Ever share income with another person not on an account? This article by Robert W. Wood in Forbes goes into the issues and problems:http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2013/07/29/dear-irs-that-income-its-not-mine/Make sure you document everything if you do something like this or it can be a real problem with the IRS and your state taxing authority.For financial, accounting and tax musings,You can count on us to count for you! email bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net phone 818-317-6035 Website www.briantstonercpa.com Follow me on Twitter! @bstonercpa
Five Ways to Protect your Cash
As entrepreneurs, we work hard for our money, and the last thing we need is to have it disappear due to fraud, hackers, or identity theft. Some people have called 2013 the year of the hacker, which is worrisome. But you’re far more likely to experience risks with disgruntled or financially desperate employees and contractors. Mistakes happen, too, and when they do it can be costly to get them corrected. Here are five ways to increase your financial controls so that you can lower your business risks when it comes to the handling of cash and cash equivalents. As you read the list, check to see where you can tighten up controls in your business. Checking for Checks Do you have blank checks lying around? If so, reduce the temptation and get them locked up. You can also go a step further and have your accountant run a report each month (or week) of missing check numbers. If any checks are unaccounted for, take action by processing Stop Payment orders at your bank. Bank on It If you are still getting your bank reconciliation on paper, where does it get mailed? The business owner should always see the bank reconciliation [...]
The Entrepreneur’s Paycheck
As business owners, we may be so busy making sure the bills get paid and the product gets out the door that we may not be quite as proactive about our own compensation. To pay themselves, many new business owners take what’s left after employees and vendors have been paid, and that ends up being their paycheck. I’d like to propose a whole new way: entrepreneurs should be paid three times, once for what they do, second for the risk they take, and third for the going concern they’ve built. If you’re not getting paid three times, here’s how it can work. First: Your Services Just like the employees and contractors we work with, we should get paid for the actual work we perform in our business. Most of us wear many hats in our business, and we should get paid for all those hats! As your business grows, the tasks you initially performed will be delegated to employees. They would never go without a paycheck, and you shouldn’t either.The amount you pay yourself should be similar to the market rate you would have to pay someone if you hired someone else to do the jobs you are doing. As [...]