by Leif Jensen | Apr 24, 2024 | Employees, Rant |
Have you ever run into a friend or colleague or employee who was under the belief that they were so integral to the business that no one could ever replace them? I have known many over the years. All of them are wrong. Everyone is replaceable, no one is that...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 22, 2024 | Investing |
Years ago, I met a gentleman who wanted to learn the fundamentals of options trading. He was aware of the nightmare that options trading can have to an individual’s tax return. Basically, needing to hire a tax professional to prepare the return. Being a thrifty...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 17, 2024 | Taxes |
This tax season we are having more and more clients having a significant tax liability; some federal, some state or both. Some clients who have been having liabilities are planning to adjust their withholding. I hope they follow through. For most we give them...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 15, 2024 | Running a Business |
One of my clients recently had to let go of an employee who had some unpleasant business in their background. Their hiring process are lax and they had no reviews are ever done on any of the employees. I hope that they step up their process. For my lemonade stand,...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 10, 2024 | Investing, Money Management |
What passive income streams have you set up for yourself? If you haven’t done any yet, are you planning on doing any? I have some old insurance dogs and financial advisors, who wake up January 1, knowing that they will be making six to seven figures without really...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 8, 2024 | Running a Business |
I am reading a biography of the Mars and Hershey companies and their namesakes who ran the businesses. In both cases they were seeming always looking to the future of their businesses. In contrast, I have a client who is aware of a problem approaching in their...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 3, 2024 | Employees |
The Dept. of Labor has finalized its new independent contractor rule. It will take effect March 11 and largely hews to the draft regs the agency proposed in Oct. 2022. The rule includes six nonexhaustive factors officials will use to determine whether a worker should...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 27, 2024 | Rant |
The recent changes over the past few years are making it ever more difficult to cheat on your taxes. This in one way is a good thing and in another a bad thing. Yes, everyone should be paying their fair share of taxes. All income is taxable and needs to be reported...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 25, 2024 | Taxes |
If you use QuickBooks Payroll to do your payroll that’s fine. Made sure you are downloading all of the quarterly reports and keeping them safe. We had one client who used the QB service, did not save the files, then went out of business. Two years later the IRS was...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 20, 2024 | Running a Business |
We currently use QB Accountant payroll for those clients we prepare payroll for. We are limited to 50 payrolls, and we are practically at that limit. So, we have all the fun of doing payroll as well as the quarterly and annual reports associated with payroll. This...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 18, 2024 | Running a Business |
We have picked up a couple of new clients that want to deduct their household expenses as business expenses. They have an office that they rent, but also want to write off their mortgage. They state they work from home. True they may do some work on their business...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 13, 2024 | General |
Elk Grove has plans for growing its industrial park in prominence. Elk Grove Village has plans to become the largest server farm in the country. It started with a tenant in a complex on Higgins not far from my office. The business liaison explained that the first...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 11, 2024 | Rant |
Des Plaines must have the worst building requirement ever. I don’t see these stupid moves anywhere else. I know of two new constructions that apparently start on the boundary line of the property. There were existing building standing and now these new building have...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 6, 2024 | Advertising |
I had a radio station contact me about sharing some information, I replied I had no expertise in the area, but they wanted to meet. Yes, I knew I was going to get a sales pitch. I was impressed with the station and their operations; the station ran on two different...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 4, 2024 | Rant |
I was meeting a client at their location, and I asked why they were renting instead of owning their own location. Especially with their rent costs. In the past they had owned their own buildings, but now where they were located, single small businesses were no longer...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 28, 2024 | Running a Business |
I started working with a new client and she stated in a moment of aggravation that when you start a business there are no manuals available to explain things to new entrepreneurs. Information is all over the internet, some great, some good, some bad and some very bad…...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 26, 2024 | Rant |
In the past I have been a member of a number of groups. I had spent a tremendous amount of time and never really got a lot of referrals. I thought of putting my own group together, one that would only, be businesses that focused on business owners. It was to include...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 21, 2024 | Rant |
I was talking to a gentleman, who lives north and travels over an hour to get to work each day –with the obvious return trip. I have a couple of clients looking for his skill set – either client would halve his travels. I offered to make an introduction. I was...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 19, 2024 | Tax Court |
I thought this case was amusing. A cat rescue group doesn’t qualify as a tax-exempt agricultural organization, per the IRS in a private ruling. The group was formed to house and rescue cats that come from an animal shelter. It also runs a cat café, in which it charges...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 14, 2024 | Tax Court |
Recovering attorney fees after beating the IRS in court isn’t the easiest of tasks. Taxpayers can recover their legal costs if they substantially prevail on the issues, unless the government shows that its litigation position was substantially justified. They also...
