My colleagues at the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives are offering a 75-minute webinar on Tuesday, August 23 to discuss the requirements and pitfalls in claiming Employee Retention Credits (ERC). The cost is free to members and $56 to non-members.
The ERC has been in the news quite a bit lately due to aggressive tactics by non-CPA firms claiming to be able to apply for these credits on behalf of business owners. (We’ll have an upcoming blog covering that topic.) However, the rules regarding whether or not a business qualifies are complex, and best performed by a knowledgeable professional.
During this webinar, the panelists will provide an overview of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) and how to qualify for ERC including:
• Partial and full shutdowns as they apply to the ERC • What constitutes “gross receipts” • Safe Harbors • Rules for Large Employers • Unsettled matters and how the IRS is examining ERC claims
Participants are encouraged to submit questions in advance at info@nsacoop.org and during the session.
If you are an accountant or bookkeeper calculating these credits for your clients, or a business owner considering a DIY approach, please make sure you are thorough about obtaining education and resources before submitting anything to the IRS. You can expect their enforcement division to ramp up audits in the next few years.
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
This webinar should be of special interest to our readers, as it’s an interview with two small business owners who will walk through the experience that they had working with SCORE to access capital through different methods of financing, in different rounds throughout the stages of their business growth. For me, hearing “how we did it” from other small business owners is not only educational, but inspiring, and I hope this upcoming webinar will offer you both angles.
Wednesday, 8/10 Webinar at 3:00 PM How We Did It: Raising Capital for Your Business Presented by Score Chicago (Part of a Score Chicago Funding Webinar Series)
In this webinar, you will learn how two Chicago entrepreneurs, former SCORE Chicago clients, and founders of Tiesta Tea Dan Klein and Patrick Tannous raised 4 rounds of financing totaling over $8 million. Tiesta Tea has also used many different methods of funding including friends/family, factoring, purchase order (PO) financing, SBA loans, Angel Investors, and VC funding. Dan and Patrick will share their experiences raising capital during the different growth stages of their business.
Tiesta Tea is a company that used SCORE Chicago to get started in 2010. Dan and Patrick know first-hand how important mentorship is for aspiring entrepreneurs and established businesses seeking mentoring from SCORE to accelerate the growth and success of their businesses. The founders, Dan Klein and Patrick Tannous, started with nothing but an idea to sell tea, and fast-forward 10 years, they have sold over $54MM of their product. They sell their teas in thousands of retail stores, including Walmart, Jewel, Mariano’s, Amazon, Costco and many more.
The Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection (BACP) Entrepreneur Certificate Program is a free and optional program available to attendees of the free BACP business education workshop and webinar series.
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
On June 27th I woke to find dozens of notifications from MyTax Illinois in my email inbox — one for each and every client of ours who files sales taxes.
Just in case you got one or more of these yourself and haven’t logged in to check it out yet, here’s what it looks like —
It doesn’t give you much to go on — just a sort of “hey we saw you’re registered to file sales taxes, so you should read these four bulletins which may or may not apply and you’re unlikely to understand anyway” note.
But, if you dig through the bulletins you’ll find two in particular that could be important to a small business owner. One of them I covered in a recent blog post — Illinois Grocery Sales Tax Reduced by 1% For The Next 12 Months — it’s only likely to apply if you sell groceries that qualify for the low-tax food rate.
If you want to skip my rant and go to the section on what a small business owner should do next, scroll down to the next line in bold.
While I’m super-supportive about giving working families a break on prices — this is a terrible way to do it! It costs small businesses more in accounting and bookkeeping work than it could possibly save anyone.
It requires a small business owner — already overworked and without sufficient staff, and having in most cases barely survived the pandemic and still scraping to get by — to paw through every item in their Point of Sale system and change sales tax on an item-by-item basis. It’s hard enough to change sales tax amounts on a department-by-department basis… but item-by-item? Honestly, it will cost them so much more to figure this out than anyone will ever save on this “holiday”. And worse are the folks who don’t keep inventory in an automated system. They are stabbing in the dark and have no way to implement it at all. I just have to hope they don’t get audited by IDOR.
To make matters worse, the guidance says that the retail selling price per clothing item must be less than $125, and that supplies must be used by students in the course of study, in order to qualify. It’s simply impossible to program any Point of Sale system to create a sales tax discount on certain dollar-amounts of products and not others, or to change the sales tax rate on an individual item for some sales but not others (i.e., only after finding out that it will be used in the course of study at school). If small business owners are going to be able to comply with any of these rules, it will have to apply to all sales of a certain product — not just some sales.
This type of well-intentioned law — like the bag tax, carbonated beverage tax, and ill-fated sweetened beverage tax — has my full support from a social perspective. But they are so poorly-worded, difficult-to-enact, and misguided, that no small business could ever properly implement any of them cost-effectively.
This is just like that. Well-intentioned but completely out of touch and indicative that our representatives don’t have a clue what’s going on “on the ground”.
I received a hilarious text from a client when she read the IDOR notice:
Texts from a client when she read the IDOR notice.
As an aside, I wrote my state rep and begged him not to support this kind of thing in the future, and to work with other elected officials to find more reasonable, sustainable ways to provide relief to hard-working families, without crushing small business owners along the way. His response was truly wonderful, and he apologized profusely for not involving stakeholders in the last-minute rush to get it passed.
“Looks like we really did a terrible job here. You’re absolutely right that this was an example of government decision making at its worst. I think in the abstract these are largely good ideas, but looking at that guidance, it’s clear that implementation is going to be a nightmare. You have my word that I’ll try to do a better job of asking questions like “yes but is this feasible?” or “how much of an administrative burden is it placing on our small business owners?” when we’re contemplating things like this in the future.”
What does this mean for you, the small business owner? What are your next steps?
Follow these steps, in order, to determine what actions to take:
Step 1 – Check this list to see if you sell any products on it:
The great news is, that if you don’t sell any of these products, then you do not need to make any changes or do any extra work. However, I’d recommend rehearsing the phrase, “the sales tax holiday is only for back-to-school clothing and supplies, and as we don’t sell any items that would qualify, we aren’t able to offer you the 5% sales tax discount.” Because for sure there are going to be people who think that anything they buy during the 10-day period will be at a lower sales tax rate.
If you do sell products on the list above, then move on to the next step.
Step 2 – Identify all the products you sell that are on the list above. If any of the clothing items are priced at $125 or more, cross them off. Then make sure none of the remaining products you just identified are on this list of non-qualifying items:
Step 3 – Look at the items that made it onto your “qualified” list, and ask yourself who your clients generally are that buy these items — are they likely to be used for school? If the answer is definitely no, then again — no worries. You do not need to make any changes or do any additional work. (Except rehearsing that phrase from above and teaching it to your staff.)
However, if the answer is maybe or likely, then we’ve got some work to do.
Step 4 – If the answer is maybe, then you have to decide whether it’s worth your effort to go through your Point of Sale system and change the tax rate on each product that qualifies (and then change it back 10 days later) — or if you don’t have a POS system, if it’s worth it to figure out how to manually change the tax rate on each sale of one of these items, and to track how many were sold during the period of Aug 5-14. Because an alternative might be to just leave everything at the higher sales tax rate unless a customer specifically states that they are buying it for school use (you could even ask each customer who buys one of these items during that period if it’s for school use or not) — and then just give them a discount and write down the sale somewhere so that later on when you file your ST-1, you know how much to enter onto the Schedule GT so you get your money credited back to you — yes, I know that this means your cash drawer and your Sales Tax Payable accounts will be off. You can just have your accountant book an adjustment after the correct amount of tax is paid to the state. Or, in all honesty, you could even give them the discount out of the business’ own pocket and it would still be cheaper than reassigning tax rates in your POS system.
Step 5 – On the other hand, if the answer is likely, then you need to:
Create a new tax rate in your POS system called “holiday rate” that is 5 points lower than the current sales tax rate (in Chicago, 10.25% — so the new rate will be 5.25%). Hopefully your system allows enough rate slots to accommodate this. If not, maybe consider the approach outlined in Step 4.
After close of business on August 4th, assign that new rate to all the items that qualify.
Make a note to reassign the old rate to all those items after the close of business on August 14th.
Be sure you can run a report of all the items that sold at this rate, since you’ll need to declare that total on a separate tax form (Schedule GT) when you prepare your monthly sales tax return (ST-1).
If you do not have inventory or non-inventory sales-taxable items stored in your POS system — or if you have a cash register instead of a POS — then you’ll need to look at how you charge sales taxes to each item and come up with a plan that mimics the approach I just outlined. For example, if your system allows you to manually edit the sales tax rate on a sale-by-sale basis, you could keep a list of all the qualifying items by the register, and simply adjust for each qualifying sale. The problem is that only some of the items get the discounted rate, so if this is how your system works, you’d have to run a separate sale for all the qualifying items and then one for the non-qualifying items. You also will need to keep a list of all the sales made at the lower rate, since as mentioned above, you’ll have to note those on a separate schedule when you prepare your sales tax return. And if your system doesn’t allow you to manually edit the sales tax rate, you’ll have to take the approach I mentioned earlier, whereby you just give the customer a discount and adjust the inaccurate books later, hoping it all comes out in the wash.
Step 6 – Once the time comes to file your monthly (or quarterly) ST-1 sales tax return, you’ll notice there is an additional form– Schedule GT, Sales and Use Tax Holiday and Grocery Tax Suspension Schedule. This was created for retailers to report sales of qualifying items sold during the sales tax holiday. Per IDOR:
Form ST-1 has not changed. Retailers should continue to report their normal taxable sales, including sales of qualifying items, on Lines 4a and 4b, Lines 6a and 6b, or Lines 12a and 12b, of Form ST-1 and will then use Lines 2a and 2b, Lines 3a and 3b, or Lines 4a and 4b on Schedule GT to calculate a credit against the tax reported on those lines for the tax they are not collecting during the state sales tax holiday.
So you’ll report the sales of these items, on which you charged the lower tax amount, on Schedule GT and it will flow onto your ST-1 as a credit so that you’re not remitting more to the IDOR than you collected.
Whichever approach you take, make sure to rehearse the phrase, “the sales tax holiday is only for back-to-school clothing and supplies, and as we don’t sell any items that would qualify, we aren’t able to offer you the 5% sales tax discount.” Lots of folks read the headlines, but not the small print.
Hopefully this was all clearer to read than it felt to write it! And please make sure your state representative knows how you feel about having had to think about it in the first place. Small businesses have enough to deal with these days!
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
Speaking with Mark was a truly gratifying experience — he was kind, organized, interested, and sincere, and asked great questions. As a sneak preview of a few good ones:
How did you end up being interested in Music from an education standpoint, and how did you end up moving towards accounting?
At what point did you decide to further your education with the Masters in Financial Analysis and why that particular major? Was it difficult to return to school?
How has your practice evolved over the years? I see you use the DBA The Dancing Accountant. Was that always the case, or did that come later? Is it related to a niche, or more about branding?
You’ve been listed on the 50 Top Women in Accounting list. Congratulations! How does that make you feel? Is it acknowledgement of hard work, even more responsibility, honor…?
What does the future look like for you if it goes exactly how you would like it to go? When you look back on your career & life, what will you want to be able to say you accomplished?
If you could go back in time and give your younger self just one piece of critical advice, what would that be?
We spoke for over half-an-hour and I felt like we could have gone on for days… his conversational style was comfortable and disarming. I enjoyed sharing personal stories, talking about the great folks I’ve studied and worked with, about how hard it was to go back to school while working, how much I love helping small businesses in my neighborhood, how much I hate saying “no”, how a client came up with my business name… and so on. Give it a listen — and raise a glass to our amazing team while you’re at it!
I would love to be remembered as someone who helped keep our communities vibrant by helping small businesses succeed. That’s the whole point of any of this, and my staff is a group of women who feel the same way. Our work really has meaning. ~Nancy McClelland, CPA
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
The annual scheduled increase in Chicago’s minimum wage goes into effect on Friday, July 1, 2022. The Chicago minimum wage is tiered for large businesses with 21 or more employees, and small businesses with 4-20 employees. Since reaching $15 per hour in 2021, the minimum wage for larger employees increases annually according to the Consumer Price Index or 2.5%, whichever is lower. The minimum wage for small businesses continues to increase towards $15 per hour by 2023.
As of July 1, 2022, the Chicago minimum wage will be:
$15.40 for employers with 21 or more employees (including all domestic workers, regardless of the number employed)
$14.50 for employers with 4-20 employees
The minimum wage for tipped employees will be $9.24 for employers with 21 or more employees, and $8.70 for employers with 4-20 employees (employers must make up the difference between any tips received and the applicable minimum wage for non-tipped workers.)
Anyone age 24 or younger employed by, or engaged in employment coordinated by, a nonprofit organization or government agency will see a minimum wage increase to $12.00.
Employers that maintain a business facility within the City of Chicago or are required to obtain a business license to operate in the City are required to pay their employees at least the Chicago minimum wage. Additionally, any employee that works two hours or more in the City within a two-week period must also receive at least the Chicago minimum wage.
Chicago BACP recently presented a free hour-long webinar called “Employer Responsibilities Under Chicago’s Minimum Wage Ordinance”, available here.
Employers in “covered industries ” (see below) to post work schedules with at least 14 days’ notice, an increase from the previous 10 days’ notice.
Employees will need to earn less than $29.35 per hour or $56,381.85 per year to gain protection under the Fair Workweek Ordinance.
Covered industries include building services, healthcare, hotel, manufacturing, restaurant, retail, or warehouse services.
Chicago businesses are required to post the Minimum Wage Notice and Fair Workweek Notice at their business. The notices will be available to workers and business owners in English, Spanish, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, and Korean by July 1, 2022. Employers that violate the minimum wage ordinance can be fined $500 to $1,000 per day for each offense.
Chicago BACP recently presented a free hour-long webinar called “Employer Responsibilities Under Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance”, available here.
Sexual Harassment Law Updates
As of July 1, 2022, all employers in the city of Chicago must have a written policy on sexual harassment. Additionally, employers are required to display a public notice advising of the prohibition on sexual harassment where employees can see it, and there are increased training requirements. A model policy, written notice, and training templates are available by visiting Chicago.gov/SexualHarassment.
Recent updates to the law include:
Adding sexual misconduct to the definition. Sexual misconduct is defined as any behavior of a sexual nature which also involves coercion, abuse of authority, or misuse of an individual’s employment position.
Requiring all employers to have a written policy on sexual harassment. The written policy must be available in the employee’s primary language within the first calendar week of starting employment.
Increasing the statute of limitations from 300 to 365 days.
Create flexibility to notify a respondent up to 30 days from the time of complaint (compared to 10 days currently), to mitigate any retaliation such as denial of a reasonable accommodation request.
Requiring additional annual training for all employees including the one hour of prevention training aligned with State requirements and one hour of bystander intervention. Supervisors and managers are required to have an additional one hour of training.
Increasing the penalty for individuals or businesses that participate in discriminatory practices in the workplace including sexual harassment. The penalty is increasing from $500 – $1,000 per violation to $5,000 – $10,000.
It seems not all small business owners are aware of the responsibility to provide Chicago workers paid sick leave. It applies to any business or individual that employs at least one “employee” and has a facility within Chicago’s city limits (though Cook County now has a similar requirement). The term “employee” covers anyone who works at least 80 hours within a 120-day period (20 hours a month). – For hourly employees, paid sick leave accrues at one-hour for every 40 hours worked. Salaried-exempt employees are presumed to have worked 40 hours/week. – Employees are capped at accruing a total of 40 hours of sick leave each year, unless the employer opts to set a higher limit. – Employers must permit employees to carry over half of their accrued leave, to a maximum of 20 hours of unused sick leave each year (40 for employers with 50 or more employees). – Employers are not required to pay out any accrued but unused sick leave upon employment termination.
Even the least expensive version of Gusto Payroll allows for a sick pay plan, and it’s not hard to set up and track (see instructions here).
Reminder that if you sign up and run Gusto using my link, you’ll get a free trial period… and after running your first payroll you’ll receive a $100 Visa gift card! My clients instead will receive a 15% discount for the life of the plan.
And a final point: all Chicago worker protections are enforced by the BACP Office of Labor Standards (OLS). The OLS is dedicated to promoting and enforcing Chicago’s labor laws, including Minimum Wage, Paid Sick Leave, Fair Workweek, and Wage Theft Ordinance. The BACP OLS webpage offers informational materials on Chicago’s Labor Standards Laws.
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
“Really great interview. I appreciated how the highlights were amplified. Nancy is smart and real. Blake does a great job allowing the interviewee talk and share her knowledge. Well done!” -YouTube viewer comment
I was honored to be interviewed recently by the one-and-only Blake Oliver for Relay‘s “Gearing Up” series, where every two weeks, he talks to a real accountant or bookkeeper about ONE challenge in their firm — and how to solve it.
In this episode, we discuss how to build a team with whom you love to work (kudos to Bookkeeping Buds for helping me make that happen).
As our firm grew, I realized that building The Dancing Accountant in a traditional way was re-creating working conditions that our team and I didn’t love — it was immensely important to me that above all, we enjoy working with each other.
But first I had to convince myself I had something to offer — and decided to focus on what I knew employees wanted: meaningful work.
In the latest episode of Gearing Up with our host Blake Oliver, I open up about the a-ha moment that led to our building an entirely different kind of remote firm. In the episode, you’ll learn: Why Nancy is known as The Dancing Accountant Nancy’s favorite tool in her tech stack Three things employees want from work The non-traditional structure of Nancy’s team
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
We learned this week that the EIDL is permanently closing their Rapid Portal on May 16th. What does this mean for you?
If you haven’t already, download a copy of your EIDL loan agreement documents, and snap a screenshot of your loan number and save it to PDF for easy reference.
Your bookkeeper and accountant will thank you for this — and you’ll thank them for insisting you do it!
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
Yesterday I attended an excellent webinar on how two different small business owners transitioned ownership to their employees — one using an ESOP and one using a Worker Co-op structure.
As a CPA and consultant to many small business owners, I often am asked about succession planning and exit strategies, and my experience in cooperative taxation often leads me to recommend a transition to employee ownership. So I was glad for the opportunity to learn from the experiences of these folks who are in the thick of it.
And just in case they might be helpful as an outline or while following along with the recording, the notes I took during the session are below.
Thanks again to Courtney, Steve, the panelists, and UWCC for this excellent resource!
Three main EE ownership structures —
ESOPs, most common, about 70% – better for larger busineses
Worker co-ops, less common but fast-growing
EE Ownership Trust, more common in Britain
Half of privately-held businesses are owned by boomers — who will be retiring soon (the “silver tsunami”).
ESOP – Employee Stock Ownership Plan Employee financial control, not management control. How does it work? the company gets a loan (from bank or owners) to pay the owners (whatever percentage ownership is agreed upon; can happen in tranches) The owners get paid, and the company pays the loan off over time on behalf of the staff, and releases the stock to the employees Employees just “get” their shares as opposed to worker co-ops where each member has to buy in. Owner can remain CEO as long as necessary. The tax benefits of an ESOP can save about 20% of value in terms of the company price compared to selling to private equity. Vests in 20% increments annually until the employee is fully-vested. If someone departs, the company has five years to pay them off.
Worker Cooperative Employee-Owners have both financial and managerial control. One member, one vote. Must sell 100% ownership to the workers; no partial purchases like with an ESOP. Owner may become one of the many worker-owners in the new structure. Owner or bank can finance a loan to pay the owners off over 15 years or however long. John Abrams model – buy-in for each new owner is the price of a decent used car. :) So they are two different things: buy-in by each worker-owner, vs company-held loan to pay off the owner. Company can lend each owner some of the money to buy their share if that helps. What happens if someone leaves from Marty’s worker co-op: the company has five years to pay back $9k initial investment if necessary, but usually pay it off very quickly just to get it off the Balance Sheet if they have the cash to do it. Then the internal capital account gets paid out in a different way, on a schedule with other owners.
Inviting staff to have an ownership mentality and be a democratically-run organization is very valuable, especially in anticipation of transitioning to ownership — but different from actual EE ownership.
Recommended book: John Abrams, “The Company We Keep”.
Neat idea – buying a pie for new owners as a way to say “here’s your piece of the pie”.
Questions from Q&A: Are you using the terms “Exit Planning” and “Succession Planning” interchangeably, or do they have different meanings for you? How did you educate your employees on employee ownership? I am working with two businesses doing projects with students in my co-op business management course. An existing worker co-op has lots of legal questions how they can and/or must differentially treat workers as employees and workers as owners. Can you advise a good first landing on legal assistance to help get their questions answered or directed to those who should. I’m no lawyer and most that I work with are in the farmer co-op world. Thanks. What is your advice for business-owners where the owner is the key employee with specialized knowledge and credentials that is not easily replaced by other existing staff? In Marty’s buy in model, can that buy in level be paid to the co-op over time (installments) or is it all upfront (day 1). What happens to the equity in the business as an employee leaves, and how is that different between the 2 structures Could a consumer cooperative spin off, say, 30% for employees to become owners under either of these structures? What is the difference in governance control of workers as an ESOP vs a Worker Co-op? I expect there is a range of options. A follow up to the question about spinning off 30% of a consumer co-op, could the creation of the ESOP or worker co-op component be a vehicle for capitalizing the co-op for expansion or other purposes? Are worker equity shares in a worker co-op appreciable over time? Steve, you mentioned existing ESOPs or Coops bringing in another small biz as a merger/acquisition, perhaps sold by a founder with no buyer prospects. Can you talk more about this as another pathway for transitioning an existing biz to an employee-owned company? I appreciate the conversation about sharing the wealth, but one challenge I see as a CPA is that workers are always convinced that owners are “hoarding” the profits and that’s one of the motivations for becoming worker-owned. However, the company has to be healthy and profitable for this to happen! It’s not magic. If the company is struggling, the worker-owned version of the company will struggle, too. It’s not a magic bullet. I know there are food co-ops that are also worker co-ops. How could a consumer co-op facilitate their workers starting their own worker co-op inside the food co-op? Are there incentives, support, programs, etc. for someone looking to start a private business with a roadmap from the beginning to convert to an employee ownership model? If a small worker owned cooperative or ESOP is often structured as a partnership for tax purposes, does the cooperative structure only impact management? For Marty, how do the workers owner manage or address the tension between investment in the equipment needed for the business versus profits place into the internal capital account and subsequently distributed? Interested in any ideas or models for how workers in a consumer co-op might gain “more stake in the game,” feel a real sense of ownership and directly benefit from the growth and success of the business. What are unique challenges associated with performance management (horizon problem, shirking, freeriding, etc) at employee owned businesses? Do you use any tools/tech for reviews, ratings, etc? Can you highlight top 3 challenges of running an employee owned business that technology or tools can help solve? Is there any way to plan succession or manifest employee ownership when the company is merely a one or two person shop without younger family?
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
Last week, the Small Business Administration (SBA) made a welcome announcement for small business owners with Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) — for the third time in the past 12 months, they have announced that the deferral period for making payments on loan and interest has been extended.
As Journal of Accountancy points out, “the announcement Tuesday came exactly one year after the SBA had lengthened the deferral period from 12 months to either 18 months for loans made in 2021 or 24 months for loans made in 2020. In September, the SBA unveiled several major modifications to the program, including an extension of the deferral period for 2021 EIDL payments to 24 months as part of a series of major modifications designed to broaden the appeal of the program.”
One thing to keep in mind, however, is that borrowers taking advantage of this deferral will still be liable once their deferment period is up, to pay the principal plus interest on the whole period (including the extra deferred months). At around 3 percent, this is considered inexpensive compared to other loans, but it adds up.
We encourage borrowers to log into their SBA EIDL portal once-a-month to download the monthly EIDL statement and provide it to their bookkeeper or accountant to accrue the interest. Not only is this a good bookkeeping practice, but they may be surprised at the amount of interest that has accrued, which could change their approach toward either holding off or repaying it sooner. Unfortunately, if they don’t log into their SBA portal every 30 days, the password expires — so this is a way to avoid that issue and an added benefit of this approach.
Instructions for creating an account are here:
According to Inc. Magazine, “the announcement arrives just days after a group of 16 senators asked the SBA to extend the deferment period. In their letter, the senators emphasized the challenges that small businesses faced amid the surge of the Omicron variant, which included staffing crunches and drops in revenue. Those same challenges continue to linger for many businesses today.”
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
This isn’t the first time I’ve posted about the useful resources offered by RCReports — but as it turns out, it’s been a while. Apparently I take it for granted that everyone knows about Reasonable Compensation requirements all too often, and then I regularly discover that it’s just not true.
Note: I am a loyal paid subscriber to RCReports, and receive no compensation or discounts for promoting their service or resources. I just think they’re great.
In any case, recently I was asked by a colleague to train her on the basics of Reasonable Compensation and walk through my process. I asked her to do these three pieces of homework first:
I know most non-accountants won’t bother with the 2-hour training session that walks through court cases and the history of Reasonable Compensation audits and challenges. And certainly folks who are not in the business of performing these calculations aren’t likely to bother with the 1-hour demo.
But anyone running their own corporation, and those considering electing S-corp status, will want to read about stress-testing. This is something you can do regardless of the calculation process, or how you got to the salary amount in the first place. A helpful excerpt (edited) from the article:
There are six main factors or tests (the IRS lists even more), but “applying just the first three will usually tell you whether a compensation is reasonable or not. In other words – three strikes and you’re out.”
1) Training and experience: Does $X/year seem like enough compensation for somebody who has this level of training and experience? 2) Duties and responsibilities: Does $X/year seem like enough compensation for someone with these duties and responsibilities? 3) Time and effort devoted to the business: Does $X/year seem like enough compensation for someone who worked this many hours/week?
There are different methods of determining Reasonable Compensation — yes, I’m referencing yet additional RCReports articles for details — the cost approach, market approach, and income approach. The Cost Approach generally works best for small businesses where the business owner provides multiple services for the business (wears many hats).
The key with all of these resources is to get shareholder-employees to take a closer look at their own salaries and make sure they are following IRS guidelines. Stress-testing is a great place to start, but for a more thorough approach to calculating Reasonable Compensation, I recommend contacting a CPA with background in this area who can walk you through an RC interview and help you support the amount you ultimately choose.
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
Why Nancy is known as The Dancing Accountant 
Nancy’s favorite tool in her tech stack 
Three things employees want from work 
The non-traditional structure of Nancy’s team
