Unlike Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loans, EIDLs are not forgivable—borrowers have to pay them back. But they have a low 3.75 percent interest rate and a long 30-year repayment period. Borrowers can repay them at any time without penalty. To obtain an EIDL, borrowers must sign a loan authorization and agreement, a note, and a security agreement filled with fine print. Many of these provisions could have a significant impact on the borrower’s business for the life of the loan—up to 30 years. It...

How do you keep it? You might wonder: What do we mean by “keep it”? In tax law, there’s no free lunch. The Section 179 deduction comes with “recapture strings” attached. When you claim your Section 179 deduction, you make a deal with the government to keep your business use above 50 percent during the “designated” depreciation periods (five years for vehicles). One Sad Story In 2018, Jerry Jackson claimed a $53,000 Section 179 deduction on a qualifying pickup truck. In 2020, Jerry’s...

Suppose you just received that lovely letter from the IRS telling you that you are the subject of an IRS audit. What one record receives special attention? What one record can create a nightmare for you? What one record makes the IRS suspect that you are the keeper of lousy records? Think of the record people most hate keeping. That’s the one we are talking about. You have probably guessed what that record might be. Red-Flag Record for the IRS Examiner Once your audit examination...

You may not have considered the choices you have for deducting the assets that you buy for your business.  To create some perspective, let’s say you have seven employees who now work at least two days a week from home because of COVID-19. To facilitate this working at both the office and the home, you purchased seven laptop computers at a cost of $2,179 each. You have five choices for deducting the computers: 1.)De minimis expensing2.)Bonus depreciation3.)Section 179 expensing4.)Modified...

The Payroll Protection Program (PPP) rules—they keep a-changin’.  During the past month, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued a new set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and a new interim final rule, which in combination create the following good news for the Payroll Protection Program (PPP): More forgiveness. The $20,833 cap on corporate owner-employee compensation applies to cash compensation only. It’s not an overall compensation limit as the SBA had stated in its prior...

2020 has been a very stressful year, and even if we “forgot” the COVID pandemic, the sheer volume and scale of the disasters we’re seeing is daunting.   Fires in California, hurricanes in the Deep South, and civil and social unrest in middle America are all causing stress and worry.  Now, even as an accountant and tax specialist, we are truly concerned about the health and wellbeing of our people, so we created a simple list of items you absolutely NEED to have handy (and in...

Let’s face it, one of the single biggest stressors we face is watching the balances on our retirement accounts.  A few dollars up, a few dollars down each week (or each day), and each of these collectively tiny swings feels like it’s taking years off our lives.   So what can you do if your retirement has taken a hit this year?  First of all, take a deep breath.  Retirement savings is a long trek, not a short one, so it is CRITICAL you keep that in mind.   At...

If you’re considering moving to a different state, taxes in the new state may be the deciding factor—especially if you expect them to be lower.  Consider All Applicable State and Local Taxes If your objective is to move to a lower-tax state, it may seem like a no-brainer to move to one that has no personal income tax. But that’s not a no-brainer!  You must consider all the taxes that can potentially apply to local residents—including property taxes and death taxes.  One...

What is the unpardonable sin in an IRS audit? Suppose you just received that lovely letter from the IRS telling you that you are the subject of an IRS audit. What one record receives special attention? What one record can create a nightmare for you? What one record makes the IRS suspect that you are the keeper of lousy records? Think of the record people most hate keeping. That’s the one we are talking about. You have probably guessed what that record might be. Red-Flag Record for...

Let’s be honest – most of us change jobs at a far greater pace than our parents.  As our global economy centers more and more on “gigs” and contractors, and companies like Uber and Upwork focus on outsourced labor (even CFOs are now becoming part-time jobs, so don’t think the “corner office” is exempt from this), older employees often find they are in the job market – even if they didn’t want to be. With that in mind, and with the ever-present software now scanning resumes before a human...