by Leif Jensen | Oct 5, 2015 | General |
At a recent seminar I was exposed to a concept that terrified me greatly. There is a tax reform proposal that the GOP is working on for the 2017 fiscal year. The revocation of all S-Corp elections! Never mind that the S Corps continue to be the most prevalent type...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 2, 2015 | General |
I speculated that there would be no Fed rate hike in September, but there will be one in December. So I am now in line with eighty-four percent of economists as surveyed by Bloomberg (woo-hoo). They also expect an initial interest-rate increase in December, according...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 30, 2015 | General |
I am not a fan of “debit cards”. I have one, but seldom carry or use it. First off since I seldom have it I cannot use it. But that is not the reason. If you lose your “debit card” you can lose everything in your account up to and including your overdraft...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 29, 2015 | General |
We hear about the “middle class” all the time. Most of our clients believe themselves to be the “middle class”. Unfortunately I have to tell them that they are not the “middle class”. According to their income they are the wealthy, that scorned group that does not...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 28, 2015 | General |
With the stagnant wages and the difficulties of finding a starter job in your field unless you were in the top 3% of your class worldwide. Are our children looking at lowered expectations than we were as graduates? I know that starter cars less than $20,000 are rare...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 23, 2015 | General |
I was at the IRS office dropping off some paperwork for a client. While I was there, a business owner showed up and tried to hand in an Illinois tax return. He was obviously confused, which made the IRS personnel a bit confused as well. Now as the IRS rep went to...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 22, 2015 | General |
I was just at a seminar where they polled the audience on where they stored their I-9 forms. Just about everyone stated that they are in the employee’s file. They were informed that they were doing it inappropriately and that they should all be in a single file along...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 21, 2015 | General |
A few weeks ago the Pew Research Center did an analysis regarding Millennials and where they are living. In 2008 most people figured that the poor economy was the main cause for Millennials to be living with their parents. Now that the economy has improved somewhat...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 16, 2015 | General |
At the conclusion of a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, where they examined debt through the generations, they found that 8 in 10 Americans are in debt in some fashion. Wow I could have told them that and they could have saved the money. These roughly match the...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 15, 2015 | General |
It seems that the great(?) state of Illinois is home to nearly 8,500 local governmental units. Are you surprised? I didn’t think so. But what is surprising is that 6,026 are empowered to raise taxes, the highest in the nation. Texas is #2 with about 5,150 local...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 14, 2015 | General |
What do you do that your completion does not do? Most business owners do not have an answer to this question. Insights can remain elusive to those who make the products. How in a given unique situation within a specific time can you make yourself different from your...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 8, 2015 | General |
Illinois is an at will state. Which means you can fire someone just to fire someone. Now that will not stop them from suing you. Lord knows that there are attorneys who are just looking for a payday and will take just about any case. What you should have in place...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 8, 2015 | General |
I had a client express concern to me about one of their employees that have been out for a week now. The client is concerned on a multitude of levels. Unfortunately this is a larger company working on a razor thin budget. One employee being out for an unplanned...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 7, 2015 | General |
Who handles the HR function in your business? If you are a small company it may be the Office Manager or the bookkeeper. Basically it seems to fall to anyone who handles the bills. I know that I was in charge of the HR function when I worked at a couple of...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 2, 2015 | General |
The news has been reporting on and off for the last few years about the possibility of increasing the minimum wage. Now there are people lining up on both sides of the issue, but the more vocal proponents are those who want the increase. But I also doubt that they...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 1, 2015 | General |
Hundreds of years ago in the dark ages of office productivity, workers toiled before computer terminals. These terminals were connected to a great computer, which required all slaved to be tethered to it for communication. These great computers were special and we...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 31, 2015 | General |
I ran into a client at an event the other week. This gentleman is a sales rep for a software company. He is very successful in his industry. But he had run into a problem with his company. There was a new sales rep that had the potential to make exactly the same as...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 26, 2015 | General |
I was talking to a banker the other week and we got on to the subject of money laundering. Yes, most of my discussions with bankers lead to the discussion of crimes and felonies. What can I say; I am curious on how the real world works and the mysteries I read are...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 25, 2015 | General |
Will the financial planners of the future be machines? Will a machine be able to dispense good investment advice? The answer for the moment seemingly is a yes for plenty of people. “Robo-advisers” are using technology to create investment advice and manage your...
by Leif Jensen | Aug 24, 2015 | General |
I received an e-mail for a colleague who had a referral that they could not handle and was requesting that if possible could I assist them. They were looking for assistance immediately. I was curious and I had an office day scheduled, so I accepted. This couple in...
