Category: Small Business
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2020 IRS Report on its Operations
IRS just released the 195 page “General Report of the 2020 Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council“. I read the applicable sections on small business and nonprofits that affects me and my clients. The key relevant concepts are: 1) IRS currently lacks the funding to operate effectively to collect the taxes necessary to run federal government.…
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Covid small business disaster story update
My list of Covid small business accounting horror stories is down to just three remaining open and unresolved: 1) A bank that extended a PPP loan application to 4 1/2 months and still counting; apparently due solely to lack of internal process control. I follow up with them every two to three days. All involved…
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Update on pandemic payroll tax deferrment
New guidance on the so-called pandemic payroll tax deferment issued by IRS last week does not change previously issued guidance to small business employers. The new IRS guidance strengthens the argument that employers should not make any change in payroll tax practices at this time. Deferent of payroll taxes, if not paid timely in early…
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A business resurrection as consumer value returns to employee benefits
Going back since more than 20 years ago to the late 1990s, I was licensed as an insurance producer in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It was – and still is – tough to be called a small business compensation and benefits expert without also being an expert in insurance. I was…
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What’s going on in D.C. and how does it affect your South Jersey business?
Yesterday the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce sponsored a discussion program with government policy experts from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce titled “What’s going on in D.C. and how it affects your business?”. If you own a small business in New Jersey (like me) the basic question is likely ‘How bad will it be?’ This…
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Small Business Guidance on Payroll Withholding Postponement
This weekend the President issued an Executive Order to postpone employer’s payment of wage taxes. The advice that I and every other small business tax adviser, to my knowledge, immediately issued to clients was to take no action until we receive further guidance. Most tax experts believe that only Congress has the power to stop…
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Round Two of Small Business Recovery
Two months ago the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the “HEROS Act” that included financial resources to small businesses struggling to restart after the disruptive effects of pandemic shutdown. While the entire bill is not likely to become law because of objections by U.S. Republican Senators, the small business portions of that…
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Evolution of accounting support services
This message being delivered to post-tax season clients starting today: “My business, like yours and almost all other small businesses and nonprofit organizations, is moving through a period of rapid change in what is being called the “new normal”. In short, we need to ‘step up our game’, gain efficiencies through better use of technology,…
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Main Street Lending Isn’t Happening; What’s Next?
News Update Two days ago I published a Q&A format summary of the new Main Street Lending Program, a potentially huge program that was authorized by Congress as part of the Cares Act. My writing ended with an optimistic position that the program might eventually be leveraged to finance trillions of dollars of loans across…
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Main Street Lending Program Q&As
I’ve received a lot of questions about the new Main Street Lending Program. This post is meant to provide general non-technical information as a starting point in evaluating whether the program may work for your business. What is the Main Street Lending program? A program established by Congress run through the Federal Reserve offering loans…