Author Archives: kristynhill

Health Market Delay for Small Businesses – The day before Thanksgiving the United States Department of Health and Human Services announced another delay in the use of government websites to enroll in health insurance plans under the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  According to the announcement, small businesses will not be able to use the government sites to enroll in health insurance plans until November 2014. This was the second such delay for small businesses. These exchanges were originally scheduled to be available for enrollment on October 31st and had already been delayed once to a new deadline … Click to Read More

Did the IRS send mistakenly Send Refunds to Identity Thieves?  According to a recent Treasury report, the Internal Revenue Service distributed more than $4 billion in falsified refunds last year with some of the money going to addresses in foreign countries such as Ireland, Bulgaria and Lithuania. The IRS sent 343 refunds to a single address in Shanghai and a total of 655 tax refunds to a lone address in Lithuania. In the United States, the cities of Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago and Houston were the locations receiving the most fraudulent refunds, with Miami topping the list. J. Russell George, the … Click to Read More

A court ruling from December of 2012 could result in many small business investors in California owing large sums of money in back taxes from a practice now deemed unconstitutional.  Five years ago many small business investors in California were promised a tax break.  The investors were told that if they invested in specific types of businesses, they would receive a large tax deduction.  Now these same investors are being told that they could receive tax bills that for up to $250,000 for deductions that were granted under tax laws that were on the books at the time the investments … Click to Read More

Small businesses suffer from recent shutdown. Although government employees suffered the most from the recent government shutdown, many small business owners also suffered a hard hit. Any small business that interfaced with in any way with government agencies or government services probably experience some adverse economic effects. These included loss of revenue and lost opportunities, some of which can never be regained. Here are some specific examples of small business that were impacted by the recent shutdown: Lakeside Group Associates is an executive search firm in Cleveland, Ohio that recruits employees for government aerospace and defense contractors. When the government … Click to Read More

Small business owners are the latest victims of recent changes to the time constraints and provisions of Obamacare. Although others have certainly encountered problems with the implementation of this new healthcare directive, it seems that small businesses have recently been dealt more than their fair share of stumbling blocks. Obamacare delays for small businesses:  According to a recent directive from the U.S Health and Human Services Department, small businesses will currently have to sign up for Obamacare via snail mail or fax. Although they had been reassured otherwise, they have been told that they will not be given the capability … Click to Read More

In 2015, major tax provision changes will take place due to Obamacare. These changes will impact employers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and those in other health related industries. This blog will serve as a business tax guide to the key provisions of Obamacare. Health Insurance Tax Credit for Small Businesses:  In 2015, a company with less than 25 full time employees that pays an average yearly wage of less than $50,000 will be offered a tax credit based on a percentage of the health insurance premiums it pays for its employees. Tax-exempt businesses will qualify for a lesser credit. A for-profit small … Click to Read More

A new analysis from the Tax Policy Center predicts that the number of households who aren’t paying any federal income tax has dropped. It seems fewer households are paying no federal income tax. The analysis further projects that this percentage will continue to decrease in the coming years due to the expiration of provisional tax cuts that were ratified during the Great Recession. The termination of these cuts means that incomes have slowly started to increase which, in turn, has meant an increase in tax bills. Most believe that this trend will continue, at least in the near future. This site … Click to Read More

Here are some easy and basic ways to lower your tax bill. These are both business and personal tax tips.  Claiming Rents and Personal Housing Occasionally people rent out individual rooms in their house while living there themselves. While you can normally take a simple rent deduction when you have a renter, it becomes much more complicated than that when you own and live in a house where someone is renting a room. In this case, you can deduct home repairs and utilities (in addition to the 3.64% you can claim for depreciation). However, a key point to remember is … Click to Read More

A coalition named Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) has recently held events in sixteen states for the purpose of pressuring Congress to close corporate/business tax loopholes. It is their premise that removing the ambiguities in the corporate tax code will help to prevent impending budget cuts to vital services and benefits. The ATF, which has more than 325 state and national chapters, is organizing the events at this time in anticipation of the conflict on budget and tax issues which is expected to occur in Congress shortly after the Labor Day recess. A report called The High Price of Tax … Click to Read More

  The Internal Revenue Service has recently consolidated the procedure for requesting relief for businesses that make late elections to become S corporations. The new streamlined relief comes in the form of Revenue Procedure 2013-30 which was drafted by David Kirk and published earlier this month. This new procedure combines the provisions of several existing revenue procedures and, in some cases, extends the time period under which relief for late S corporation elections can be granted. Procedure 2013-30 offers shortened approaches for taxpayers who request relief for late S Corporation elections, Small Business Trust elections, Qualified Subchapter S Trust elections, … Click to Read More