by Leif Jensen | Oct 2, 2018 | General |
We were recently referred to a new client. They had purchased an existing business early last year. The client focused on running the business. The client spent all their time the past year, working in the business and not on the business. Now they are putting...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 1, 2018 | General |
Filing Form 941-X instead of 843 to recover overpaid payroll taxes isn’t fatal. A firm that twice paid an IRS assessment for payroll taxes filed the 941-X within 24 months of making the second payment to recover the duplicate funds. At the behest of an agency...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 26, 2018 | General |
The IRS continues to clamp down on charitable donations. Even small cash donations aren’t exempt from the strict recordkeeping rules, according to IRS’s final regulations. For charitable monetary gifts of any size, you cannot claim a deduction unless you have a...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 25, 2018 | General |
Issuing a fraudulent 1099 can cost lots of money. AN example of this was recently brought forth. A doctor received from the owner of his medical practice a 1099 form that reported an inflated amount of income. The doctor then filed a lawsuit in federal court. He...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 24, 2018 | General |
The common belief is that the IRS can only go back three years for audit. But there are circumstances when the IRS can go back more than three years to seek taxes. If more than 25% of gross income is omitted from a return, then the Service has six years to assess the...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 19, 2018 | General |
Privacy truly seems to be a thing from the past and now is a gossamer vapor of want and needs. According to Kiplinger we should all beware of free virtual private network apps proliferating in app stores. They believe that many are scams that swipe personal data, such...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 18, 2018 | General |
One of the side effects of being an active networker I get to learn about the horror stories of businesses that are not my clients. Learning about other company errors or mistakes that caused a downslide, may help me protect my clients by looking at similar early...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 17, 2018 | General |
I have to admit that I often still surprised when non-clients ask me detailed technical questions about their business. I have had people who work with a different CPA asks me questions because they feel I am approachable and their CPA is not. I know this because I...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 12, 2018 | General |
I am working with a client that recently closed their business. This client started with us after they had the business up and running. We offered to work with them at various levels, but in an effort to contain costs they because an annual client only. We were to...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 11, 2018 | General |
We have a client that has received an unofficial offer to have their company absorbed by one of their clients. They want to get him to be their in-house asset. Apparently they want him so bad that they have also left independence on the table as well. Companies...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 10, 2018 | General |
How would you like to enter the business world in the “Logistics” category? Not only start your own business, but not have to troll for clients and with a minimum initial investment? Your revenues will grow and the profits are all but guaranteed. The cost of entry...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 5, 2018 | General |
I know just about everyone has a smart phone and uses it for both business and personal purposes. A number of people have their bank and credit card information entered and accessible on their phone. Nothing surprising here, a vast number of people have the totality...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 4, 2018 | General |
I recently had a client sell off their assets and close their business. They had chosen a venture that could be successful and they were marginally successful. But their margins were small, so they need a tremendous amount of volume to cover the fixed costs, let...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 3, 2018 | General |
I recently meet with a client and we were discussing the economy. She indicated that we are entering a period of a negative yield curve (or “inverted yield curve”) on interest rates. To better explain this, I found this definition on Investopedia.com: an inverted...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 29, 2018 | General |
What do you do to recover from a major misstep that had a significant cost? I was talking to a peer who works with a restaurant in my neighborhood. The original owner created a successful business but was getting older and wanted to step down. They transferred the...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 28, 2018 | General |
I have never been a fan of having partners. You have all of the responsibility of what they do in the business whether it is good or bad for the business. Wrapped up in an S-Corp gives you some protection, but I have seen too many go bad. But now I myself and a...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 27, 2018 | General |
Amazon has been vilified on social media lately, which is surprising since President Trump is also not a fan either. This mix would have trouble agreeing on the color of an orange, let alone agreeing on a common villain. According to a Business Insider article:...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 22, 2018 | General |
I just met with a client who is now ramping up their business. The initial plan was to set-up an e-publishing company. The client has a number of completed books, but felt that they were not good enough for “prime time” so there has been a deferred in getting the...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 21, 2018 | General |
I was at a networking meeting and one of the people there has just started their business, one of the steps in her start-up business plan was to sign-up for Seth Godin’s 100 day marketing plan. I confess I had heard of Seth Godin, I skimmed a couple of his books. I...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 20, 2018 | General |
I have been watching a couple of businesses over the last year and both seem to be missing the mark in getting their businesses off the ground. One is client who started a new business because he was forced to close one business that was marginally successful, but...
