Running a small business.

Sole proprietorships are now officially on the IRS’s radar, because auditors know from experience that some self-employed individuals claim excessive write-offs and don’t report all their income. Tempting targets include proprietors reporting at least $100,000 of...

Not For Profit Taxes

Two recent tax law changes affect nonprofits. The first is that nonfilers get relief on exemption revocations. Exempt groups that fail to file their annual Form 990 returns for two consecutive years will get a letter from IRS notifying them that the agency hasn’t...

Couples and Self Employment taxes

Couples who are self-employed must each figure their SECA tax separately and are required to complete a separate Schedule SE. Their total combined self-employment tax then goes on Schedule 4, line 57, of the 1040. Losses incurred in one spouse’s business cannot be...

Past-due employment taxes

A company’s CFO has liable for its past-due employment taxes, according to the tax court The CFO had control over the company’s bank account and oversaw all aspects of the firm’s operations and finances, including payroll, tax return preparation and personnel matters....

Collector loses

Surprise, collectors can’t get the market full value of coins seized by IRS, according to a federal court. During a home search, an IRS agent confiscated 364,000 presidential $1 coins that were rolled and boxed. After seizing the coins, the Service unpacked them and...

IRS Red Flags

Shocking news; reporting Schedule C losses and lots of other income is an audit red flag.  Make it seem like the activity sounds like a hobby to cinch the deal. In a recent case, a pilot with substantial wage and pension income bought an antique fighter jet.  He then...

Words

Words are the foundation of our means of communicating; our words and body language tell the story.   Words hold a power over us, so much so that one of my writer clients named their company “Words Create Change”, because they do and they have. So with words being so...

Final curtain…

People close their businesses for a number of reasons.  I had one client who bought a franchise and poured time and money into it, but it grew slowly.  Unfortunately, too slowly. The original idea was that the business would start slow and grow to provide an income...

Footprint

What size footprint does your business have?  What size footprint should it have?  Let’s back it up a step or two.  Is your product a service or a consumable or a durable product?  I think these would have an impact on how wide a footprint you want or need in a...

Easy to find

How easy is it to locate you on the internet?  I mean your contact information.  If you are an independent contractor is the only way to get a message to you through LinkedIn or Facebook? I was reading an editorial in a business magazine where the publisher was...

Retailing Partnerships

Are consumers the lemmings that retailers believe them to be?  Just because a celebrity is paid to point to an object does not mean that consumers will automatically buy that object.  Or will they? Amazon is betting big on Lady Gaga to do just that with cosmetics,...

Mentors

The mention of mentors and mentoring seem to be on the rise again.  There were discussions and articles about 10 years ago, and then they went away. I missed out; in my life I never really have a mentor.  My father passed while I was in college and my bosses always...

Manager

Mangers are those employees that can make or break your business. Especially if you are a serially entrepreneur and have multiple businesses in multiple arenas, the difference between a good and a great manager will greatly impact on each and every one of your...

Trust in celebrities

There are not many celebrities million or billionaires that I am willing to trust.  Most of them seem slimy or out and out @$$holes. In this grouping I am including those who get their names out into the world via every avenue. One celebrities whom I believe and...

Partners – I hate them, but at times they serve a purpose

I have argued that I hate partners.  Which for the most part is true; whether it’s in a formal partnership, or an S-Corp or a NFP.  You are on the hook for whatever dumb or stupid things your partners do.  They are also on the hook for the dumb and stupid things you...

Franchises – when do they make sense?

I admit I am not a fan of franchises.  I see them making only guaranteed money for the franchisor and seldom if ever for the franchisee. I do know a couple who own a Chick-fil-a and they seem to be doing well, but the costs were high and it took a tremendous amount of...

College as a return on your investment

It is not surprising that there are websites that show the best return on investment for colleges.  On the first website I investigated https://www.payscale.com/college-roi, surprised me on how many of the top listed where military service institutions. MIT was number...

College as an Investment

It is always interesting when I find myself in a similar situation as my clients.  It gives me a guilty pleasure when it involves my kids and my kids are making the right moves and my clients kids are not. My second son graduated college in 3.5 years; he would have...

Admissions Cheating Scandal

Why is anyone surprised by the admissions cheating scandal?  Why is this still an issue? Professor Doom believes it is still is an issue because the money was going to the administrators now, where before it went to the colleges.  http://professorconfess.blogspot.com/...

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