Month: December 2018

Time to Send Out Those 1099-Misc Forms

Posted by Kelley DaCunha on December 28, 2018

With tax season right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about closing your books out for the year and preparing all your tax documents.

One of the required tax documents you may need to send out is the 1099-Misc. While this can be a tedious task, especially if you haven’t kept good records on your independent contractors, it is necessary to avoid penalties by the IRS. To help simplify things, here are the basics:

As a general rule, you must issue a Form 1099-Misc to each person to whom you have paid at least $600 in rents, services (included parts and materials), prizes and awards, or other income payments. You don’t need to issue 1099-Misc for payments made for personal purposes. You are required to issue 1099-Misc to report payments you made in the course of your trade or business. You’ll send this form to any individual, partnership, Limited Liability Company, Limited Partnership, or estate.

Some 1099 exceptions

There is a lengthy list of exceptions, but the most common one is payments to corporation. All payments made to a corporation do not typically require a 1099-Misc. This means that if you make payments to a company that is incorporated or to an LLC that elects to be treated as a C-Corporation or S-Corporation, then this would not be reported on a 1099-Misc. Unfortunately, this exception doesn’t apply to payments you made to an attorney.

Another exception is payments to vendors using a credit card or through a third-party payment network. You are not required to send a 1099-Misc for amounts paid electronically. Instead, the credit card companies and payment companies will handle any required reporting. Those electronic payment providers are required under certain circumstances to send out a different version of the 1099-Misc, called the 1099-K, instead.

Get those W-9s from vendors

To make the 1099 process easier, it is best practice for business owners to request a Form W-9 from any vendor you expect to pay more than $600 before you pay them. Form W-9 will give you the vendor’s mailing information, Tax ID number, and also require the vendor to indicate if it is a corporation or not. Having a completed W-9 will give you all the information to complete the 1099-Misc and save you a lot of headaches during tax season.

For the current year’s payments, businesses must send 1099-MISC to the recipients by January 31 of the following year. Businesses also must send copies of each 1099-MISC sent to recipients to the IRS. The deadline to the IRS is January 31. This deadline applies to Form 1099-MISC when reporting non-employee compensation payment in Box 7. Otherwise, paper filings must be filed with the IRS by February 28 and electronic filing by March 31. Also depending on the state law, businesses may also have to file the 1099s with the state.

We have your back

Rather than guessing at the IRS rules and requirements, why not let the KRS CPAs tax experts help? We will help you organize Form 1099 MISC recipient data and prepare all the necessary forms for you to submit. Contact Kelley DaCunha at kdacunha@krscpas.com to get started.

Using Financial Reports to Manage Your Business

Posted by Maria T. Rollins on December 18, 2018

Your financial reports can be far more useful than just a report on the state of your business.

You can use these reports to manage your business, diagnosis what’s going right and wrong, and set goals for how to grow and add to your bottom line.

What are financial reports?

Financial reports are issued at set intervals and go to shareholders, partners, investors, and potential lenders. Using Financial Reports to Manage Your Business They describe your company’s financial strengths and weaknesses and typically contain the following:

Balance sheet: includes statement of liabilities, assets, and business capital
Income statement: reports on a company’s financial performance, how it gets revenue, and how and incurs expenses
Cash flow statement: shows how the changes in the balance sheet affect cash and cash equivalents that flow in and out of the company

Clearly, these financial statements are essential to run your company on financial fact, not hopes and prayers. Keeping these records thoroughly is the first step in running a successful business, being prepared at tax time to pay the IRS, and accurately valuing your company should you decide to sell. Any lender or investor will want to see your financial report before deciding whether they want to hitch their money to your star.

Why GAAP is a smart move

Although some companies generate their own financial statements, many turn to their accountant to formalize their statements according to GAAP, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. It’s a smart move; here’s why:

Accountants can present your numbers so they are easy to read and understand.
If you’re a public company, accountants can provide audited financials that are certified by an independent entity.
Accountants can professionally format your numbers, give the statement a fancy cover, and state that an independent accountant has accepted your numbers.

Hidden gold in financial statements

Financial statements are a great tool to help you answer questions about your company and to manage money and priorities. At a glance, these statements can help you determine critical expenses as well as evaluate whether your financial position is getting better or worse, whether your staff is contributing enough to the bottom line, and whether you’re meeting set benchmarks.

We’ve got your back

We can help you compile and analyze your financial statements. Rather than guessing at financial statements, why not let the experts at KRS CPAs help? Contact us at 201.655.7411 for a complimentary initial consultation.

How to Handle Bad Debt and Taxes

Posted by Maria T. Rollins on December 4, 2018

When can you use bad debt to reduce business income?

How to Handle Bad Debt and Taxes Even when you take the customer to court and you still don’t get your money, there’s a way to make lemonade from this lemon of a customer.

If your business has already shown this amount as income for tax purposes, you may be able to reduce your business income by the amount of the bad debt. Look at bad debt as an uncollectible account—a receivable owed by a customer, client or patient that you are not able to collect.

Bad debt may be written off at the end of the year if it is determined that the debt is in fact uncollectible.

According to the IRS, bad debt includes:

Loans to clients and suppliers
Credit sales to customers
Business loan guarantees

How do you write off bad debt?

Your business uses the accrual accounting method, showing income when you have billed it, not when you collect it.

If your business operates on a cash accounting basis, you can’t deduct bad debt because you don’t record income until you’ve received the payment. If you don’t get the money, there’s no tax benefit to recording bad debt. You only record the sale when you receive the money from the customer.

Under accrual accounting, manually take the bad debt out of your sales records before you prepare your business tax return.

You must wait until the end of the year, just in case someone pays.

Prepare an accounts receivable aging report, which shows all the money owed to you by all your customers, how much is owed and how long the amount has been outstanding.
Total all bad debt for the year, listing all customers who have not paid during the year. Only make this determination at the end of the year and only if you’ve made every effort to collect the money owed to your business.
Include the bad debt total on your business tax return. If you file business taxes on Schedule C, you can deduct the amount of all bad debt. Each type of business tax return has a place to enter bad debt expenses.

It makes sense in any kind of business—no income recorded, no bad debt.

Collection efforts are important

A business bad debt often originates as a result of credit sales to customers for goods sold or services provided. The best documentation is likely to be a detailed record of collection efforts, indicating you made every effort a reasonable person would in order to collect a debt.

Take some solace by claiming a bad business debt deduction on your tax return. Not exactly a guarantee because you need to show that the debt is worthless, but it’s good to know there may be some relief.

We’ve got your back

The tax experts at KRS can help you with important accounting issues such as bad debt. Contact us today at 201.655.7411. And did you know that KRSCPAS.com is accessible from your mobile device and is loaded with tax guides, blogs, and other resources? Check it out today!

Estate and Gift Tax Update: No Clawback After Increased Transfer Limit Expires

Posted by Gerald A. Shanker on December 3, 2018

Estate and Gift Tax Update: No Clawback After Increased Transfer Limit Expires The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”) increased the lifetime estate and gift tax amount that may be transferred free from $5 million to $10 million per taxpayer, indexed for inflation. This increased exemption applies to transfers made between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2025. On January 1, 2026, the lifetime exemption reverts to $5 million.

The IRS recently announced that the 2019 inflation adjusted exemption amount is $11.4 million, which allows a married couple to shield $22.8 million from transfer tax.

Because the increased tax exemption was temporary, there was uncertainty whether gifts exceeding $5 million made under these provisions would be clawed back into the estates of decedents dying after the 2025 expiration of the increased exemption amount. In other words, if you made a $10 million gift in 2025 and died in 2027 when the exemption is $5 million, would your estate owe tax on the $5 million excess?

On November 25, 2018, the IRS answered this question with the issuance of proposed regulations, which indicate that gifts made before January 1, 2026, will not be clawed back to the estates of decedents dying after December 31, 2025. The issuance of these proposed regulations strengthens a tremendous opportunity for the tax-free transfer of wealth, including ownership interests in closely held businesses.

Gifting closely held business interests

For those considering gifting closely held business interests, the process is more complicated than gifting assets such as marketable securities, the fair market value of which is readily determinable. To gift a business ownership interest, a valuation of the business and the gifted interest must be performed by a qualified business appraiser. Although 2025 is distant, those who wait until the last minute may encounter problems obtaining the required business valuation. You may recall 2016, when the IRS proposed rules eliminating valuation discounts in estate and gift valuations. There was a mad rush to get valuation reports completed, with limited capacity to complete this work.

We’ve got your back

If you have a large estate, this is a tremendous opportunity to save transfer taxes, which get to a 40% tax rate very quickly. If your estate includes a closely held business, you would benefit by starting the process sooner rather than later. Once this opportunity is gone, it will be gone for good. Contact your advisors today to get the process going.