Automobile Dealership CPA Firm Archives - Page 23 of 26

26 Jan 2020

Life Insurance Beneficiary Pitfalls

Life insurance is an important asset (in the case of whole life policies) that should not overlooked by families. It can also be a powerful financial and estate planning tool, but its benefits can be reduced or even eliminated if you designate the wrong beneficiary or fail to change beneficiaries when your life circumstances change. Common life insurance beneficiary pitfalls to avoid include: (1) Naming your estate as beneficiary Doing so can subject life insurance proceeds to unnecessary state inheritance taxes (in many states), expose the proceeds to your estate’s creditors and ensure that the proceeds will go through probate, which may delay payment to your loved ones. (2) Naming minor children as beneficiaries Insurance companies won’t pay life insurance proceeds directly to minors, which means a court-appointed guardian...

26 Jan 2020

Defrauded? Prioritize Evidence Preservation

Roger Rossmeisl, CPA

Fraud Briefs

Defrauded? Prioritize Evidence Preservation

You may suspect that an employee has stolen from your company. But without evidence of a crime, you’ll have a hard time pursuing prosecution. So if you discover a fraud, first call your attorney. Then take immediate steps to preserve the evidence. Safeguard paper documents Place any hard documents related to the possible fraud in a safe location that’s accessible only to key people. The fewer who handle it, the better. Don’t make notes on any paper documents and, unless necessary, don’t let them be handled. Instead, make separate notations about when and where they were found and how you preserved them. A court case can be derailed if you don’t preserve the chain of evidence and can’t prove to a judge’s satisfaction that the documents haven’t...

26 Jan 2020

Making Direct Payments of Tuition and Medical Expenses

Roger Rossmeisl, CPA

Estate Planning Briefs

Make Direct Payments of Tuition and Medical Payments

With the lifetime gift and estate tax exemption at $11.40 million for 2019 ($11.58 million for 2020), you may think you don’t have to worry about gift and estate taxes. However, there are no guarantees that estate tax law won’t be revised in the future or that your accumulated assets won’t eventually exceed the available exemption (which is scheduled to drop significantly in 2026). Thus, there’s a need to investigate other tax-saving possibilities. Beyond annual exclusion gifts Under the annual gift tax exclusion, you can reduce your taxable estate without using up any of your lifetime exemption by giving each recipient gifts valued up to $15,000 a year. For example, if you have three children and seven grandchildren, you can give each one $15,000 tax free, for a...

26 Jan 2020

5 Business Service Scams to Watch Out For

Roger Rossmeisl, CPA

Automotive, Fraud Briefs

5 Business Service Scams to Watch Out For

Preventing fraud from costing your company can sometimes seem like a game of whack-a-mole: Squash one scheme and another one pops up. Business service scams are particularly abundant. Fraud perpetrators know that business owners don’t always have time to verify the identities of salespeople or service reps and the legitimacy of their claims. Your best defense is to refuse to pay anyone anything until you’ve ascertained the facts. It also helps to know what schemes are popular with criminals. Here are 5 business service scams to watch out for. (1) Utility Bill Fraudsters Someone claiming to be from your gas, electric or water company may call and say services are about to be cut off for non-payment. However, you can stop the discontinuation if you immediately pay the...

18 Jan 2020

Mergers and Acquisitions: 2019 vs 2020

Roger Rossmeisl, CPA

Infographics

(This is Blog Post #698)...

18 Jan 2020

Beware Vendors Bearing Gifts

Roger Rossmeisl, CPA

Infographics

(This is Blog Post #695)...

18 Jan 2020

When Limited Partners Suspect General Partners of Fraud

Roger Rossmeisl, CPA

Fraud Briefs

When Limited Partners Suspect General Partners of Fraud

Fraud suspicions are hard enough to investigate if you’re a business owner and call the shots. But what if you’re a limited partner (LP) in a business where a general partner (GP) is possibly engaged in mismanagement, self-dealing or fraud? With little control over the company, limited partners that suspect general partners of fraud face several challenges. The problem In a limited partnership, one or more general partners (GPs) manage the business while limited partners (LPs) contribute capital and share in the profits. LPs don’t run or manage the business. In fact, in most states, if they become involved in management decisions they can lose their LP status. Other states allow minor exceptions to this rule by, for example, allowing an LP to vote on issues that...

12 Jan 2020

How to Choose a Guardian for Your Child

Roger Rossmeisl, CPA

Estate Planning Briefs

If you have minor children, arguably the most important estate planning decision you need to make is choosing a guardian for them should the unthinkable occur. If you haven’t yet made this decision, formalize your choice as soon as possible. When it comes to choosing the best candidate for a guardian for your child, you probably already have a short list consisting of members of your immediate family. This is an excellent start, but don’t forget about extended family members and trusted friends. Things to consider when choosing a guardian for your child There are many issues you’ll need to consider in making your decision. Perhaps the most important issue is whether you and your guardian choice share similar values, such as parenting philosophy, religious and moral beliefs,...

12 Jan 2020

Flexibility is Key in an Unpredictable Estate Planning Environment

Roger Rossmeisl, CPA

Estate Planning Briefs

Flexibility is Key in an Unpredictable Estate Planning Environment

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) made only one change to the federal gift and estate tax regime, but it was a big one. It more than doubled the combined gift and estate tax exemption, as well as the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption. This change is only temporary, however. Unless Congress takes further action, the exemptions will return to their inflation-adjusted 2017 levels starting in 2026. What does this mean for your estate plan? If your estate is well within the 2019 exemption amount of $11.40 million ($11.58 million for 2020), the higher exemption won’t have a big impact on your estate planning strategies. But if your estate is in the $6 million to $11 million range, it’s important to build some flexibility into...

12 Jan 2020