Category: Small Business
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The proper way for S corporations to report health benefits of shareholders
U.S. federal tax law differentiates the tax accounting methods for employee health benefits from the treatment of self-employed individuals. Operators of small businesses organized as S corporations under state law are considered to the self-employed for income tax reporting but are typically also employees of the S corporation. Employer paid health benefits are most commonly…
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Plan ahead to avoid tax penalties on W2 health benefits
We are only weeks away from the first required reporting of employee health benefits on employee W2 forms. I suspect that payroll companies that serve small businesses are still working on communications and procedures for this. The fact is that the payroll companies don’t have access to the data to complete this requirement and their…
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Surprising lawmaker response to small business tax relief effort
Today a representative from the Washington DC office of the National Federation of Independent Businesses met with a staff member at NJ Senator Menendez’ office in a last minute attempt to gain support for small business tax relief from the Affordable Care Act. See yesterday’s blog post for background on this story. Up to 100,000 small…
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FreshBooks Certified Accountant
I just completed about 4 or 5 hours of accountant training for FreshBooks small business accounting platform. It has some impressive features and I’m sure I’ll write about them soon. The short version of my review: FreshBooks is an excellent choice for sole proprietors who bill for their time. Support is excellent; they are “trying…
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Revenue Ruling 99-6 LLC partnership conversion to disregarded entity
I have a client who is considering converting an LLC that has elected treatment as a partnership to a disregarded entity owned by husband and wife in a community property state. The goal is to simplify accounting and tax reporting while still retaining the liability benefits of the LLC. No information is available as to…
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A real life health care payment mix-up
This is a real-life personal health care story that I am trying to settle right now. I know that the same pattern is repeated for countless health care consumers every day. That’s why I posted it here. I rounded off the numbers for easier communication. The situation unfolds like this: Last month I required a…
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The delicate issue of professional snobbery
An administrator for a small trade association invited me to participate in a panel discussion on issues related to the Affordable Care Act as it affects the small businesses of the member firms. The brief biography of the other invitees was underwhelming. The offer was extended by telephone where I had no time to prepare a…
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Tax planning is tough for high income clients
Many people do not realize that tax planning becomes more difficult as income increases. The easy strategies like those discussed in the article “Top 10 easy tax strategies” do not work as well. Tax planning sometimes requires adjusting to rapidly rising income; not such a terrible problem to face. But the tax calculation changes triggered…
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Wix vs. WordPress for small business web sites
I spent some time tonight reading about Wix web site building options for my small business clients. I use WordPress now and a consultant suggested that I consider switching to Wix for ease-of-use. There are several reviews available by Googling “Wix vs. WordPress“. I read them and basically they conclude that the options are equally…
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The gap in small business employee benefits advice
Yesterday I had a great telephone conversation with a guy I met on LinkedIn. His business sells a variety of innovative employee health care solutions. I was impressed. The problem is that they focus on groups with 50 or more employees. I explained that my business is driven by incoming inquiries and that these are…