Small business ownership is a good way to take more control of your time and puts more money in your pocket. But what is the true cost of small business ownership? Surprisingly, many small business owners are faced with many challenges that may leave them with less time and less money than when they were earning a living working for someone else.
When most people think of foreign accounts, they think of ex-pat living overseas and utilizing banks for the accumulation of their payments. However, many taxpayers may also be subject to the federal Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts or FBAR reporting without realizing it. The United States Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) 114 form is filed alongside taxpayers’ federal tax return and reports information for those that have a financial interest or signature authority over a foreign financial account. Financial interest is defined as: directly owning an account; directly owning or indirectly owning more than fifty percent of a corporation’s voting power and/or shares when that corporation owns an account; directly owning or indirectly owning more than fifty percent of a partnership’s profits or capital when that partnership owns an account, or directly owning or indirectly owning more than fifty percent of the voting power, total value or the equity interest or assets, or interest in profits of any entity that owns an account. It is important to note that disregarded entities that have no other filing requirements may still have an FBAR requirement. Signature authority is more broadly defined as: the authority of an individual (alone or in conjunction with another) to control the disposition of money, funds, or other assets held in a financial account by direct communication (whether in writing or otherwise) to the person with whom the financial account in maintained. Here it is important to note that officers and employees may delegate the filing of Form 114 under this definition to another, but they still remain personally liable for any delinquent filing. It is important to know what accounts your company has stakes in if you have signature authority over any company accounts.
When we are working, taxes are a part of daily life and influence the considerations that we take in our spending habits. Once we start thinking about retiring, we often forget to add in taxes as a component to our thought process. It is important to understand your tax situation in retirement prior to retiring so that you will be ready when the time comes to pay on the taxes due.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 first brought about the concept of taxation on the investment and unearned income for those individuals over thirteen and under seventeen years of age. It is commonly known as the “Kiddie Tax.” Originally the law only covered children over fourteen, as children under that age cannot legally work. This meant that any income of a child under fourteen was derived from dividends or interest from bonds. More recently, the age limits were revised to include children who hadn’t reached age nineteen by the close of the tax year, and full-time students under age twenty-four whose earned income was less than half of their own support, had at least one living parent, and didn’t file a joint return. In the original tax bill, this tax is imposed on children whose investment and unearned income was higher than the annual threshold. Under the old law, the first $1,050 of a child’s income is tax-free and the next $1,050 is taxed at 10%. Furthermore, any unearned income over the $2,100 was taxed at the parents’ rate if it was higher than that of the child. Earned income, like wages from a job, were still taxed at the child’s lesser rate. In other words, the earned income from a job and the unearned investment income up to $2,100, less the standard deduction, was taxed at the child’s rate. This encouraged parents and grandparents to make financial gifts to minors in the form of appreciated stock, assets from taxable estates, income transfers, and inherited IRAs.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) tax reform and transfer pricing questions have become hot topics. However, as publications such as Tax Notes have observed, there is no single simple answer that applies across the board and fits all companies. While companies based in the U.S. are cheering on the new 21 percent corporate tax rate (a substantial relief from the 35 percent rate), local businesses may not have a firm grasp on how changes to transfer pricing could affect theme. (Keep in mind: these changes will affect 2018 corporate tax return filings, but not 2017.) A guiding principle that should be remembered: the effects of changes to transfer pricing guidelines will not impact every small business the same way. The effects must be considered on a case-by-case basis with each client. There are layers of factors that must be considered at the same time when attempting to model these transfer pricing issues.
Tax planning will become more important than ever now that the TCJA has completely transformed the tax code landscape. There are significant implications for tax planning on every level, from individuals to businesses.
The following highlights provide a bird’s-eye-view of what tax planning considerations could be made in 2018 and beyond.
With such sweeping changes coming in with that Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), there has been a fair amount of confusion with how certain deductions are handled. In particular, there are frequent questions about how entertainment and client meal expenses are handled.
If you’ve formed certain habits related to how you handle meals, entertainment, transportation, and parking as it relates to your business and taxes, the time to change those habits has come.
After a lengthy process, Congress and the President did what they had to do in late December 2017 to put into law one of the most significant pieces of legislation in decades: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The Act put into place a number of provisions that will affect Not for Profit Organizations. Note the following areas of tax impact that the provisions of the TCJA brought in relation to Not For Profit Organizations, as noted in Yeo Yeo:
Most articles about the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December buzz about the resulting income tax consequences for individuals and businesses.