Celebrating small business basics in 2016
I am celebrating today. Finally, I am comfortable with my “business basics”. Email, telephone system, calendar, data management, computer hardware, and reliable Internet access all brought me significant problems in 2015. It seemed that Murphy’s Law ruled last year and I suffered perfect storms of the worse possible technology interruptions. It even cost me a…
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A 2016 marketing suggestion for small business advocates
I am starting 2016 with this bold self-promotion that is, bluntly, outside of my comfort zone. The intent is to give a boost to my public appearance schedule that, during a long period of injury recovery, dropped off while I was not working in this field. If you produce conferences, write a blog, offers workshops or produce…
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News: 2015 small businesses health plan tax filing extension
This article summarizes the issues that apply to small business employers only. See the IRS publication for provisions of Notice 2016-4 that pertain to larger employers. Small business employers who provide health benefits outside of an insurance policy have a two month extension on reporting those benefits to employees and a three month extension for…
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Year-end tax Scrooge on auto purchase and charitable contributions
We hear plenty of auto sales ads touting the benefits of increased depreciation as a great reason to buy a new car this week. Likewise, charities make a big year-end push this week promoting the tax benefits of charitable contributions. I don’t want to be a spoil-sport and discourage anyone from buying a car or…
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International small business health plans for 2016
New options for avoiding excise taxes on international worker health benefits Small business employers with employees stationed outside of their home country face some difficulties providing medical insurance. In most cases employers have fewer health benefit plan choices available compared to firms with all their employees in the U.S. For 2016 there are several additional options…
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Last minute tax shelter setup for 2015
Every year there are a few small business owners who wait until the last few days of December to set up a retirement plan or pension plan that winds up reducing their tax liability by many thousands of dollars at tax filing time in the spring. It takes a few hours work for each plan…
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More on Section 105 plans
A reader commented on my vague discussion in an earlier post about the difference between an employee benefit plan and a payroll accommodation plan. The first type is regulated and subject to ACA market reforms and the second type is not. Describing the distinctions is not something that I feel could be usefully summarized in a…
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Goadvs.com malware removal
Why I concluded that Goadvs.com malware may be connected to Sitementer.com Last week I found that I was affected (but not necessarily “infected”) with a browser hijacking malware. Occasionally I’ve found that published documentation of a computer bug is inadequate and so, for that reason alone, I am publishing details of my experience here. This…
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Four small business accounting systems you will see less often in 2016
updated September 2018 to remove outdated recommendations. There are literally hundreds of high quality small business accounting platforms available today. The array of features is impressive and the cost is minimal when we consider the number of human labor hours saved in comparison with accounting tools of generations past. All of these services offer a…