4Thought Blog

It's hard to believe 2019 is almost over! It's been a busy year in many sectors, often forcing small business owners to put tax planning on the back burner while they've tended to daily business operations.

But procrastinate no longer. Consider the following moves to lower your 2019 business tax bill before ringing in the New Year.

Job applicants look at more than just wages when evaluating potential employers. They consider the whole compensation package, including fringe benefits and perks.

These add-ons enable employers to cast a wider net in the job market, helping them attract and retain top-quality workers.

Unfortunately, tax breaks for some fringe benefits were eliminated or suspended by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, some other fringe benefits are still deductible by employers and tax-free to employees.

Here are 14 popular benefits that remain on the books after the TCJA.

Even if your manufacturing company has been successful at selling its current line of goods, it's probably not smart to keep producing the same products indefinitely. Now, in fact, is an excellent time to expand your product offerings.

With global competition ramping up, the manufacturing market is only becoming more crowded and less certain. By anticipating customer needs, you can fortify your position and help ensure continued profitability.

If you find your construction company gaining a large influx of projects, the biggest problem will be the boost in the amount of capital you will need in comparison with your cash flow.

A jump in new jobs can strain your firm's resources, challenging the firm's capacity to hire field crews, its technology infrastructure and its cash flow. The upside, of course, is that a large backlog of incoming projects means more income and a lead time that lets your management team meet increasing cash flow demands. The more backlog of construction-in-progress the more big payrolls, more benefits going out, larger materials bill. And of course, everyone wants to be paid in cash.

This demand for cash can make it hard to ramp up to meet growth opportunities, but you can effectively manage it by using existing credit efficiently and taking out new strategic lines of credit.

First-year bonus depreciation has been around for a while now. However, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set forth more-generous, but temporary, rules for 2018 through 2026.

Recent IRS guidance gives you additional flexibility to fine-tune the bonus depreciation break to suit your specific business and personal tax circumstances. Here's what you need to know.

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued the long-anticipated final version of its overtime eligibility rules. The changes will take effect on January 1, 2020.

As a result, the DOL estimates that 1.3 million workers will be newly eligible for overtime pay. Are any of them on your payroll? Read on to find out.

In today's environment, it's important for business owners to focus on the value of their company and what drives it. The objective of this article is to look at value drivers for operating businesses, as opposed to businesses that are asset-based, such as real estate or securities holding companies.

Under the market and income approaches, operating businesses are valued based on how much cash flow they're expected to generate in the future. In other words, cash flow drives value.

If you want to increase value, you need to increase sustainable cash flow.  Notice, we said the sustainable cash flow. While it might look good to have a short-term increase, an educated buyer will see through any non-sustainable increases and adjust those in determining the purchase price.

As a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, you might think the subject of “uncertain tax positions” doesn’t apply to you.

Think again. Some of the basics of your operations, including your tax-exempt status, could create uncertain tax positions that trigger critical reporting obligations.

For 2019, the lifetime gift and estate tax exemption has reached a whopping $11.40 million ($22.80 million for married couples). As a result, few people will be subject to federal gift taxes.

If your wealth is well within the exemption amount, does that mean there’s no need to file gift tax returns? Not necessarily. There are many situations in which it’s necessary (or desirable) to file Form 709, “United States Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return” — even if you’re not liable for any gift taxes.

Sole proprietorships and pass-through entity structures, which include partnerships, S corporations and certain limited liability companies, provide owners with some valuable tax benefits, such as avoidance of double taxation and the potential ability to deduct losses from the business on their individual tax returns.

But the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has placed some limitations on deducting business losses. Here’s a look at the changes in the rules and how they might affect you.