Tax/Accounting
Taxes to Withhold for New Employees
When you hire a new employee, there are a number of steps you must complete. After you verify the employee’s eligibility to work in the United States by completing Form I-9, you’ll need to ask the employee to complete Form W-4 to determine the federal tax withholding amount. Next, you’ll need to record the employee’s…
Read This Article
Is It Time for a “Back Door” Roth IRA?
There are many individuals and families who make a high income and believe they cannot do a Roth IRA. However, there is a part of your financial house you may not have realized existed called the “Back Door” Roth IRA. So, why do so many people miss this great opportunity? According to the Investment Company…
Read This Article
3 Investment Lessons to Teach Your Children
While many families across American are struggling to figure out how to save for retirement and handle their monthly budgets, it becomes more and more important to teach our children important investing lessons for their financial future. 21% of Americans think the best way to save for retirement is winning the lottery. That’s no surprise…
Read This Article
Small Business Retirement Plans Part 1: The SIMPLE IRA
After an owner makes heads or tails at the end of the year, they will usually determine whether or not enough money is left over to set up some sort of long term retirement plan within their business. Since there are so many people setting up individual LLC’s and home based side businesses, it’s important…
Read This Article
Best of Mentoring: Ted Jenkin on the Biggest Tax Mistakes
Ted Jenkin’s mentoring series explores the secrets of tax season. He discusses how to reduce your tax liability, how to prepare a tax plan in advance for the next year, and answers to common tax questions for small business owners. In this session, Ted shares the single biggest tax mistake small business owners make, and…
Read This Article
When Can You Deduct Meals and Entertainment Expenses?
Let’s face the facts. Most small business owners are downright lousy when it comes to keeping high quality records of their meals and entertainment expenses. The only thing most are sure of is that they would like to deduct every trip to Starbucks, every lunch at Taco Mac, and every dinner they ate on their…
Read This Article
Are Comic Books Better Than the Stock Market?
Recently, the Wall Street Journal ran a tremendously powerful article about how bonds have outperformed stocks since 12/31/1999. Over long periods of time, historically stocks are more volatile than bonds but also outperform bonds over the long term. The question is will this trend continue this century? Since 2000, investors have turned to adding an…
Read This Article
Get to Know the Self-Directed Brokerage 401(k)
You would think because I’ve been doing financial planning for 25 years that I would be a flat out 100% advocate for 401(k) plans. With the ability today to put away money on a pre-tax basis in your 401(k) or now the use of a Roth 401(k) there are many different ways to save for…
Read This Article
Estimated Taxes: 5 Frequently Asked Questions
Most of you who earned your first 1099 will likely file Schedule C (sole proprietor) with your first year of income. Some of you may have set up an LLC, but are still uncertain how exactly money gets from the check that got deposited in your bank account to the IRS for federal taxes and…
Read This Article
Midweek Reading: Profitable Businesses and Bad Bosses
Sageworks studied the net profit margin of 16,000 small businesses to identify the 15 most profitable types of small businesses. The most common types tend to be in service industries. What’s the worst kind of boss? A study found that it’s not the always-unfair boss; it’s the unpredictable boss who causes the most stress and…
Read This Article