For small businesses, working with independent contractors can be a life saver. You can hand over tasks you don’t have time for – at a fraction of the cost of an employee. Unlike staff, you won’t owe a contractor payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, health insurance, or other employee benefits. Because contractors aren’t employees, however, they do need to be managed differently. They’re accustomed to being their own bosses, for one… Read more
More online purchases are hit with sales tax… Thanks to a landmark Supreme Court case that gives states greater power to impose sales tax on e-commerce. In June, the Court overturned a ruling that shielded sellers with no physical presence in the buyer’s home state from collecting sales tax. The Court blessed S.D.’s internet sales tax. The law requires remote sellers with at least $100,000 in sales or 200 or more transactions annually in S.D. to collect S.D.… Read more
Business Failure Ask any successful entrepreneur about their path to greatness and you’ll get the same answer: failure is an inevitable part of the journey. It took Thomas Edison 1,000 failed attempts before he finally invented the light bulb. Tim Ferris received 25 rejections before his bestselling book, “The 4 Hour Workweek” was finally published and sold millions of copies. It’s a fact that 20% of businesses fail in their… Read more
A new scam! By now we have all heard about the phone/internet scams that give you a message about overdue or late payments of taxes. Here is a new twist to that: you get a call from your utility vendor saying you are many months behind and your service is going to be turned off if you don’t pay it within 30 minutes. Just like with the IRS… Read more
Financial Planning For business owners who want financial security now and freedom in retirement, having a CPA on the team is a must. A CPA will create a customized, strategic action plan to help you achieve your personal financial goals. Getting to know you and your business inside out is the first step we will take to understand where you are now, where you want to go, and then determine… Read more
Audited No one looks forward to a letter from the taxman requesting a closer look at the books. If you’ve received an audit letter – an official request by the tax authority to review your accounts and confirm your taxes have been paid to date – don’t panic. Prepare and call us. These four steps will help you get through the process with minimal stress and the best possible outcome.… Read more
Very few business owners have the means to operate without borrowing at start up, or later on when it’s time to invest in growth. Borrowing, however, is only a temporary solution to a lack of funds. Without a repayment plan debt can grow into an unmanageable problem that costs much more than the initial loan. These strategies will help you re-pay your debt faster, so you can invest the cash… Read more
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that was passed late last year repealed the qualified retail, restaurant and leasehold improvement rules and replaced them with a new qualified improvement property acquired and placed in service after 12/31/2017 and before 12/31/2022. Qualified improvement property consists of interior modifications to commercial property (except elevators, escalators and enlargements). Prior laws enabled write offs for much of the improvements to a space which… Read more
August 3, 2018 the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2018-40 regarding changing accounting methods because of last year’s Jobs Act. This is another attempt to simplify the lives of small business taxpayers. Unfortunately, it is complicated before it gets simpler. Who is eligible? Taxpayers with average revenues for the 3 prior years of $25 million or less that are currently using the accrual method accounting may change back to the cash… Read more
K-12 Education Credit For parents, it’s almost time to start back-to-school shopping. Most school supplies could qualify for valuable K-12 tax benefits on your 2018 Minnesota income tax returns. Do not forget to save your school supply receipts. “Each year, parents invest in their children’s education by purchasing school supplies,” said Revenue Commissioner Cynthia Bauerly. “Keeping the receipts for these purchases can help parents save when it comes time to file… Read more
Minnesota will require remote sellers and Marketplace Providers facilitating sales into Minnesota to collect sales tax no later than October 1, 2018 ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Department of Revenue will require remote sellers and Marketplace Providers facilitating sales into Minnesota to begin collecting sales tax no later than October 1, 2018. Remote Sellers Minnesota law requires all sellers to collect sales or use tax to the extent allowed under the United… Read more
Sales Tax Issues In a case with nationwide ramifications, on June 21st the US Supreme Court overturned the old Quill corporation decision in the case of South Dakota versus Wayfair, which will now allow individual states to attempt to collect sales tax from out-of-state sellers, such as online and website sales. Since 1967, remote vendors without a physical presence in a state could not be forced to collect sales tax. In… Read more
IRS Unveils Draft Form 1040 ‘Postcard’ But Critics Are Not Impressed The new Form 1040 released by the Treasury Department this week meet the administration’s promise of a smaller “postcard style” tax form, but skepticism remains on whether the revisions are a meaningful step toward tax simplification. A draft version of the 2018 Form 1040, available here, reduces the number of line-items from 79 to 23 and shortens it from two… Read more