CPA Blog

Do you know the ABCs of HSAs, FSAs and HRAs?

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Published: Monday, 02 July 2018 08:49

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

There continues to be much uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act and how such uncertainty will impact health care costs. So it’s critical to leverage all tax-advantaged ways to fund these expenses, including HSAs, FSAs and HRAs. Here’s how to make sense of this alphabet soup of health care accounts.

HSAs

If you’re covered by a qualified high-deductible health plan (HDHP), you can contribute pretax income to an employer-sponsored Health Savings Account — or make deductible contributions to an HSA you set up yourself — up to $3,450 for self-only coverage and $6,900 for family coverage for 2018. Plus, if you’re age 55 or older, you may contribute an additional $1,000.

You own the account, which can bear interest or be invested, growing tax-deferred similar to an IRA. Withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free, and you can carry over a balance from year to year.

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Run the numbers before you extend customer credit

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Published: Monday, 25 June 2018 10:10

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

Funny thing about customers: They can keep you in business — but they can also put you out of it. The latter circumstance often arises when a company overly relies on a few customers that abuse their credit to the point where the company’s cash flow is dramatically impacted.

To guard against this, you need to diligently assess every customer’s creditworthiness before getting too deeply involved. And this includes running the numbers on entities you do business with, just as lenders and investors do with you.

Information, please

A first step is to ask new customers to complete a credit application. The application should request the company’s:

• Name, address, phone number and website address,
• Tax identification number,
• General history (number of years in existence),
• Legal entity type and parent company (if one exists), and
• A bank reference and several trade references.

Depending on which industry or industries you serve, there may be other important data points to gather, as well. If you haven’t updated your credit application form in a while, consider doing so — especially if you’ve gotten burned on the same type of credit failure multiple times.

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2018 Q3 tax calendar: Key deadlines for businesses and other employers

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Published: Monday, 25 June 2018 10:01

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

Here are some of the key tax-related deadlines affecting businesses and other employers during the third quarter of 2018. Keep in mind that this list isn’t all-inclusive, so there may be additional deadlines that apply to you. Contact us to ensure you’re meeting all applicable deadlines and to learn more about the filing requirements.

July 31

• Report income tax withholding and FICA taxes for second quarter 2018 (Form 941), and pay any tax due. (See the exception below, under “August 10.”)
• File a 2017 calendar-year retirement plan report (Form 5500 or Form 5500-EZ) or request an extension.

August 10

• Report income tax withholding and FICA taxes for second quarter 2018 (Form 941), if you deposited on time and in full all of the associated taxes due.

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Tools to help you reach major financial goals.

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Published: Monday, 25 June 2018 09:57

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP