Returning Value Blog

How to compensate nonfamily employees in a family business.

It’s a safe bet that state tax authorities will let you know if you haven’t paid enough sales and use taxes, but what are the odds that you’ll be notified if you’ve paid too much? The chances are slim — so slim that many businesses use reverse audits to find overpayments so they can seek refunds.

Recent Tax Court cases have demonstrated the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) increase in strict compliance with the substantiation requirements for charitable donations. For example, a $64.5 million charitable contribution was recently disallowed because there was no written acknowledgment from the recipient at the time the return was filed.

Small employers now have a treatment for an Affordable Care Act ailment.

Looking to retire? You may be surprised where some of the top retirement locations are.

If your business is a limited liability company (LLC) or a limited liability partnership (LLP), you know that these structures offer liability protection and flexibility as well as tax advantages. But they once also had a significant tax disadvantage: The IRS used to treat all LLC and LLP owners as limited partners for purposes of the passive activity loss (PAL) rules, which can result in negative tax consequences. Fortunately, these days LLC and LLP owners can be treated as general partners, which means they can meet any one of seven “material participation” tests to avoid passive treatment.

Is this retirement strategy right for you?

The door to Roth IRAs is closed to some high-income taxpayers because of annual limits imposed on contributions. But you may be able to use a “back-door” method that is perfectly legal. This technique may help you preserve more assets for your eventual retirement.

Unemployment tax rates for employers vary from state to state. Your unemployment tax bill may be influenced by the number of former employees who’ve filed unemployment claims with the state, your current number of employees and your business’s age. Typically, the more claims made against a business, the higher the unemployment tax bill.

Business owners aren't as ready to retire as they should be.

With an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), employee participants take part ownership of the business through a retirement savings arrangement. Meanwhile, the business and its existing owner(s) can benefit from some potential tax breaks, an extra-motivated workforce and potentially a smoother path for succession planning.