by Leif Jensen | May 24, 2016 | General |
Women taking control over their own destiny is increasing. Women starting businesses grew at a rate of 74% between 1997 and 2015; or at a rate of 1.5 times the national average, according to the “2015 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report”. Woman currently own 30%...
by Leif Jensen | May 23, 2016 | General |
Illinois Small Business Development Centers- SBDC It seems that Illinois has a resource for people thinking of starting or growing a small business, their Small Business Resource Centers. For the most part they seem to be tied to colleges and Chambers of...
by Leif Jensen | May 20, 2016 | General |
On Wednesday, May 18, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division released its final updated FLSA overtime regulations. While some of the changes were expected, there are a number of surprises. First, the new salary threshold for exempt...
by Leif Jensen | May 20, 2016 | General |
According to a Fast Company Article we have 20 lessons that we can learn from design. Design is innovation and innovation is design Design inspires Emotion is as important as utility Good design overcomes discomfort Simple design is not simple The first...
by Leif Jensen | May 19, 2016 | General |
Due to a number of factors, some of which can and have been viewed as malicious we lost our website and the back-up. So at the height of tax season we had no website. It also took over two weeks to just get a temporary placeholder up and in place, just to let the...
by admin | May 18, 2016 | Uncategorized |
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by Leif Jensen | Apr 1, 2016 | Case Study |
This one is a bit atypical to explain, but I will give it a whirl. I handle the books for a business, simple enough. I handle the personal taxes for one of the several owners. One of the owners for whom I do not handle their personal taxes has requested...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 9, 2016 | General |
I have to admit that there are projects that I plan on doing it myself and there are others that terrify me or I just don’t do well and so I hire the professionals to address. Typically from the outside looking in they probably do not make any sense. Like I have...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 8, 2016 | General |
At some point Maine West HS in District 207, made a change that has me scratching my head at to what is wrong with these people. In the back entrance of the school where the police assist drivers in and out of the parking lot for safety, drivers are no longer able to...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 7, 2016 | General |
I have never done the ROI on solar panels. I probably should, I typically am that anal about wanting to know why people do what they do. I bring this up because a neighbor across the street has 9 solar panels facing south on their roof. The house it tiny so they...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 2, 2016 | General |
At this time of year I get to talk to more people about what they are doing and how they are doing it. People seem to be more open, or possibly so overwhelmed that their guards are down and they answer more freely. So I have been asking if they use financial...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 1, 2016 | General |
I was talking to an employee of a client and they were bragging on how they didn’t need professional help preparing their tax return. They purchased a box to prepare their return at Sam’s Club or Costco and they were ready to prepare all of the families returns. This...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 24, 2016 | General |
In a recent tax court case a company’s CEO and CFO were found liable for its past-due employment taxes, according to the appeals court. Although both officers began working for the firm after it fell behind on its payroll taxes, they discovered the full extent of the...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 23, 2016 | General |
In a recent court case it was determined that using an S corporation to rent realty to a related firm does not pay off from a tax perspective for a couple who owned all of the stock in both companies. They had their S firm lease a building to their regular...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 22, 2016 | General |
Caution should be used by a trustee in regards to tax issues. Recently in making trust distributions, a trustee ran afoul of the IRS while taxes were due according to a federal court. After setting up a trust for his kids with stock options that his wife had earned....
by Leif Jensen | Feb 17, 2016 | General |
Are you a trader or an investor? This assuming that you do a number of financial transactions throughout the year. The distinction can be significant for tax purposes. Factors that separate traders and investors: Traders engage in frequent buying and selling, usually...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 16, 2016 | General |
Have you tried contacting the IRS is the last year or so? If you have you know that the hold times easily reach an hour and that a 35% hang up rate is acceptable to IRS managers. But that is destined to change (evil laugh), the plan is to make reaching the IRS’s...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 15, 2016 | General |
I have a client who has an employee looking to go on maternity leave. The employee was asking how much time they could work under the table while they were on maternity leave. The client is aware of the dangers of this on a multitude of levels. So this is not going...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 10, 2016 | General |
I was talking to an employee of a client and we were discussing how he does his and his families taxes. I was asking with whom does he talk to about any longer term planning. The software box apparently is not interactive, so none of them have any tax planning in...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 9, 2016 | General |
The IRS have now been given authorization to revoke or to not allow the State department to renew your passport, if the Service determines that you are whom they consider to be “seriously delinquent” in paying your taxes. Apparently the garnishment of wages and...
