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General Business Advice
Surviving the Recovery: How to Obtain Financing in the Post-Financial Crisis World
It's one of the great ironies of economic cycles: There will be some companies that scratch and claw their way through the downturn, managing to survive the worst of the recession, only to fail when the recovery starts to kick in.
The primary culprit is usually a lack of access to capital. Here's a typical scenario: By aggressively managing down its receivables and inventory and putting off replacing fixed assets, XYZ Company has been able to reduce its financing needs and stay in business the past couple of years. Now, things are starting to look up from a business development standpoint, but growing sales requires an investment in fixed asset as well as working capital to fund new receivables and inventory to support the higher level of sales. Read more... |
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Taxes
 Audits of Wealthy Individuals Trending Upward, IRS Oversight Board Reports
The IRS Oversight Board recently released its 2009 annual report to Congress. The report evaluates the IRS's performance during the 2009 fiscal year (FY), enumerates strategic challenges affecting tax administration, and provides measures the agency's performance during FY 2009.
According to the Oversight Board's report, audits of individuals with incomes above $1 million grew 29 percent in FY 2009 compared to FY 2008. However, the number of audits of wealthy individuals represented only 2.58 percent of all individual audits in FY 2009. Read more... |
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Taxes
Q & A: How Do I Claim the Small Business Health Insurance Tax Credit for 2010?
The small business health insurance tax credit, created by the health care reform package, rewards employers that offer health insurance to their employees with a tax break. The credit is targeted to small employers; generally employers with 25 or fewer employees.
In May 2010, the IRS issued Notice 2010-44, which describes the steps employers take to determine eligibility for the credit and how to calculate the credit. Read more... |
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Not-for-Profit
 Not-for-Profit's Failure to File Required Information Returns Can Lead to Automatic Revocation of Tax Exempt Status
Tax laws provide that not-for-profit entities who fail to file required applicable 990 information returns for three consecutive years automatically lose their not-for-profit status. Entities whose tax exempt status has been revoked are subject to regular income tax on their income and donations to the entities will not be deductible as charitable contributions.According to the IRS, many smaller not-for-profits may lose their tax exempt status for failing to file the relatively new 990-N or e-Postcard. These entities (gross receipts of $25,000 or less) were not required to file an information return with the IRS prior to the enactment of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Read more... |
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Taxes
Planning for the 3.8% Medicare Tax on Investment Income
The health care reform package (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) imposes a new 3.8 percent Medicare contribution tax on the investment income of higher-income individuals. Although the tax does not take effect until 2013, it is not too soon to examine methods to lessen the impact of the tax. Read more... |
