The lack of a profit motive

Ok, I just don’t understand the logic behind this case from a tax standpoint; from a curiosity stand point yes, but not a tax standpoint, no.   A son took it upon himself to start an investigation in 2003 of his father’s mysterious death in 1946.   The son...

1099’s and taxes

It seems that people forget that when they are an independent contractor getting a paid on a 1099 can create a huge tax liability.   If you have a “Schedule C” business, you recognize your 1099 income and get to deduct related business expenses.  But any profit...

Leap

While certain business owners can get all wrapped up in analysis paralysis, I have a client who is taking the philosophy of “Leap” for 2017.   He is making decisions based upon his goals and future plans.  There are financial costs to these decisions, the money...

Help Wanted – Experience only

Lately I have seen signs stating that there are openings at companies, but only if the have specific experience doing exactly what they are looking for.  I imagine that the companies also expect the job candidates to know their corporate culture and company polices as...

FBAR and FinCen

Did you forget to disclose all of your Swiss Bank accounts to the IRS by Tax Day?   You need not panic yet if you missed the April 18 deadline for reporting foreign accounts.   The IRS has allowed for you to have an automatic six-month extension (until Oct....

Profit

Profit is not a dirty word!  All businesses have to make a profit to survive, even Not-for-Profits, they more than any other needs to have a profit for those inevitable lien times or for future growth.   One client has been struggling to firm up their fixed and...

Turning away business

Recently in a conversation with one of our clients, I asked about their production capacity.  Do they know when they would need to turn down business or start the second shift?   It turns out that they don’t have any hard or fast rules for this option.  But they...

The Future, cash flow options

I was recently meeting with the owner of a business, after spending a couple of hours drilling down on their numbers looking for costs to cut.  They are currently going through a cash crunch and the immediate future is not looking promising.  Historically their fourth...

Privacy

You know by now that most of the big names in search engines: Google, Bing, Yahoo – track your search history and build profiles on you, serving different results based on your search history. You may want to try one of the alternative search engines if you’re tired...

Cookies

How often are you cleaning the cookies out of your computer?   How many know what cookies are?  Cookies are small bits of computer code that are temporarily installed on your computer from the websites you visit.   Some cookies track all of the websites you...

Master password

Do you utilize a password manager?  Should you?   A password manager offers a better way to create a strong, yet easy to remember passphrase for use with encryption and security programs.   Weak passwords and passphrases are one of the most common flaws in...

IRS and Bankruptcy Case

IRS and Bankruptcy Case   In this case, taxes shown on IRS-prepared late returns are not dischargeable in bankruptcy.   This is so, even when the taxpayer later files the overdue returns, according to the court.   When a man failed to timely file his...

Outsourced Payroll

The IRS is again attempting to notify employers that have outsourced payroll tax duties remain liable for unpaid taxes.   Even if the payroll taxes are taken by the payroll agents who then  abscond with the employment taxes or fail to make the required deposits...

IRS Private Debt Collection

The Service’s private debt-collection program started up just last April.  Surprise there are some lawmakers are calling for its demise.   The 2015 statute ordered the agency to turn over many inactive receivables to private debt collectors in an effort to recoup...

Reasons for Failure

I was reading an article recently that was stating that the largest single cause for startup failures (more than 40% of the cases) is the lack of a market for the product.  Or in other words lack of customers or clients.  I know big shock.  You can have the world’s...

Analytics

I was discussing investment strategies with one of my kids and I was attempting to explain the analytics that I encourage my clients to follow, is similar to how publically traded companies are analyzed.   Broken down into the simplest terms they follow this...

Not my cave

Recently we had an opportunity to meet with a prospective client.  When it came time to schedule the initial meeting we offered to meet with them in their office or ours.  This apparently took they slightly aback, not one else offer to meet them at their location....

Roth IRA losses

Remember when you started shifting your investments from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRS, or converted from one to another.   You probably did not monitor your Traditional losses that closely.  One because they were paid for with before tax dollars and two, you...

Cadillac Health Plans

Employers must start making decisions on health care plans for 2018 with the knowledge that, for now at least, Obamacare is still the law of the land.   The law includes the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost plans, a 40% excise tax on plans costing at least...

Asset or expense?

In my dealing with clients the subject of employees comes up a lot.  Beyond the basic payroll and HR components employees have a tremendous impact on your business.   I have clients who view their employees as expenses plain and simple.  They know that every...

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