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Continue reading Exploring Alternatives to Social Security and Medicare During Retirement
I’ve discussed the economic stimulus payments, but there’s a vagary that many not realize. And, the deadline is Wednesday- at noon (no idea if that is EDT or PDT).
We have a slew of clients who have a tip jar. (Yes, these are coffee shops, by and large.) And, our practice has been to count the funds in the tip jar every hour, and divide those funds among each person working that hour equally. We then add those funds to the gross amounts which are subject to income and FICA taxes (and subtract the tips distributed as “cash advance”).
I am sure you know that part of our services is to prepare payroll and tax submissions on behalf of clients. (Our fees are better than ADP and Paychex- and we go beyond simply providing you paychecks.). But, we also refuse to pay the taxes on behalf of our clients. A few of them are pretty annoyed- at first.
Several years ago (ok, a little more than a decade ago), I was contracted to manage the finances (and rehabilitation) of a multi-site, multi-unit apartment complex that stretched from Baltimore to Hagerstown to Silver Spring (all in Maryland) to Loudon (Virginia). During that time, we increased occupancy to over 95% in three of the units- and kept the fourth at 80%, so we could rehab a section of units at a time.
I was reading some ideas from a law blog recently as to what these lawyers were doing now that a lot of their clients are disappearing. Some of these losses were attributed to the downturn in the economy, others to the retirement of their rainmakers, and others gave (or had) no clue as to the reasons. But, I did find some great ideas I thought I’d pass on- because these work for more than just lawyers. More importantly- they are the things we all should be doing…OFTEN!
About 30 years ago, we were expanding our transportation company (which was related to our health care business) in California. And, given our philosophy of looking for folks who needed a helping hand, we hired two folks whom we trained to become truck drivers for our firm. They both worked 20 hours a week to start. Once they acquired enough hours to take the tractor-trailer license test (and passed), we began using them for 35 to 42 hours a week. When, all of a sudden, one of the drivers announced he was quitting.
The guaranteed way a company owner can get himself (or herself) in deep, almost unrecoverable, trouble with the IRS is to not pay employment taxes. Employment taxes are the withholdings of income tax, Social Security, and Medicare from an employee’s paycheck. The IRS is forever on the lookout for companies that fail to pay these taxes on time.
Today, I am going to talk about taxes- but for the small business owner. Like it or not, taxes are going to go up- not for everyone, but small business is a ripe target. Part of the reason is that small business- just like big business- has found ways (or paid advisors to find ways) to pay the minimum amount of axes required.
Continue reading Congress (and the IRS) is going after S Corporations and their owners