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Action May Be Needed Before Year-End Article Summary:
The new regulations now define a de minimis amount, but it is not a specific amount nor is it automatic. To utilize the de minimis safe harbor, business taxpayers must have an accounting procedure in place before the beginning of the tax year that specifies the de minimis safe harbor amount adopted by the business. If your business has not previously adopted an accounting policy, it may be appropriate to do so before the beginning of your business’s next tax year, which would be January 1, 2016, for calendar year businesses. In general, a small business, one without an Applicable Financial Statement, can adopt a de minimis safe harbor up to $500. Without an accounting procedure adopting a de minimis safe harbor, a small business can only expense the cost of items with a life of one year or less and would be required to capitalize (depreciate) all other items regardless of cost (however, these items may be eligible for Section 179 expensing). If you have questions related to adopting a policy for 2016, please contact this office before year’s end. Don't Be Scammed By Fake Charities Article Highlights:
But you should be aware that it is also the time of year when scammers show up in force, pretending to be legitimate charities in hopes of deceiving you into giving them your hard-earned money. When making a donation, you should take a few extra minutes to ensure your gifts are going to legitimate charities.IRS.gov has a search feature, Exempt Organizations Select Check, which allows people to find legitimate, qualified charities to which donations may be tax-deductible. Here are some tips to make sure your contributions are going to legitimate charities.
Scammers may also attempt to get personal financial information or Social Security numbers that can be used to steal the victims' identities or financial resources. Disaster victims with specific questions about tax relief or disaster-related tax issues may call a special IRS toll-free disaster assistance telephone number (1-866-562-5227) for information. Don't be scammed; make sure you are donating to recognized charities. Deductions to charities that are not legitimate are not tax deductible. If you have questions, please give this office a call. Have You Taken Your Required Minimum IRA Distribution? Article Highlights:
What is an RMD, you ask? The tax code does not allow IRA owners to keep funds in a traditional IRA indefinitely. Eventually, assets must be distributed and taxes paid. If there are no distributions, or if the distributions are not large enough, the IRA owner may have to pay a 50% penalty on the amount not distributed as required. Generally, required distribution begins in the year the IRA owner attains the age of 70½. If 2015 is the year you reached 70½, you can avoid a penalty by taking that distribution no later than April 1, 2016. However, delaying the first distribution means you must take two distributions in 2016, one for 2015, when you reached age 70½, and one for 2016. If an IRA owner dies after reaching age 70½ but before April 1st of the next year, no minimum distribution is required because death occurred before the required beginning date. If you became 70½ in an earlier year, you are required to take a distribution no later than December 31 of each year. The amount you are required to withdraw is based upon the value of the IRA account on December 31 of the prior year multiplied by your life expectancy from the Uniform Lifetime Table illustrated below. If you have more than one IRA, the RMD for each one is figured separately, but you may add up all the RMDs and take the total amount required for the year from any one or a combination of the IRAs. Not illustrated, because of the size, are the Joint and Last Survivor Table, which is used to determine RMDs when the sole beneficiary is a spouse who is more than 10 years younger than the IRA owner, and the Single Life Table, used for certain beneficiary RMD determinations. For table values not illustrated, please call this office. Example: The IRA account owner is age 75 in 2015, and the value of his IRA account on December 31, 2014, was $120,000. His 73-year-old wife is the sole beneficiary of the IRA. From the table, we determine the owner’s life expectancy to be 22.9. Thus his RMD for 2015 is $5,240 ($120,000/22.9) and must be withdrawn no later than December 31, 2015. If in the preceding example the taxpayer had not withdrawn the $5,240, he would be subject to a 50% penalty (additional tax) of $2,620 ($5,240 x 50%). Under certain circumstances, the IRS will waive the penalty if the taxpayer can demonstrate reasonable cause and makes up the withdrawal soon after discovering there was a shortfall in the distribution. However, the hassle and extra paperwork involved in asking the IRS to waive the penalty makes it something you want to avoid by taking the correct amount of distribution timely. Some states also penalize under-distributions. There is no maximum limit on distributions from a Traditional IRA, and as much can be withdrawn as the owner wishes. However, if more than the required distribution is taken in a particular year, the excess cannot be applied toward the minimum required amounts for future years. Prior to 2015, there was a provision of the tax code that allowed a taxpayer to use up to $100,000 of IRA funds to contribute to a charity by directly transferring the IRA funds to the charity via a trustee-to-charity transfer. In doing so, (1) the transfer counted toward the RMD requirement, (2) the amount transferred did not have to be reported as income, and (3) no charity deduction was claimed. The advantages of that provision allowed a taxpayer to take the standard deduction and still benefit from the charitable donation. It also kept the IRA distribution from being included in the taxpayer’s AGI, potentially causing less of their Social Security income to be taxed and reducing the effect of higher AGI phaseouts. NOTE: There is a chance that the provision will be extended, so to achieve any tax benefit from it, you would need to act now as if it were in effect. Even though an IRA owner whose total income is less than the return filing threshold is not required to file a tax return, he or she is still subject to the minimum required distribution rules and could be liable for the under-distribution penalty even if no income tax would have been due on the under-distribution. In many cases, advance planning can minimize or even avoid taxes on Traditional IRA distributions. Often, situations will arise in which a taxpayer’s income is abnormally low due to losses, extraordinary deductions, etc., where taking more than the minimum in a year might be beneficial. This is true even for those who may not need to file a tax return but can increase their distributions and still avoid any tax. If you need help with planning, please call this office for assistance. Will Your Favorite Tax Benefit Expire? Article Summary:
For 2014, Congress waited almost to the end of the year to apply many of the provisions to the 2014 tax year. This was not only a problem for taxpayers but also for the IRS, which needed to adjust its forms and tax filing software at the last minute and actually had to delay the start of the tax season. Although there were serious discussions among some members of Congress in the spring related to passing an extender bill, those discussions withered away with the summer heat and little has been discussed recently about either making some of the provisions permanent or extending some or all of them for another year. So whether we will have extender legislation and, if we do, what will be included in that legislation is up in the air. So you may wish to review the expiring provisions to see how you will be affected if they are not extended. Each of these tax benefits expired at the end of 2014 and will not apply in 2015 unless Congress acts. Although more than 50 provisions are expiring, the list below only includes those that most likely will impact individuals and small businesses:
o Qualified restaurant property, and o Qualified retail improvement property Thus, without an extension, these properties will no longer qualify for the Sec 179 expense deduction.
If you have any questions, please call. When to Claim a Disaster Loss Article Highlights:
By taking the deduction for a 2015 disaster area loss on the prior year (2014) return, you may be able to get a refund from the IRS before you even file your tax return for 2015, the loss year. You have until the unextended due date of the 2015 return to file an amended 2014 return to claim the disaster loss. Before making the decision to claim the loss in 2014, you should consider which year’s return would produce the greater tax benefit, as opposed to your desire for a quicker refund. If you elect to claim the loss on either your 2014 original or amended return, you can generally expect to receive the refund within a matter of weeks, which can help to pay some of your repair costs. If the casualty loss, net of insurance reimbursement, is extensive enough to offset all of the income on the return, whether the loss is claimed on the 2014 or 2015 return, and results in negative income, you may have what is referred to as a net operating loss (NOL). When there is an NOL, the unused loss can be carried back two years and then carried forward until it is all used up (but not more 20 years), or you can elect to only carry the unused loss forward. Determining the more beneficial year in which to claim the loss requires a careful evaluation of your entire tax picture for both years, including filing status, amount of income and other deductions, and the applicable tax rates. The analysis should also consider the effect of a potential NOL. Ordinarily, casualty losses are deductible only to the extent they exceed $100 plus 10% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). Thus, a year with a larger amount of AGI will cut into your allowable loss deduction and can be a factor when choosing which year to claim the loss. For verification purposes, keep copies of local newspaper articles and/or photos that will help prove that your loss was caused by the specific disaster. As strange as it may seem, a casualty might actually result in a gain. This sometimes occurs when insurance proceeds exceed the tax basis of the destroyed property. When a gain materializes, there are ways to exclude or postpone the tax on the gain. If you need further information on casualty and disaster losses, your particular options for claiming the loss, or if you wish to amend your 2014 return to claim your 2015 loss, please give this office a call. 6 Steps to Get Your Business Startup on Track For Long Term Success It’s easy to think about startup businesses and consider the success or horror stories, but what about the average startups? The hard and bleak reality is that the majority of small business startups fail. So, to avoid being like the average startup, you need to create a plan for success. Choose the Right Entity One of the first steps to forge a solid start includes selecting the right entity for your business. This legal structure will affect the amount of paperwork you need to do and the legal ramifications you will face. The right entity will help you reduce your liability exposure and minimize your taxes. You need to ensure your business can be financed and run efficiently with a method that helps ensure the business operations will continue after the death of the owner. Along with making the startup process more organized in an official capacity for the company, the formalization process will also solidify the ownership of participants who are participating in the venture. To choose your entity, you will first need to consider what personal level of risk you face from liabilities that could arise from your business. You will then need to consider what the best angle is for taxation, finding ways to avoid layers of taxation that can increase unnecessary expenses. Then, you will have to consider what kind of ability you have to attract investors and what ownership opportunities will need to be offered to key stakeholders. Finally, you will have to consider the overall costs of operating and maintaining whatever business entity you choose. There isn’t necessarily only one entity that can fit your business. The key in this process is looking at how each entity will alter your business’s future to select the one that is right for you. You might choose a sole proprietor, corporation or limited liability company if you are a single owner. If your business is going to be owned by two or more individuals, then you might choose a corporation, limited liability, limited partnership, general partnership or a limited liability partnership. Sole Proprietorship: The most common entity type where a single owner is personally liable for financial obligations. This is the easiest type of business entity to form and offers complete control to you as the managerial owner. Partnership: When two or more people want to share the profits and losses of a business, they can benefit in a shared entity that does not pass along the tax burdens of their profits or benefits of the losses. In this entity form, however, both partners are personally liable for the financial obligations of the business. Corporation: A corporation is an entity that is separated from the founders and handles the responsibilities of the organization for which it bears responsibility. The corporation can be taxed and held legally liable for its actions, just like a person. The corporate status allows you to avoid personal liability, but you will have to provide the funds to form a corporation and keep extensive records to keep the corporation status. Double taxation can also be seen as a downside to the corporate status, but a Subchapter corporation can avoid this situation by using individual tax returns to show profits and losses. Limited Liability Company (LLC): This is a hybrid form of a partnership entity that allows owner to benefit from aspects of the corporation and partnership forms of the business. Both profits and losses can be passed to the owners without taxing the business and while shielding owners from the personal liability factor. Plan for Growth Even though the number one reason startups fail is due to the production of a product no one wants, you can’t just stop with a great product. As an entrepreneur, you have to know about every aspect of your business. Even if you are not an expert in the process of business and aspects of your company, failure in those areas can still cost you your success. You have to know enough to catch key problems in your company’s startup process. Too segmented, and your company will struggle with gaps and overlap. If the CEO believes it is his or her job to lead, but not to market, then he or she may miss an important connection between target audience and company direction. If the marketer believes it is his or her job to market, but not to develop the website, then he or she might find the website design does not appeal to the right audience. Each individual needs to be both responsible and organic in their approach to helping the company move in the right direction. While you want growth, you need to be prepared to sustain it. In order to get your venture capital secured, you need accelerated growth; grow too slow and you won’t be eligible for the funds you need to keep growing. Yet, your company will have to be equipped for that growth. The shifting size will alter your ability to work as an agile startup, will force you to reconsider a variety of your tools and may even make you update your physical headquarters. This is just one more reason your current company leaders and employees need to be flexible in the nature of their coverage and thorough in the application of their talents. The second major reason that companies fail is due to a shortage of funds. These companies run out of cash because their growth stalls. Stalling growth can kill a startup by making them lose to the competition, lose customers, lose employees and lose passion. Growth Hack Once you’ve gotten your business prepared for substantial growth at a very rapid pace, you will need to focus your attention on increasing that growth. A relatively new term, growth-hackers are professionals that are specifically focused on the rapid growth of startups. Since the second largest reason startups fail is directly related to money shortages (and indirectly related to growth), you will want to focus a lot of your initial attention on increasing growth in creative ways. The growth hacker job is usually done by a professional who stands in the place of a marketer. The growth hacker has to understand your startup’s audience and how to appeal to them for faster growth. The growth hacker will also break your large end goal (increased growth at a rapid rate) into smaller, actionable and achievable tasks, like doubling your content creation, to reach that end goal. Watch the Money In order to help manage the funds that you do have, you will want to establish financial controls to provide your startup with a solid foundation. The internal controls will include accounting, auditing, damage control planning and cash flow. You will need to have disciplined controls to ensure solid growth and help you never run out of cash. You will want to adjust and re-adjust your projections for cash flow, never allowing the cash to run dry. This also means you need to set maximum limits of purchasing authority to keep partners or employees from overspending. You will need to require all payments to be recorded on invoices to support audits and keep spending on track. Additionally, you will want to use an inventory control system and use an edit log to track changes made to your website. Don’t overlook your suppliers as sources of financing or assume that all shipments are accurate or in good condition. Ask for term discounts, pay on time and always create purchasing contracts to ensure your goods are delivered. Measure Your Achievements Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are ways to measure the company’s success in achieving key business goals. You will want to establish KPIs on multiple levels in order to monitor your efforts on meeting your objectives. You will want to use SMART KPIs that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Goals that are too general, don’t have an end date and aren’t within your control are goals doomed to fail. To help your startup succeed, you need to discover the core objectives that will really improve your company status. Work With Us Finally, you need to spend more time growing your business than accounting for it. Remember, a misplacement of funds and lack of cash is the second biggest reason why startups fail. Once you have a product that is worth taking to market and a plan in place to cultivate funding, you will be in a good place with your startup. Don’t let any of these points cause you to lose control of your business with a blind side hit that you could have prepared for.
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