You may not owe taxes, but you may still need to fill out tax forms.
You may need to file and pay taxes even if you’re paid under the table.
Don’t forget about state and local taxes.
You may be able to claim job-related expenses.
Consider using a tax professional.
Save for a rainy day.
I see a lot of folks forgetting #1 and #4 (sometimes because they’re ignoring #2). Please take a moment to read the article and perhaps consult with a tax professional — if you meet with them in the off-season, they’ll probably be open to a short consultation/ training session, so that you’re armed to file these forms yourself come tax-time. A little investment now will get you a lot of savings (and compliance with tax agencies) in the future.
The application period is open for the Milwaukee/Fullerton TIF Small Business Improvement Fund (SBIF), a City of Chicago grant program available to commercial and industrial businesses, intended to help small business owners renovate, expand or start-up businesses along commercial and industrial corridors. Small business owners or property owners that lease to businesses in the Fullerton/Milwaukee TIF district can receive reimbursement grants of up to $100,000 for commercial projects to cover the cost of eligible remodeling work. The application period is open 6/6 – 7/9/18 at 5 PM.
Big news yesterday, as the Internal Revenue Service announced it has a draft available of the new Form 1040 for the upcoming tax year. The aim is to consolidate all three previous types of the form into one, so that all individual taxpayers are using the same form. The IRS notes:
The new Form 1040 uses a “building block” approach, in which the tax return is reduced to a simple form. That form can be supplemented with additional schedules if needed. Taxpayers with straightforward tax situations would only need to file this new 1040 with no additional schedules.
The National Association of Tax Professionals predicts that about 30% of taxpayers will file the 1040 alone (with no supporting schedules), and fully 65% will file either the 1040 alone or the 1040 and only one other schedule. The remaining folks will file with more than one schedule.
The IRS is working with the tax community to get feedback on the new form by mid-July, and hopes to release a second draft in August. Tax professionals can submit comments regarding the draft to their tax preparer associations or to WI.1040.Comments@IRS.gov.
Chicago folks who are interested in the licensing requirements needed when Starting a Food Business should consider attending the upcoming introductory course by The Hatchery, a small food business incubator.
Tickets are only $40 and the course is being held at the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago, 320 N Damen Ave. 1st Floor.
If you attend and find it valuable, please share in the comments below!
It feels a little odd to consider the in-app calculator within QuickBooks a “hidden feature”, but in a recent QB Power Hour with Hector Garcia, he mentioned that it’s the one feature that clients are most stunned and enthused by… so I figured I should mention it here as well so that my own clients (and maybe colleagues) can make use of it if they’re not already aware of its power or existence.
In particular, I think that folks may not know the same calculator functions that exist in QB Desktop also exist in QB Online, since that wasn’t always the case. But it does support not only simple calculations, but also order of operations punctuation, such as the ability to calculate quantities in parentheses before any other arithmetic.
Where you have existing processes that work well, look for an app that will complement those processes. When things aren’t working so well, look for apps that will help overcome the roadblocks you are facing and then refine the process around the new app.
I’ll be heading to the Scaling New Heights conference tomorrow and my main goal is to identify existing apps that excite my colleagues, choose a few that might work well for our firm and clients, and I’ll be keeping the pointers from this article in mind.
If you have favorite apps for your industry, for personal productivity, or for accounting and bookkeeping or tax integrations, please share in the comments below.
I discovered this program from the back-end, as I have a couple of clients who participate as “trade allies” — small businesses request a free energy assessment and then ComEd pays for part of the contracting work to bring workplaces up-to-date to be more efficient in energy use. It’s a win-win-win for the small business needing the upgrades, the small business doing the contracting work, and the environment. The savings on energy costs alone make it worth the while, but the incentives certainly help with motivation.
So, just in case you weren’t already aware of the program, here it is. Sign up today for a free energy assessment, with no strings attached.
And as a reminder, I don’t accept payments for blog posts! This is a program I’ve seen many of my clients benefit from, and thought I should spread the word to others.
As most of my blog readers know, I’m an active supporter of cooperatives as a positive force both economically and socially. I’ve worked as an educator with both NCBA (National Cooperative Business Association) and NSAC (National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives) and they each offer fantastic opportunities for education in the area of accounting for cooperatives. Especially well-suited for accountants who might be looking to expand their scope of offerings into the intricacies of cooperatives, this upcoming basic course by Bill Erlenbush promises to be worth the $56 and 60 minutes of your time.
This one-hour course is one of the modules contained in the NSAC Basic Accounting Course, taught at an introductory-basic level. The course will describe exactly what a cooperative is, definitions, etc. It will discuss the rich history of cooperatives, and will point out cooperatives in the community today, many of which most of us did not realize were cooperatives. We will discuss the several ways coops are classified, and will end with a discussion of the benefits of cooperation. — NSAC Cooperative Learning Network – What is a Cooperative?
I’ve been meeting with clients lately who are extremely concerned about many of the confusing elements of the new tax law. And it is confusing — many CPAs are holding off on issuing any recommendations that aren’t reversible, waiting for a technical corrections bill and IRS guidance.
But one less confusing provision of the new tax law is clear — entertainment expenses are no longer deductible. Period.
The old law allowed a 50% deduction for entertainment expenses if business was discussed before, during, or afterwards. Starting January 1, 2018, unless the event has a direct business purpose, it cannot be deducted at all.
A few practical takeaways here:
If entertaining a client or sales connection, take them out to dinner instead of an event — and be careful that there is no entertainment component, like live music or theater.
Promotional events are still 100% deductible as marketing and advertising, so make sure your company has branding, signage, program recognition and advertising, etc. as a part of the gig.
There are rare situations where entertainment isn’t “Entertainment”, because a direct business purpose exists. For example, a luthier might take a potential client to hear a performance played on her instrument for the express purpose of illustrating the sound in a concert hall. The IRS might accept situations such as these as having a “direct business purpose” — but proper documentation will be essential.
This doesn’t mean you can no longer make business deals on the golf course or at the ball game — just make sure not to write them off on your tax return. There are other non-deductible expenses that are still a cost of doing business (such as parking tickets or other penalties), and Entertainment expenses should be tracked accordingly.
I am embarrassed and delighted to say that I had no idea how difficult things used to be for women in my field. Not to say that I never deal with gender issues in the workplace, or that I haven’t been the victim of discrimination or condescension due to being female — but most of the tax conferences I attend are 50/50, and the accounting tech conferences actually lean toward majority-women. It’s simply not the same world it used to be in my industry.
In all sincerity: many thanks to those that made it possible for me to be clueless. I’m proud to bear witness to your struggle now that I know more!
From the 
Big news yesterday, as the Internal Revenue Service announced it has a draft available of the new