Returning Value Blog

How to achieve financial success

No one can predict with any great certainty the financial outlook for 2016, especially with the national elections looming in November. Nevertheless, here are 10 top money management moves that make sense for the rest of this year.

The FASB recently issued ASU 2015-17 as part of its Simplification Initiative. The amendments eliminate the guidance in Topic 740, Income Taxes, that required an entity to separate deferred tax liabilities and assets between current and noncurrent amounts in a classified balance sheet. Rather, deferred taxes will be presented as noncurrent under the new standard. It takes effect in 2017 for public companies and is available here. Early adoption is permitted, including for December 31, 2015 year-end financial statements.

The Affordable Care Act has the potential to affect all businesses.  Failure to comply with the ACA can result in substantial penalties.

Every business owner should address how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will impact their business. There are reporting requirements in effect for the 2015 calendar year as well as potential employer health insurance coverage offering requirements, both having substantial fines for noncompliance. To be prepared you need to know the following:

Designed to encourage investment in innovation, R&D tax credits can sometimes be overlooked by fabricated metals products manufacturers, when in fact they are accessible to many small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the sector. It’s important to note that a company need not necessarily be producing an end product to qualify. Often, fabricated metals producers are engaging in projects aimed at implementing design, manufacturing or process improvement at the parts level. While many may not feel that such projects fall under the scope of R&D, many of the investments in improvement made by fabricated metals manufacturers to stay competitive in fact qualify as R&D from the government’s perspective.

As financial statement preparers approach the end of 2015, they should be aware of accounting rule changes and their effects on how to prepare 2015 financial statements.

How can you get your business off to a good start in 2016? There are no guarantees, but it certainly helps to plan ahead. Specifically, you should draw up a business plan before year-end to put into motion on January 1. If you have developed a plan in prior years, you can refer to it when developing a new one, but you do not necessarily have to be wedded to what you have done in the past.

Essentially, a business plan is a blueprint for running the company, but a comprehensive plan can do much more than that. Here are several typical benefits you might realize from a business plan:

After fighting the rat race for years, many Americans dream of an early retirement. For instance, you might be contemplating such a move on your own, or perhaps your company is preparing to make you an early retirement offer. Whether or not you can afford to retire early, or really want to, may depend on the answers to the following questions.

Don’t think that year-end tax planning is strictly limited to individuals. A calendar-year business can also keep taxes for 2015 to the bare minimum with some astute planning at the end of the year. Here are five techniques for consideration by small-business owners.

As another year draws to a close, the tax moves you make or don’t make, can have a significant impact on your 2015 tax return. Fortunately, there are plenty of tax-saving opportunities available to individual taxpayers, even if certain tax provisions are not resolved until the waning days of the year. Here are seven ways you may be able to reduce your tax bill for 2015.