Category: Business Owners
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Hire Your Children This Summer: Everyone Wins
If you’re a business owner and you hire your children (or grandchildren) this summer, you can obtain tax breaks and other non-tax benefits. The kids can gain on-the-job experience, save for college and learn how to manage money. And you may be able to: Shift your high-taxed income into tax-free or low-taxed income, Realize payroll…
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How Entrepreneurs Must Treat Expenses on Their Tax Returns
Have you recently started a new business? Or are you contemplating starting one? Launching a new venture is a hectic, exciting time. And as you know, before you even open the doors, you generally have to spend a lot of money. You may have to train workers and pay for rent, utilities, marketing, and more.…
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An Implementation Plan Is Key to Making Strategic Goals a Reality
In the broadest sense, strategic planning comprises two primary tasks: establishing goals and achieving them. Many business owners would probably say the first part, coming up with objectives, is relatively easy. It’s that second part — accomplishing those goals — that can really challenge a company. The key to turning your strategic objectives into a…
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Some Deductions May Be Smaller (or Nonexistent) When You File Your 2018 Tax Return
While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) reduces most income tax rates and expands some tax breaks, it limits or eliminates several itemized deductions that have been valuable to many individual taxpayers. Here are five deductions you may see shrink or disappear when you file your 2018 income tax return: State and local tax…
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Do Your Long-Term Customers Know Everything About You?
A technician at a mobility equipment supplier was servicing the motorized wheelchair of a long-time customer and noticed it was a brand-new model. “Where did you buy the chair?” he asked the customer. “At the health care supply store on the other side of town,” the customer replied. The technician paused and then asked, “Well,…
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A Refresher on Major Tax Law Changes for Small-Business Owners
The dawning of 2019 means the 2018 income tax filing season will soon be upon us. After year end, it’s generally too late to take action to reduce 2018 taxes. Business owners may, therefore, want to shift their focus to assessing whether they’ll likely owe taxes or get a refund when they file their returns…
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Following the ABCs of Customer Assessment
When a business is launched, its owners typically welcome every customer through the door with a sigh of relief. But after the company has established itself, those same owners might start looking at their buying constituency a little more critically. If your business has reached this point, regularly assessing your customer base is indeed an…
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Prepare for Valuation Issues in Your Buy-Sell Agreement
Every business with more than one owner needs a buy-sell agreement to handle both expected and unexpected ownership changes. When creating or updating yours, be sure you’re prepared for the valuation issues that will come into play. Issues? What issues? Emotions tend to run high when owners face a “triggering event” that activates the buy-sell.…
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Close-up on the New QBI Deduction’s Wage Limit
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provides a valuable new tax break to non-corporate owners of pass-through entities: a deduction for a portion of qualified business income (QBI). The deduction generally applies to income from sole proprietorships, partnerships, S corporations, and, typically, limited liability companies (LLCs). It can equal as much as 20% of…
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Ask the Right Questions About Your IT Strategy
Most businesses approach technology as an evolving challenge. You don’t want to overspend on bells and whistles you’ll never fully use, but you also don’t want to get left behind as competitors use the latest tech tools to operate more nimbly. To refine your IT strategy over time, you’ve got to regularly reassess your operations…