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Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act

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As was expected, today President Obama signed the most recent jobs bill passed by Congress, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act.  While many businesses are hesitant about hiring new employees within the current economic climate, "this jobs bill should help make their decision that much easier," President Obama said during the bill signing.

While I am happy to see some effort being made to help small businesses let us be sure to keep this HIRE Act in perspective. First, unless you were already considering hiring another employee the Act is not going to offer you enough hard dollar incentive to make a hire. For example, if you were to hire a qualified previously unemployed worker and pay her $30,000 this year your tax savings would amount to $1,860. Plus, if you kept her on the payroll for a full 52 weeks you would also get a tax credit of $1,000. Your total potential savings is $2,860.  You can see that while nice to have, it is not likely these tax breaks by themselves will create much hiring. But, for all you business owners out there currently debating whether you need to add staff, this just might help you pull the trigger and make the hire.

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Worry no more, the government comes to our rescue... the HIRE Act

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President Obama is widely expected tomorrow, Thursday March 18, to sign into law the $17 billion Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment, or HIRE Act that passed the Senate on Wednesday on a bipartisan vote of 68-29.

What, you have doubts? The Senate has approved legislation that provides businesses with a payroll tax exemption for hiring new employees.  Certainly this legislation is a positive step but let’s face it, employers are not going to run out and start hiring the unemployed for the sake of hiring, at least not unless there is a 100% refundable tax credit. After all, would you spend $100 to save a little over $6? Of course not. But, for those businesses that may be on the brink of hiring the tax benefits in the HIRE Act could make a real difference.

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Family Business Transition Dilemma – Who Gets The Baton?

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Family business transition planning is frequently predicated on the assumption that someday the parents will be passing on the baton to one (or several) of their own children. What more satisfactory way of crowning their lifelong efforts and hard won success than to pass on the legacy to their own kin so they too can continue to enjoy and prosper from it.

However, children are never clones of a parent and generations also vary one from another so that we can, these days, point to enough commonalities among age cohorts to be able to characterize this person as a baby boomer, that one as a Gen X and another as a Gen Y.

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Use financial ratios to review your Company's results

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Financial ratios can be helpful tools in understanding your company’s financial health. They are a benchmark by which you can compare your business to industry standards and analyze changes over time.

In fact, benchmarking and comparing to your competition is so important to business success that I provide all my business clients with an annual report on the benchmarks and results for their particular industry or profession. Without this it can be like traveling back roads without a map.

One warning though. If you begin comparing your results and calculating your ratios with incorrect accounting information from your business you just may wind up making the wrong decisions. All of the financial review and performance measurement we can discuss is of no use if your business's basic

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Ten Facts about Mortgage Debt Forgiveness

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Yes, the economy is periodically showing some signs of improvement but it is clear the country has a long slow up hill climb ahead before most of us feel the worst is behind us. This is particularly true for families still struggling with what to do with their real estate mortgages when the value of their property is no where close to what they owe on it.

In these situations more and more property owners are finding it makes more sense to take the hit to their credit reports and walk away from the offending property and let the mortgage holder deal with the loss. Setting aside the ethical discussion surrounding this, if you do have mortgage debt forgiven you walk into a whole new complex tax arena. If you're not careful and plan appropriately

Where is my federal tax refund?

While we can all debate the wisdom of having paid or withheld enough taxes to be receiving a refund, the fact is when we do get a federal tax refund it sure is nice to have it arrive.

The Internal Revenue Service has been kind enough to offer a schedule of when you can generally expect your 2009 tax refund based on your filing date. The schedule covers your filing of your refund tax return all the way through the extended due date of October 15, 2010.

To review the refund timing chart or print your own copy click here for the chart in PDF format.