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Investing for Tax-Favored Income

May 18, 2021 by admin

Tax-Favored Income - Individual Tax If you are seeking a steady income stream from your portfolio while trying to minimize the tax impact of that income, you may want to look into municipal bonds. Municipal bonds traditionally have had a relatively low default rate and may offer diversification benefits.¹

What They Are

Municipal bonds are debt securities that are issued by states, cities, counties, and other government entities. Issuers use the funds to fund day-to-day obligations and to pay for capital projects.

Municipal bonds come in two basic types: general obligation bonds and revenue bonds. General obligation bonds are backed by the issuer’s taxing power. Revenue bond payments are funded by the revenues from a specific project or source.

Why Buy Municipal Bonds?

The interest investors earn on most municipal bonds is exempt from federal income taxes.² In addition, many states do not tax their residents on interest earned from municipal bonds issued in the state. The tax-exempt feature of municipals may mean that, after taking into account tax considerations, you can earn a better return on a municipal bond than you would from a higher yielding taxable bond.

The value of this tax benefit depends on your tax situation and is highest for investors in higher tax brackets or those who reside in high-tax jurisdictions.

Additional Benefits

You can potentially enjoy several other advantages apart from tax-exempt income when you invest in municipal bonds:

A predictable income stream for the life of the bond;
Marketability should you need to sell the bonds before maturity; and
Choices as to issuer, quality, and geographic location.

Municipal Bonds Are Not Risk-Free

Like all investments, municipal bonds have their own set of risks. The financial health of an issuer and its ability to make timely payments of interest and principal is something you should investigate before buying. Various credit rating agencies, such as Moody’s Investors Services, assess the credit rating of the governmental entities that issue municipal bonds. Generally, issuers with lower credit ratings tend to offer higher yields on their municipals to compensate for the added risk to your principal.

Municipals, like other bonds, are subject to interest rate risk. Rising interest rates cause bond prices to fall. In a period of rising interest rates, selling a municipal bond before it matures may mean having to accept a lower price than you paid for it. In addition, municipal bonds can be impacted by other market forces.

Despite credit, interest, and market force risks, municipal bonds may have a role to play in a carefully structured, diversified fixed-income portfolio. Your financial advisor can help determine whether your portfolio would benefit from holding municipals.

¹Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.

²The interest on certain “private activity” bonds must be included in income for federal alternative minimum tax purposes.

Small Business Health Care Tax Credit

April 20, 2021 by admin

David C. Huff, CPA, PC - Eligible small employers who provide health care coverage to tAheir employees can receive a Small Business Health Care Tax Credit from the Federal government. Here’s what you need to know about who qualifies and how to take advantage of the credit.

What is the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit?

Small business owners make numerous decisions about employee benefits. For example, the type of benefits offered can entice the most desirable candidates to apply for their company’s positions. The right type of benefits can also boost employee retention. An excellent employee benefit to consider is health insurance. If that’s a perk being offered, the small business health care tax credit is a feature of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that may be of interest. The tax credit is limited to employers with less than 25 employees, and it operates as a sliding-scale credit based on the size of the employer. The larger the employer, the smaller the tax credit. The maximum credit is 50 percent of premiums paid (35 percent for tax-exempt employers).

Qualifying small employers can take advantage of the small business health care tax credit for two consecutive tax years providing the business owes no taxes during those years. The credit can also be carried forward or back to other tax years. Any excess amount paid for health insurance premiums over the allowable credit can be claimed as a business expense.

Who qualifies for the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit?

As mentioned above, the small business health care tax credit is for small employers with fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees (FTE). Note that the FTE concept is based on hours worked rather than the actual number of employees.

Other qualifications include that:

The employer pays less than $50,000 a year per FTE in average wages. Determining FTEs and average annual wages should be done by your qualified tax preparer, CPA, or via guidance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The employer offers a qualified health plan to employees through a Small Business Health Options Program Marketplace (SHOP).

The employer pays at least 50 percent of the employee’s premium cost. (Not family or dependent premium cost.)

What about Tax-exempt Organizations?

Tax-exempt organizations are also eligible for the small business health care tax credit. In this case, the credit is refundable to the extent that it does not exceed income tax withholdings or Medicare tax liability. Refunds to tax-exempt organizations are reduced by the current fiscal year sequestration rate. For an explanation of sequestration and how it impacts the small business health care tax credit, consult your tax advisor or accountant.

How do small businesses take advantage of the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit?

To claim the small business health care tax credit, the IRS requires Form 8941 (Credit for Small Employer Health Insurance Premiums) to be filled out and submitted. For small businesses, the amount should be included as part of the general business credit on the company’s federal tax return. The amount should be included on Form 990-T (Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Return) for tax-exempt organizations. Note: this form must be filed for a tax-exempt organization to claim the small business health care tax credit, even if the business does not typically file that form.

Small business owners may find that offering perks like health insurance aren’t beyond their economic reach with incentives like this. As always, a trusted tax professional is the place to turn regarding this and other tax credits for small businesses.

Call us at 770-229-7145 today. We offer a free initial consultation for new clients to find out how they can benefit from our accounting, bookkeeping and tax services for small businesses. We work with businesses in Lawrenceville and throughout the Snellville area.

Not Using QuickBooks Online? What You’re Missing Out On

March 15, 2021 by admin

If you dread every minute of the time you spend on accounting, you should know how QuickBooks Online can change your outlook.

How long would it take you to determine:

What your total expenses for this quarter are?
Whether or not your business is profitable as of today?
How much you’ve sold every month this year?
Which invoices are overdue?

If you’re using QuickBooks Online, you can get answers to all those questions—and more—in the time it takes you to sign on to the website.
That’s not an exaggeration. The first thing QuickBooks Online displays is what’s called its Dashboard. This is the site’s home page, which contains an array of charts and account balances that provide a quick overview of your finances. Click on an element here—say, a checking account balance—and you’ll be able to drill down and see the details behind it (in this case, an online account register). Click on the Expense graph, and a transaction report opens.

Your First Hours with QBO

QuickBooks Online is not one-size-fits-all. Its setup tools help you customize it to meet your own company’s needs.

QuickBooks Online works like other online productivity applications you may have used. It uses toolbars and buttons for navigation, drop-down lists and blank fields for data entry, and clickable links to open new related screens to trigger actions. Which is to say, the site is easy to use once you understand its structure. We can walk you through the early steps that are required, which involves tasks like: Using the provided setup tools to customize the site. Connecting QuickBooks Online to your bank and credit card company websites so you can work with transactions. Creating records for your customers, vendors, and the products and services you sell (you’ll be able to add new ones as your business grows). Learning about QuickBooks Online’s pre-built reports. Familiarizing yourself with the site’s workflow. Making the transition from your current accounting system.

How You’ll Benefit

Once you’re comfortable using QuickBooks Online, you’ll discover what millions of small businesses have already learned, that the site helps you:
Get paid faster. You can sign up with a payment processor to accept credit cards and direct bank withdrawals, which can speed up your customers’ responses to invoices. You’ll also be able to accept payments when you’re out of the office on your mobile devices.

Minimize errors. Once you enter data, QuickBooks Online remembers it. No more duplicate data entry that can cause costly mistakes.

Find any detail in seconds. QuickBooks Online has powerful search tools that allow you to find what you’re looking for quickly.
Better service customers. Because your customer profiles include transaction histories, you’ll be able to deal with questions and problems quickly and accurately.

Bill time as well as invoice products. QuickBooks Online supports sales of time-based services with capable time-tracking tools.

Improve your customers’ and vendors’ perception of you. Your business associates will know that you’re using state-of-the-art technology by the forms you share and the customer service you provide.

Save money and time. It does take some time to make the transition to QuickBooks Online. But you’ll quickly make that up with the hours you’ll save on accounting tasks, and be able to concentrate on tasks that improve your bottom line.

Be prepared to grow. Because all of your financial data is organized and easily accessible, you’ll be able to quickly generate reports that help you plan for a more profitable future. Banks and investors will need some of these if you decide to seek financing.

Mobile Access

Although you may do the bulk of your accounting work on your desktop or laptop, you’ll have access to many of the site’s features on your smartphone. Your home page displays both an abbreviated version of your browser-based dashboard and a list of recent transactions. You can view, edit, and build new customer, vendor, and product or service records. Snap a photo of a receipt to document an expense and look up or create invoices, estimates, and sales receipts. Record payments, view critical reports, and add notes. Of course, your mobile data is always synchronized with the site itself.

QuickBooks Online lets you do much of your accounting work when you’re away from the office with its mobile app.

Happy to Help

QuickBooks Online was designed for small businesspeople, not accountants. But it includes features that are best used in conjunction with our consulting services, like advanced reports, payroll, and the Chart of Accounts. In fact, the site makes it easy for us to have access to your data so we have the ability to monitor and troubleshoot.

We’ve helped countless sole proprietors and small businesses move their accounting operations to QuickBooks Online, and we’ve seen the difference it’s made in their productivity as well as their attitude toward financial management. Contact us, and we’ll be happy to do the same for you.

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Still doing your accounting manually? You’re spending unnecessary hours and experiencing needless frustration. Talk to us about QuickBooks Online.

Did you know you can do much of your accounting work and accept customer payments on your smartphone? Let us introduce you to QuickBooks Online.

Are you often away from the office? QuickBooks Online lets you handle accounting tasks from anywhere there’s an internet connection. We can tell you how.

Does your manual accounting system make it hard to keep track of customers and inventory? QuickBooks Online can organize and manage both. Contact us.

Call us at 770-229-7145 to learn more about our QuickBooks setup and support services.

Do You Have a Business Continuity Plan? You Should

February 20, 2021 by admin

Group of people having meeting and disscusing at the office What if disaster strikes your business? An estimated 25% of businesses don’t reopen after a major disaster strikes.¹ Having a business continuity plan can help improve your odds of recovering.

The Basic Plan

The strategy behind a business continuity (or disaster recovery) plan is straightforward: Identify the various risks that could disrupt your business, look at how each operation could be affected, and identify appropriate recovery actions.

Make sure you have a list of employees ready with phone numbers, email addresses, and emergency family contacts for communication purposes. If any of your employees can work from home, include that information in your personnel list. You’ll need a similar list of customers, suppliers, and other vendors. Social networking tools may be especially helpful for keeping in touch during and after a disaster.

Risk Protection

Having the proper insurance is key to protecting your business — at all times. In addition to property and casualty insurance, most small businesses carry disability, key-person life insurance, and business interruption insurance. And make sure your buy-sell agreement is up to date, including the life insurance policies that fund it. Meet with your financial professional for a complete review.

Maintaining Operations

If your building has to be evacuated, you’ll need an alternative site. Talk with other business owners in your vicinity about locating and equipping a facility that can be shared in case of an emergency. You may be able to limit physical damage by taking some preemptive steps (e.g., having a generator and a pump on hand).

Protecting Data

A disaster could damage or destroy your computer equipment and wipe out your data, so take precautions. Invest in surge protectors and arrange for secure storage by transmitting data to a remote server or backing up daily to storage media that can be kept off site.

Protecting Your Business

If you think your business is too small to need a plan or that it will take too long to create one, just think about how much you stand to lose by not having one. Meet with your financial professional for a full review.

Source/Disclaimer:

¹Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, www.sba.gov/content/disaster-planning.

Family Loans — Tax Considerations

January 21, 2021 by admin

Image of two young businessmen interacting at meeting in office Obtaining financing to start or expand small businesses and buy homes can sometimes be difficult. If your child or grandchild is having a hard time getting a loan from a commercial lender, you may be willing to help out by lending the money yourself.

Have a Written Agreement

Start by putting the loan agreement in writing. This may seem like an unnecessary formality, but without a written loan document, the IRS could argue that the transaction was a gift instead of a loan, potentially creating gift tax issues.

Having written documentation is also important in case the borrower fails to repay all or part of the loan. In that situation, you’d want to be able to show you’re entitled to write off the unpaid amount as a nonbusiness bad debt.

Charge Adequate Interest

The second step is setting an interest rate. While there’s no rule against interest-free loans or loans that have below-market interest rates, in a family context they can lead to tax complications. If you don’t charge sufficient interest, the difference between the amount of interest you actually receive (if any) and the amount you should have received — referred to as “imputed” interest — is taxable to you.

You can avoid the imputed interest rules by charging interest at the appropriate “applicable federal rate” (AFR). The IRS publishes AFRs monthly for loans of different maturities. These rates have been relatively low recently, reflecting the current market interest rate environment. For example, in November 2019, the annual AFR (using a monthly compounding assumption) was:

1.68% for a short-term loan (three or fewer years)
1.59% for a mid-term loan (more than three but no more than nine years)
1.94% for a long-term loan (more than nine years)

These are the minimum rates for intra-family loans initiated in November 2019. For a term loan, the rate can remain fixed for the life of the loan. For a demand loan (one that gives you the right to demand full repayment at any time), you have to charge a floating AFR to avoid imputed interest issues.

Exceptions

When you lend your child or grandchild no more than $100,000, the amount that can be added to your taxable interest income under the below-market interest rate rules generally can’t exceed the borrower’s net investment income. Even better, you won’t have to report any imputed interest if the borrower’s net investment income amounts to $1,000 or less. You can also sidestep imputed interest on small loans of no more than $10,000 (all outstanding principal) provided the borrowed funds aren’t used to buy or carry income-producing assets.

Call us at 770-229-7145 today to discuss how we can help you manage your tax obligations and reduce your tax burden or request a free consultation and we’ll contact you right away.

5 Resolutions QuickBooks Online Users Should Make for 2021

December 10, 2020 by admin

Businessman And Businesswomen Having Informal Meeting In Office New year, new challenges, and the potential for new successes. Here are five ways you can improve your financial management in 2021.

A painful year is drawing to a close. We’ll still be dealing with COVID-19 and a struggling economy in early 2021, but there’s hope on the horizon. There’s a lot you can’t control about the difficulties facing our country, but you can take control of your corner of it, especially in terms of how you manage your finances.

If you’re already using QuickBooks Online, you know how it’s solved the paperwork confusion of the past. But are you taking advantage of all of its capabilities? As you turn your digital calendar to January, consider expanding your use of the website to set yourself up for success in the new year. Here are five features to explore if you haven’t already.

Practice Proactive Reconciliation

QuickBooks Online’s Banking screen display registers for the bank and credit card transactions that have been posted by your banks. Do you review these frequently? It’s easy, and it’s important. It will save time when you do your monthly reconciliations with your bank statements. Hover over Transactions in the toolbar and select Banking. You can see some of your transaction management options in the image below.

When your statement comes and you’re ready to reconcile, you can use QuickBooks Online’s tools that take you step by step through the process. Hover over Accounting in the toolbar and select Reconcile. Let us know if you need help with reconciliation or with managing downloaded transactions.

Start Accepting Online Payments

This is probably the #1 way to encourage customers to pay you faster. When you set up a merchant account through QuickBooks Payments, you’re be able to accept credit cards, debit cards, and ACH bank transfers. Your invoices will include a Pay Now button and will contain the information your customers need to pay electronically. Their funds will go into your bank account.

There are other ways they can pay you directly. You can take their card numbers over the phone. You can also get a free card reader from Intuit and swipe their cards on your mobile device. And you can set up recurring payments that will occur automatically. There are no base fees – you just pay per transaction.

Set Weekly and Monthly Report Schedules

You may just run reports in QuickBooks Online as you need them. Some reports, though, should be created every week at a minimum, like Accounts receivable aging (detail or summary), Accounts Payable Aging, Open invoices, and Unpaid Bills. There are many others, but you need to keep a close watch on what you owe and who owes you.

It’s important to run some other reports on a monthly (or, sometimes, quarterly) basis, including Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, and Statement of Cash Flows. Rather than just providing snapshots of where you stand with money coming in and going out, they give you a more comprehensive view of your finances that can help you make better business decisions. They’re complex and often difficult to analyze, though, which is why QuickBooks Online categorizes them as For my accountant. We can create and interpret these for you.

Expand QuickBooks Online’s Features by Using Apps

QuickBooks Online is generic enough that it can be used by a wide variety of small businesses. But that flexibility may mean that it’s not quite robust enough in one area or another, like inventory management or time tracking. There are hundreds of apps that you can integrate with QuickBooks Online to fill in the gaps. Some are free. Click on Apps in the toolbar. Again, we’re available to help if you need assistance.

Evaluate the Cost-effectiveness of Your Vendors

It’s easy to stick with the same old suppliers because it’s a hassle to change. But so many companies are hurting because of the pandemic that you may find you can get what you need for less. To go over your whole list, hover over Expenses in the toolbar and click on Vendors. You might clean up your list while you’re at it. Click the down arrow at the end of each row and select Make inactive if you haven’t ordered from specific suppliers over the last year.

As we said earlier, we’re available to meet with you and explain any of the concepts discussed here in more depth. It’s still a hard time for so many small businesses, and we want to be of help wherever we can.

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Don’t have a budget set for your business? QuickBooks Online has tools that can simplify the process of creating one.

When you’re creating a budget, it’s helpful to distinguish between essential and non-essential expenses. QuickBooks Online has tools that can help you, including budgeting for necessities first.

When was the last time you shopped for new suppliers? Now is a good time to see if you could save some money and help with your budget. QuickBooks Online has many tools that can help both you and your business budget.

Did you know QuickBooks Online allows you to use existing income and expense data to create a budget? Here is how this is done.

Call us at 770-229-7145 today. We offer a free initial consultation for new clients to find out how they can benefit from our accounting, bookkeeping and tax services for small businesses.