Providing Fringe Benefits to Employees with No Tax Strings Attached

Businesses can provide benefits to employees that don’t cost them much or anything at all. However, in some cases, employees may have to pay tax on the value of these benefits. Here are examples of two types of benefits which employees generally can exclude from income: A no-additional-cost benefit. This involves a service provided to employees that doesn’t impose any substantial additional cost on the employer. These services often occur in industries with excess capacity. For example, a hotel might allow employees to stay in vacant rooms or a golf course may allow employees to play during slow times. A de minimis fringe benefit. This includes property or a service, provided infrequently by an employer to employees, with a value so small that accounting for it...

How Valuators Use Visual Aids

Business valuation professionals who serve as expert witnesses in court face two daunting tasks: First, they must capture the attention of a judge or jury. Then they need to make complex financial analyses understandable. That’s easier said than done after the trier of fact already has listened to hours of testimony in commercial litigation. Impactful visual aids can help break up the monotony and drive home key points in an expert’s oral testimony and written reports. Achieving maximum impact Many people are visual learners, so oral testimony alone may not be enough to enable them to understand complex issues, such as discounted cash flow analyses or profit trends. Experts who supplement their analyses with pictures are likely to leave a lasting impression. Today, most courtrooms are equipped with...

Tax and Other Financial Consequences of Tax-Free Bonds

If you’re interested in investing in tax-free municipal bonds, you may wonder if they’re really free of taxes. While the investment generally provides tax-free interest on the federal (and possibly state) level, there may be tax consequences. Here’s how the rules work. Purchasing a bond  If you buy a tax-exempt bond for its face amount, either on the initial offering or in the market, there are no immediate tax consequences. If you buy such a bond between interest payment dates, you’ll have to pay the seller any interest accrued since the last interest payment date. This amount is treated as a capital investment and is deducted from the next interest payment as a return of capital. Interest excluded from income  In general, interest received on a tax-free municipal bond...

What Local Transportation Costs Can Your Business Deduct?

You and your small business are likely to incur a variety of local transportation costs each year. There are various tax implications for these expenses. First, what is “local transportation?” It refers to travel in which you aren’t away from your tax home (the city or general area in which your main place of business is located) long enough to require sleep or rest. Different rules apply if you’re away from your tax home for significantly more than an ordinary workday and you need sleep or rest in order to do your work. Costs of traveling to your work location The most important feature of the local transportation rules is that your commuting costs aren’t deductible. In other words, the fare you pay or the miles you drive...

Preventing Privileged User Fraud and Abuse

In most companies, employees need a user identity to access work-related hardware and software. Privileges to use certain applications or open certain files usually are provided to workers based on their department, role and level of authority. Over their tenure, employees might accumulate various privileges they no longer need. For example, someone who once worked in accounting might retain the ability to make journal entries even after transferring to the legal department. Unfortunately, dishonest employees could use their privileges for nefarious purposes. Best practices Privileged users sometimes use their access to perpetrate fraud, intellectual property theft or sabotage. And they don’t always act alone. Third parties, such as competitors, could try to recruit privileged users to steal trade secrets. Or employees could collude with hackers to compromise...

Investing in the Future with a 529 Education Plan

If you have a child or grandchild who’s going to attend college in the future, you’ve probably heard about qualified tuition programs, also known as 529 plans. These plans, named for the Internal Revenue Code section that provides for them, allow prepayment of higher education costs on a tax-favored basis. There are two types of programs: Prepaid plans, which allow you to buy tuition credits or certificates at present tuition rates, even though the beneficiary (child) won’t be starting college for some time; and Savings plans, which depend on the investment performance of the fund(s) you place your contributions in. You don’t get a federal income tax deduction for a contribution, but the earnings on the account aren’t taxed while the funds are in the program. (Contributors...

Worried About an IRS Audit? Prepare in Advance

IRS audit rates are historically low, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, but that’s little consolation if your return is among those selected to be examined. Plus, the IRS recently received additional funding in the Inflation Reduction Act to improve customer service, upgrade technology and increase audits of high-income taxpayers. But with proper preparation and planning, you should fare well. From tax years 2010 to 2019, audit rates of individual tax returns decreased for all income levels, according to the GAO. On average, the audit rate for all returns decreased from 0.9% to 0.25%. IRS officials attribute this to reduced staffing as a result of decreased funding. Businesses, large corporations and high-income individuals are more likely to be audited but, overall, all types...

Business Valuations Needed for Private Stock Donations

Charitable contributions can be an effective way to lower taxes for the current tax year, but they don’t necessarily have to be made with cash. Charities also welcome donations of company stock, which offer a hidden bonus to donors if the shares have appreciated in value over the years. To reap the tax benefits on private stock donations, however, it’s essential to obtain a business valuation from a “qualified appraiser.” Tax benefits Since 2007, corporate stock has been the most popular type of non-cash charitable contribution. Corporate stock donations amounted to $39.6 billion in 2019, or 54.4% of all non-cash contributions for that year, according to the Summer 2022 Statistics of Income Bulletin published by the IRS. A taxpayer who itemizes can deduct the fair market value (FMV)...

Year-End Tax Planning Ideas for Individuals

Now that fall is officially here, it’s a good time to start taking steps that may lower your tax bill for this year and next. One of the first planning steps is to ascertain whether you’ll take the standard deduction or itemize deductions for 2022. Many taxpayers won’t itemize because of the high 2022 standard deduction amounts ($25,900 for joint filers, $12,950 for singles and married couples filing separately and $19,400 for heads of household). Also, many itemized deductions have been reduced or abolished under current law. If you do itemize, you can deduct medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income (AGI), state and local taxes up to $10,000, charitable contributions, and mortgage interest on a restricted amount of debt, but these deductions won’t save...

Work Opportunity Tax Credit Provides Help to Employers

In today’s tough job market and economy, the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) may help employers. Many business owners are hiring and should be aware that the WOTC is available to employers that hire workers from targeted groups who face significant barriers to employment. The credit is worth as much as $2,400 for each eligible employee ($4,800, $5,600 and $9,600 for certain veterans and $9,000 for “long-term family assistance recipients”). It’s generally limited to eligible employees who begin work for the employer before January 1, 2026. The IRS recently issued some updated information on the pre-screening and certification processes. To satisfy a requirement to pre-screen a job applicant, a pre-screening notice must be completed by the job applicant and the employer on or before the day...