Does Your Dealership's CPA Know the Auto Industry?

I'm happy to report that my second ad has now been published in 2020 Issue 3 of the California New Car Dealers Association quarterly magazine, "California New Car Dealer Quarterly". (Run time 2 min, 0 sec) Whether you’re a successful General Manager that now finds him or herself a newly minted Dealer Principal seeking an Automobile Dealership CPA Firm . . . or a seasoned automotive veteran looking to make a change to an Automotive CPA that understands your business . . . we need to talk. I’m Roger Rossmeisl, a senior partner with Kho & Patel CPAs with offices in Southern California.  For the past 35+ years my practice has been serving franchise new vehicle dealerships with their tax, attest and consulting needs. Today, an automotive-centric CPA is...

5 Business Service Scams to Watch Out For

Preventing fraud from costing your company can sometimes seem like a game of whack-a-mole: Squash one scheme and another one pops up. Business service scams are particularly abundant. Fraud perpetrators know that business owners don’t always have time to verify the identities of salespeople or service reps and the legitimacy of their claims.  Your best defense is to refuse to pay anyone anything until you’ve ascertained the facts. It also helps to know what schemes are popular with criminals. Here are 5 business service scams to watch out for. (1) Utility Bill Fraudsters Someone claiming to be from your gas, electric or water company may call and say services are about to be cut off for non-payment. However, you can stop the discontinuation if you immediately pay the...

Tax Implications of Environmental Cleanup

If your company faces the need to “remediate” or clean up environmental contamination, the money you spend can be deductible on your tax return as ordinary and necessary business expenses. There are however "timing difference" types of tax implications of environmental cleanup. You want to claim the maximum immediate income tax benefits possible for the expenses you incur but that may not always be possible. These expenses may include the actual cleanup costs, as well as expenses for environmental studies, surveys and investigations, fees for consulting and environmental engineering, legal and professional fees, environmental “audit” and monitoring costs, and other expenses. Current deductions vs. capitalized costs Unfortunately, every type of environmental cleanup expense cannot be currently deducted. Some cleanup costs must be capitalized. But, generally, cleanup costs are...

How to Withdraw Cash from your Corporation

Do you want to withdraw cash from your closely held corporation at a low tax cost? The easiest way is to distribute cash as a dividend. However, a dividend distribution isn’t tax-efficient, since it’s taxable to you to the extent of your corporation’s “earnings and profits.” But it’s not deductible by the corporation. Fortunately, there are several alternative methods that may allow you to withdraw cash from a corporation while avoiding dividend treatment. Here are five ideas: (1) Capital repayments To the extent that you’ve capitalized the corporation with debt, including amounts that you’ve advanced to the business, the corporation can repay the debt without the repayment being treated as a dividend. Additionally, interest paid on the debt can be deducted by the corporation. This assumes that the...

Wjat is the Best Fuel to Use in Your Vehicle?

As posted to the Chris Fix YouTube Channel on 10/15/19 (Run Time: 16 min, 10 sec) What is the best fuel to use in your vehicle?  Chris Fix explains the octane rating system and other related matters in this informative clip. (This is Blog Post #635) Chris Fix creates and posts easy-to-follow, step-by-step how-to style videos for both beginners and experts that want to save money by fixing their own car.  With new content every 10 days or so, Chris takes pride in helping others at the Chris Fix YouTube Channel. ...