by Leif Jensen | May 20, 2015 | General |
We received a call from a prospective client. He was looking for some assistance with a return that needed to be amended. When he met with us he expressed shock that we did not serve a multitude of pilots, considering our proximity to the United Airlines headquarters...
by Leif Jensen | May 19, 2015 | General |
When I ask some business owners about their brand they give me a list of the services that they provide. I used to do this years ago myself. But then I realized that few understood the list of the differences between the items. At one point in time I had a single...
by Leif Jensen | May 18, 2015 | General |
I am working with a few businesses that are in the planning stages of taking their businesses to the next level. One is currently quoting on a monster job that will either force them to grow or to stay small and outsource a number of aspects of the job to other...
by Leif Jensen | May 13, 2015 | General |
A few weeks ago a client received some bad news. Their Office Manager had tendered their notice. The employee had been with the client for over seven years. Within that time period the client had grown too dependant upon this person to handle a multitude of personal...
by Leif Jensen | May 12, 2015 | General |
I heard this phrase on “Under the Influence”, it was utilized by a municipality that was aware that they had no single brand or image and that they addressed their past marketing as “random acts of marketing”. I have to admit, I am aware of a hundreds of small and...
by Leif Jensen | May 11, 2015 | General |
This year was a prosperous one for us. We picked up a number of new tax clients. One of which stood out from the others. He was working for a company making a reasonable salary and the spouse had a small business that is winding down. But what made them stand out...
by Leif Jensen | May 6, 2015 | General |
Expenses in the start-up phase of a business are not always deductible right away. According to the Tax Court: in a recent case, an engineer who was a full-time employee and was also in the process of opening his own company. He visited construction sites after work...
by Leif Jensen | May 5, 2015 | General |
For those who live in a bubble with no contact with the outside world; the number of new banks is on the wane. From 1990 to 2008, new banks were formed at the rate of about 100 per year. Since the “Great Recession” bank formation has all but stopped, partly because of...
by Leif Jensen | May 4, 2015 | General |
With the current budget cuts in place, the IRS has curbed some of its criminal investigations. Most of the agency’s investigative priorities have been affected, including identity theft, international operations and money laundering schemes plus suspicious refunds and...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 27, 2015 | General |
Having an S-Corporation rent realty to a related company may not net a tax break. The owner cannot always use the rental income to offset other passive losses, according to the Williams case in which two people set up an S corporation to rent real estate to their...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 22, 2015 | General |
I have a client who was having some financial challenges. The couple had over extended themselves and created a harmful tax liability, all while being taxed at a high marginal tax rate. So at one point the couple’s family tried to help. But with one hand they giveth...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 21, 2015 | General |
I have a client that was flabbergasted by the response from a candidate for a newly crated CEO position. As a small company looking for future growth they pulled together a package that was modest in the beginning but became much more generous as the position...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 20, 2015 | General |
This tax season was a bit of an eye opener. There were a few clients that had received an additional PIN number from the IRS because their privacy had been compromised. We were also made aware of a client whose employer’s information was compromised and they would be...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 14, 2015 | General |
I work with a sub-lessee of some space. Their agreement is up shortly and it looks like they will be staying put. What makes this amusing in my mind is that the lessee and the sub-lessee have been in the same space for over ten years. The amount of money spent in...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 13, 2015 | General |
All small businesses go through cycles where there are ups and downs. When the cycles are on an upswing more space may be needed and less when there are down swings. I personally am a believer in owning the space where you run your business. I have seen a number of...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 7, 2015 | General |
2014 was a trying year for a number of client’s families. Family members had passed, but luckily they seemed to have prepared well and had plans in place. I am finding that this is not always the case with some younger clients or some of the older clients. As usual...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 6, 2015 | General |
I was at a family party and a show was on the TV that I had never seen before. It was about “expert consultants” coming in and fixing bars. This lead to a discussion, about how some business owners are their own worst enemy. I explained that I have clients who...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 3, 2015 | General |
Earlier this week I ranted about the loss of information from Joe Berrios’s Cook County Assessor’s website. Last week they had removed the ability to search for a Property Tax PIN number by address. All searches needed to have a PIN. Not a great thing when you are...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 1, 2015 | General |
It seems that t IRS is planning on focusing on real estate foreclosures, discharged debts and short sales. The IRS has issued a new audit guide that instructs agents on tax issues to look for. They will be verifying whether the taxpayer have gains from a waived debt...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 31, 2015 | General |
This is turning into a surprisingly difficult tax season. It does not seem to matter whether it is a new client or a client with whom we have worked for a decade. We have experienced incorrect basis on 1099-B’s. We have had a 1099-R that did not include nor record a...
