Even after your 2024 federal return is submitted, a few nagging questions often remain. Below are quick answers to five of the most common questions we hear each spring. 1. When will my refund show up? Use the IRS’s “Where’s My Refund?” tracker at IRS.gov. Have these three details ready: Social …
Corporate business owners: Is your salary reasonable in the eyes of the IRS?
Determining “reasonable compensation” is a critical issue for owners of C corporations and S corporations. If the IRS believes an owner’s compensation is unreasonably high or low, it may disallow certain deductions or reclassify payments, potentially leading to penalties, back taxes and interest. …
Corporate business owners: Is your salary reasonable in the eyes of the IRS?Read More
Ensure you’re properly documenting your charitable donations
If you’re charitably inclined and itemize deductions, you may be entitled to deduct charitable donations. The key word is “may” because there are requirements you must meet. One such requirement is the need to substantiate charitable gifts with proper documentation that will satisfy the IRS. Indeed, …
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Business owner? A buy-sell agreement should be part of your estate plan
If you hold an interest in a business that’s closely held or family owned, a buy-sell agreement should be a component of your estate plan. The agreement provides for the orderly disposition of each owner’s interest after a “triggering event,” such as death, disability, divorce, termination of …
Business owner? A buy-sell agreement should be part of your estate planRead More
Surprise IT failures pose a major financial risk to companies
It’s every business owner’s nightmare. You wake up in the morning, or perhaps in the middle of the night, and see that dreaded message: “We’re down.” It could be your website, e-commerce platform or some other mission-critical information technology (IT) system. All you know is it’s down and your …
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Taking the long view of long-term care insurance
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that roughly 70% of Americans age 65 or over will require some form of long-term care (LTC). How will you pay for these services? For many people, the possibility that they’ll incur significant LTC expenses is one of the biggest threats to …
Marketing your B2B company via the right channels
For business-to-business (B2B) companies, effective marketing begins with credible and attention-grabbing messaging. But you’ve also got to choose the right channels. Believe it or not, some “old school” approaches remain viable. And of course, your B2B digital marketing game must be …
Understand your spouse’s inheritance rights before getting remarried
One of the golden rules of estate planning is to revisit your plan after a significant life event. Such an event may be getting married, having a child, going through a divorce or getting remarried. If you’re taking a second trip down the aisle, you may have different expectations than when you …
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Could conversational marketing speak to your business?
Businesses have long been advised to engage in active dialogues with their customers and prospects. The problem was, historically, these interactions tended to take a long time. Maybe you sent out a customer survey and waited weeks or months to gather the data. Or perhaps you launched a product or …
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Assets with sentimental value may require more thoughtful planning than those with greater monetary value
As a formal estate planning term, “tangible personal property” likely won’t elicit much emotion from you or your loved ones. However, the items that make up tangible personal property, such as jewelry, antiques, photographs and collectibles, may be the most difficult to plan for because of their …
Timelines: 3 ways business owners should look at succession planning
Business owners are rightly urged to develop succession plans so their companies will pass on to the next generation, or another iteration of ownership, in a manner that best ensures continued success. Ideally, the succession plan you develop for your company will play out over a long period that …
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Why some businesses choose to execute a pivot strategy
When you encounter the word “pivot,” you may think of a politician changing course on a certain issue or perhaps a group of friends trying to move a couch down a steep flight of stairs. But businesses sometimes choose to pivot, too. Under a formal pivot strategy, a company consciously changes its …
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Can a split annuity strategy help you achieve a balance in retirement?
You may be currently facing this dilemma: You’ve retired (or you’re approaching retirement) and, while you want to maintain your current standard of living, you also want to preserve as much of your wealth as possible for your family. This balance can be difficult to achieve, especially when your …
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Health care self-insurance and stop-loss coverage: What business owners need to know
For businesses, cost-effectively sponsoring a health insurance plan for employees is an ongoing battle. In the broadest sense, you have two options: fully insured or self-funded. A fully insured plan is simply one you buy from an insurer. Doing so limits your financial risk while offering the …
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Address mental health care in your estate plan with a psychiatric advance directive
It’s not uncommon for people to address the fact that they may one day become physically incapacitated and unable to make critical medical decisions themselves. They do this by including health care powers of attorney or advance directives in their estate plans. But what if your family has …
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B2B businesses need a cohesive strategy for collections
If your company operates in the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, you’ve probably experienced some collections challenges. Every company, whether buyer or seller, is trying to manage cash flow. That means customers will often push off payments as long as possible to retain those dollars. …
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When providing for your children, one trust may be better than two
One of the most effective ways to provide for your children in your estate plan is to set up trusts for them. Trusts offer many benefits, including the flexibility of when and how to make distributions, protection of assets from beneficiaries’ creditors and protection of assets from being divided as …
When providing for your children, one trust may be better than twoRead More
Take care of a loved one who has special needs with a special needs trust
When creating or revising your estate plan, it’s important to take into account all of your loved ones. Because each family has its own unique set of circumstances, there are a variety of trusts and other vehicles available to specifically address most families’ estate planning …
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Small businesses can help employees save for retirement, too
Many small business owners run their companies as leanly as possible. This often means not offering what are considered standard fringe benefits for midsize or larger companies, such as a retirement plan. If this is the case for your small business, don’t give up on the idea of helping your …
Small businesses can help employees save for retirement, tooRead More
Lines may blur when it comes to estate and family business succession planning
Owners of closely held businesses typically have a significant portion of their wealth tied up in their enterprises. If you own a closely held business with your relatives involved, and don’t take the proper estate planning steps to ensure that it lives on after you’re gone, you may be placing your …
Lines may blur when it comes to estate and family business succession planningRead More
Applying for a commercial loan with confidence
Few and far between are businesses that can either launch or grow without an infusion of outside capital. In some cases, that capital comes in the form of a commercial loan from a bank or some other type of lender. If you and your company’s leadership team believe a loan will soon be necessary, …
April 15 is the deadline to file a gift tax return
Not only is April 15 the deadline to file a 2023 income tax return and pay any taxes due, it’s also the deadline to file a gift tax return. If you made substantial gifts of wealth to family members in 2023, you may have to file a gift tax return. It’s due by April 15 of the year after you make the …
What businesses can expect from a green lease
With events related to climate change continuing to rock the news cycle, many business owners are looking for ways to lessen their companies’ negative environmental impact. One move you may want to consider, quite literally, is relocating to a commercial property with a “green lease.” Increasing …
An art collection is a special asset to account for in an estate plan
Some assets pose more of a challenge than others when it comes to valuing and accounting for them in an estate plan. Take, for instance, an art collection. If you possess paintings, sculptures or other pieces of art, they may represent a significant portion of your estate. Here are a few options …
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Business owners: Think carefully about fringe benefits related to smartphones
You’d be hard-pressed to find many employees these days who don’t use smartphones for some aspect of their jobs. Even someone who works behind a point-of-sale device may use a phone to interact with a supervisor or log work hours. For business owners, this situation creates both problems and …
Business owners: Think carefully about fringe benefits related to smartphonesRead More
Reasons why naming a family member your executor might not be a good idea
The executor’s role is critical to the administration of your estate and the achievement of your estate planning objectives. So your first instinct may be to name a trusted family member as executor. However, that might not be the best choice. Duties of an executor Your executor has a variety …
Reasons why naming a family member your executor might not be a good ideaRead More