Per-Diem Rates for Post-9/30/2020 Business Travel

IRS issued Notice 2020-71 which contains the special per-diem rates for taxpayers to use, after 9/30/2020, to substantiate ordinary and necessary business travel expenses.  Background An employer may pay a per-diem amount to an employee on business-travel status instead of reimbursing actual substantiated expenses for away-from-home lodging, meal and incidental expenses (M&IE). If the rate paid doesn't exceed IRS-approved maximums, and the employee provides simplified substantiation (time, place, and business purpose): the reimbursement is treated as made under an accountable plan (e.g. it isn't subject to income or payroll-tax withholding), it isn't reported on the employee's Form W-2, and receipts for expenses aren't required. In general, the IRS-approved per-diem maximum is the General Services Administration (GSA) per-diem rate paid by the federal government to its workers on travel...

Is Your Business Paying a Shell Company

Not all shell companies are dishonest. Despite their often-sinister reputation, these paper-only companies may be used legitimately to hold another business’s assets. Or they may be the “empty container” left after a company downsizes or is acquired. That said, some fraud perpetrators use shell companies to embezzle funds, evade taxes, dodge debts and commit other illegal acts. For many businesses, the biggest threat posed by illegitimate shell companies is that unscrupulous employees will use them to perpetrate billing fraud. Here’s how to spot a shell scheme in your midst. Under cover Employee-perpetrated shell company schemes take one of two forms. In the first, an employee sets up a shell company to send out — and collect on — fictitious bills. Perpetrators don’t have to send the bills for...

What Tax Records Can Your Throw Away

October 15 was the deadline for individual taxpayers who extended their 2019 tax returns. (The original April 15 filing deadline was extended this year to July 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) Now that you’re finally done filing last year’s return, you might wonder: Which tax records can you toss once you’re done? Now is a good time to go through old tax records and see what you can discard. The general rules At minimum, you should keep tax records for as long as the IRS has the ability to audit your tax return or assess additional taxes, which generally is three years after you file your return (four years for California). This means you potentially can get rid of most records related to tax returns for...

Understanding the Passive Activity Rules

Are you having difficulties understanding the passive activity rules? Are you wondering if the passive activity loss rules affect business ventures you’re engaged in — or might engage in? If the ventures are passive activities, the passive activity loss rules prevent you from deducting expenses that are generated by them in excess of their income. You can’t deduct the excess expenses (losses) against earned income or against other nonpassive income. Nonpassive income for this purpose includes interest, dividends, annuities, royalties, gains and losses from most property dispositions, and income from certain oil and gas property interests. So you can’t deduct passive losses against those income items either. Any losses that you can’t use aren’t lost. Instead, they’re carried forward, indefinitely, to tax years in which your passive...

Innocent Spouse Tax Liability Relief

If you file a joint tax return with your spouse, you should be aware of your individual liability. And if you’re getting divorced, you should know that there may be relief available if the IRS comes after you for certain past-due taxes . . . so-called innocent spouse tax liability relief. What’s “joint and several” liability? When a married couple files a joint tax return, each spouse is “jointly and severally” liable for the full tax amount on the couple’s combined income. That means the IRS can come after either spouse to collect the entire tax — not just the part that’s attributed to one spouse or the other. Liability includes any tax deficiency that the IRS assesses after an audit, as well as penalties and interest....

How to Survive an IRS Audit

IRS audit rates are historically low, according to the latest data, but that’s little consolation if your return is among those selected to be examined. But with proper preparation and planning, you should fare well. Here's how to survive an IRS audit. In fiscal year 2019, the IRS audited approximately 0.4% of individuals. Businesses, large corporations and high-income individuals are more likely to be audited but, overall, all types of audits are being conducted less frequently than they were a decade ago. There’s no 100% guarantee that you won’t be picked for an audit, because some tax returns are chosen randomly. However, the best way to survive an IRS audit is to prepare for one in advance. On an ongoing basis you should systematically maintain documentation —...

5 Medical Practice Fraud Controls

The COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous pressure on medical practices and healthcare workers. The last thing they need right now is to worry about financial losses and other negative repercussions of occupational fraud. So that physicians and their employees can focus on patient care, they should take a little time now to ensure strong internal controls are in place. Elements of embezzlement According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, embezzlement is the most common form of occupational fraud in medical practices. For example, crooked employees might: Steal receipts or cash on hand, Alter or forge checks, Submit fictitious invoices, Pay personal expenses with practice funds, or Cheat on their expense reimbursement requests. Unfortunately, the complexity of medical practice paperwork discourages many physicians from involvement in the administrative...

Income Tax Planning as Part of Your Estate Plan

As a result of the current estate tax exemption amount ($11.58 million in 2020), many estates no longer need to be concerned with federal estate tax. Before 2011, a much smaller amount resulted in estate plans attempting to avoid it. Now, because many estates won’t be subject to estate tax, more planning can be devoted to saving income taxes for your heirs. While saving both income and transfer taxes has always been a goal of estate planning, it was more difficult to succeed at both when the estate and gift tax exemption level was much lower. Here are some strategies to consider. Plan gifts that use the annual gift tax exclusion One of the benefits of using the gift tax annual exclusion to make transfers during life is...

Working with a First-Time Auto Dealer

(Run Time: 1 min, 40 sec) Working with a first-time auto dealer is an important job.  One reason is because everything is new.  Everything must be set up from scratch.  I always say that it’s easier to do something right the first time than to have to fix it later.  But you have to let me help . . . keep me in the loop. I had a dealership client once that was on the grow . . . purchasing a new dealership every year.  The problem was that his attorney didn’t know dealerships, and I never heard about the transaction until it was consummated.  The result?  Every year, I spent a good amount of time figuring out how to undo errors in the business entity formations,...

Working with an Existing Auto Dealer for the First Time

(Run Time 1 min, 44 sec) When working with an existing dealer for the first time, the first step is to break everything down to the lowest common denominator, so-to-say.  Each entity, and how these related companies interact with each other.  Consider whether the interactions are arranged in a tax-wise manner.  This has become even more important now in light of the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  Heralded as containing the most sweeping changes in decades, new rules such as the 30% Business Interest Limitation and the 20% Qualified Business Income deduction have turned tax planning on it’s ear. Looking at everything with a new set of eyes can be very . . . well, eye-opening.  The same goes for the dealership returns.  At the end...