Ideas & Insight

With the pandemic behind us and a red-hot summer in full swing, many of your company’s employees may be finally rediscovering the uninhibited joys of vacation. Your workers might be having so much fun, in fact, that they might highly value being able to buy even more paid time off (PTO) as an employee benefit. Such a […]

Whether you know it or not, if your business has ever applied for a commercial loan, you’ve likely been subject to “adverse media screening.” Under this commonly used practice, a prospective borrower is “screened against” various media sources to determine whether the person or entity has been a party to any suspicious, unethical or illegal […]

Government officials saw a large increase in the number of new start-up businesses launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. And the U.S. Census Bureau reports that business applications are still increasing slightly (up 0.4% from April 2023 to May 2023). The Bureau measures this by tracking the number of businesses applying for Employer Identification Numbers. If […]

If you play a major role in a closely held corporation, you may sometimes spend money on corporate expenses personally. These costs may end up being nondeductible both by an officer and the corporation unless the correct steps are taken. This issue is more likely to happen with a financially troubled corporation. What can’t you […]

“It’s in the pipeline!” Business owners often hear this rather vague phrase, which may be good news in some cases or code for “don’t hold your breath” in others. Your sales pipeline management, however, is a very real thing. Simply defined, it identifies and quantifies the prospective deals in progress at various stages of the sales […]

If you own an unincorporated small business, you probably don’t like the size of your self-employment (SE) tax bills. No wonder! For 2023, the self-employment tax is imposed at the painfully high rate of 15.3% on the first $160,200 of net SE income. This includes 12.4% for Social Security tax and 2.9% for Medicare tax. The […]

If you’re planning your estate, or you’ve recently inherited assets, you may be unsure of the “cost” (or “basis”) for tax purposes. Learn more about the step-up basis or step-down here. How do the rules work? Under the current fair market value basis rules (also known as the “step-up and step-down” rules), an heir receives […]

“Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars and their personal information to tax scams,” according to the IRS. The tax scam may come in through email, text messages, telephone calls or regular mail. Criminals regularly target both individuals and businesses and often prey on the elderly. Important: The IRS will never contact you by email, […]

Once a business is up and running, one fundamental aspect of operations that’s easy to take for granted is billing. Often, a system of various processes is put in place and leadership might consider occasional billing mistakes to be part of the “cost of doing business.” However, to keep your company financially fit, it’s imperative […]

If you own a successful small business with no employees, you might be ready to set up a retirement plan. Now a solo 401(k) might seem way out of your reach — only bigger companies can manage one of those, right? Not necessarily. Two ways to contribute With a solo 401(k), the self-employed can make large annual deductible contributions […]