What better way to start a marriage than a great conversation about taxes and finances? Right, not really, but it is extremely important to make sure you don’t miss these important check points in the process of truly “becoming one” …financially. 1. Ladies, did you steal his last name? Looks like you need to make [...]
If you hire a domestic worker to provide services in or around your home, you probably have a tax liability that you don’t know about – or one that you do know about but are ignoring. Either situation can come back to bite you. When the worker is your employee, your liability includes both [...]
Many people dream of starting a small business. This is a dream that can become a reality, or—as happens to about 33% of prospective business owners, according to the Small Business Administration – it can result in dismal failure within two years. There’s no magic-bullet solution to ensure a successful business, but if you don’t [...]
You know that QuickBooks saves a lot of time. But have you explored how it does so by memorizing transactions? Your accounting work involves a lot of repetition. You send invoices. Pay bills. Create purchase orders. Generate payroll checks and submit payroll taxes. Some of the time, you only fill out those transaction forms once. [...]
Raising money through Internet crowdfunding sites prompts questions about the taxability of the money raised. A number of sites host money-raising projects for fees ranging from 5 to 9%, including GoFundMe, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo. Each site specifies its own charges, limitations, and withdrawal processes. Whether the money raised is taxable depends upon the purpose of [...]
Whether you already own a home or are considering buying one, you should be aware of the many tax benefits that go along with home ownership. There are plenty of reasons for owning a home, including the potential for capital appreciation and the fact that many of the costs are tax deductible, while rent is [...]
Unlike employees, who have income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes withheld from their wages, self-employed individuals must prepay their taxes by making quarterly estimated tax payments. These are referred to as estimated tax payments because the self-employed individual must estimate his or her net earnings for the year and pay taxes on a quarterly basis [...]
Congress has approved the 21st Century Cures Act, which includes a provision allowing small employers to reimburse their employees for medical expenses under a health reimbursement arrangement without being liable for the draconian, $100 per day penalty for violating the Affordable Care Act’s rules. President Obama has indicated his approval of the bill. Background: Stand-alone [...]
The IRS, in an effort to combat rampant tax filing fraud, has introduced what they hope will be two new fraud-prevention measures for the upcoming filing season. The first will purposely delay until February 15 the issuance of refunds for tax returns where there is an earned income tax credit (EITC) and/or a refundable child [...]
When you were a kid, you imagined becoming an entrepreneur — a dream that turned into reality a few years ago when you started your first small business and began enjoying the freedom of being your own boss. But, since then, your profits haven’t grown at the rate you’d hoped they would. If you can [...]
