Posts by Bill Wortman
Consultant’s Corner: Deducting Meal Expenses
Q: I’m a sole proprietor, going out of town on a training trip. For the purposes of deducting my meal expenses, do I have to save all my meal receipts for the whole week, or can I pay myself a per diem? With your business structured as a sole proprietorship, you can deduct your travel…
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Consultant’s Corner: Tax Treatment of Tipped Employees
Question: Are tips received and reported by a waitress taxable for unemployment calculations? Tips reported by a restaurant waitress to an employer are taxable for unemployment tax calculation purposes, subject to certain thresholds and guidelines. Also, there are additional tax treatment considerations for different types of food service businesses and tip and gratuity procedures that…
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Consultant’s Corner: Obtaining UPC Barcodes
Q: How can my business obtain UPC barcodes for products we manufacture? Generally businesses obtain UPC barcodes from GS1 US, the organization that administers the GS1 System of standards in the U.S. Most retailers require their product suppliers to have their own unique identification number in the UPC barcodes found on their products. Only GS1 US can…
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Consultant’s Corner: How to Set Up a Holding Company
Q. I’m interested in setting up a holding company under an already-established LLC. How do I do this? Are there step-by-step outlines and financial projections available? Basically, a holding company is a company organized with the intention of acquiring equity ownership in other companies, so if you have an existing LLC you could generally acquire…
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Consultant’s Corner: Considerations for Engaging Independent Contractors
Q. What is the best way to do payment deduction for 1099 workers for things like equipment, insurance, and other services on an ongoing basis? We do not know the details of your business arrangements with these workers or the precise expenses you want to deduct from their compensation, but payroll type deductions from the…
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Consultant’s Corner: Maximizing Your Credit Score with a Balance Transfer
Q. How does shifting debt from one credit card to another and reducing the credit utilization impact your overall credit profile and credit score? Will it increase, decrease, or stay the same? Credit card utilization is one of the most important factors credit scoring models use to calculate one’s credit score. Generally speaking, there is…
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Consultant’s Corner: S Corp Payroll Taxes
Q: I am the sole shareholder and employee of an S-corp. I want to pay myself a wage or salary. How much should I be deducting from my paycheck? What should I do with what I withhold? Do I need software? S corp owner-officer compensation considerations When an owner of a corporation (C or S…
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Consultant’s Corner: Paying Employees for Training Activities
Q. Do I have to pay employees when I require them to do training activities after hours (e.g., attend seminars, watch videos, study for tests) if it results in a promotion and pay raise after completing the training? We have provided labor law information and general business comments below for your consideration; however, since your…
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Consultant’s Corner: Transitioning to a Commission Pay Structure
Question: How do I go about hiring a sales team to work on commission instead of salary? Is it legal for me to have a person working for me that gets paid nothing? Minimum Wage Regulations The following information from the Department of Labor indicates that outside sales jobs are not subject to minimum wage…
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Consultant’s Corner: Tax Consequences of Adding a Member to an LLC
Q. I have a Single Member LLC. I am in the process of adding a partner, and want to know how the IRS will view this change relative to potential tax consequences. What would be the best entity selection for the new two-partner business? An LLC is unique in that it can be taxed as…
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