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Legal Alerts - Legal Reliefs
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Quick Contacts
508-771-6272
401-486-4002
[Cell]
gordon@gacarpenter.com
401-453-1700
[RI Office]
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Greetings!
Ah, Spring!
We hardy New Englanders know that March 21st date is a myth. Spring is actually some afternoon in May -- like right now!! And Summer, a good weather and business Summer we hope, is just around the corner.
But with Spring, it's time for Spring Cleaning, not your house but your business!! And you know the longer you let it go, the worse it gets!
This Legal Alert will give you some tips for efficiency. Use them now.
 
And please also visit me on Facebook.
Gordon |
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Good Tax News -- Really!
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Sometimes Washington does something right! Here's the deal. If you add a new employee this year who was "unemployed," you as the employer will not have to pay the 6.2% Social Security tax on the employee's 2010 wages. Of course there is a new W-11 form the employee must provide and there are some likely inapplicable limitations. But knowing that you may save $6.20 on every $100 of wages paid may provide the incentive needed to get some of our men and women back to work.
I can direct you to the W-11 form and advise on the requirements -- call or e-mail me.
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 | IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION | |
You likely are aware that Massachusetts has the nation's strictest law designed to reduce the threat of identity theft.
I have been a small part of implementing the prevention effort [and why there has not been a Newsletter for some months].. I have provided written guidelines and actual Written Information Security Plans [WISPs] for many local businesses -- and EVERY business with a single employee needs to have a WISP -- there are NO exceptions.
I hope to do more. Collaborating with Secure Networks, a local IT company, we seek to assess a company's risk areas and advise how to reduce the risk that company will be a source for identity theft -- an event that would be very damaging to their reputation and possibly their pocketbook. If you are interested in complying with the law, and you should be, learn more on our special website.
And there's a source of stored data that likely includes personal information which you never even thought about. Your copy machine; your fax machine!!
Today, most of these have hard drives in their electronics that store images you feed into it. What's the point? If you trade-up or replace your office equipment, demand that the hard drives or other memory storage devices be given to you for destruction, yes destruction, as required by law!
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| WORKER MISCLASSIFICATION, VILLAIN OF THE TAX GAP!!! |
You've been warned on multiple occasions, even in my Newsletters, to stop playing the "not an employee, he/she's an independent contractor" game. Now there's an additional risk -- it's called the "tax gap." With federal deficits soaring and states struggling to balance their budgets, everyone is "vacuuming the dust kittys from the corners" to find new or uncollected revenues. Enter the worker misclassification argument.
The feds are pursuing this with more staff and a realization that it's easier and more efficient [read bang for the buck] to audit a small business than a large one -- and small businesses tend to more freely misclassify a worker!
Won't happen to me, you say? Tell that to Paula Routly, co-owner of a small Burlington, VT alternative newspaper who got a $317 bill from the Vermont Labor Dept who said she had to pay for the unemployment insurance for one of her free-lance delivery drivers.
It will be quite easy for Massachusetts to run a successful effort. Repeating from a prior Newsletter, "Under Massachusetts
law, M.G.L. c. 149, section 148B, any person performing service for
another will be
considered an employee and cannot [repeat, cannot]
be classified as an independent contractor unless each of three specific factors
is met,
not one or two but all three." And I remind you that the Massachusetts Attorney General has repeatedly
expressed the intention to be aggressive in enforcing this law.
Hopefully, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Plan to include a clean up of the tax gap villain as part of your Spring clean-up.
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| RECORD DESTRUCTION & RETENTION
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Before long, every business wonders where to put the "old stuff" or [horrors] paying to rent space to store it! The more efficient alternative is to weed it out -- throw away [shred or incinerate] all that accumulated paperwork that really is no longer needed. If you're wondering what may safely be discarded, call me as I have guidelines to share.
What about all the "paper" at home? I have guidelines for that as well. You can forget about safekeeping a deed -- what's on the county records is all that counts! And please, DO NOT put wills or trusts into a safe deposit box!!
Finally, be sure trusted employees or advisors [for your business] and family or trusted friends [for your personal papers] know where you have so carefully kept those important documents.
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My website has much more information about my practice and credentials as a seasoned business attorney and counselor. Just click on the link below and you'll be there.
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REMEMBER --
Other Legal Alerts and Legal Reliefs and all prior Newletters are available at my website.
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This general information is not intended to be nor should it be treated as tax, legal or accounting advise.
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