Returning Value Blog

Auditors use various procedures to verify the amounts reported on your financial statements. In addition to reviewing original source documents and comparing trends from prior years, they may reach out to third parties — such as customers and lenders — to confirm that outstanding balances and estimates agree with their records. Here are answers to questions you may have about audit confirmations.

Contingent liabilities reflect amounts that your business might owe if a specific “triggering” event happens in the future. Sometimes companies are unclear when they’re required to report a contingent liability on their financial statements under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Here are the basics.

Tax season is here and so are the fraudsters. Tax ID fraudsters are using stolen Social Security numbers to file phony tax returns and steal tax refunds.

Many people who launch small businesses start out as sole proprietors. Here are nine tax rules and considerations involved in operating as that entity.

Alabama will hold its ninth annual Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday, beginning Friday, February 21st through Sunday, February 23rd. The Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday allows shoppers to stock up, tax-free, on items needed to prepare for a weather emergency or natural disaster. 

An array of tax-related limits that affect businesses are annually indexed for inflation, and many have increased for 2020. Here are some that may be important to you and your business.

Are you an employer who owns a business where tipping is customary for providing food and beverages? You may qualify for a tax credit involving the Social Security and Medicare (FICA) taxes that you pay on your employees’ tip income.

Construction contractors, professional service firms, specialty manufacturers and other companies that work on large projects often struggle with job costing. Full cost allocations are essential to gauging whether you’re making money on each job. But some companies simply lump indirect job costs into overhead or fail to use meaningful cost drivers, thereby skewing their profit reports. Here’s what you should know to avoid this pitfall and get a clearer picture of your company’s profitability.

Before you jump headfirst into the year-end financial reporting process, review the role independent audit committees play in providing investors and markets with high-quality, reliable financial information.

This year, the optional standard mileage rate used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business decreased by one-half cent, to 57.5 cents per mile. As a result, you might claim a lower deduction for vehicle-related expenses for 2020 than you can for 2019.