by Leif Jensen | Jan 24, 2018 | General |
Huzzah! Small employers get guidance on health reimbursement arrangements. A 2017 law lets eligible firms, defined as those with fewer than 50 employees that don’t offer group health insurance, to reimburse workers for health insurance and medical expenses if they...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 23, 2018 | General |
When I meet with clients, I like to take a holistic approach to their business. Yes, we review their Financial Dashboard: reviewing the various metrics, as well as the prior year comparisons and industry comparisons if pertinent. But I also spend time discussing...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 22, 2018 | General |
Barkly.com in 2017 shared the following information on small business cyber-attacks. Small to medium sized businesses typically pay the ransomware for the release of their data. The average ransom demand was $1,077 22% of the businesses that experienced the ransomware...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 17, 2018 | General |
We had a call come in from someone we did not know. They were unemployed for over a year, but received health insurance from the ACA exchange. They were getting the subsidy and did not want to have to pay it back. So they were looking for ways to show income without...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 16, 2018 | General |
I was at a seminar and during it the Symantec 2017 survey of “Industry Cyber Targets” was shared. This is the top 10 sectors breached by the number of incidents; the data was based upon 2016 occurrences. Rank Industry Breaches Percentage 1 Services 452 44.2% 2...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 15, 2018 | General |
The old saying goes “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” The IRS is proving this point. The IRS has also made a modification to this. ...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 11, 2018 | Uncategorized |
Your money isn’t always safe at the bank. A bank teller withdrew thousands of dollars from customers’ accounts without their permission, and deposited them in her personal account. Why a bank hired someone with an arrest record of fraud is beyond me. It gets worse....
by Leif Jensen | Jan 10, 2018 | General |
Last tax season we picked up a new client. The client had moved a couple of miles to a new location. In doing so, their prior CPA stated that they could not travel that far to continue to work with them. Basically the client was fired from the prior CPA and not aware...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 9, 2018 | General |
What is on your financial dashboard? What metrics are you monitoring in your business? Are you using your industries SIC or NAICS codes for comparison? Your banker should be able to supply you annually with the updated metrics for your industry. So you can see where...
by Leif Jensen | Jan 8, 2018 | General |
There is a change in the direction of jobs. We are now experiencing a “reshoring” of manufacturing jobs back into the U.S.. What is driving the new “reshoring” trend? It seems that advances in manufacturing technologies are making it more cost-effective or more...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 20, 2017 | General |
Recently Panera founder and CEO Ron Shaich announced that he is stepping down at the end of the year. Apparently Shaich is unhappy with Wall Street’s short term viewpoint and wants the ability to spend more time debating the Street’s on its obsession with...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 19, 2017 | General |
According to Sean Parker the ex-President of Facebook, the site was created to exploit vulnerabilities in the human psyche. The design was to keep you on the site longer and in essence crave it. “And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 18, 2017 | General |
Who would have thought that the future of digital currency would rest in the hands of China? While Bitcoin’s value is soaring to all-time highs, the digital currency has exceeded $6,000 per coin after rising about 500% this year. Now the sharp appreciation shows that...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 15, 2017 | General |
WASHINGTON ― The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2018 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2018, the standard mileage...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 13, 2017 | General |
Gross income is the total of your unearned and earned income. If your gross income was $4,050 or more, you usually cannot be claimed as a dependent unless you are a qualifying child. Tests for a Qualifying Child: The child must be your son, daughter, stepchild, foster...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 12, 2017 | General |
The IRS is finally wising up. Before when a couple divorced the first to file typically got the kids, even if they were not entitled. It would not matter what the divorce decree stated, the recourse was to go back to court and get the judge to force the claimant to...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 11, 2017 | General |
I have a client whose revenue is decreasing by sales erosion. A surprisingly large number of their clients have reduced their orders slightly year over year. So the total sales are now 4% less than the previous year. I have recommended that they monitor their...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 6, 2017 | General |
In the past I have had to fire clients for “willfulness”. That is paying other creditors with available funds and not making the timely payroll taxes which is an example of what the IRS terms as willfulness. There is no defense against willfulness. Not paying payroll...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 5, 2017 | General |
There were over 7,600 ransomware attacks reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) between 2005 and March 2016. The cost of these attacks exceeded $1.6 million. However the Kasperski Lab believes that the reported ransomware is much smaller than the...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 4, 2017 | General |
I was at a networking meeting and collected a batch of business cards. When we went to add them to the newsletter list, we found numerous misspellings of e-mail addresses (2 out of 16) and at least one business card with no name or contact information on them. Just...
