Tax Planning Includes Keeping Good Records It’s January and tax season is right around the corner. For many people that means scrambling to collect receipts, mileage logs, and other tax-related documents needed to prepare their tax returns. If this describes you, chances are, you’re wishing you’d kept on top of it during the year so…
Transition Planning – Option 2 Family Succession Owners need to understand that conducting a family succession requires a very different path than an owner who is looking to sell to an outside party. Most family successions involve some form of gifting in order to begin transferring family wealth. It’s a different mindset than trying to…
Transition Planning – Option 1 Selling Your Business When it comes to selling your business, there are more issues to address than most people think. Here are a few key items that impact an exit strategy: Understanding the value. Value is unique to each company, dependent on your performance, economic conditions, competition, etc. You need…
If your company needs to “remediate” or clean up environmental contamination, the expenses involved can be tax deductible. Unfortunately, every type of environmental cleanup expense cannot be currently deducted. Some cleanup costs must be capitalized. For example, remediation costs generally have to be capitalized if the remediation adds significantly to the value of the cleaned-up…
Managing payroll is a laborious task for small businesses. But it’s critical to withhold the right amount of taxes from employees and pay them over to the federal government on time. If you don’t, you could be hit with the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty, also known as the 100% penalty. It applies to the Social…
The right entity choice can make a difference in the taxes you owe for your business. Although S corporations can provide substantial tax advantages over C corporations in some situations, there are potential tax problems you should assess before deciding to convert from C to S status. One of the issues to consider is last-in,…
Is your business depreciating over 30 years the entire cost of constructing the building that houses your operation? If so, consider a cost segregation study. It may allow you to accelerate depreciation deductions on certain items, thereby reducing taxes and boosting cash flow. And under current law, the potential benefits are now even greater than…
Merging with or acquiring another company is one of the best ways to grow rapidly. But you’ve got to weigh the potential advantages against the risks of such a move. An acquisition might enable your business to expand into new geographic areas or seize new customer segments. But it’s a costly process that can even…
Employers must pay federal unemployment tax on amounts up to $7,000 paid to each employee as wages during the year. The tax rate is 6% but it can be reduced by a credit for contributions paid into state unemployment funds. Typically, the more claims made against a business, the higher the unemployment tax bill. But…
As a business owner, are you worried about an IRS audit? The good news is that the odds against being audited are in your favor. The IRS audited 0.6% of individuals in fiscal year 2018. Businesses and high-income people are more likely to be audited, but audit rates are historically low. However, some tax return…