Archives for Newsletter and Updates

Wondering About a 1031 Exchange

Perhaps you’ve heard of 1031 exchanges or like-kind exchanges, but you’re unsure of the benefits or whether you even qualify. The Internal Revenue Code 1031 is available to those who hold a property that qualifies as productive use in business or investments. If you have a piece of investment property, a 1031 exchange allows you to swap it for a similar property. What is a 1031 exchange? This type of exchange happens when an investor trades his or her real property for a similar or “like-kind” property. Investment properties such as shopping malls, residential buildings, stadiums and more can all
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Categories: Industry News and Newsletter and Updates.

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WFY wants to keep our subscribers up to date on the latest news from tax reform, ESOPs, IRS updates, WFY updates, and more. You can stay inform with WFY news by subscribing here to our newsletter or following us on Facebook or Linkedin. Click on the links below to follow us on one or both of the following sites: Facebook: https://www.cpa-wfy.com/www.facebook.com/WFYCPA/ LinkedIn: https://www.cpa-wfy.com/www.linkedin.com/company/wright-ford-young-&-co.
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.

Understanding the Components of a Buy-Sell Agreement

You want to protect your company against disruptive, harmful, and nonproductive owners, which may include divorced spouses, competitors, and disgruntled former employees. And you’re also thinking that your estate needs protection. You decide to enter into a buy-sell agreement while the interests of the parties—your partners and yourself—are aligned or at least not sufficiently misaligned that it would be impossible to discuss the business and valuation aspects of these agreements. You know that when a trigger event occurs, the interests of the parties—buyers and sellers—may diverge and agreement over pricing and terms can become difficult or impossible to achieve. The
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.

Wondering if You’re Eligible for R&D Credits

If you’re a business owner who wants to eliminate the uncertainty in developing a new product or improving an existing one, you’re probably engaging in research and development. Unfortunately for them, many business owners don’t realize that in some cases, R&D expenditures may be eligible for a tax deduction. Or perhaps they think that some expenses are deductible when they’re not. The IRS notes that “R&D expenditures generally include all expenditures incident to the development or improvement of a product.” The term “product” has a wide range in this context and can include: Formula Invention Patent Pilot Model Process Technique
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.

Tax Calendar for the Rest of 2017

There are several dates throughout the 2017 tax calendar you need to remember for your own personal taxes and possibly for your business taxes. September 15 Individuals: If you are not paying your 2017 income tax through withholding (or you will not pay enough tax during the year that way), pay the third installment of your 2017 estimated tax. Use Form 1040-ES (Estimated Tax for Individuals). For more information, see IRS Publication 505 (Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax). Partnerships: If a six-month tax extension was requested/obtained, file a 2016 tax return (Form 1065), and pay any tax due. Provide shareholders with a
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.

The Decision to Buy or Lease for Business Owners

After paying rent for several years, many business owners are not thrilled about helping their landlord build equity in the building and ultimately they regret not purchasing the property from the outset. The principals at Beckner & Associates, a real estate firm in Lenexa, Kansas believe most businesses should own their own property.  The hard questions are when and how.  This is why it’s critical for small-business owners to consider the advantages of owning their property as well as understand the issues accompanying purchase. Advantages Tax deductions such as mortgage interest, property taxes and depreciation can help a small-business reduce the
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.

President Trump’s Tax Reform Plan Proposal

The President’s recently released tax reform plan as detailed below is similar to the proposals made on the campaign trail. For business taxpayers: The top tax rate for all businesses including Partnerships and S Corporations (pass-through businesses) would be slashed to 15%. The current top tax rate is 35% for corporations and 39.6% for pass-through businesses. Upon cash distributions from pass-through entities, a second layer of tax might be imposed similar to dividends now taxed to C corporation shareholders. For Individual taxpayers: The current seven individual income tax rates of 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35% and 39.6% would be
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.

Learn the IRS Red Flags That Can Trigger an Audit

What triggers an IRS tax audit? While the IRS isn’t about to publish a list, there are a number of items that are known to raise the IRS’s interest in a return. What are your chances of being audited? For individuals, it depends on your income. In fiscal year 2013, returns reporting income of under $200,000 stood a 0.88 percent chance of an audit. Those with incomes of $200,000 and more had a 3.26 percent chance. And if your income was $1 million or more, you had a 10.85 percent chance. While audit rates were generally down in 2013 from
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.

How S Corporations Can Save on Federal Employment Taxes

If you own an unincorporated small business, you may be getting fed up with high self-employment (SE) tax bills. One way to lower your SE tax liability is to convert your business to an S corporation. SE Tax Basics Sole proprietorship income as well as partnership income that flows through to partners (except certain limited partners) is subject to SE tax. These rules also apply to single-member limited liability companies (LLCs) that are treated as sole proprietorships for federal tax purposes and multimember LLCs that are treated as partnerships for federal tax purposes. For 2017, the maximum federal SE tax
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.

Factoring Uncertainty into the Value of Your Business

Businesses currently face numerous uncertainties in the marketplace. As President Trump and Republican congressional leaders work toward fulfilling their campaign promises, tax laws could substantially change, the estate tax could be repealed, and various laws and regulations (including the Dodd-Frank and Affordable Care Acts) could be repealed or revised. Interest rates and inflation could both rise. Economic relationships with other countries could also change. Some of these changes could be good for your business, while others could have negative effects on the value of your business. History Lesson Business valuation professionals are no strangers to dealing with market uncertainties —
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Categories: Newsletter and Updates.