Ideas & Insight

They say we live in an on-demand world, which makes communications a key business element. Right now, many business owners are demanding one thing: more workers. Unfortunately, the labor market is somewhat less than forthcoming. In the so-called “Great Resignation” of 2021, droves of people voluntarily left their jobs, and many aren’t rushing back to […]

Business owners, year end is officially here. It may even be over by the time you read this. (If so, Happy New Year!) In any case, the end of one year and the beginning of another is always an optimal time to look back on the preceding 12 calendar months and ask a deceptively simple […]

As the year winds down, business owners have many calendar months to look back on to determine how successfully their products or services have sold. While reviewing the numbers, think about your people, too. To achieve success in 2022, you’ll need a strong sales team in place. However, it’s a difficult time to hire skilled […]

If you’re paying back college loans for yourself or your children, you may wonder if you can deduct the interest you pay on the loans. The answer is yes, subject to certain limits. The maximum amount of student loan interest you can deduct each year is $2,500. Unfortunately, the deduction is phased out if your […]

Here are some of the key tax-related deadlines affecting businesses and other employers during the 2022 Q1 tax calendar. Keep in mind that this list isn’t all-inclusive, so there may be additional deadlines that apply to you. Contact us to ensure you’re meeting all applicable deadlines and to learn more about the filing requirements. January […]

Starting to take effect on January 1, 2022 the minimum wage in Michigan: Will increase from $9.65 to the new rate of $9.87. This is a a $0.22 increase from the current rate, and the first increase in Michigan since 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The 85% rate for minors aged 16 and 17 will […]

The use of a company car is a valuable fringe benefit for owners and employees of small businesses. This perk results in tax deductions for the employer as well as tax breaks for the owners and employees using the cars. (And of course, they get the nontax benefit of getting a company car.) Plus, current […]

Year-end is a good time to plan to save taxes by carefully structuring your capital gains and losses. Consider some possibilities if you have losses on certain investments to date. For example, suppose you lost money this year on some stock and have other stock that has appreciated. Consider selling appreciated assets before December 31 […]

Once a revolutionary breakthrough in communications technology, email is now an afterthought for many people. But that can cause problems for businesses: Servers get filled up, messages get lost, and employees’ productivity isn’t quite what it could be. Although doing so may seem superfluous or antiquated, providing employees with some retraining or upskilling on proper […]

Among the biggest long-term concerns of many business owners is succession planning — how to smoothly and safely transfer ownership and control of the company to the next generation. From a tax perspective, the optimal time to start this process is long before the owner is ready to give up control. A family limited partnership […]