by Leif Jensen | Dec 30, 2014 | General |
A court decree of annulment holds that there was no valid marriage ever existed. Taxpayers who have secured an annulment are now considered unmarried for the entire period that the marriage purportedly existed. It makes sense that the couple initially filed tax...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 29, 2014 | General |
I recently met with a potential new client. They were a referral for an existing business client. The fact that he was a referral helped because he already knew the value that I could bring to his business. During our meeting we were hired. The gentleman come to...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 23, 2014 | General |
They are both inevitable and unfortunate facts of life; death and taxes. But planning for both really should go hand in hand. Also, I personally believe that everyone should have a plan for both regardless of current net worth. I am currently working on a few...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 22, 2014 | General |
Congress has renewed the exclusion for up to $2 million of forgiven debt on your primary residence. Next year this will or would be great news for a client of mine. He’s going through a slow divorce and their home is in foreclosure. The bank apparently has been...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 15, 2014 | General |
Beginning on Jan. 1, 2015, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be: 57.5 cents per mile for business miles driven, up from 56 cents in 2014 23 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, down half a cent from 2014...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 10, 2014 | General |
I once had a client that did not want to have us come in on a monthly or quarterly basis to look over the QB file. They insisted that they were maintaining their file, but they were doing so by several part time employees and the owner. None of which had any...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 9, 2014 | General |
What are the ethics of asking for help when you know that you will never hire that person to work for you? I know that this has happened to me. I know/knew a person who always seemed to seek me out to get my opinion on a topic about every other time I saw them. Now...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 8, 2014 | General |
I recently read an article or rant(?) from Suze Orman, who stated that no one should ever have a car loan over 36 months. I guess it easier to be the case when dealers are giving them away as part of an endorsement deal, or if your employer was providing them to you. ...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 25, 2014 | General |
I was reading an article that I admit surprised me. It seems that our Constitutional rights for self incrimination do not extend to the use of our fingerprints. A Virginia court case had a judge rule that the police, who suspected incriminating evidence on his...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 24, 2014 | General |
As usual, now that an election has occurred some thoughts turn to tax reform. Not that the idea is ever too far away. The current idea is to revamp just the tax rules for corporations, though most believe that this will go nowhere. But there is bipartisan agreement...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 18, 2014 | General |
I recently had a discussion with a client concerning some year end tax planning. He was talking to his financial advisor about converting some of his Traditional IRA into a Roth. The idea behind this is some early estate planning. His assets are positioned in such a...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 17, 2014 | General |
It looks like in the not too distant future we will see the debut of fifth-generation cell phone networks, or 5G. With this next generation we will have voice and data speeds more than 10 times as fast as the current 4G mobile speeds and capable of matching...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 11, 2014 | General |
I have heard some interesting responses to the Illinois Minimum Wage Increase Question that was on the November 4, 2014 ballot as an advisory question. This was basically a non binding referendum which was approved. The measure asked voters whether they supported...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 10, 2014 | General |
A few years ago I had a client come to me and state that they were thinking of retiring in the not too distant future. They had worked for their own business and did not have enough fiscal quarters in to be eligible for Social Security. At this point I suggested a...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 10, 2014 | General |
Clay Christensen has predicted that half of universities will go bankrupt in the next 15 years. This is a bold statement to be sure. In A recent Business Insider interview he elaborated a bit on his thought process. “I have made an observation that relates to this....
by Leif Jensen | Nov 5, 2014 | General |
Last week, I was at a fraud seminar presented by US Bank. The presenter was a retired FBI agent, as well as an excellent presenter. A few of the precautions that he stressed were the electronic receipt of bills from vendors, as well as the processing of payments...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 4, 2014 | General |
We continue our search for the opportunity to grow our practice through purchases. At the beginning of the year we picked up part of a small practice from an Enrolled Agent. We have also made arrangements to pick up a very small practice from one of the many 87 year...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 3, 2014 | General |
As we start the wind down of the year. Now is the time to act on tax issues and year end planning. Businesses should be making sure that they have valid up to date W-9’s for all of the Independent Contractors that are utilized. I am also talking about those whom...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 28, 2014 | General |
I have a couple of clients who have employees that either were looking to get out, or are looking to get out, but are finding that the getting out portion is not as easy as they thought it would be. There are a number of factors at work here, and they are not typical...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 27, 2014 | General |
It was my understand that as a result of the boom created by the first and second industrial revolution the opportunity to create a growing and somewhat stable middle class was born. I was also under the belief that in the 1970’s this wave started to peter out and to...
