Business Taxes

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Healthcare Reform To Cause Real Life Headaches

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As all of use hurtle down the road toward the implementation of the 2010 health care legislation it sure does appear that the health care legislation will certainly create its own health problems... especially for your tax adviser! There is a lot to know about the 2010 health care legislation in order to take advantage of favorable provisions and to avoid or minimize penalties. 

The health care legislation enacted in March 2010—the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), P.L. 111-148, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, P.L.111-152—is almost 1,000 pages long. It involves numerous rules on employer-provided health care, insurance exchanges, insured rights, and the health care delivery system. There are numerous tax provisions. Guidance from the IRS and other government agencies has been emerging since 2010, and much of it is quite lengthy.

The Affordable Care Act includes a variety of measures specifically for small businesses that help lower premium cost growth and increase access to quality, affordable health insurance. Depending on whether

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Online sales taxes back on the Senate's plate

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Time for everyone to 'fess up. Who has ordered goods via the Internet and not paid your state sales tax? As suspected, most everyone is raising their hand. 

Under current law, states can only collect sales taxes from retailers that have a physical presence in their state. While most states do require individuals to report their online purchases when they file their annual tax returns not everyone does.

Shopping online and avoiding sales taxes has indeed saved consumers a lot of money. But it has also created an uneven playing field for brick and mortar retailers versus Internet-based retailers.

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Laissez Les Bons Temps Roulez. And Pay Up!

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Last week's Super Bowl in New Orleans was a week-long "fais do do" featuring world-class food, drinks, and music. Advertisers rolled out their newest, shiniest campaigns and newest, shiniest products (Apparently, Anheuser-Busch thinks they need to remind viewers to drink something called "beer"). Sharp-eyed fans even saw a football game between the AFC champion Baltimore Ravens and NFC champion San Francisco 49ers.

The NFL estimated that the game would bring $434 million to the city. While some economists scoff that the real impact is just a fraction of the official estimate, there's no doubt that the Big Easy was thrilled to host their tenth "Big Game." Most of that revenue goes to the hotels, restaurants, and souvenir vendors who open their cash registers to affluent visitors. (While face value for game tickets was "just" $1,015, the average fan paid $3,000 for his seat.) Millions more goes to the bartenders, waiters, cabbies, and hotel staff that take care of those fans. But some of that money actually goes to the players, too. The NFL gave each of the winning Ravens a ring worth $20,000

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Survey of Tax Preparation Costs

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Nationally, tax preparers charge an average of $246 to prepare an itemized Form 1040 with a Schedule A and a state tax return ($288 in California), according to a survey by the National Society of Accountants.

If a professional tax preparer can catch even one more deduction or credit that a taxpayer may have missed, that can pay for the tax prep fee, the NSA noted in its report.

The NSA collected the tax prep fee information through a biennial survey of tax preparers. The tax and accounting firms surveyed are largely owners, principals and partners of local companies who have an average of more than 26 years of experience. The survey included both Certified Public Accountants as well as non-certified preparers.

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For the Record

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Behind every successful small business story there’s a lot of hard work and administrative effort. If, however, you want your business to really flourish your brilliant ideas are only part of the equation. You first need to be sure your company’s administrative foundation is built solid from the ground up.

A cornerstone you should lay when building your business foundation is great record keeping. While this may not be the most glamorous aspect of running a successful business, it is nonetheless a prerequisite to consistently good results.

What are the advantages of good record keeping?

Accurate and consistent records help you keep track of your business progress. Good records accurately show whether your sales are up or down,

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Some Relief for Farmers & Fishermen

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The Internal Revenue Service announced that it will issue guidance in the near future to provide relief from the estimated tax penalty for farmers and fishermen unable to file and pay their 2012 taxes by the March 1 deadline due to the delayed start for filing tax returns.

What happened? The IRS computer systems were upended thanks to the enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) the first week of January. The ATRA affected several tax forms that are most often filed by farmers and fishermen, including the Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization (Including Information on Listed Property). These forms will require extensive programming and testing of IRS systems, which will delay the IRS’s ability to accept and process these forms. The IRS is providing this relief because delays in the agency’s ability to accept and process these forms may affect the ability of many farmers and fishermen to file and pay their taxes by the March 1 deadline. The relief applies to all farmers and fishermen, not only those who must file late released forms.