Employees Working at Home? Rethink Your Space Needs
For some employees, working from home is a personally liberating experience that contributes to greater productivity. For others, not so much. By now, if you have had a significant number of employees doing their jobs from home, you may have enough experience to assess whether remote working arrangements are a net plus for your business….
HIPAA Special Enrollment during the COVID-19 Emergency
Here’s a HIPAA-related question from one employer. Q. How long are the extended HIPAA special enrollment periods during the COVID-19 emergency? A. In response to the COVID-19 emergency, the Department of Labor and IRS issued a joint rule extending the HIPAA special enrollment periods for group health plans that are subject to ERISA. (Health and Human Services has…
A Good Time for Making Tax-Smart Family Loans
During the COVID-19 crisis, you may want to loan money to a family member in need of financial assistance. However, before writing out a check, you should review the federal tax rules to ensure that you’re making a tax-smart loan. The good news is that now is generally an advantageous time to lend money to…
Five Ways to Prepare Your Nonprofit for Leadership Change
Has your not-for-profit anticipated a shake-up at the top? If not, it needs to. Perhaps your long-standing CEO will decide it’s time to retire. Or maybe your board will determine that your current leader is ineffectual. Or perhaps your organization will agree to merge with another nonprofit or undertake a restructuring that requires a leader…
Tax-Favored QSBC for the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
The COVID-19 crisis has taken a toll on many small businesses. But some winners are expected to emerge from the wreckage. Unprecedented steps will be taken to guard against health risks from COVID-19 and whatever might come along next. The new normal will create new opportunities. Small businesses that can respond to those opportunities will…
Keep Fundraising During the Pandemic
Fundraising is the lifeblood of virtually every charitable organization. However, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has brought the fundraising efforts of many not-for-profits to a virtual standstill. This is particularly true if your nonprofit’s mission is unrelated to human health and services or other causes related to the pandemic. Maybe you’ve operated in challenging circumstances before…
Demystifying Casualty Loss Deductions
The days when you could claim deductions for run-of-the-mill casualty and theft losses of personal property are gone — at least temporarily. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) generally suspends write-offs for such expenses for 2018 through 2025. However, you can still claim deductions for personal property losses caused by certain federally declared disasters,…
COVID-19 Tax Relief: Roundup of Postponed Federal Tax Deadlines
As a COVID-19 relief measure, the IRS has postponed many of the usual federal tax filing and payment deadlines, along with the deadlines for taking certain other tax-related actions. Generally, deadlines for federal income tax return filing and payments that would otherwise fall on or after April 1 and before July 15 have been postponed to…
Keep Employees COVID-19 Free: An Employers Guide From OSHA
Naturally you care about the health and safety of your employees, and don’t need a federal agency to tell you that you should be concerned. Still, it’s helpful to know what the overall position of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) is on COVID-19. In a recent “alert,” OSHA urged employers to take the following…
Last-Minute Strategies for Businesses that Deferred Filing Tax Returns
During the COVID-19 crisis, some key tax deadlines were postponed until July 15, 2020. If your business and/or personal federal income tax return is still awaiting completion, you may have significant retroactive tax-planning flexibility. The same holds true for individuals who own interests in pass-through business entities and haven’t yet filed their personal tax returns. Here’s…