Management

Many businesses are familiar with the method of reporting payments to independent contractors to the IRS.  Request a W-9 form from the contractor, keep track of how much you pay them, and any contractor who receives more than $600 in a year gets a 1099-MISC form from the company.  Easy, right? Now imagine you have to apply that $600/year threshold to everyone you pay, including vendors, suppliers, and service providers.  Ridiculou...

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By Guest Blogger Eric Swenson, Managing Director of RSJ/Swenson, an HR and Management Consulting firm with offices in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.   When the phone rings at an HR consulting company late on a Friday afternoon, it’s usually not good news. A former client – the principal of a professional services firm in Henderson – was clearly exasperated.  “I want to fire my assistant right now.  She’s been late 11 times this mon...

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By Guest Blogger Reg Baker, CPA (702) 360-2823 If you are self-employed; beware! The Internal Revenue Service plans to increase audits of the self-employed by checking for unreported or understated income during correspondence audits. Estimates by the IRS show that at least $68 billion of the tax gap (tax gap is defined as the difference between what the IRS estimates should have been collected in taxes and what was actually received; the gap ...

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By Guest Blogger Rich Vallari Southwest Sales Tax Solutions (702) 283-4686 Nevada Use Tax may be an area of exposure for individuals and businesses that purchase goods from out of state. Nevada Use Tax is imposed upon property purchased for storage, use or consumption within Nevada. As a corollary to Nevada Sales Tax, Nevada Use Tax is imposed upon purchases from non-resident vendors and is intended to remove any incentive to avoid Nevada Sales...

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A few weeks ago I broke my left elbow.  "Good thing you're not left-handed" my doctor said with a chuckle.  Well, I am left-handed so that's a big help.  Now what? As a true solo practitioner I had a brief moment of panic - how am I going to work with my arm in a sling?  Now, I realize I'm not laying tile or playing the violin for a living but losing the use of my dominant hand for two weeks really slowed me down.  I fou...

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The holidays are almost over and you're looking forward to the new year.  You may have taken some time off in December to spend with family and friends and your business has taken a back seat.  In a day or two it's time to get back into the swing of things.  For the new year, what should you do with your business? Make sure you've attended to all your corporate formalities - holding an annual meeting and putting your minutes in yo...

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No, it doesn't involve a safety pin or have anything to do with a wedding.  This is one of those often-used yet rarely-explained phrases that every small business owner should understand.   If formed and managed properly, corporations and LLCs are treated as legal entities separate from their owners.  This is why we business lawyers are constantly nagging sole proprietors to form a legal entity.  Doing so allows the busi...

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I often speak with business owners who are ready to hire workers.  While this is a big step for a small business, many owners believe they can avoid paying employment taxes simply by calling these workers independent contractors.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but calling them independent contractors does not necessarily make them independent contractors.  This issue is particularly important now, because the IRS is cracking...

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