Consultant’s Corner
Consultant’s Corner: Why You Need an Employee Handbook
Question: I run a small business and have less than 10 employees. Why should I have an employee handbook? An effective employee handbook that lays out all company policies can be a great benefit to your small business. Although there’s no kind of legal requirement forcing you to develop a handbook, experts have found that…
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How New Tax Cuts Impact an LLC
Q: How do the new federal tax rules impact the taxation of my LLC business? The recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) took effect January 1st, 2018 and will have a significant impact on the federal income tax treatment of business pass-through entities, which for the TCJA are defined as sole…
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Consultant’s Corner: Finding Corporate Sponsorship
Question: How should I approach potential sponsors for an event that seats about 550 people per month and reaches thousands through online marketing? Is there such thing as a sponsorship proposal form? If so, what type of information should be in there that would be intriguing to a sponsor? Each sponsorship opportunity will be different…
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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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