2014 Donations in St Petersburg Florida

Make sure you have proper substantiation for your 2014 donations

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2014 Charitable Donations If you don’t meet IRS substantiation requirements, your charitable deductions could be denied. To comply, generally you must obtain a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the charity stating the amount of the donations, whether you received any...
Auto-Enrollment in St Petersburg Florida

Employees Not Saving for Retirement? Consider Auto-Enrollment

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Employees who push back that start date for retirement savings will have a hard time catching up — and may wind up on your payroll longer than you might prefer. For example, an employee who starts saving at age 25 and stops at 65 will, assuming a seven percent average...
ACA Affordable Care Act in St Petersburg Florida

Taxpayers Beware: Errors Found on Some ACA Forms

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If you signed up for coverage through the ACA federal Health Insurance Marketplace last year, you should have received a statement in the mail in February from the Marketplace called a Form 1095-A. This statement includes important information you need in order to complete and...
Work Opportunity Tax Credit in St Petersburg Florida

Employers Get Extension on Work Opportunity Tax Credit Paperwork

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Are you an employer who claims the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)? Or perhaps you haven’t claimed the credit yet but you are interested in taking advantage of the tax break. You now have until April 30 to provide a pre-screening form for certain groups of qualifying...
Repair Regulations in St Petersburg Florida

The IRS Simplifies Repair Regulations for Small Businesses

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The IRS recently released special procedures that will allow small businesses to more easily adopt the tangible property regulations, more commonly known as the repair regulations. These special procedures generally limit the changes in accounting needed to adopt the repair regs...
American Opportunity Credit in St Petersburg Florida

Should you forgo a personal exemption so your child can take the American Opportunity credit?

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If you have a child in college, you may not qualify for the American Opportunity credit on your 2014 income tax return because your income is too high (modified adjusted gross income phaseout range of $80,000–$90,000; $160,000–$180,000 for joint filers), but your child might. The...
Expense Reimbursement in St Petersburg Florida

The importance of accountable expense reimbursement plans

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Most companies cover their employees’ business expenses by reimbursing them for their actual expenses or by paying a travel or mileage allowance. Such arrangements are subject to strict tax rules concerning what qualifies as a legitimate reimbursement arrangement and what is...
Compensation in St Petersburg Florida

Poor Communication About Compensation May Sap Employee Motivation

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Almost all employers who responded to a recent poll by WorldatWork* say they have a compensation philosophy. And about two-thirds of those employers say they have committed it to writing. Trouble is, only 27 percent of them believe that the majority of their workers actually...
Mileage Rates in St Petersburg Florida

Standard mileage rates for 2015

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Rather than keeping track of the actual cost of operating a vehicle, employees and self-employed taxpayers can use standard mileage rates to compute their deduction related to using a vehicle for business. Likewise, standard mileage rates are available for computing the deduction...
S Corps in St Petersburg Florida

S Corps and Partnerships: Beware of Failure-to-File Penalties

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The S corporation is a popular business structure that’s available only to privately held businesses. In fact, approximately 44 percent of small employer firms — generally defined as companies with fewer than 500 employees — have elected to operate as S corps,...
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