When you take a new job as an employee, there is usually a bunch of paperwork to complete to get you set up and settled in. This includes your W-4 tax form, which determines how much your new employer will withhold from each paycheck. If you don’t know or don’t recall what your W-4 says […] Read more “New Tax Benefits Are in the Eye of the Withholder: Make Sure Your W-4 is Correct”
Category: Business taxes
A small business guide to fringe benefits taxes A healthy workforce can significantly contribute to the health of a company’s bottom line. The prospect of increased productivity and decreased healthcare costs provides an incentive for employers to do what they can to promote their employees’ well-being. For many businesses, doing so involves wellness programs that […] Read more “Keeping Your Company’s Wellness Program in Good Tax Shape”
If there existed a place called “The Museum of the American Workplace,” the typewriters, fax machines, and other relics would likely be accompanied by an exhibit of traditional defined-benefit pension plans. Once a bedrock of employer-based retirement savings, traditional pension plans have been under siege and disappearing from the American workforce for decades, replaced by […] Read more “Cash-Balance Plans Can Help Small Business Owners Boost Savings”
If you are a salaried employee working for an established company, your employer likely provides you with a range of perks and programs that you’d have to pay for or take care of yourself if you ran your own business. From that ever-flowing coffee in the break-room to solid health insurance to the slice of […] Read more “SEP IRAs: An Attractive Retirement Savings Option for Freelancers and the Self-Employed”
If you use your car for your small business, it can be a vehicle for significant tax savings. However, to get the most mileage out of the deductions you take for your vehicle and to avoid any IRS roadblocks, you need to know the rules of the road. This includes understanding how to calculate the […] Read more “How to Drive Your Taxes Down If You Use Your Car for Your Business”
Changes to technology, business, and modern life in general happen at a rapid and constant pace in the 21st Century. The law, on the other hand, often plays catch-up to these developments, with statutes or legal precedents which once made sense becoming unworkable or obsolete. The rise, power, and magnitude of the internet and online […] Read more “No Presence Required: Online Sellers Now on the Hook for State Sales Taxes”
The Rolling Stones famously told people to get off of their cloud. The City of Chicago, on the other hand, is perfectly happy for your business to be on the cloud. But you’ll need to pay taxes to the city for the privilege of doing so. Chicago’s so-called “cloud tax” set off howls of opposition […] Read more “The Chicago “Cloud Tax”: What Startups Need to Know”
What you need to know about the Amazon FBA and Ecommerce Sales Tax Amnesty Program Many Illinois businesses that sell goods online also use third-party facilitators in far-flung states to help fulfill orders. While positioning and distributing inventory around the country certainly brings efficiencies such as reduced shipping costs, it can also create a “nexus” […] Read more “Online Sellers: Act Fast to Take Advantage of Sales Tax Amnesty Program”
Sales may be booming at your small business, but if you are not complying with your obligation to pay Illinois state sales tax, your hard-earned revenues could be at risk. Collecting and paying state sales tax is a legal requirement for many – but not all -companies doing business in Illinois. As such, it is […] Read more “Illinois Sales Tax for Small Businesses: Do You Know What You Owe?”
2016 is in the books, which means your start-up’s books are about to take center stage as tax season begins. If you launched your business in 2016, this may be your growing enterprise’s first go `round with tax preparation. As much as you would rather be focusing your attention elsewhere, spending some time getting organized […] Read more “4 Simple Ways to Prepare Your Start-Up for Tax Season”
Early stage and start-up companies can invest in crucial research and development activities while pocketing significant – and now permanent – tax credits to offset the costs of those investments. The PATH (“Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes”) Act of 2015 allows entrepreneurs to commit significant resources to innovation and receive huge tax benefits even if […] Read more “The PATH Act is a Great Step Forward for Start-Up R&D Costs”
The Chicago business scene is reeling from a new cloud tax law that requires some cloud-based businesses to pay a 5.25% fee on top of taxes already owed. As you can imagine, this is painful news to business owners and executives who haven’t accounted for such a commitment — and find themselves scrambling to reckon […] Read more “3 Facts Small Businesses Need to Know About Chicago’s Cloud Tax”