Estate Tax Planning Tips for Single People
Estate planning is an important part of your overall wealth management strategy, especially if you’re unmarried. Single parents may worry about who will care for their minor children and whether their surviving kids’ financial needs will be met until adulthood. Likewise, wealthy single people have less flexibility when it comes to shielding transfers from gift and…
Court Rules Favorably for Business Continuity Plan
Law firms are always looking for creative ways to maintain the firm’s continuity if one of the major partners dies. Many enter into buy-sell agreements, which sell the interests of a deceased or departing owner to the remaining partners using a predetermined price or formula. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals gave companies another buy-sell continuation…
Are Your Business Insurance Bases Covered?
Insurance can be complicated, and reading every word of an insurance contract could leave you comatose. That’s where the expertise of insurance professionals comes into play. A seasoned advisor who understands the risk profile of your business will be invaluable. Before you choose a representative, however, you should know how an insurance agent differs from…
Tax Cheer for Holiday Gifts to Employees
With the holidays fast approaching, you might want to reward your employees for all their hard work in 2018. Gift-giving ideas include gift cards, holiday turkeys and achievement awards. Although your intent may be essentially the same in all these situations, the tax outcome for recipients of your goodwill may be quite different. Typically, it depends on the…
The Audit Dance: A Well-Choreographed Routine
Think of your not-for-profit organization and its external auditor as dance partners performing a well-choreographed routine. To execute the dance properly, each dancer must complete specific moves and coordinate timing with his or her partner. Likewise, your organization and its audit firm each have particular duties in the audit process but share the same end goal:…
Becoming a Great Place to Work: It is Not About the Money
“It is easy to understand why companies have focused on… pay, parking, cafeteria discounts, etc.” when trying to attract, retain and motivate workers, stated Gallup in introducing its research on its Management Journal website. Why? Because it’s usually fairly easy to tinker with those variables. The problem is, “these factors do not really make a difference to the best,…
IRS Ups the Ante on Retirement Contributions
Every year, the IRS releases cost-of-living adjustments to qualified retirement plan amounts. For tax year 2019, many of the limits applicable to pensions and other retirement plans will increase. But some will remain unchanged from 2018. Annual Adjustments The following limits will increase for 2019 based on the cost of living: The elective deferral limit for…
Make a Tax-Smart Redemption of C Corp Stock
Do you have too much of your net worth tied up in your family C corporation? Consider bailing out some or all of that hard-earned wealth with a stock redemption. Here’s an explanation of why the federal income tax results for stock redemptions are far better today than in the past when much higher tax rates…
Go It Alone with a 401(k) Plan
If your business is essentially a one-person operation, there’s an option to help you save more money for retirement: The Solo 401(k) plan. Ordinarily, traditional defined contribution retirement plans allow annual contributions that are limited to either 25% of salary if you’re employed by your own S or C corporation or 20% of self-employment income if you operate…
Tuition Reimbursement: How to Prevent Fraud
Investing in employee education and training is crucial to the long-term success of most companies. In order to remain competitive, many employers offer tuition reimbursement programs to attract and retain talented employees. The programs also provide tax benefits. The vast majority of employees that participate in tuition reimbursement programs do so to comply with their companies’…