#employee retention tax credit in usa

[dominionenterpriseservices]

Free Money Exists: Catherine Tindall of Dominion Enterprise Services

As a restaurant owner, if you have not pursued the Employee Retention Credit, you need to lock out two hours to get the analysis done for your company. Dollar for dollar is the most significant ROI activity any restaurant owner can do now if you haven’t taken advantage of the program. It’s based on headcount. If you have a decent-sized headcount, this could be a massive shot in the arm for your business. – Catherine Tindall, CPA CTC

1:05 [Josh Kopel]

Welcome to Full Comp! A show offers insight into the hospitality industry. We are featuring restaurateurs, thought leaders, and innovators. We served up on the house.

1:22 [Josh Kopel]

You could be sitting on a winning lottery ticket and not even know it. I’m talking about the Employee Retention Credit. I witnessed fellow restaurateurs receive six-digit checks by taking advantage of this extraordinary opportunity. As I’m sure you can imagine, I lack the expertise to discuss the ins and outs of the program, but I know someone who can. Her name is Catherine Tindall, and her company Dominion Enterprise Services specializes in helping restaurants get the most money from the credit with the least effort. I hope you came hungry because our old Uncle Sam is baking some bread today.

2:05 [Catherine]

I always use analogies. A bookkeeper’s your mom who knows first aid. A CPA is your general practitioner who’s going to be able to give you antibiotics. Your mom will be there with band-aids and that’s all you’ll need, those little reports. When it comes to making bigger decisions or strategizing around what’s going on in your business, a CPA can be much more helpful because they have much more professional experience and training than a bookkeeper.

2:51 [Josh Kopel]

Let’s talk about that. A CPA can do everything a bookkeeper can do, but a bookkeeper cannot do everything that a CPA can do.

3:00 [Catherine]

The other distinction is that a CPA can do things that a bookkeeper can do but do you want to pay your doctor to put on band-aids? That’s the analogy. Many people try to get their CPAs to do things that are a little too menial rather than just having a bookkeeper or having other people in place to handle certain parts of what’s going on financially. Accounting is a very broad field, and there are many pieces to it. To have me, a tax specialist, do things that a bookkeeper can do doesn’t make sense.

3:45 [Josh Kopel]

What was your path to entrepreneurship? What problem did you feel you were solving when you created Dominion?

3:52 [Catherine]

When I was in school, I originally started in medicine. I wanted what I was doing to change people’s lives and help them. I wanted to be helping people as my profession. As I went further into it, I realized that it wasn’t going to be a good fit for a number of reasons. My parents were both CPAs and had a tax practice. They told me to take an accounting course, and you can see where that ended. I enjoyed it, and I found this special thing with accounting. I enjoyed the numbers. I enjoyed the logic of it, and I really enjoy the fact that people are so intimidated by it and feel so out of control with it. And I can bridge that gap for them and use the knowledge I have to make it intelligible, especially with the tax side of things, because I’m primarily a tax planner and a tax specialist.

People are so intimidated by taxes, and it’s so expensive and painful to be able to bridge that gap and help them understand how it works. To help them reduce how much they’re paying in a way that really moves the needle for their business. I find it extremely satisfying. What pushed me to start my firm is my experiences where there’s not a lot of thought leadership that comes from accountants. They tend to be very “in the box” thinkers, very backward-looking, historically oriented, and just trying to be compliance oriented. So I found that what I wanted to do was help business owners, and I needed to start my own firm to structure the relationships in a way that we’re not just filling out forms for people. That we’re doing things that advance their business and advance their personal life forward by being able to save them cash with tax reduction strategies, that was the path there.

5:41 [Josh Kopel]

In the gap, you’re talking about. Specifically, I believe that’s the gap between bridging yesterday’s numbers and how that influences decisions today and tomorrow, right?

5:53 [Catherine]

Absolutely. There’s kind of three pieces that go into what people do in their business. You try to increase your top line through doing marketing and advertising, and things that you try to decrease your bottom line by reducing expenses. Then the third piece, which many people don’t think about, is that everything is going to flow through the tax funnel, and you’re going to pay tax. So do things to optimize how your income flows through the tax funnel to ensure you’re not paying too much in tax. For my firm, we’ve emphasized that third piece. We’re a tax planning firm mostly, and that’s the piece that many people never get around to doing because they wait until the end of the year to talk to their accountant. Or their accountant is just concerned with ensuring they’re compliant with the IRS rather than finding efficiencies and how they operate to lower how much they pay.

6:43 [Josh Kopel]

You were interested in connecting with independent restaurant owners and operators when you reached out. Why choose that niche because we’re so easy to work with?

6:52 [Catherine]

The main thing we’re up to right now is to become a specialty practice for doing the Employee Retention Credit. I do these for all sorts of industries. Still, in particular, I saw that the restaurant, especially independent operators, is just largely missing out on this credit. It’s because they fall in that weird zone, where their tax practitioner is probably really small and isn’t able to handle a lot more than just filing their returns. I’ve been coming across many of these clients whose accountants just dropped the ball and going after this credit for them, especially for restaurant owners who were so impacted by the pandemic. They have this opportunity. For many of the clients I’ve been seeing, it’s a six-figure tax credit, a six-figure check that comes back in the mail. I thought we would be a good connection because if I could just get one person to reach out to their accountant or be able to take advantage of this credit, I feel I’ve accomplished something.

7:59 [Josh Kopel]

I want to talk about tax strategy at large because, in the abstract, I don’t know how many of us know what that means. Typically tax planning starts on January 1st for payment in April, and we’re talking about last year’s taxes. What tax planning strategies do you guys use to help mitigate attack implications for independent restaurant owners and operators?

8:32 [Catherine]

The first strategy is to be proactive and consider how taxes work. You’re incurring a tax bill as you earn money because its profits will flow through that tax funnel. If you just wait until the end of the year to do anything, that money is already flowing through that funnel, and there’s not much you can do to get it back. That’s why for many people, it’s in January or February that they figure out what their tax bill was from the previous year. And they’re always in this game of catch up and what we do in the firm for our tax planning clients is we start with an onboarding. We need to look forward to where your business is going. We need to understand what you’re trying to achieve strategically with your business to ensure it’s going through the tax funnel as efficiently as possible. If somebody is going to grow to sell, that’s a very different kind of strategy than if somebody is going to grow to hand it off to a kid. If they know, they’re just going to be operating the business for 20 years, starting spidering out and getting a bunch of different businesses, or pivoting into franchising or licensing. Those are very different end games from an operation and tax planning standpoint. Overlaying a deep understanding of what’s happening in the business to how the tax code works and how we make this the most efficient path through the tax funnel. The first thing we always go after is tax credits ’cause it’s a dollar-for-dollar thing. Usually, once you start those programs, they go year after year, so there are different payroll tax credits.

There are other incentives out there that are just easy wins for the client and usually some instant cash injection. The next piece is entity structure: percentage points say you’re getting taxed at 40% effective, and we can bump that down to 25%- 30%. That’s a huge swing for a matter of just shifting or forming some entities, closing some entities, doing some elections, and filing some paperwork. You can get that stuff wrapped up in a month, and I can move your whole percentage points. We analyze what’s going on with your entities. For most people, if you structured your business more than five years ago or experienced some significant growth, that’s something that you want to have an ongoing analysis done. It’s not one of those things you wanna set it and forget because if all of your work is getting pushed through this inefficient tunnel, you’re losing percentage points. And if you’re working safely, it’s 15% more than you’re paying. How many months out of the year working for the government could have gone to you just to fill some forms? Then it just goes into maximizing deductions and ensuring that people can be as efficient as possible with things that they’re already spending money on. Suppose you’re paying family members, paying for health benefits during retirement. All those kinds of things, but those are kind of after the fact, and it all has to be in the frame of what’s the strategy? What are you trying to do as a business? And how do we get you there the most efficiently?

11:58 [Josh Kopel]

For the folks listening that is going, is this me? Am I one of these people with an issue? What are some of the red flags? What are some common mistakes you see people making when they come to you?

12:08 [Catherine]

At least the most common mistake I see on the credit side is people not taking advantage of the Employee Retention Credit. If you haven’t had that one, you need to have an analysis done for regular tax planning issues. First one’s entity structure, if you’re getting over 100K a year on your business and you’re not operating out of an entity that’s when you want to start having that kind of conversation. Do I need to change my entity structure? Another common mistake is they don’t get their legal structures set up right on the front end for liability purposes, so people will just operate under their name instead of being in something like an LLC where you’re going to have some legal separation liability. And just other things like not buttoning up their compliance work on the front end and paying people under the table. Those are the most common mistakes I see people make on the front end of the restaurant industry.

13:18 [Josh Kopel]

The federal government did this alphabet soup task when the pandemic hit, and it was just rolling out program after program. I know that there’s a massive opportunity for the Employee Retention Credit. We’re gonna dig deep into it, but I’m wondering what other opportunities did the pandemic present?

13:39 [Catherine]

Most of them now are wrapped up. People got to take advantage of things like the payroll protection program, multiple rounds of that. A lot of restaurant grants, also state and local aid that came out, and it was just tough for everybody because you had all these programs coming out. There was no guidance for tax practitioners to know how things would work, and it just turned into a crazy money grab. The one nice thing is the Employee Retention Credit is baked into the code, so it’s not like the PPP, where it’s a fund that gets exhausted if you don’t take advantage of it. We have a three-year window for it, and if you didn’t get to take advantage of a lot of those other programs, it helps increase that credit. Because one of the things that happens is if you got PPP or if you’ve got these other programs, it’ll reduce your Employee Retention Credit. The alphabet soup is a good way of putting it because they’re coming from all sorts of agencies, state and local, and federal. It was just nuts.

14:53 [Josh Kopel]

Let’s get into the Employee Retention Credit specifically. For those that don’t know, can you explain what it is?

15:01 [Catherine]

It’s a payroll tax credit. It’s a reimbursement to employers who experienced hardship during the pandemic. If your company, especially restaurant owners, had operations limited by government orders or you had revenue discrepancies. So it’s not just year-over-year revenue declines but just uneven revenues you could be eligible for the credit. I have not had a restaurant come to me that wasn’t eligible for it just because of the factors of what happened during the pandemic. ‘Cause almost everybody had some kind of operational impact through the government orders, and that’s one of the qualifying factors. It’s up to $26,000 per employee. You can imagine if you have a good headcount in your operation, above ten people, it can be a substantial credit. It depends on your headcount, but people with 15 employees get a quarter of $1,000,000 back, even on a smaller scale. It’s a check that comes back in the mail, so it’s not credited towards future years. It’s a reimbursement of the money you paid in 2020 and 2021, and it’s still available. It will start phasing out about a year from now, but it’s still available even though it’s related to tax years 2020 and 2021.

16:13 [Josh Kopel]

I want some of that. How difficult is it to get?

16:16 [Catherine]

You just have to work with a practitioner for it. One of the decision points is knowing the right person to work with. A lot of people have tried to work with their payroll providers. I don’t recommend it just because my experience with payroll providers is they have a hard enough time just doing regular payroll. Many of the cases I’ve seen with payroll providers have been under-claiming. Then on the opposite side of things, I see people trying to work with their regular CPA. Many regular CPAs don’t handle a high volume because they are complex. They interact with your payroll protection program loans and other grants and aid. They all interact with each other. I recommend people work with specialty providers. My firm is a specialty provider; we do them for other CPA firms because it’s become our specialty. Still, those are, in general, the people that you can work with for it. Also, I should warn you that there are a lot of bad actors in the space right now because we’ve got an information gap between people filing these claims and then the IRS. The IRS is still so behind from what happened during the pandemic. A couple of days ago, I was reading an article that one of the bigger players in this space for doing these credits got raided by the IRS. It’s one of those things where you just want to work with somebody that’s a licensed CPA firm. They do a good amount of them because it’s big dollar figures. I’ve got several restaurants where they’ve got a quarter of $1,000,000 back, and when it’s that much money on the line.

You’re paying for the placement. You’re not just paying for the Botox, and that’s the thing with the credit. When you work with somebody reputable, it’s an easy process for you because it’s just once we get the reports. It’s just a matter of us doing the calculations and having everything buttoned up for what the IRS wants to see.

19:20 [Josh Kopel]

How do you suss out between someone suspect and someone working in the space with integrity?

19:27 [Catherine]

For the most part, the biggest red flag is if they’re CPA firms or not. There are a lot of people out there that are just marketers for this, and then they pass the work off to two small CPAs, or they’re working with people that aren’t. I had a case come across my desk from somebody where the person doing the filing was a real estate attorney. They weren’t professional attacks, so that becomes a big red flag. The other red flag is if they’re charging contingent fees. As a CPA firm, we’re not allowed to charge a contingency fee, and if you encounter a person doing these credits and they say well, we’re gonna charge you 25% of the credit. That’s a red flag for the most part.

For the other partitioners in this space that I see, the range isn’t contingent. Still, the fee tends to be between 10 to 15% of the credit, so if you see somebody that’s kind of outside that range or they’re just sales if you feel that sales thing going on. It’s not a tax practitioner where they’re asking you a lot of questions, too, because many things interact. We’ll get your credit if they’re not asking you many questions. Just send us these two reports. You’re going to be eligible for half of $1,000,000. It’s fishy versus OK we’re gonna need some payroll reports. We’re gonna need some financial reports asking you detailed questions about your company ownership. You’ll get that feeling. If you’re being sold versus OK, this is an actual tax professional that knows what they’re doing. The other thing I see people doing wrong is anybody can have a website, a convincing marketing copy and flashy stuff, and testimonials saying we’ve filed so many claims. Still, it comes down to who’s doing the work. Who owns the company? How long have these guys been around? Are they going to be gone when the IRS comes back, or what’s the feel of this? And I’d say, for the most part, if you already have a tax professional and they can’t handle it. I loop them into the conversation. They know how taxes work. They’ll know if something feels wrong because they can talk shop to the other company that’s doing it and lean on your tax pro to say hey can you be in this conversation with me and these people for this credit because that tax Pro is going to have a good Spidey sense of no this feels off. This is very salty versus no. This is another CPA firm, and when we get into the weeds and talk shop, they pass the mustard. That’s the advice that I would give people in general.

22:01 [Josh Kopel]

For context, what does your specific process look like? When somebody reaches out and wants help. How do you help?

22:10 [Catherine]

We start with just a conversation. I do make sure that the person that we’re working with understands just the general program of how the credit works, and they don’t have any confusion about what they could be pursuing because there are some interactions that happen with things like your income taxes, so we go through all of that and then, in general, we collect the reports we do an assessment to see OK do you meet the eligibility requirements with flying colors and then if you do then how much roughly are you eligible for? And that’s something we do on the front end of the engagement. Then once we know roughly what they’re eligible for, we say, OK, this would be our fee if you want us to do the work, file the claim, and track it with the IRS. Here’s how the cash flow would work if it doesn’t make sense for you. That’s how we approach it, and once we’ve got all the reports and the client wants to engage with us, we then finish calculations, file a claim with the IRS, and then track it with the IRS, and that’s our basic process. Usually, for people, it only takes these initial conversations, but then maybe it’s a couple of hours an hour or two getting those reports together that we need to get that precise calculation done, and that’s it. It can be a couple of hours of work for 250K. That’s pretty good. It’s a pretty good ROI for anybody. That’s what we’ve seen for the restaurant owners; they tend to get really high credit amounts for this.

23:27 [Josh Kopel]

What are the eligibility requirements?

23:32 [Catherine]

There are two ways a company can be eligible. The first way is that if you have certain revenue declines, it’s different rules for the different years, so I just tell people the rule of thumb is if you have more than five employees and you experience discrepancies, so your quarters are uneven, get yourself analyzed because it’s such high potential, high dollar volumes on the table. That it’s just worth it to have yourself formally assessed on that so you can either have revenue declines, and that’s one way you can be eligible, or if you had government orders that forced you to modify your operations. That’s the other piece of it, so for restaurants, very common to reduce capacity, and it’s usually state orders or local orders. Those orders make you have to change your operations. That way, if it’s more than a 10% effect on your business during the period for which that was going on, you’ll be eligible. If you’re in a state that was restrictive during COVID, California, Massachusetts, or New York, where we weren’t allowed to operate at full capacity for the whole year, then you would be eligible for the whole year because it’s a government order. Those are the two ways that companies can be eligible, and it’s an either-or test, and in some quarters, it’ll be government orders. In other quarters then you have the revenue issues. You can be eligible through the whole duration of the pandemic for a mix of those, and that’s part of the analysis we do on the front end.

25:02 [Josh Kopel]

One of the things that hold independent restaurateurs back from participating in things is the fear of an audit.

25:11 [Catherine]

True, I should mention that part of what we do as our process is included in our engagement is that we will support the client through the audit at no additional expense just because I’ve been through them. I know how they go, the auditor comes in, they see the kind of paperwork we have, the credentials, we have a conversation with them, and they open and close the case. Because it’s just that’s the level to which we keep our documentation, and that’s the name of the game. It’s when you’re vetting out practitioners it’s for that purpose. I want the worst-case scenario to be the auditor. We get a notice from the IRS, and they must write a letter. That’s going to be the worst thing that happens, and that’s why working with somebody who’s really oriented around. OK, how are we going to get through compliance ’cause that’s really the problem, but it’s not getting the money back. It’s making sure that the IRS isn’t gonna come back later. Most restaurants passed with flying colors because the government orders were so restrictive and just the way the credits are written. I’ve never really been concerned about the restaurant owners having audit issues just because it’s so easy to document. There’s a government order from my governor that we were at 45% capacity or 75% capacity, and here it is. This is what it was, and that’s just how the credit is written. There’s no risk for the restaurateurs as long as you have your documentation in order, which we work with a good practitioner going to have. It’s good to be concerned about it, but it will not be a problem if you work with somebody reputable.

26:41 [Josh Kopel]

The years that are covered are 2020-2021.

26:47 [Catherine]

It’s still gonna be open for another year, so if you missed out on it for 2020 and 2021, we can still file those returns and go back and get it, which is great.

27:00 [Josh Kopel]

How quickly from the first phone call is it typically to get the check in the mail?

27:06 [Catherine]

The problem with the IRS is that they’re still messed up. It’s a very manual process on their end. When filing the actual returns, we must mail them to the IRS. Once we get all the documentation in place, we get claims turned around in under two weeks, but then it goes to the IRS and sits with them. Previously they were projecting that it was 9 to 12 months. The last time I talked to somebody, they reallocated personnel to that department. It’s looking more than five months, but it just depends on the size of the credit because those of a certain size have to have a second set of eyes on them from the IRS standpoint. I’d say for most people. It’s about a five-month wait.

27:49 [Josh Kopel]

I wanna talk at a high level about tax planning because this tax credit represents a massive missed opportunity, and you don’t know what you don’t know. Talk to me about tax planning in general and why you believe it’s one of the highest return investment activities you can spend your time on as an entrepreneur.

28:10 [Catherine]

The biggest reason is it’s a high ROI activity and takes little time as long as you’re intentional about doing it. You may do it a couple of hours out of the year. Still, I said earlier that by having things in an efficient entity structure, you move the needle percentage points and when you think about it, spending a couple of hours each quarter with your CPA going through, distributions, retirement contributions? breaking off separate businesses with different entities. Those kinds of questions and checking in and asking for that level of analysis to be done. It can move the needle, and getting into that practice will be helpful, especially if you haven’t done any planning. Really how you want to approach that professional is to say you need tax planning and taxes done. I will need a minimum of four meetings during the year where we’re making planning conversations and you’re running forecasts for me. That’s the service you want to ask for . A lot of people don’t realize that if you’ve just asked them to do your taxes that is all they’re going to do. And by asking for more, you’ll get more. I’d say if you’re not paying at least ten grand a year on tax planning work and that level of activity going on, you’re not getting it. Because it’s asking them to do a quadrupled if not more of the work that they’re doing just to file returns to run projections, to run calculations, and to be the quarterback of making sure that you’re operating efficiently. If you don’t plan, you’re paying 40% effectively between Social Security taxes and income taxes and state taxes, which could be well over 40% if you’re working half the year for the government. It’s right now. We’re recording this. It’s the end of Ma and you’re listening to this. You’ve been working for the government for the last five months. Just take a couple of hours to engage with somebody and say, “Hey, should I be an S corp or should my catering business be a C Corp? How should we have this setup? Should I buy my building? Those kinds of things, maybe you could have only been working for the government for the first three months out of the year instead of the first 5-6. It’s just deciding you’re gonna do it and then getting the right people to quarterback it for you where you’re not quarterbacking it.

31:22 [Josh Kopel]

It’s worth bringing up mindset because I can easily look at what you do for a living and see it as an expense. Still, at the end of the day, I would assume that your clients don’t see you as an expense. They see you as a way to make more money, not spend more money.

31:43 [Catherine]

Honestly, that’s what accounting should be as a function in your business, and that was one of the founding principles I had for my firm. I want every client I work with to be a profit center because if I’m not making them money, they’re not the right client for me. After all, I cannot use my skills to improve their business by increasing their cash flow. That’s not a good use of my ability. It’s your general practitioner putting on bandaids. It’s not that I wanna be healing people, and for a lot of business owners, they get in that mindset of bookkeeping being expensive, so I’m gonna do it myself and really, especially with the tax planning, it’s a return on investment. If you invest in it and you work with somebody who knows what they’re doing, it’s going to be a profit center for your business without you actually having to do very much. Because it’s just a matter of finding the right person, having the conversations, and having the relationship. I always say if you haven’t found that person yet, find them because it will make a really big difference.

32:45 [Josh Kopel]

At the end of every episode, I give the guests an opportunity to speak directly to the audience. You worked with so many restaurant owners and operators out there for those that haven’t had an opportunity to work with you. What advice or words of encouragement do you have for them?

33:01 [Catherine]

My biggest piece of advice for them is if you have not pursued the Employee Retention Credit. You need to really block out two hours to get that done and get the analysis done for your company. I’m a CPA firm who works for other CPA firms, so we work really nicely with other tax professionals, but I’d say go back to your tax professional, see if they can handle it and see if they’re competent. And if they can’t, you want to reach out to a specialty firm to get it done ’cause dollar for dollar that’s the biggest ROI activity that any restaurant owner can do right now. If you have a decent-sized headcount, it could be a really big shot in the arm for your business.

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TOP TAX DEVELOPMENTS IN THE USA

In the year 2022, there were several new proposed regulations such as Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), crowdfunding, gift regulations, and late filing relief. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 made a historic down payment on deficit reduction and reduced carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, among other things. The IRS warned employers about the Employee Retention Credit and indicated that businesses that receive a payback on their Paycheck Protection Program loan are taxed on the relief from debt. The count is just endless.

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[constructionaccounting]

0371: Beyond COVID-19 - How To Build Value In Your Construction Business

This Podcast Is Episode Number 0371, And It's About Beyond COVID-19 - How To Build Value In Your Construction Business

We've said it before, and we'll say it again – this has been a challenging few months for all of us, but there is no better time to think seriously about your business. 

  We all understand the economy has been tough for construction owners. I know you have made severe adjustments in your lifestyle and your businesses; however, remember this too shall pass because there is nothing new under the sun.

  The key to building value in your construction business is to plan the process in a systematic way, whether you're aiming to grow your business in any economy or groom it to get a better price from a buyer. In this article, we have compiled a few tips to create value in your industry.

  1. Looking through the eyes of buyers

Whether you just want to build a more substantial business or looking ahead to the day when you might want to sell it, it helps to think of your business through the eyes of a buyer. Aim to:

Identify any weaknesses they might see in your business and what you can do about them.

Think about the strengths that may attract buyers and how you can reinforce these strengths.

2. Work on stability

The longer your business has been operating, the easier it could be to sell, provided it has a solid track record. Aspire to:

Keep well-documented business performance and tax records.

Document business history and projects completed or customers gained.

3. Develop reliable markets

A strong history is reassuring, but buyers will be more interested in the future. Make sure you:

Show evidence that your main markets are growing or at least stable rather than declining.

Demonstrate you've taken steps to change your market position, if necessary. 

4. Nurture a stable client base

A well-managed client database is one of the most valuable assets as it can be used in many ways for marketing and gaining referrals. Try to:

Improve and update your client database.

Start measuring customer retention rates and customer referral rates.

Implement a client loyalty program and referral incentives. Buyers will want to know that key customers won't leave if you do.

5. Secure your cash flows

Stable future cash flows are critical to the value of a business. Buyers will want evidence of reliable revenue streams coming into the business. Aim to:

Start building more diversity and, therefore, resilience into your customer base if you're too reliant on a few major clients.

Look for ways to develop more revenue streams by adding extra services or products, and lock in stable revenues through customer loyalty programs and contracts.

6. Refine marketing tactics that work

Buyers will want to know what tactics have worked best for your business. Ensure you:

Document your marketing strategy and your promotional tactics for the next 12 months.

Demonstrate how you measure all marketing to identify the best and eliminate what isn't working.

Identify what you're doing to expand your markets and distribution channels.

List some still unexplored areas that could offer potentials, such as a better website or social media marketing.

7. Maintain tight financial control

Excellent financial management will show up in your credit history – something you can be sure a buyer will check out. Plan to:

Keep improving your money management skills through cash flow and profit forecasts and budget reports.

Show you understand and monitor the key performance drivers in your business.

Demonstrate that you have credit management under control and that your average debt collection time is at least as good as the industry average.

8. Develop great business systems

Excellent business systems add considerable value to any business because they allow you to spend more time working on your business rather than in it. They also make the transition to new ownership much more manageable. Make sure you:

Prepare your business as if you're planning to franchise it.

Start building an operating manual that documents all processes in simple, easy-to-understand steps.

Show how good systems enable faster training and help staff cover for absent employees.

9. Grow your brand

A buyer will see significant value in an established and respected brand that differentiates your business from competitors. Aim to:

Work on developing a brand that captures the essence and unique selling points of your business.

Take any necessary steps to enhance or reinvent your branding.

10. Protect your intellectual property

Intellectual property can add considerable value to your business, but only if it's well protected. Ensure you:

Protect your logo and brand as a trademark.

Consult a patent attorney or IP expert about protecting any designs, inventions, copyright material, or other IP that will add value.

11. Build strategic alliances

Strategic alliances can be significant sources of growth and added value. Be sure to:

Consider what additional skills and resources you lack to exploit opportunities you're missing.

List and approach businesses that could help you gain work that your business couldn't usually deliver.

Contact businesses that have more extensive distribution and sales channels.

12. Lock-in key employees

Dedicated and experienced staff can be a crucial asset in buyers' eyes, especially if they've helped you create a valuable business. Plan to:

Ensure you provide opportunities for career progression and use incentives to align pay with the value that your staff creates.

Make your business an attractive place to work. Right working conditions and competitive wages will help to retain skilled staff.

Look for people who can create value for your business and managers with transferable skills who can help you build growth.

Final thoughts

Consider consulting with a construction accountant for basic construction bookkeeping or accounting insights to understand the fundamentals of business financial management better. The knowledge you gain will feel empowering and can help clarify discussions with your accountant. 

  Your knowledge, combined with professional support, is the best way to create a sustainable and valuable construction business for years to come.

About The Author:

Sharie DeHart, QPA is the co-founder of Business Consulting And Accounting in Lynnwood, Washington. She is the leading expert in managing outsourced construction bookkeeping and accounting services companies and cash management accounting for small construction companies across the USA. She encourages Contractors and Construction Company Owners to stay current on their tax obligations and offers insights on how to manage the remaining cash flow to operate and grow their construction company sales and profits so they can put more money in the bank. Call 1-800-361-1770 or sharie@fasteasyaccounting.com

Check out this episode about Contractors Marketing - Accounting - Production (M.A.P.)!

[nextupnews]

The Ultimate Coronavirus Resource List

Table of Contents

List of Coronavirus SymptomsList of Coronavirus Assessment TestsList of Coronavirus Online ResourcesList of Online Doctors Treating CoronavirusList of Coronavirus Medical PPE and Equipment ListList of Coronavirus Disaster SuppliesList of Coronavirus U.S. Government Stimulus Benefits

List of Coronavirus Symptoms

CDC Coronavirus Symptom Watch List Sourced from the CDC - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/checklist-household-ready.html Stay home and speak to your healthcare provider if you develop any of these symptoms:Fever orCough orShortness of breathIf you develop emergency warning signs for COVID-19 get medical attention immediatelyEmergency warning signs include*:Trouble breathingPersistent pain or pressure in the chestNew confusion or inability to arouseBluish lips or face Mayo Clinic Coronavirus Symptom Watch List Sourced from the Mayo Clinic - https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/symptoms-causes/syc-20479963 Signs and symptoms of COVID-19 may appear two to 14 days after exposure and can include: FeverCoughShortness of breath or difficulty breathing Other symptoms can include: TirednessAchesRunny noseSore throat Some people have experienced the loss of smell or taste. Compare Coronavirus Symptoms to Cold and Flu Symptoms

List of Coronavirus Assessment Tests

Sourced from research by Christopher Kemmett CDC Self CheckerCoronavirus Checker - Made by Dr. David Wright and The Emory University School of MedicineMayo Clinic Assessment TestProject Baseline by Verily (An Alphabet/Google Company)Roman - Potential Free Online Consultation With a DoctorAlberta Health Services - General PublicAlberta Health Services - Healthcare Worker VersionDoctor On DemandOntario.caBritish Columbia Self Assessment ToolCoronavirus Risk Assessment Tool

List of Coronavirus Online Resources

Sourced from Coronavirus (COVID-19) "Live" Reddit Threads - https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/ftgqg9/livethread_x_global_covid19_pandemic/ Visit the megathread at r/medicine to see what medical professionals views on the issues are.Visit r/COVID19 for scientific discussions on the virusVisit r/coronavirus for general discussions on the virus Big thanks to r/medicine mods and users for compiling the following:. Tracking/Maps: JHU CSSEHealthmapNextstrainWorldometersUniversity of Virginiacoronainfo.xyzBNO News Journals NEJMLancetJAMA Resources from Organisational Bodies WHO Daily SitrepsECDC LatestUSA CDC LatestPromedImperial MRC (https://bit.ly/2T80VBd)LSHTMWHO Technical GuidanceAMA resource center for health professionalsACP Information for InternistsCDC Pandemic Preparedness ResourcesUpToDate COVID-19 Relevant News Sites CIDRAPStat News

List of Online Doctors Treating Coronavirus

Sourced from research by Christopher Kemmett IU Health Virtual Visit App - Now offering a free coronavirus screenings with a doctor.TeledocAmerican WellMDLiveDoctor On DemandAscensionLemonaidLiveHealth Online MobilePlushcareProvidence Express Care VirtualBabylon Health - Free COVID-19 Care AssistantMaple - Based in Canada

List of Coronavirus Medical PPE and Equipment List

Sourced from the CDC - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/ppe-strategy/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fhcp%2Fhealthcare-supply-ppe.html Eye Protection Isolation Gowns Facemasks N95 Respirators Decontamination and Reuse of Filtering Facepiece Respirators Ventilators

Coronavirus Disaster Supply List

Sourced from Naples News - https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-supplies-kit-soap-hand-sanitizer/4975144002/ • Soaps • Hand Sanitizers • Canned Foods • Bottled Water and Sports Drinks • 30 day supply of medicines, antacids, pain relievers and vitamins • First Aid Kits • Toothpaste and Toothbrush • Toilet Paper • Feminine Products • Diapers • Detergents • Flashlights and candles • Extra batteries • Insurance Documents and a living will

List of Coronavirus U.S. Government Stimulus Benefits

Sourced from research by Christopher Kemmett Direct Payments to All Americans - starting at $1,200 for individuals, families will receive $2,400 for married couples and an additional $500 per child.Expanded Unemployment - includes self-employed and independent contractors. The federal government is adding a $600 per week benefit to State unemployment benefits.Paid Sick Leave and Family Leave - this benefit is employer based, however employers will be reimbursed from the federal government in the form of payroll credits.Suspended Interest on Student Loans - the government will also suspend collection of defaulted student loans which include wage garnishment and bank account levies.Tax Relief for Employer Repayment of Student Loans - employers can pay up to $5,250 in student loan payments to employees and receive tax deductions for every dollar.Penalty Free Withdrawals from Retirement Accounts - the government is also allowing a doubling of the loan amounts allowed to be taken from retirement accounts.Suspended Requirement for Minimum Distributions - temporarily while the stock market is affected by COVID-19, the requirement to withdraw funds from retirement accounts is suspended. This will allow individuals time for their investments to return to higher levels before withdrawing the funds.Extended Tax Filing Deadlines - taxes and corporate filings have been extended federally and in the 50 States. Mortgage Forbearance and Foreclosure Protection - individuals with federally insured loans are eligible for 90 - 180 days of forbearance. Lenders are also restricted from foreclosing on any defaulted mortgages in this category.Charitable Contributions are now Tax Deductible - all individuals who file taxes are no eligible to deduct up to $300 in COVID-19 related donations, regardless of filing itemized deductions or standard deductions.Small Business Loans - businesses in America are now eligible for several different types of disaster related loans. There is the "Paycheck Protection Program", the expanded "Economic Injury Disaster Loan", and "Employee Retention Tax Credits" (which is a 50% refund on wages paid for 6 months up to $10,000 per employee).Moratorium on Evictions - renters are now protected from being evicted for non-payment of rents during the coronavirus crisis. Read the full article

[elizabethcariasa]

Tax deductions & credits affected in 2020 by inflation

Welcome to Part 4 of the ol' blog's 2020 series on tax inflation adjustments.  We started on Nov. 6 with a look at next year's income tax brackets and rates. Today we look at changes to tax credit, deduction and income exclusion amounts. Note: The 2020 figures in this post apply to 2020 returns to be filed in 2021. For comparison purposes, you'll also find 2019 amounts to be used in filing 2019 returns due April 15, 2020.

The hubby has a chant he breaks into every year when I start working on our annual tax return: "Deduct! Deduct! Deduct!"

It's sort of the tax version of yelling "USA" at sporting events.

Deductions can be a good way to cut your tax bill. They reduce the amount of taxable income you have, which in many instances lowers what you eventually owe.

There several deductions, including the standard or itemized methods discussed in Part 2 of this year's inflation adjustments series.

There also are the above-the-line deductions. These technically are income adjustments that work like deductions, hence the popular name, and can be claimed by every eligible taxpayer regardless of whether they itemize or use the standard amount.

These used to be listed directly on tax return Forms 1040 and 1040A. Now, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changes, there's only one Form 1040 and these income adjustments are found on Schedule 1.

Deductions lower your taxable income, but that's not the only way to accomplish that goal. In some cases, money you receive is, by law, excluded from your income, meaning the tax man can't touch it.

And, of course, there's the even better tax-cutting option of claiming tax credits. Credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions of any tax you owe. In a few instances, credits can even get you a refund.

Many of these deductions, exclusions and credits are adjusted each year due to inflation.

Below is a look at some of these popular tax breaks and how much they'll be worth in 2020 thanks to the Internal Revenue Service's annual inflation adjustments.

Student loan interest: Paying for education is a major child-rearing expense. That's why so many students and/or their families take out loans to pay for college.

You can offset a portion of that educational debt by using the Schedule 1 write-off for student loan interest. This $2,500 tax break is set by law, so it doesn't change each year based on inflation.

However, the ability to claim this above-the-line deduction is based on your income and those earnings thresholds can be affected by inflation.

In 2020, you can claim the full $2,500 student loan interest deduction as long as you, as a single taxpayer, your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI*) is $70,000 or less. The cut-off for married filing joint returns taxpayers will be $140,000 next year. If you make more than these amounts for your filing status, the loan deduction amount is reduced.

*Shameless plug for the ol' blog's glossary, which explains MAGI as well as many other tax term definitions.

The loan interest deduction is eliminated if your MAGI as a single taxpayer is $85,000 or more or $170,000+ for married joint filers.

Those 2020 amounts are the same as the 2019 amounts.

Savings Bond exclusion for higher education: Savings bonds are another way to help pay for some higher education costs.

Interest earned on eligible Series EE and I bonds issued after 1989 is not taxed as long as the bond owner uses the redeemed bonds to pay qualified higher education expenses at an eligible institution.

In addition to meeting certain requirements, there's also an income limit for the education-related savings bond interest exclusion.

This exclusion will start phasing out in 2020 for those with MAGI of more than $ 123,550 on joint returns and $82,350 for all other filers. The tax-free savings bond interest exclusion is completely phased out for joint filers with MAGI of $153,550 and $97,350 or more for all other returns.

That's a hike over 2019's savings bond exclusion phaseout/elimination of more than $121,600 for joint filers and $81,100 for other taxpayers. This current tax year, you cannot claim the savings bond interest exclusion for educational use at all if your MAGI as a joint filer is $151,600 or more or is $96,100 or more if you file using one of the other filing statuses.

Educators' expenses deduction: Tax breaks are for more than just students. Elementary and secondary school teachers, along with certain other educators, can claim some of their out-of-pocket classroom expenses as an above-the-line deduction.

This $250 tax break was made a permanent part of the tax code as part of 2015 tax extenders bill (formally known as the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes or PATH Act). PATH also initiated inflation tweaks to this amount.

Sorry, but inflation adjustments won't help here in 2020. It will stay at the same 2019 tax year level of $250. In fact, modest inflation has kept this above-the-line tax break at the same low-dollar level since 2017, even though studies show that the amount is not nearly enough to cover teachers' out-of-pocket classroom costs.

Tax reform good and bad: The TJCA was the first major tax reform bill since the 1986 Tax Reform Act. And as we learned from that historic bill more than three decades ago, some taxpayers win and some taxpayers lose.

Tomes have been written on the many TJCA changes, good and bad (depending on your tax perspective). I've done my share of posts on the topic.

But as with the prior tax law, some TCJA provisions, including one for a new deduction and another in connection with an income exclusion, also are affected by annual inflation adjustments. 

Small businesses pass-through break: The TCJA primarily was a tax bill for big business, lowering corporations' top tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. But Congress realized it wasn't a good political move to hand out benefits to big business and ignore individuals and smaller companies.

So, as we learned this filing season, lawmakers tossed in a lot of individual tax provisions, both new and revised, and added a new tax break for certain small businesses, the Section 199A tax deduction.

The 199A provision offers qualifying pass-through entities a tax break in line with the TCJA's corporate tax cut. It allows eligible businesses — limits apply based on income and type of business — to deduct up to 20 percent of qualified business income, or QBI.

In 2020, the QBI threshold will increase to $326,600 for married couples filing joint returns and to $163,300 for married individuals filing separate returns, single taxpayers and heads of households who operate pass-through businesses.

In 2019, those thresholds are $321,400 for married joint filers and $160,725 for small business pass-through entity taxpayers using the other filing statuses.

Transportation fringe benefits: Commuting can tax your patience. A few years ago, some companies offset this stress by offering their workers' a tax-free fringe benefit that covered some getting-to-and-from-work travels (and travails.)

No more. Through 2025 under the TCJA, employers no longer can deduct fringe benefits offered commuting employees by subsidizing some or all of their parking, transit, and van pooling costs. The new law also suspends bicycle commuting reimbursement from the definition of qualified transportation fringe benefits.

Maybe you should find out if your workplace-provided health care benefit pays for yoga classes, since you're no longer going to get any transportation tax help.

Or maybe you should look for a job where the company will continue to provide this workplace perk as an employee recruiting or retention tool and absorb the tax costs.

Workplaces that continue to offer worker transportation benefits in 2020 can provide up to $270 a month to employees to cover their commuter highway vehicle travel, any transit pass or qualified parking. That's up just a tad from the $265 a month allowed in 2019.

Tax credits comparably better breaks: As noted earlier in this post, tax credits are a better tax reduction tool because they directly affect your bill. Once you figure what you owe Uncle Sam, you can use a credit to cut that amount.

Nonrefundable credits will reduce your tax bill down to nothing.

Refundable credits will zero out what you owe and give you any excess credit back as a tax refund.

Here are some popular tax credits that are affected by inflation changes.

Adoption tax credit, employer assistance: It's no secret, even to those of us without children, that kiddos cost a lot. There are myriad tax breaks to help moms and dads deal with child-related expenses, including help in the form a tax credit and tax-free employer assistance for folks who grow their families through adoption.

In 2020, a company can provide eligible adoptive parents up to $14,300 in in tax-free help to cover associated costs. That new income exclusion amount is up a few bucks from the $14,080 allowed in 2019.

Even if adoptive parents don't get help from their employers in 2020, they can claim next year an adoption credit of up to that same maximum $14,300 amount. Again, this is an increase from the 2019 amount of $14,080.

Both the adoption income exclusion and tax credit amounts will begin to phase out in 2020 when individuals have MAGI greater than $214,520. Once the adoptive parents hit MAGI next year of $254,520, they cannot claim the tax-favored adoption assistance.

The 2020 hikes are up from 2019's income phaseouts, which start at MAGI of $211,160 and end when adoptive parents' modified income is $251,160 or more.

Depending on the adoption's cost, you may be able to claim both the tax credit and the exclusion. However, you can't double dip; that is, you cannot claim both a credit and exclusion for the same adoption expenses.

Note, too, that the tax credit is not refundable. Any extra adoption credit after you reduce your tax bill to zero won't come back to you as a refund.

Child tax credit: Regardless of how your family grows, you can claim this tax break for qualifying children.

The TCJA enhanced this tax break, which has been around in some form since 1997, doubling the credit to $2,000 per eligible child.

It also makes a portion of the credit refundable.

For the 2020 tax years, up to $1,400 may be returned to parents as a refund. That's the same as the 2019 refundable portion of the child tax credit.

Lifetime Learning Credit: This Lifetime Learning Credit is another nonrefundable credit, but it's still worthwhile since it can help pay not only higher education costs, but also continuing education courses once you're out of school, such as a class you took to improve your workplace skills.

This educational tax credit is worth a possible maximum of $2,000. However, that amount is reduced if you make what the IRS considers a lot of money.

For the 2020 tax year, a single filer earning $59,000 or more will see a reduction in the Lifetime Learning tax breaks. That's doubled — $118,000 if you're as bad at doing math in your head as I am — if you're married and file a joint tax return.

In either situation, hit the MAGI number and you'll lose part of the Lifetime Learning Credit.

That's $1,000 more next year than the 2019 tax year's $58,000 MAGI limit for single filers and $2,000 than the $116,000 for married filing jointly taxpayers.

Retirement Saver's Credit: It's tough sometimes to save for retirement when you've got lots of other day-to-day expenses to meet. Uncle Sam wants to help encourage you to stash at least a little for your golden years via this special tax credit.

The Saver's Credit was noted in Part 3 of the 2020 inflation series, yesterday's look at next year's retirement plan tax inflation adjustments.

But since it's often overlooked, it deserves another mention here.

You can claim the Saver's Credit based on the money you put into IRAs and workplace (both as an employee or as the self-employed boss) plans. However, it's limited to folks who meet the annual earning requirements.

In 2020, the Saver's Credit maximum earnings caps go to:

$65,000 for married couples filing jointly, up from 2019's limit of $64,000;

$48,750 for heads of household, up from $48,000 for 2019; and

$32,500 for singles and married filing separately filers, up from $32,000 in 2019.

You can see exactly how the Saver's Credit is phased out in the table in the Part 3 inflation series post.

Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC: The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which was created in the 1970s as an outgrowth of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, is a major tax break for middle- and lower-income workers. It is not changed under the new tax laws.

For the 2020 tax year, the maximum credit amounts, determined by your family size, are:

$6,660 for taxpayers filing jointly who have three or more qualifying children,

$5,920 with two qualifying children,

$3,584 with one qualifying child and

$538 if you don't have any qualifying children.

Even better, these amounts are refundable, meaning any credit amount that is more than your tax bill comes back to you as, per its name, an IRS refund.

For comparison purposes, the 2019 tax year refundable maximum EITC amounts are:

$6,557 for taxpayers filing jointly who have three or more qualifying children,

$5,828 with two qualifying children,

$3,526 with one qualifying child and

$529 if you don't have any qualifying children.

Of course, the key to claiming the EITC is to fall within the tax credit's earnings' guidelines.

If you don't make enough you can't claim it. Make more, and the credit amount is reduced. And if you make what is deemed too much, you can't claim the EITC at all.

For the 2020 tax year, inflation adjustments mean that your earned and adjusted gross income (AGI) each must be less than the following amounts in order to claim any EITC amount:

 Filing Status

No Children

1 Child

2 Children

3 or More Children

 Single,   Head of Household   or Surviving Spouse

$15,820

$41,756

$47,440

$50,954

 Married   Filing Jointly

$21,710

$47,646

$53,330

$56,844

For comparison, the 2019 tax year earnings limits are:

 Filing Status

No Children

1 Child

2 Children

3 or More Children

 Single,   Head of Household   or Surviving Spouse

$15,570

$41,094

$46,703

$50,162

 Married   Filing Jointly

$21,370

$46,884

$52,493

$55,952

In addition, if you have what the IRS deems is "excessive investment income," you're not eligible for the EITC. For 2020, that amount is $3,650. That's $50 more than the 2019 investment income limit.

More inflation figures: Whoa! That's a big bite of tax inflation numbers, both for this tax year and adjusted for inflation in 2020, even when parceled out in just this one item in the ol' blog's 10-part inflation series.

Not all of these deductions and credits will apply to every taxpayer. But the ones that do fit your tax circumstances are worth checking out as potential ways to cut your tax bill, both for this and next tax year.

And as noted in the intro to this post, more inflation changes are on the way.

You can get a preview of what's ahead — as well as what's been posted so far — in the index that's at the end of Part 1 of the 2020 tax inflation series, a look next year's tax rates and income brackets.

Finally, since this post is on Saturday, I'm awarding all the inflation adjustment posts, both those published and those to come in the next six days, this weekend's Saturday Shout Out.

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[b2binfographic]

Manager, Brand & Content

JOB IDENTIFICATION Business Title: Manager, Brand & Content Function: Exempt Department: NA Marketing SUPERVISORY RELATIONSHIPS Solid line to Vice President, Marketing, US About Berlitz At Berlitz we are transforming the way the world communicates. As the world’s leading language training and cultural education company, our mission is to give people the confidence to communicate in a global environment in order to achieve their dreams. Our instructor-led training approach and multi-platform delivery is the most effective way to learn a new language. In 2017 we delivered almost 6 million language lessons for 53 different languages in over 70 countries to 300,000 customers. Join us on our journey to change people’s lives. Summary of Position Berlitz is looking for a talented and creative person to oversee all brand and content marketing initiatives across a range of channels and formats to drive brand awareness, lead generation, customer engagement, retention and advocacy. This person will own the Berlitz brand in the USA market, and generate compelling and impactful content for key segments of the language learning and training market. This is a chance to make your mark in growing marketing team for a truly global brand going through a digital revitalization. Responsibilities Own all aspects of the Berlitz brand for North America, including bringing the brand essense to life and ensuring consistency in tone of voice and messaging across all communications Develop the core messaging framework and value propostion for Berlitz products and offerings Project manage the development of compelling and engaging content aimed at the corporate, consumer and kids audiences, including video, blog posts, social media posts, website content, whitepapers, printed collateral and email nurturing Balance the creative and content needs between SEO/lead generation and brand building Be the connective tissue between the marketing team and the field, including liaising with product and program managers on marketing initiatives and communicating updates from the marketing team Work in conjunction with Digital Acquisition, SEO, Web Development and Product Marketing to create brand and content campaigns that deliver on all marketing and business goals Be the voice of the customer within the marketing team Conduct regular market research, including competitor analysis, message testing and brand awareness tracking Support the network of learning centers with strategies for local demand generation campaigns and marketing collateral Requirements Education Requirements BA or BS in Marketing or related field Key Attributes and Experience: 5+ years working in brand marketing and/or content creation Keen understanding of brand, how to measure key brand metrics and how to build equity over time Natural storytelling ability, with skills in crafting a narrative and getting to the emotional core of a story Experience working with freelancers and agencies (such as copywriters, designers and strategists) to create quality content Excellent written communications skills and comfortable presenting strategies and plans to C level executives Superior project management skills with the ability to manage multiple streams of creative work A ‘can-do’ attitude and a willingness to do what it takes to get the job done Excellent people skills, a team player who enjoys building cross functional relationships and leading through influence Comfortable in a fast-paced environment and strives to continuously improve Passion for education and a strong belief that language learning has the power to change lives Preferred Knowledge and Experience Experience building out audience journeys in marketing automation platforms such as Marketing Cloud, Pardot, Marketo Understanding of digital acquisition and SEO strategies Experience in the education field a plus Benefits At Berlitz, we believe in providing with the most competitive benefits available, so we offer the following benefits for our regular full-time employees: Life Insurance Employee Assistance Plan Credit Union (McGraw-Hill) Short and Long-Term Disability Discounted Berlitz Language Lesson Pre-tax Commuter Benefits TransitChek Medical and Prescription Drugs/ Dental / Vision Flexible Spending Account - Medical and Dependent Paid Time Off including Vacation, Holidays, Personal, and Sick Leave 401K - Employer matches 50% of employee's first 10% of deferred contribution, upon meeting eligibility requirements. The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by most people assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities and requirements. Berlitz is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Read the full article

[doxampage]

VALVE DESIGN CONTEST: Design for Team Fortress® 2 and Other Valve Games, Win Epic Prizes

Last month, we brought you the first-ever easy-to-use content license so you could start creating and selling products inspired by your favorite Valve games and gaming hardware.

Now, we want to find the champions among you. Who will create the first killer Valve 3D printed miniatures, toys, jewelry, Steam Controller mods, and characters? To get your creative drives going, we’re launching the Valve Design Contest to reward the best designs with epic prizes from Valve and Shapeways. The grand prize winner will receive a coveted Team Fortress® 2 Grey Medic statue and $500 in Shapeways printing credit. Four additional runners up will win other Team Fortress® 2 statues, plus $100 in Shapeways printing credit. Both the grand prize winner and all runners up will also receive the Team Fortress® 2 soundtrack on both CD and LP.

Just upload your design, opt in to the Valve license agreement, and set it for sale in your shop by November 5th — and you’ll be automatically entered.

Remember, to create a Valve-related design, just upload your model to your shop (as always, make sure to use tags and accurate descriptions to make sure shoppers can find you), and you will automatically be prompted to opt in to the license agreement. Then, Valve’s game communities will get access to your products, and you can advertise and promote your Valve-related products anywhere you like.

Check out our Valve hub for inspiration and all the nitty-gritty details of how the license works. Then, go play Dota® 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive®, Team Fortress® 2, or Portal®. And when your next great idea strikes, show us what you can do!

1. HOW DO I ENTER?

Four quick steps to follow:

1) Design a Valve Games product or hardware Using your favorite 3D modeling software, design a character, product or hardware based on Valve. Check out these for inspiration.

2) Upload your design to Shapeways Open up a free Shapeways shop (if you don’t already have one). Upload your design to Shapeways and make sure that it’s ready to print.

3) Describe and tag your design to enter the Valve Licence agreement In your model’s ‘Description’ field, tell us about your Valve product. Enter the tags related to the game or hardware your design is for and read and accept the licensing agreement.

While it is not required as part of your entry and will not impact your chances of winning (our lawyers made us say that), once you’ve entered let us know by sharing your entry on Twitter or Instagram with @Shapeways.

  Fine print:

Shapeways Contest Rules

1. Eligibility. This contest is operated by Shapeways in collaboration with the Valve Corporation. It is open to Shapeways users over 13 years of age at the time of entry who live in a jurisdiction that does not prohibit this contest. Employees, officers, and directors of Shapeways or Valve and their immediate family are not eligible to enter. Judges of this contest and their immediate family are not eligible to enter. Individuals may enter more than one entry into the competition but may not do so by way of automated means. By entering this contest, you agree to be bound by these Rules. All entries must comply with and are also bound by the Shapeways general Terms and Conditions, Shop Owner Terms, and any other relevant rules governing behavior on the Shapeways website.

2. Prize. There will be one winner and four runners up. The winning and running up entries may be featured in Valve and Shapeways promotional material. The winner will receive one Team FortressⓇ 2 Grey Medic statue and $500 in Shapeway printing credit. Four runners up will each receive a Team FortressⓇ 2 statue (not Grey Medic) and $100 in Shapeways printing credit. Both the winner and all four runners up will receive Team FortressⓇ 2 soundtrack on both CD and LP.

3. Contest period. This contest is open from 12:01 am New York time on October 10, 2017 to 11:59 pm New York time on November 5, 2017.

4. How to Enter. Entries must opt in to the Valve licensing program during the period of the contest on Shapeways, and be uploaded to a public Shapeways shop and for sale in that shop.

5. Winner Selection. Shapeways will select the winner from the pool of applicants by November 16, 2017. Shapeways will be prepared to award the winning and running up prizes to alternates in the event they cannot be contacted in a reasonable amount of time. The jury selected by Shapeways and Valve will determine the winner based solely on their individual aesthetic and intellectual judgment as to how well the entries capture the essence of the Valve-Shapeways licensing program. In the event of a tie, the entry that is deemed to be most unique will be declared the winner.

6. Winner notification. The winner will be notified via the email in their Shapeways account. Upon contact, Shapeways may need to obtain confirmation of the winner’s eligibility. If Shapeways cannot contact the winner through the contact information in their Shapeways account in a reasonable amount of time, a runner-up will receive the prize. If a runner-up cannot be contacted, Shapeways will select a third place finisher to receive the prize.

7. Retention and Assignment of Rights. Entrants retain the copyright in their entries. By entering the contest, entrants grant Shapeways and Valve an irrevocable, perpetual, and royalty-free license to use the entries for promotional purposes, as well as to manufacture the entry for display and promotional purposes.

8. Taxes. The winner will be solely responsible for paying all national, state, and local taxes that may be due on winnings and, as a condition of receiving the prize, Shapeways may require the winner complete tax documentation.

9. Liability and Jurisdiction. All national, state, and local laws and regulations apply; void where prohibited. All disputes arising out of or connected with this Contest will be resolved exclusively by a court located in Manhattan, New York, USA. Decisions by Shapeways regarding the interpretation of these rules are final. By participating in this contest, you agree to release Shapeways and Valve, and their respective agents from any and all liability, claims, or actions of any kind of injuries, damages, or losses to persons and property which may be sustained in connection with the receipt, ownership, possession, use, or misuse of any prize. Shapeways reserves the right to amend these official rules and to permanently disqualify from this contest any person it believes has intentionally violated these official rules. Shapeways reserves the right to suspend or cancel this Contest in the event of hacking, security breach, or other tampering. Any questions regarding this contest should be directed to legal@shapeways.com.

10. Additional Considerations. Shapeways and Valve are not responsible for (i) any typographical or other error in any communication relating to the Contest; (ii) lost, illegible, late, misdirected, or incomplete, entries or emails; (iii) interrupted or unavailable satellite, network, server, Internet Service Provider (ISP), websites, telephone, cable or other connections; (iv) any technical failure or jumbled, garbled, corrupted, scrambled, failed, delayed, or misdirected transmissions; (v) hardware, software or network malfunctions; (vi) other errors of any kind whether human, mechanical, or electronic; (vi) any damage to Participant’s or any other person’s computer resulting from participation of the Contest or downloading or uploading any materials.

Shapeways reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to (a) abbreviate, modify, suspend, cancel or terminate the Contest, without notice or other obligation, in the event that Shapeways is prevented from continuing with the Contest or the integrity or feasibility of the Contest is undermined in any respect, including due to fire, flood, epidemic, earthquake, labor dispute, tampering or other unlawful act, or if, in the sole opinion of Shapeways, the Contest is not capable of running as planned by reason of infection by computer virus, worms, bugs, tampering, hacking, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes which, in sole opinion of the Shapeways, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Contest; (b) determine winners from entries received prior to action taken, or as otherwise deemed fair and equitable by Shapeways; and/or (c) disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry or judging or process or operation of the Contest.

The post VALVE DESIGN CONTEST: Design for Team Fortress® 2 and Other Valve Games, Win Epic Prizes appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

VALVE DESIGN CONTEST: Design for Team Fortress® 2 and Other Valve Games, Win Epic Prizes published first on http://ift.tt/2vVn0YZ

[dominionenterpriseservices]

FAQs About The California Employee Retention Credit

California employers are encouraged to take advantage of the California Employee Retention Credit before it expires. But what is this tax credit? Who qualifies? Is ERC taxable in California? In this article, Dominion Enterprise Services’ CPA Skyler Kressin breaks down the ERC and how it can benefit your business.

 Like many business owners, California employers were subjected to extreme challenges during 2020 and 2021 and even extending into 2022. Business operations often were fully or partially suspended due to state or local health orders, revenue swings occurred unexpectedly, labor shortages abounded, and the unknowns related to global economic conditions created a difficult environment for businesses of all stripes due to COVID-19.

In the midst of these difficult times, various federal programs were created to mitigate these challenges, including the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. Each of these had provisions for relief, such as advance payment programs or forgivable business loans such as the Payment Protection Program (PPP loan).

While many businesses took advantage of these relief provisions, the sheer volume of legislation signed into law in the last several years has resulted in some of the key relief provisions for employers to be overlooked in the effort to keep the lights on and business flowing.

One such relief provision that consistently has been overlooked was created specifically for employers who continued to pay wages and federal employment taxes throughout the official “pandemic period” (March 12, 2020, through the third quarter of 2021) in the form of an employer tax credit, officially called the Employee Retention Credit (ERC).

The good news is, for California employers specifically, this federal tax credit may be much easier to obtain than for those who own and operate businesses in other states, due to how eligibility works. 

High-level Features of the ERC for California Employers:

• The credit is up to $26,000 per employee for a fully eligible employer. 

• The credit is a federal refundable tax credit, meaning you can claim a refund directly in the form of a check from the IRS, and the ERC is NOT a loan or grant through a bank like the PPP.

• That said, the other relief programs, (such as the PPP) do interact with the ERC but importantly, do NOT make you ineligible for the ERC as was previously widely believed – even those who received both rounds of PPP funding are still potentially eligible for the ERC.

• The claim is made through federal payroll tax filings and entails tax calculations customarily performed by tax professionals.

• The eligible filing period for the ERC begins to expire in April 2023 as the statute of limitations for refunds begins to sunset. 

Who is Eligible for the ERC? 

Eligibility for the ERC is determined on a calendar quarter basis (corresponding to each federal filing period) and can be achieved in one of two ways:

1. Gross Receipts Test

Employers must show a specified percentage decline in gross receipts, quarter-over-quarter when comparing a given quarter in 2019 to the same quarter in 2020��or 2021. For example, the quarter ending December 31, 2019, compared to the quarter ending December 31, 2020, must show a specific percentage decline. Specifically, 2020 needs to show a decline of 50% in at least one quarter, and 2021 needs to show a decline of 20% in at least one quarter – BOTH compared to the equivalent quarters in 2019. 

2. Trade or Business Operations Disruption Test

This test is where there may be advantages for the California Employee Retention Credit as opposed to the relative eligibility in other states. Eligibility under this test all hinges on whether direct state or local government orders restricted business operations for employers during the pandemic period. California was one of the more restrictive jurisdictions as compared to other U.S. states and localities, so ERC eligibility is more likely to be achieved for California employers than in other jurisdictions.

As with all federal legislation and tax law, there are nuances and fine print to the above eligibility tests that go beyond the scope of this article and edge cases that require parsing through grey areas. This is where working with a qualified and licensed tax professional who specializes in tax credits comes into play. Many who are otherwise eligible for the ERC may be leaving money on the table, or otherwise working off an incomplete assessment of the full scope of their eligibility. 

Is ERC Taxable in California?

Another benefit of the ERC is that, in general, it is not taxable on your California income tax return, as per FTB Publication 1001. That said, given it is a federal credit, it does directly impact your federal income tax filing and may result in the need to modify your federal income tax filing.

Dominion Can Help 

Dominion Enterprise Services, PLLC is a full-service licensed CPA firm, with broad experience in helping California employers with various tax credits and consulting and has broad familiarity with the Employee Retention Credit specifically for the state and local legislative and regulatory environment in California during the pandemic period. 

Our model is based on a transparent assessment of the facts and circumstances of each business we work with and working with existing tax preparers and payroll providers in ensuring the maximum claim for the ERC in California is pursued under the law. 

Given the unique regulatory landscape of California, don’t miss out on this opportunity to claim the California Employee Retention Tax Credit before the eligible filing period ends in April 2023. If you would like us to help with this process, please click on the button below and fill out our quick, one-minute questionnaire.

[ercpaymentgroups]

Profitable Employee Retention Credit Program

We are providing the most profitable employee retention credit program service also this employee retention tax credit is a vital benefit for businesses that would possibly be struggling financially due to the pandemic. However, there are different incentives and advantages available to employers that may assist increase employee morale and reduce turnover. It’s secure that offering small companies with alternate options when serious about their finances is important - Employee Retention Credit Program

They work carefully with our clients to develop comprehensive, scalable, and custom options that optimize your talent program and offer you a competitive benefit. Career and way of life aspirations are much more necessary to them than pay or their relationship with their managers.

Whether you wish to increase buyer loyalty or increase brand perception, we're here in your success with everything from program design to implementation, and absolutely managed companies. The employee retention credit is a completely refundable tax credit score for employers and as a part of the pandemic, relief, and economic - Employee Retention Credit in USA

This indicates the need for employee retention credit strategies to focus on retaining folks within the industry, rather than simply particular person positions. Particularly as positions are often seasonal, incentives must be developed in order to encourage people to seek ongoing work within the business. For more information, please visit our website https://ercpaymentgroups.com/

[universeinform-blog]

Republicans revamp U.S. health bill, boost benefits to older Americans

New Post has been published on https://universeinform.com/2017/03/22/republicans-revamp-u-s-health-bill-boost-benefits-to-older-americans/

Republicans revamp U.S. health bill, boost benefits to older Americans

U.S. Residence Republicans are running on adjustments to their healthcare overhaul invoice to offer the greater beneficial tax credit for older People and add a piece requirement for the Medicaid application for the bad, Residence Speaker Paul Ryan stated on Sunday.

Ryan stated Republican leaders nevertheless planned to carry the healthcare bill to a vote at the Residence of Representatives floor on Thursday. Speak on the “Fox Information Sunday” television software, he stated leaders had been running to deal with issues that had been raised by means of rank-and-report Republicans to the rules.difference between democrat and republican

Republicans remain deeply divided over the health care overhaul, which is President Donald Trump’s first most important legislative initiative. It aims to meet his marketing campaign pledge to repeal and replace the Low-cost Care Act, popularly referred to as Obamacare, the signature healthcare program of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.

Democrats say the Republican plan could throw tens of millions off medical insurance and hurt the aged, negative and running households even as giving tax cuts to the rich.

We suppose we ought to be imparting even extra help than the bill presently does” for lower profits humans age 50 to 64, Ryan, the pinnacle Republican in Congress, said of the tax credit for medical insurance which might be proposed within the regulation.

Ryan additionally said Republicans have been running on modifications that would permit federal block grants to states for Medicaid and permit states to impose a piece requirement for able-bodied Medicaid recipients.what do democrats believe.

Trump told journalists in a brief communique aboard Air Force One which he had conferences about health care reform in Florida on the weekend and that the effort to promote the thought became going well. He has been wooing lawmakers to vote for the bill and gained the backing of a dozen conservative lawmakers on Friday after an Oval Office assembly in which the president advocated a work requirement and block-provide choice for Medicaid. He has been wooing lawmakers to vote for the invoice and won the backing of a dozen conservative lawmakers on Friday after an Oval Office assembly wherein the president encouraged a piece requirement and block-furnish alternative for Medicaid.

Who Had More Ethics, Democrats or Republicans

Fortuitously, all of my five closest pals are true Individuals who believe inside the Charter, the united states and the freedoms and liberties we stand for – accordingly, they may be all Republicans or Libertarians leaning right (I’m one of the latter). Alas, speaking out and workout your right to loose speech isn’t so clean in Southern California. My friends have had political symptoms for neighborhood Republican politicians stolen off their property or vandalized. I’ve had symptoms stolen, stakes damaged and signs knocked over – on occasion early in the morning, now and again after darkish.republican used pot in the office

I expect the symptoms introduced down inside the morning are from liberal-socialists taking walks their puppies inside the morning, and the symptoms taken down at night finished by spiteful leftists who may not manage to pay for me the identical opportunity to contain myself inside the political procedure as they call for I have enough money them. I am bored with the hypocrisy, uninterested in being known as a racist (I’m now not). Seems this isn’t just a left-coast element, it is happening also on the East Coast, inside the Boston Vicinity wherein people are tearing down campaign symptoms for Donald trump.

Who is the left looking to an idiot? Annoying politically correct speak, Worrying that I adjust my speech to their accepted narrative – folks, that isn’t always loose speech, this is coercion and if I used to be to talk out of turn at the workplace, I may want to lose my task, however they could spew hate speech for Donald Trump throughout the land, at our schools, businesses, Universities, organizations, even at Starbucks. Why can we have a double-standard, and how is this appropriate – how does this match into our rights as citizens – how come our ethics are challenged by individuals who disagree?

Now then, I take difficulty at all this and want to switch gears and begin asking questions of the other aspect:

Is It Unethical To Skip Government Ethics Instructions?

There has been an interesting tale within the Washington Times titled; “No Evidence that Hillary or Aides Took Ethics Education,”

“The RNC had sued to get a look at the statistics for Mrs. Clinton and nine of her top staffers, such as many who’ve shifted over to paintings on her presidential marketing campaign. Of these, handiest three had information displaying they completed the Education. The revelation came as Mrs. Clinton and her group face deeper questions about whether or not she used the branch to benefit the Clinton Foundation, a worldwide charity run by her circle of relatives and near pals,” and it Turns out that; “Six Clinton confidantes at the Nation department who lack any file of taking the specified ethics Education were Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Caitlin Klevorick, Jake Sullivan and Kris Balderston.”

have been these employees told now not to take the specified Education guides or sign that they’d just in case the problem got here up later? In that case, there is a conspiracy, if no longer, how is it that these employees, which include Hillary Clinton herself had been exempt? Did they purposely leave out those Lessons so they might say that; “We didn’t recognize what we had been doing became illegal.” And of course, the ethics administrator supposedly felt intimidated for their activity to push the problem? Once more, no “Equality” in relation to Hillary, she is a white female above the law, just ask her?

To hell with Hillary’s Hypocrisy – I am ill to my stomach over this BS. Presidential Material – Certainly, you jest.

Multiple Benefits of ETL Tools

Regulatory reporting, improving customer retention and growing a possible product the use of the unstructured records are some of the critical challenges that businesses face today. Those challenges become bigger troubles when organizations fail to the mixture and manipulate information sprawling throughout exceptional geographic regions and dispersed in one of a kind structures. To cope with such issues, firms need to wreck the statistics silos and facts fragmentation with ETL (Extract, Transform, and cargo) tools that combine facts saved in special systems.my texas benefits.federal .federal employee benefits websiteemployee benefits website

Benefits of ETL equipment

There are many blessings of the usage of ETL equipment and they may be an effective solution for dealing with facts fragmentation problems. The tools can deliver improved connectivity that enables IT groups to enhancing applications, and records sources without the need of restructuring the mixing layer. The groups can installation and included environment wherein data answers can simplify regulatory reporting, enhance customer trips, attain target audience and pressure top line growth. The following are some of the blessings:

Regulatory reporting: A great variety of legal guidelines, rules, and guidelines emerged after the economic crisis of 2008. To meet the statutory requirements companies should have sturdy threat analysis and reporting systems to pull, easy, reconcile and standardize facts. The ETL gear simplifies the regulatory reporting operations with capabilities for records virtualization, facts mapping records mapping and information structuring.

Getting a 360-diploma view of the consumer: organizations conflict for getting a 360-diploma customer view encompassing his alternatives, hobbies, likes and dislikes. ETL gear supply a tailored view to the commercial enterprise chief, companions, stakeholders that enable them to engage with clients and enhance client enjoy.

allows statistics-pushed choice making: ETL equipment are embedded with predictive algorithms to foster records-driven selection making in a corporation. The records virtualization features, in addition, allow in creating a large facts warehouse that locations each information elements at a corporations fingertips.

What Are the Seven Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Selling health and preventing ailment have plenty to do with one’s diet. The Meals and Vitamins Information Middle of the USA Department of Agriculture laid out seven nutritional guidelines for people above the age of years vintage concerning intelligent Food selections that sell fitness and prevent sickness.American flag memorial day.what do democrats believe

These hints are:

 Eat extraordinary varieties of Food.

Deficiencies in vitamins and minerals can foster disease in your frame. It’s miles important which you Eat exclusive sorts of Meals in order that your frame can get a good unfold of all of the vital nutrients and minerals.

Carry out bodily activity in share with the quantity of Meals that you are taking in.

Balancing the Meals that you Devour with corresponding physical interest to burn off the strength is extremely essential in retaining a wholesome weight. You may advantage weight if you Eat more calories than what you burn off via your physical sports.

 Include loads of grain merchandise, greens, and end result to your weight loss plan.

Fiber, vitamins, and minerals are important for your health and properly-being. By consuming an extraordinary variety of grain products, vegetables, and the end result you may be feeding your frame the vital factors that it wishes.

 Devour meals which are low in fats, saturated fats, and cholesterol.

foods high in LDL cholesterol and saturated fats are amongst the biggest killers in our society these days. eating meals which can be low in fats content are critical in case you do not need to have a coronary heart attack in your future. Do now not keep away from all forms of fat. Your frame does need some fats to feature properly. Unsaturated fats are the fine kind to Consume.

 Simplest permit a slight amount of sugars for your weight-reduction plan.

Sugars are excessive in calories and most of the meals that we Devour already incorporate sugar. Those can be sugars that occur evidently in culmination or which can be brought throughout the manufacturing method. Looking your sugar consumption will assist you to keep away from gaining unnecessary weight.

Only Encompass a slight quantity of salt and sodium for your eating regimen.

Scientific research endorses that an excessive amount of salt and sodium consumption should growth your blood strain. Whilst this happens it can result in serious and on occasion fatal fitness risks.

[dominionenterpriseservices]

Everything You Need To Know About Covid Tax Credits

We talk about how automations improve workflow, especially with advancing the process of claiming the Employee Retention Credits, resulting in better client satisfaction.

0:00 Andrew Lassise

Tech talk for Accountants show, your host Andrew Lassiste with tech for accountants IT specializing in the accounting industry. With us today, Catherine Tindall and we’re gonna be discussing a lot of things about the covid tax credits, things that you can be doing to navigate the ever-changing tax landscapes which I’m sure is impacting a ton of people especially since last year with the PPP and EIDL, and all these other things that everyone just had to all of a sudden be an expert on.

0:38

So Catherine, how about you give everyone a little background on your entrepreneurial journey as a woman business owner? 

0:51 Catherine Tindall

Yeah, thanks for having me Andrew. I’m a bit of a tech geek on top of being a tax law geek so it’s always nice to get the opportunity to talk about both in the same space.  The firm that I work with Dominion Enterprise Services, I’m the founder of the firm. I have another partner in the firm. 

1:09

I really had a vision for this practice to be tax advisory work and  I always wanted to have something that was going to be a very sustainable practice for myself, for my staff and for my clients and so implementing technology was a really big part of that. A lot of the thought work that I put into the practice really early on was around, how do we develop systems to make things really seamless for the clients and then for the staff. Because as anybody in tax knows, we have a very limited window of having to do a lot of work during the busy season so I lean on technology a lot to help lighten the load of that.

1:54  – Andrew

Any specific apps that are crucial, aside from the normal tax apps that you really lean on? 

2:06 Catherine

It’s becoming a lot more popular from what I’ve seen other practitioners do is implementing a workflow software pretty early on. The one that we use in the firm is called Karbon. A lot of people are familiar with it. Intuit practice management is the same piece of software. But I found owning that piece of software and taking advantage of everything that it could do and really doing the thought work involved with how do you engineer a system and then use the piece of technology to support that has been really instrumental in the firm.

2:43

We use Karbon in the firm but I think all the workflow softwares are pretty comparable depending on what your situation is and it’s more about taking the time to do the thought work and then implementing it correctly.

3:26 Andrew

We’ve had the same CRM for eight years and just the other day discovered, you had to upgrade to it but you can have all these integration,  like a docusign alternative. 

4:06

We could have been doing this for a long time or whenever that feature came out. But the deeper you dig into these things the more that you can discover and ultimately the easier it’ll make your life.Even if you’re saving a few minutes here and there, minutes turn to hours turn to days and it’s not so overwhelming.

4:49

Are there any specific workflows that you can think of that have been really beneficial? 

5:09 Catherine

One of the ones that I absolutely love, so we use a lot of Zapier in the firm too because we use a lot of like interconnected web apps. I have automatic Docusigns and I have automatic things going on with presentations and document collection and all that kind of stuff but my favorite thing that I converted into workflow was our sales process. It’s not something that I always see other accountants do and I think it’s something that it’s worth treating a prospect-to-sale process as if it’s like a tax return. Where you have set steps that you go through and that it’s a very clean experience for someone who’s a prospect so they know what’s going on. Also you know as a partner in the firm, it takes up a lot of my time so to have things like capacity budgeting for sales, it’s really helpful. Because then people can see what I’m up to and it just gives a much cleaner experience to the prospects and I think for them it makes them feel how organized you are because everything’s just so well laid out, well explained and kind of pre-engineered.

6:29 Andrew

I am in love with Zapier. If they went out of business, I’d probably just retire. They’re like,  “It’s the 10th of the month and you’ve used 30 000 zaps”. It is the best. I mean one week of somebody on salary and you get so much more done and most of it’s not rocket science. That’s what I was actually pointing to, alluding to the Docusign integration with Zapier. When we are finished with the deal and the next step is automatically sending out the Docusign with the information from the client, it would make sense, that is actually the automation that we did in our CRM, just with a different product.

7:49

I absolutely love love love that product and it saves you time, it saves wages, it saves so many things. And your restrictions are essentially just what the API can do, so you’d have to pay a programmer to do it. Love Zapier for anybody looking for workflow automation. 

 9:13

Back into the sales process, what does that kind of look like in your firm?

9:28 Catherine

One of the things I learned pretty early on in starting my own practice was that I was really good at certain things with tax. That was my experience with it, doing planning work, doing tax returns but learning how to do sales like it’s a completely different business discipline. So for myself, I invested in doing coaching and getting trained on it because I figured I don’t want to have to start from scratch and recreate the wheel. A lot of the things that are in my sales process come from the wisdom of other people who are much better salespeople than I am. That’s part of how I engineered that process.

10:16  Andrew

And that’s one of the skills that they don’t really teach you when you’re in school. That was one of the discoveries I had pretty early on doing IT and it started with just me and my living room and then grew and grew. But as a business owner I really have no business doing tech-work and that’s our experience. I hired people better than I am and they’ve really taken it and brought it to the next level. 

11:51

So growing the business and lessons learned along the way and not just the “I can be the practitioner”. The E-Myth Revisited is..

11:54 Catherine

 Oh I love that book. That was a big inspiration for a lot of what we do.

. 

12:40 Andrew

So the Covid tax credits. Obviously, the government’s been putting out a lot to support small businesses and people over the last couple years because of all the craziness of Covid. What are some of the things that maybe you see that are being overlooked by others or maybe under utilized? 

13:09 Catherine

The big one for us and it actually does tie back into technology is the Employee Retention Credit. I’m assuming pretty much anybody who’s listening in at this point is familiar with the credit but if you’re not, it’s a payroll tax credit. It’s basically to reimburse employers for hardships experienced during the pandemic. It is credit that you can go back and collect  and it’s up to ten thousand dollars per employee per quarter that qualifies. Obviously there are a lot of caveats and there’s complex calculations involved because there are interactions with things like the payroll protection, loans and other things to prevent double dipping. But what we’ve done in the firm is automated a lot of the back end process of how to process the ERC claims and then get them filed. We’ve actually been partnering with other CPA firms because there’s a lot of capacity issues in my industry. So we’ve been able to partner with other firm owners and get them processed really efficiently just because once you get it over to the IRS, now you have to wait for another however many months for them to process it so the sooner you can get them in it’s just a lot better for the clients. And a lot better for the firm too because we’ve got it so automated that it’s not eating up our capacity to do them.

17:03 Andrew

You know you were talking about partnering with other CPA firms and literally that was our own experience with the ERTC. He referred us to a firm, sounds exactly like what you’re doing where they work together in tandem and it’s taking months to come through. The IRS is so backed up on things and if only they had automation. I’m sure they’ve got something in place. It just goes to show how beneficial having these automations are. I don’t claim to know what they do and don’t have.

20:34

So using ERTC, huge thing! I’m grateful that it was brought up to me because it was a sizable chunk. Does it get directly deposited like PPP and EIDL?

21:11 Catherine

 I believe it’s usually a check back in the mail.

23:17 Andrew

So you’ve been in the entrepreneurial space, if you went back in time and talked to Catherine when you were first starting or if you were talking to somebody, what direction would you put them?

23:50 Catherine

For me the biggest thing looking back, was really engaging with coaching programs and things like the E-Myth that really reset my mind about what could be done.  Because I had a lot of limiting beliefs about what a tax practice could look like. If I had to go back and start again, the two things that have hit over the head with me is, don’t DIY things, find somebody who already is an expert or already knows how to do whatever it is the thing that you’re trying to do and just have it done correctly the first time. And then find models that work and copy them instead of trying to recreate something from scratch because it’s just going to take you so much longer. Another one that I like surprisingly connected a lot with, if you’re familiar with Russell Brunson with Clickfunnels, he has a book  if you probably go on his website. I think it was like funnel secrets. So one of the things he talked about was funnel hacking, find other people or industries who are doing what you want to do and just find ways to copy them instead of DIY-ing everything and recreating. It’s just much more efficient so it’s just a lot of those kinds of principles I found over time. Use a product like Karbon, they’ve already engineered it, it’s already been tested by other people and it works right.

26:26 Andrew

 I ‘m gonna have to check out funnel secrets but my marketing bible is Dan Kennedy’s  Magnetic Marketing.  There are pieces of it that are very similar I would imagine without having read the book but knowing what Brunson stands for and how clickfunnels works, the sensationalism and the grandiose claims. Everybody says my clients are different, this will not work for me and they say that without ever trying it and statistically you’re so incorrect because it’s a human thing, it’s an emotional thing. A lot of purchases aren’t necessarily like the analytical that’ll be a piece of it but there’s also just that feeling that we get. If you have the good service and fulfillment on the back end then if anything you’re helping them in the way that they want to be helped and it helps your business. We went from basically no sales from the website directly and last year between 100 and 150 but people that became customers and happy customers who then referred us to other customers because we did a good job. I threw out the misconception. 

30:12

So we hit on E-Myth, a great book. Funnel secrets, I’ll have to check that out personally. Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing is from my side, anything else that stands out to you? 

30:29 Catherine

For me early on is when you’re on your own, it’s easy to get discouraged so finding a community of other tax CPA’s that were doing similar things and in the same headspace was extremely helpful. It’s really tough when you start your own business even if you’re a really experienced technician in it. It is overwhelming how many other things go into it that you weren’t expecting and having a community to be able to talk to other people and get that encouragement and see other people’s wins. I found that to be really helpful in keeping me going through the hard parts and also just giving me a much bigger sense of what it could be. Especially post pandemic, there’s a lot more of that available online, some really awesome facebook groups out there for whatever kind of sub-niche of accounting you’re in or just any kind of entrepreneurship. One of the groups that I enjoyed the most was a digital marketing group not accountants at all but just the mindset and being able to see people in other spaces really helped open me up to considering more things that maybe I thought I was above and you’re not. Marketing is its own discipline and there’s a lot of intelligence there that you can use. You have things to learn from everybody and having that spirit of humility and seeking out community is just really important to success. 

32:33 Andrew

Yeah, I couldn’t agree more and I’ve gone to just random conferences just trying to pick up things here and there. I don’t recall where the recommendation came from but they’re like, go to tractor conferences and see what tractor owners are doing and see how it could apply to you. There’s always progression, there’s always new things you could be looking at.

34:36

I think we can leave off with there, I want to be very conscious of your time Catherine. Where can people find more about you online? 

34:44 Catherine

So if you’re another practice that’s interested in our ERC partnership feel welcome to visit the website. I’ve got different places you can connect there, also I’m pretty active on Linkedin so anybody who’s interested in keeping up with a similar professional. I always like meeting other people in the same headspace, please connect with me on Linkedin. I’d love to meet you and I always get my best news and updates from what’s going on in my feed.

35:19 Andrew

It’s like my feed too. I’ve just given up on the news.  Anyway, Catherine, thank you so much for being on the show! As always if you enjoyed the show please be sure to subscribe, hit the like button so you get notified when we put out new episodes that come out every Monday. We put those fun clips on that Linkedin platform so you can see all week long the great things that Catherine had to say today. So take care Catherine! Thank you for being on the show and have a great day!

 Catherine 

Thank you too, Andrew! It was an absolute pleasure and I really enjoyed it.

[dominionenterpriseservices]

Free Money Exists: Catherine Tindall of Dominion Enterprise Services

As a restaurant owner, if you have not pursued the Employee Retention Credit, you need to lock out two hours to get the analysis done for your company. Dollar for dollar is the most significant ROI activity any restaurant owner can do now if you haven’t taken advantage of the program. It’s based on headcount. If you have a decent-sized headcount, this could be a massive shot in the arm for your business. – Catherine Tindall, CPA CTC

1:05 [Josh Kopel]

Welcome to Full Comp! A show offers insight into the hospitality industry. We are featuring restaurateurs, thought leaders, and innovators. We served up on the house.

1:22 [Josh Kopel]

You could be sitting on a winning lottery ticket and not even know it. I’m talking about the Employee Retention Credit. I witnessed fellow restaurateurs receive six-digit checks by taking advantage of this extraordinary opportunity. As I’m sure you can imagine, I lack the expertise to discuss the ins and outs of the program, but I know someone who can. Her name is Catherine Tindall, and her company Dominion Enterprise Services specializes in helping restaurants get the most money from the credit with the least effort. I hope you came hungry because our old Uncle Sam is baking some bread today.

2:05 [Catherine]

I always use analogies. A bookkeeper’s your mom who knows first aid. A CPA is your general practitioner who’s going to be able to give you antibiotics. Your mom will be there with band-aids and that’s all you’ll need, those little reports. When it comes to making bigger decisions or strategizing around what’s going on in your business, a CPA can be much more helpful because they have much more professional experience and training than a bookkeeper.

2:51 [Josh Kopel]

Let’s talk about that. A CPA can do everything a bookkeeper can do, but a bookkeeper cannot do everything that a CPA can do.

3:00 [Catherine]

The other distinction is that a CPA can do things that a bookkeeper can do but do you want to pay your doctor to put on band-aids? That’s the analogy. Many people try to get their CPAs to do things that are a little too menial rather than just having a bookkeeper or having other people in place to handle certain parts of what’s going on financially. Accounting is a very broad field, and there are many pieces to it. To have me, a tax specialist, do things that a bookkeeper can do doesn’t make sense.

3:45 [Josh Kopel]

What was your path to entrepreneurship? What problem did you feel you were solving when you created Dominion?

3:52 [Catherine]

When I was in school, I originally started in medicine. I wanted what I was doing to change people’s lives and help them. I wanted to be helping people as my profession. As I went further into it, I realized that it wasn’t going to be a good fit for a number of reasons. My parents were both CPAs and had a tax practice. They told me to take an accounting course, and you can see where that ended. I enjoyed it, and I found this special thing with accounting. I enjoyed the numbers. I enjoyed the logic of it, and I really enjoy the fact that people are so intimidated by it and feel so out of control with it. And I can bridge that gap for them and use the knowledge I have to make it intelligible, especially with the tax side of things, because I’m primarily a tax planner and a tax specialist.

People are so intimidated by taxes, and it’s so expensive and painful to be able to bridge that gap and help them understand how it works. To help them reduce how much they’re paying in a way that really moves the needle for their business. I find it extremely satisfying. What pushed me to start my firm is my experiences where there’s not a lot of thought leadership that comes from accountants. They tend to be very “in the box” thinkers, very backward-looking, historically oriented, and just trying to be compliance oriented. So I found that what I wanted to do was help business owners, and I needed to start my own firm to structure the relationships in a way that we’re not just filling out forms for people. That we’re doing things that advance their business and advance their personal life forward by being able to save them cash with tax reduction strategies, that was the path there.

5:41 [Josh Kopel]

In the gap, you’re talking about. Specifically, I believe that’s the gap between bridging yesterday’s numbers and how that influences decisions today and tomorrow, right?

5:53 [Catherine]

Absolutely. There’s kind of three pieces that go into what people do in their business. You try to increase your top line through doing marketing and advertising, and things that you try to decrease your bottom line by reducing expenses. Then the third piece, which many people don’t think about, is that everything is going to flow through the tax funnel, and you’re going to pay tax. So do things to optimize how your income flows through the tax funnel to ensure you’re not paying too much in tax. For my firm, we’ve emphasized that third piece. We’re a tax planning firm mostly, and that’s the piece that many people never get around to doing because they wait until the end of the year to talk to their accountant. Or their accountant is just concerned with ensuring they’re compliant with the IRS rather than finding efficiencies and how they operate to lower how much they pay.

6:43 [Josh Kopel]

You were interested in connecting with independent restaurant owners and operators when you reached out. Why choose that niche because we’re so easy to work with?

6:52 [Catherine]

The main thing we’re up to right now is to become a specialty practice for doing the Employee Retention Credit. I do these for all sorts of industries. Still, in particular, I saw that the restaurant, especially independent operators, is just largely missing out on this credit. It’s because they fall in that weird zone, where their tax practitioner is probably really small and isn’t able to handle a lot more than just filing their returns. I’ve been coming across many of these clients whose accountants just dropped the ball and going after this credit for them, especially for restaurant owners who were so impacted by the pandemic. They have this opportunity. For many of the clients I’ve been seeing, it’s a six-figure tax credit, a six-figure check that comes back in the mail. I thought we would be a good connection because if I could just get one person to reach out to their accountant or be able to take advantage of this credit, I feel I’ve accomplished something.

7:59 [Josh Kopel]

I want to talk about tax strategy at large because, in the abstract, I don’t know how many of us know what that means. Typically tax planning starts on January 1st for payment in April, and we’re talking about last year’s taxes. What tax planning strategies do you guys use to help mitigate attack implications for independent restaurant owners and operators?

8:32 [Catherine]

The first strategy is to be proactive and consider how taxes work. You’re incurring a tax bill as you earn money because its profits will flow through that tax funnel. If you just wait until the end of the year to do anything, that money is already flowing through that funnel, and there’s not much you can do to get it back. That’s why for many people, it’s in January or February that they figure out what their tax bill was from the previous year. And they’re always in this game of catch up and what we do in the firm for our tax planning clients is we start with an onboarding. We need to look forward to where your business is going. We need to understand what you’re trying to achieve strategically with your business to ensure it’s going through the tax funnel as efficiently as possible. If somebody is going to grow to sell, that’s a very different kind of strategy than if somebody is going to grow to hand it off to a kid. If they know, they’re just going to be operating the business for 20 years, starting spidering out and getting a bunch of different businesses, or pivoting into franchising or licensing. Those are very different end games from an operation and tax planning standpoint. Overlaying a deep understanding of what’s happening in the business to how the tax code works and how we make this the most efficient path through the tax funnel. The first thing we always go after is tax credits ’cause it’s a dollar-for-dollar thing. Usually, once you start those programs, they go year after year, so there are different payroll tax credits.

There are other incentives out there that are just easy wins for the client and usually some instant cash injection. The next piece is entity structure: percentage points say you’re getting taxed at 40% effective, and we can bump that down to 25%- 30%. That’s a huge swing for a matter of just shifting or forming some entities, closing some entities, doing some elections, and filing some paperwork. You can get that stuff wrapped up in a month, and I can move your whole percentage points. We analyze what’s going on with your entities. For most people, if you structured your business more than five years ago or experienced some significant growth, that’s something that you want to have an ongoing analysis done. It’s not one of those things you wanna set it and forget because if all of your work is getting pushed through this inefficient tunnel, you’re losing percentage points. And if you’re working safely, it’s 15% more than you’re paying. How many months out of the year working for the government could have gone to you just to fill some forms? Then it just goes into maximizing deductions and ensuring that people can be as efficient as possible with things that they’re already spending money on. Suppose you’re paying family members, paying for health benefits during retirement. All those kinds of things, but those are kind of after the fact, and it all has to be in the frame of what’s the strategy? What are you trying to do as a business? And how do we get you there the most efficiently?

11:58 [Josh Kopel]

For the folks listening that is going, is this me? Am I one of these people with an issue? What are some of the red flags? What are some common mistakes you see people making when they come to you?

12:08 [Catherine]

At least the most common mistake I see on the credit side is people not taking advantage of the Employee Retention Credit. If you haven’t had that one, you need to have an analysis done for regular tax planning issues. First one’s entity structure, if you’re getting over 100K a year on your business and you’re not operating out of an entity that’s when you want to start having that kind of conversation. Do I need to change my entity structure? Another common mistake is they don’t get their legal structures set up right on the front end for liability purposes, so people will just operate under their name instead of being in something like an LLC where you’re going to have some legal separation liability. And just other things like not buttoning up their compliance work on the front end and paying people under the table. Those are the most common mistakes I see people make on the front end of the restaurant industry.

13:18 [Josh Kopel]

The federal government did this alphabet soup task when the pandemic hit, and it was just rolling out program after program. I know that there’s a massive opportunity for the Employee Retention Credit. We’re gonna dig deep into it, but I’m wondering what other opportunities did the pandemic present?

13:39 [Catherine]

Most of them now are wrapped up. People got to take advantage of things like the payroll protection program, multiple rounds of that. A lot of restaurant grants, also state and local aid that came out, and it was just tough for everybody because you had all these programs coming out. There was no guidance for tax practitioners to know how things would work, and it just turned into a crazy money grab. The one nice thing is the Employee Retention Credit is baked into the code, so it’s not like the PPP, where it’s a fund that gets exhausted if you don’t take advantage of it. We have a three-year window for it, and if you didn’t get to take advantage of a lot of those other programs, it helps increase that credit. Because one of the things that happens is if you got PPP or if you’ve got these other programs, it’ll reduce your Employee Retention Credit. The alphabet soup is a good way of putting it because they’re coming from all sorts of agencies, state and local, and federal. It was just nuts.

14:53 [Josh Kopel]

Let’s get into the Employee Retention Credit specifically. For those that don’t know, can you explain what it is?

15:01 [Catherine]

It’s a payroll tax credit. It’s a reimbursement to employers who experienced hardship during the pandemic. If your company, especially restaurant owners, had operations limited by government orders or you had revenue discrepancies. So it’s not just year-over-year revenue declines but just uneven revenues you could be eligible for the credit. I have not had a restaurant come to me that wasn’t eligible for it just because of the factors of what happened during the pandemic. ‘Cause almost everybody had some kind of operational impact through the government orders, and that’s one of the qualifying factors. It’s up to $26,000 per employee. You can imagine if you have a good headcount in your operation, above ten people, it can be a substantial credit. It depends on your headcount, but people with 15 employees get a quarter of $1,000,000 back, even on a smaller scale. It’s a check that comes back in the mail, so it’s not credited towards future years. It’s a reimbursement of the money you paid in 2020 and 2021, and it’s still available. It will start phasing out about a year from now, but it’s still available even though it’s related to tax years 2020 and 2021.

16:13 [Josh Kopel]

I want some of that. How difficult is it to get?

16:16 [Catherine]

You just have to work with a practitioner for it. One of the decision points is knowing the right person to work with. A lot of people have tried to work with their payroll providers. I don’t recommend it just because my experience with payroll providers is they have a hard enough time just doing regular payroll. Many of the cases I’ve seen with payroll providers have been under-claiming. Then on the opposite side of things, I see people trying to work with their regular CPA. Many regular CPAs don’t handle a high volume because they are complex. They interact with your payroll protection program loans and other grants and aid. They all interact with each other. I recommend people work with specialty providers. My firm is a specialty provider; we do them for other CPA firms because it’s become our specialty. Still, those are, in general, the people that you can work with for it. Also, I should warn you that there are a lot of bad actors in the space right now because we’ve got an information gap between people filing these claims and then the IRS. The IRS is still so behind from what happened during the pandemic. A couple of days ago, I was reading an article that one of the bigger players in this space for doing these credits got raided by the IRS. It’s one of those things where you just want to work with somebody that’s a licensed CPA firm. They do a good amount of them because it’s big dollar figures. I’ve got several restaurants where they’ve got a quarter of $1,000,000 back, and when it’s that much money on the line. You’re paying for the placement. You’re not just paying for the Botox, and that’s the thing with the credit. When you work with somebody reputable, it’s an easy process for you because it’s just once we get the reports. It’s just a matter of us doing the calculations and having everything buttoned up for what the IRS wants to see.

19:20 [Josh Kopel]

How do you suss out between someone suspect and someone working in the space with integrity?

19:27 [Catherine]

For the most part, the biggest red flag is if they’re CPA firms or not. There are a lot of people out there that are just marketers for this, and then they pass the work off to two small CPAs, or they’re working with people that aren’t. I had a case come across my desk from somebody where the person doing the filing was a real estate attorney. They weren’t professional attacks, so that becomes a big red flag. The other red flag is if they’re charging contingent fees. As a CPA firm, we’re not allowed to charge a contingency fee, and if you encounter a person doing these credits and they say well, we’re gonna charge you 25% of the credit. That’s a red flag for the most part.

For the other partitioners in this space that I see, the range isn’t contingent. Still, the fee tends to be between 10 to 15% of the credit, so if you see somebody that’s kind of outside that range or they’re just sales if you feel that sales thing going on. It’s not a tax practitioner where they’re asking you a lot of questions, too, because many things interact. We’ll get your credit if they’re not asking you many questions. Just send us these two reports. You’re going to be eligible for half of $1,000,000. It’s fishy versus OK we’re gonna need some payroll reports. We’re gonna need some financial reports asking you detailed questions about your company ownership. You’ll get that feeling. If you’re being sold versus OK, this is an actual tax professional that knows what they’re doing. The other thing I see people doing wrong is anybody can have a website, a convincing marketing copy and flashy stuff, and testimonials saying we’ve filed so many claims. Still, it comes down to who’s doing the work. Who owns the company? How long have these guys been around? Are they going to be gone when the IRS comes back, or what’s the feel of this? And I’d say, for the most part, if you already have a tax professional and they can’t handle it. I loop them into the conversation. They know how taxes work. They’ll know if something feels wrong because they can talk shop to the other company that’s doing it and lean on your tax pro to say hey can you be in this conversation with me and these people for this credit because that tax Pro is going to have a good Spidey sense of no this feels off. This is very salty versus no. This is another CPA firm, and when we get into the weeds and talk shop, they pass the mustard. That’s the advice that I would give people in general.

22:01 [Josh Kopel]

For context, what does your specific process look like? When somebody reaches out and wants help. How do you help?

22:10 [Catherine]

We start with just a conversation. I do make sure that the person that we’re working with understands just the general program of how the credit works, and they don’t have any confusion about what they could be pursuing because there are some interactions that happen with things like your income taxes, so we go through all of that and then, in general, we collect the reports we do an assessment to see OK do you meet the eligibility requirements with flying colors and then if you do then how much roughly are you eligible for? And that’s something we do on the front end of the engagement. Then once we know roughly what they’re eligible for, we say, OK, this would be our fee if you want us to do the work, file the claim, and track it with the IRS. Here’s how the cash flow would work if it doesn’t make sense for you. That’s how we approach it, and once we’ve got all the reports and the client wants to engage with us, we then finish calculations, file a claim with the IRS, and then track it with the IRS, and that’s our basic process. Usually, for people, it only takes these initial conversations, but then maybe it’s a couple of hours an hour or two getting those reports together that we need to get that precise calculation done, and that’s it. It can be a couple of hours of work for 250K. That’s pretty good. It’s a pretty good ROI for anybody. That’s what we’ve seen for the restaurant owners; they tend to get really high credit amounts for this.

23:27 [Josh Kopel]

What are the eligibility requirements?

23:32 [Catherine]

There are two ways a company can be eligible. The first way is that if you have certain revenue declines, it’s different rules for the different years, so I just tell people the rule of thumb is if you have more than five employees and you experience discrepancies, so your quarters are uneven, get yourself analyzed because it’s such high potential, high dollar volumes on the table. That it’s just worth it to have yourself formally assessed on that so you can either have revenue declines, and that’s one way you can be eligible, or if you had government orders that forced you to modify your operations. That’s the other piece of it, so for restaurants, very common to reduce capacity, and it’s usually state orders or local orders. Those orders make you have to change your operations. That way, if it’s more than a 10% effect on your business during the period for which that was going on, you’ll be eligible. If you’re in a state that was restrictive during COVID, California, Massachusetts, or New York, where we weren’t allowed to operate at full capacity for the whole year, then you would be eligible for the whole year because it’s a government order. Those are the two ways that companies can be eligible, and it’s an either-or test, and in some quarters, it’ll be government orders. In other quarters then you have the revenue issues. You can be eligible through the whole duration of the pandemic for a mix of those, and that’s part of the analysis we do on the front end.

25:02 [Josh Kopel]

One of the things that hold independent restaurateurs back from participating in things is the fear of an audit.

25:11 [Catherine]

True, I should mention that part of what we do as our process is included in our engagement is that we will support the client through the audit at no additional expense just because I’ve been through them. I know how they go, the auditor comes in, they see the kind of paperwork we have, the credentials, we have a conversation with them, and they open and close the case. Because it’s just that’s the level to which we keep our documentation, and that’s the name of the game. It’s when you’re vetting out practitioners it’s for that purpose. I want the worst-case scenario to be the auditor. We get a notice from the IRS, and they must write a letter. That’s going to be the worst thing that happens, and that’s why working with somebody who’s really oriented around. OK, how are we going to get through compliance ’cause that’s really the problem, but it’s not getting the money back. It’s making sure that the IRS isn’t gonna come back later. Most restaurants passed with flying colors because the government orders were so restrictive and just the way the credits are written. I’ve never really been concerned about the restaurant owners having audit issues just because it’s so easy to document. There’s a government order from my governor that we were at 45% capacity or 75% capacity, and here it is. This is what it was, and that’s just how the credit is written. There’s no risk for the restaurateurs as long as you have your documentation in order, which we work with a good practitioner going to have. It’s good to be concerned about it, but it will not be a problem if you work with somebody reputable.

26:41 [Josh Kopel]

The years that are covered are 2020-2021.

26:47 [Catherine]

It’s still gonna be open for another year, so if you missed out on it for 2020 and 2021, we can still file those returns and go back and get it, which is great.

27:00 [Josh Kopel]

How quickly from the first phone call is it typically to get the check in the mail?

27:06 [Catherine]

The problem with the IRS is that they’re still messed up. It’s a very manual process on their end. When filing the actual returns, we must mail them to the IRS. Once we get all the documentation in place, we get claims turned around in under two weeks, but then it goes to the IRS and sits with them. Previously they were projecting that it was 9 to 12 months. The last time I talked to somebody, they reallocated personnel to that department. It’s looking more than five months, but it just depends on the size of the credit because those of a certain size have to have a second set of eyes on them from the IRS standpoint. I’d say for most people. It’s about a five-month wait.

27:49 [Josh Kopel]

I wanna talk at a high level about tax planning because this tax credit represents a massive missed opportunity, and you don’t know what you don’t know. Talk to me about tax planning in general and why you believe it’s one of the highest return investment activities you can spend your time on as an entrepreneur.

28:10 [Catherine]

The biggest reason is it’s a high ROI activity and takes little time as long as you’re intentional about doing it. You may do it a couple of hours out of the year. Still, I said earlier that by having things in an efficient entity structure, you move the needle percentage points and when you think about it, spending a couple of hours each quarter with your CPA going through, distributions, retirement contributions? breaking off separate businesses with different entities. Those kinds of questions and checking in and asking for that level of analysis to be done. It can move the needle, and getting into that practice will be helpful, especially if you haven’t done any planning. Really how you want to approach that professional is to say you need tax planning and taxes done. I will need a minimum of four meetings during the year where we’re making planning conversations and you’re running forecasts for me. That’s the service you want to ask for . A lot of people don’t realize that if you’ve just asked them to do your taxes that is all they’re going to do. And by asking for more, you’ll get more. I’d say if you’re not paying at least ten grand a year on tax planning work and that level of activity going on, you’re not getting it. Because it’s asking them to do a quadrupled if not more of the work that they’re doing just to file returns to run projections, to run calculations, and to be the quarterback of making sure that you’re operating efficiently. If you don’t plan, you’re paying 40% effectively between Social Security taxes and income taxes and state taxes, which could be well over 40% if you’re working half the year for the government. It’s right now. We’re recording this. It’s the end of Ma and you’re listening to this. You’ve been working for the government for the last five months. Just take a couple of hours to engage with somebody and say, “Hey, should I be an S corp or should my catering business be a C Corp? How should we have this setup? Should I buy my building? Those kinds of things, maybe you could have only been working for the government for the first three months out of the year instead of the first 5-6. It’s just deciding you’re gonna do it and then getting the right people to quarterback it for you where you’re not quarterbacking it.

31:22 [Josh Kopel]

It’s worth bringing up mindset because I can easily look at what you do for a living and see it as an expense. Still, at the end of the day, I would assume that your clients don’t see you as an expense. They see you as a way to make more money, not spend more money.

31:43 [Catherine]

Honestly, that’s what accounting should be as a function in your business, and that was one of the founding principles I had for my firm. I want every client I work with to be a profit center because if I’m not making them money, they’re not the right client for me. After all, I cannot use my skills to improve their business by increasing their cash flow. That’s not a good use of my ability. It’s your general practitioner putting on bandaids. It’s not that I wanna be healing people, and for a lot of business owners, they get in that mindset of bookkeeping being expensive, so I’m gonna do it myself and really, especially with the tax planning, it’s a return on investment. If you invest in it and you work with somebody who knows what they’re doing, it’s going to be a profit center for your business without you actually having to do very much. Because it’s just a matter of finding the right person, having the conversations, and having the relationship. I always say if you haven’t found that person yet, find them because it will make a really big difference.

32:45 [Josh Kopel]

At the end of every episode, I give the guests an opportunity to speak directly to the audience. You worked with so many restaurant owners and operators out there for those that haven’t had an opportunity to work with you. What advice or words of encouragement do you have for them?

33:01 [Catherine]

My biggest piece of advice for them is if you have not pursued the Employee Retention Credit. You need to really block out two hours to get that done and get the analysis done for your company. I’m a CPA firm who works for other CPA firms, so we work really nicely with other tax professionals, but I’d say go back to your tax professional, see if they can handle it and see if they’re competent. And if they can’t, you want to reach out to a specialty firm to get it done ’cause dollar for dollar that’s the biggest ROI activity that any restaurant owner can do right now. If you have a decent-sized headcount, it could be a really big shot in the arm for your business.

[dominionenterpriseservices]

ERC For Restaurants: 5 Things Restaurant Owners Should Know

There is a lot of talk about the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) for restaurants, with aggressive advertising and spamming from companies looking to claim them on behalf of restaurant owners, and a lot of misinformation circulating through word of mouth. As professionals in this space, we want to cut through the noise to emphasize five things every restaurant owner should know about this tax credit.

1. The Credit is a Game Changer

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) is for employers who experienced difficulties in 2020 and 2021 as a result of COVID shutdown orders and related economic disruptions. Any employer who has more than five employees and experienced any kind of hardship or disruption during the pandemic should look into eligibility for this historic tax credit. The potential upside of such a large credit (often $100k+) makes it a game changer for restaurant owners, and we have seen many cases where ERC money has been crucial to expanding or maintaining operations in uncertain times.

2. You Almost Certainly Qualify  

Although shutdown orders and other restrictions on restaurants varied considerably between states, the vast majority of restaurants with indoor dining experienced state-mandated restrictions on their normal operations that would qualify them for the credit.

Keep in mind that this is true even if your restaurant saw revenue increases during the pandemic.

3. The Credit is NOT the Same as the PPP

We find that many business owners confuse the ERC with the Payroll Protection Program (PPP), but there are several important differences.

Unlike PPP the ERC is a tax credit program, which means that if you are eligible, you are legally entitled to a tax refund. The great thing about this program is that you can use the funds for any purpose you like (because they are a refund) so you are not limited to using the money for payroll, like with the PPP.

If you do use the funds towards expenses that are deductible in your business, this can help reduce the income tax effect. We discuss this with clients to make sure they understand in their specific situation how the credit will impact their taxes.

 4. There are a Lot of Bad Actors in the Space

 The large amounts of money involved with the Employee Retention Credit has given rise to a “gold rush” style frenzy, with many companies forming to just process the ERC and aggressively marketing for clients.

 Many of these companies are not licensed or regulated by either the IRS or local accountancy boards, and are run by people with no experience in the accounting industry. They can also sometimes be outright scammers looking to intentionally overclaim credits or claim credits for businesses that do not qualify, profiting from the hefty percentage they take as a fee. These companies will disappear as quickly as they appeared once the IRS starts to enforce audits on these claims, leaving their unsuspecting clients holding the bag.

Unprincipled companies like these are currently running rampant because there is an enforcement gap between when the claims are filed and the IRS inspecting the claims. We’ve seen as large as 1MM overstatements from bad providers and you, as the taxpayer, are the one held responsible for an improperly claimed credit.

 5. It’s Available for a Limited Time Only

The ERC presents an incredible opportunity for restaurant owners recovering from the pandemic, but unfortunately won’t last forever, so it’s not a good idea to delay.

 The ERC is a one-time credit and will begin to phase out starting April 2023, so you will need to act well before then to make sure that you are receiving the full amount you are entitled to.

 You also want to make sure that your credit is filed in a timely manner. Due to the volume of claims and capacity limits at the IRS, there is a substantial wait time for processing, with smaller claims taking 3-4 months, and larger claims 6 months plus. It’s worth the effort to get into the queue now to avoid additional wait.

Finally, we want to emphasize that claiming your ERC is one of the highest value uses of your time possible. Again, even small operations are usually entitled to credits that run well into the six figures, while larger businesses regularly qualify for credits in the millions. Given that the process only takes a few hours, there is almost nothing a business owner can do that is a higher value per unit of time.

[dominionenterpriseservices]

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