Returning Value Blog

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced in very late January the 2019 annual adjustments to the civil monetary penalties for a wide range of benefits-related violations. Legislation enacted in 2015 requires annual adjustments to certain penalty amounts by January 15 of each year. Because of the government shutdown, however, the 2019 penalties weren’t published by this deadline and, thus, have a later-than-usual effective date.

If you own a business and don’t have a tax-advantaged retirement plan, it’s not too late to establish one and reduce your 2018 tax bill. A Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) can still be set up for 2018, and you can make contributions to it that you can deduct on your 2018 income tax return.

It’s probably safe to say that most employers have created some form of an employee handbook. But just because your organization has one, that doesn’t mean it’s functional.

Some employers reimburse new hires for moving expenses when they relocate. Others reimburse existing employees whose jobs are moved to other locations. Maybe you do both. Now that there’s no tax deduction for moving expenses incurred by individuals, and no more tax-free treatment for employer moving-expense reimbursements, you might wonder: Does it still make sense to reimburse employees for moving expenses?

The accounting rules for reporting stock compensation have been expanded. They now include share-based payments to nonemployees for providing goods and services, under recent guidance issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).

More than a year after sweeping federal and state tax reform were enacted, businesses of all sizes are still wrapping their arms around the changes.  Additional guidance and regulations have been issued nearly every month—indeed, change is the new normal. Strategic tax planning now is key to lowering businesses’ total tax liability.  Read on for eight top planning opportunities and considerations businesses should review as part of their 2019 strategy. 

Advantages of 529 education savings plans.

If you run your business from your home or perform certain functions at home that are related to your business, you might be able to claim a home office deduction against your business income on your 2018 income tax return. There are now two methods for claiming this deduction: the actual expenses method and the simplified method.

In the simplest of worlds, an employee effectively performs a set of tasks on an agreed-upon schedule and you pay him or her a fair wage. End of story. But, in the real world, employers need to craft a compensation philosophy: a formal statement outlining their belief system and approach to all the different ways they compensate employees. Here are four compensation philosophy questions to ponder:

Like most businesses, you’ve probably experienced a significant increase in the number of customers who prefer to make cashless payments. And you may be wondering: How does the acceptance of these types of transactions affect the auditing of your financial statements?