Year-End Tax Planning Ideas for your Small Business

Now that Labor Day has passed, it’s a good time to think about making moves that may help lower your small business taxes for this year and next. The standard year-end approach of deferring income and accelerating deductions to minimize taxes will likely produce the best results for most businesses, as will bunching deductible expenses into this year or next to maximize their tax value. If you expect to be in a higher tax bracket next year, opposite strategies may produce better results. For example, you could pull income into 2022 to be taxed at lower rates, and defer deductible expenses until 2023, when they can be claimed to offset higher-taxed income. Here are some other ideas that may help you save tax dollars if you act...

Protect Your Public Company with an Insider Trading Policy

Successful stock trading requires access to information — preferably publicly available information. However, some investors attempt to get a jump on the market by using insider knowledge to make buying, selling and holding decisions. Federal and state laws prohibit trading by anyone with material nonpublic information about a stock’s underlying company. And it’s illegal for holders of material nonpublic information to share it with others who then use the tips to trade. Insider trading policies aren’t required of public companies. However, having a policy can reduce your company’s risk and help insiders understand what actions might constitute a violation of securities law. 5 elements A good insider trading policy typically answers the following questions: 1. Why does the policy exist and whom does it cover? Your policy should define...

Home Sweet Home: Do You Qualify for Office Deductions?

If you’re a business owner working from home or an entrepreneur with a home-based side gig, you may qualify for valuable home office deductions. But not everyone who works from home gets the tax break. Employees who work remotely can’t deduct home office expenses under current federal tax law. To qualify for a deduction, you must use at least part of your home regularly and exclusively as either: Your principal place of business, or A place to meet with customers, clients or patients in the normal course of business. In addition, you may be able to claim deductions for maintaining a separate structure — such as a garage — where you store products or tools used solely for business purposes. Notably, “regular and exclusive” use means you must consistently...

Valuing LLC Profits Interest Awards

Limited liability companies (LLCs) sometimes award employees and contractors a unique form of equity-based compensation known as “profits interests.” These interests aren’t actively sold on a public market, so a customized valuation approach is required. Here’s an overview of how business valuation pros determine what these awards are worth for tax and financial reporting purposes. The basics Finding skilled workers is one of the top challenges reported by private businesses today. Employers may award various forms of equity-based compensation to help attract, retain and reward workers for their contributions to the company. LLCs aren’t allowed to issue traditional corporate forms of equity compensation, such as common and preferred shares, stock options, restricted shares and phantom stock. Instead, they can award profits interests to certain employees and contractors for...

Self Employed? Build a Nest Egg with a Solo 401(k) Plan

Do you own a successful small business with no employees and want to set up a retirement plan? Or do you want to upgrade from a SIMPLE IRA or Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plan? Consider a solo 401(k) if you have healthy self-employment income and want to contribute substantial amounts to a retirement nest egg. This strategy is geared toward self-employed individuals including sole proprietors, owners of single-member limited liability companies and other one-person businesses. Go it alone With a solo 401(k) plan, you can potentially make large annual deductible contributions to a retirement account. For 2022, you can make an “elective deferral contribution” of up to $20,500 of your net self-employment (SE) income to a solo 401(k). The elective deferral contribution limit increases to $27,000 if you’ll be...

An "Innocent Spouse" May Be Able to Escape Tax Liability

When a married couple files a joint tax return, each spouse is “jointly and severally” liable for the full amount of tax on the couple’s combined income. Therefore, the IRS can come after either spouse to collect the entire tax — not just the part that’s attributed to one spouse or the other. This includes any tax deficiency that the IRS assesses after an audit, as well as any penalties and interest. (However, the civil fraud penalty can be imposed only on spouses who’ve actually committed fraud.) Innocent spouse relief In some cases, spouses are eligible for “innocent spouse relief.” This generally involves individuals who were unaware of a tax understatement that was attributable to the other spouse. To qualify, you must show not only that you didn’t...

Using Adverse Media to Head Off Fraud

Many financial companies search for negative news, also known as “adverse media,” as part of their due diligence process for potential customers. But this type of screening isn’t only effective for banks. Any company can use adverse media to scrutinize customers, vendors and business partners. Screening these subjects can help uncover issues — such as accusations of fraud or litigation for nonpayment — that could negatively affect a business relationship. 4 steps Given the vast amount of data available online, conducting adverse media screening requires a methodical approach. Consider taking these steps: Develop a policy. To ensure that your organization’s use of adverse media screening meets your needs without creating legal risk, draft a policy governing its usage. Make sure that your legal team reviews the policy,...

Why an LLC Might be the Best Entity for Your Business

The business entity you choose can affect your taxes, your personal liability and other issues. A limited liability company (LLC) is somewhat of a hybrid entity in that it can be structured to resemble a corporation for owner liability purposes and a partnership for federal tax purposes. This duality may provide you with the best of both worlds. Like the shareholders of a corporation, the owners of an LLC (called “members” rather than shareholders or partners) generally aren’t liable for business debts except to the extent of their investment. Thus, they can operate the business with the security of knowing that their personal assets are protected from the entity’s creditors. This protection is far greater than that afforded by partnerships. In a partnership, the general partners...

Q4 2022 Business Tax Deadlines

Here are some of the key tax-related deadlines affecting businesses and other employers during the fourth quarter of 2022. 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. Note: Certain tax-filing and tax-payment deadlines may be postponed for taxpayers who reside in or have businesses in federally declared disaster areas. Monday, October 3 The last day you can initially set up a SIMPLE IRA plan, provided you (or any predecessor employer) didn’t previously maintain a SIMPLE IRA plan. If you’re a new employer that comes into existence after October 1 of the year, you can establish a SIMPLE IRA plan as soon...

Estimated Tax Payments: Who Owes Them and When is the Next One Due?

If you don’t have enough federal tax withheld from your paychecks and other payments, you may have to make estimated tax payments. This is the case if you receive interest, dividends, self-employment income, capital gains or other income. Here are the applicable rules for paying estimated tax without triggering the penalty for underpayment. When are the payments due? Individuals must pay 25% of a “required annual payment” by April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year, to avoid an underpayment penalty. If one of those dates falls on a weekend or holiday, the payment is due on the next business day. So the fourth installment for 2022 is due on Monday, January 16, 2023. Payments are made using Form 1040-ES. How much should you...