CPA Blog

Are you timing business income and expenses to your tax advantage?

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Published: Wednesday, 19 October 2016 09:12

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

Typically, it’s better to defer tax. One way is through controlling when your business recognizes income and incurs deductible expenses. Here are two timing strategies that can help businesses do this:

1. Defer income to next year. If your business uses the cash method of accounting, you can defer billing for your products or services. Or, if you use the accrual method, you can delay shipping products or delivering services.
2. Accelerate deductible expenses into the current year. If you’re a cash-basis taxpayer, you may make a state estimated tax payment before Dec. 31, so you can deduct it this year rather than next. Both cash- and accrual-basis taxpayers can charge expenses on a credit card and deduct them in the year charged, regardless of when the credit card bill is paid.

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Business owners, help your estate by gifting company stock

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Published: Monday, 10 October 2016 09:49

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

Everyone needs a solid estate plan to distribute assets according to their wishes and benefit their heirs. But this necessity is especially keen for business owners, many of whom have spent years working hard to build up the values of their companies.

If you can relate to this statement, one effective way to reduce estate taxes is to limit the amount of appreciation in your estate — and your company may provide just the ticket for doing so.

Why appreciation?

You’ll save the most in estate taxes by giving away assets with the highest probability of future appreciation. Why? Because gifting these assets today will keep future appreciation on those assets out of your taxable estate. Thus, there may be no better gift than your company stock, which could be the most rapidly appreciating asset you own.

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5 ways to speed up collections

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Published: Monday, 10 October 2016 09:11

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

Turning receivables into cash is among the most important things a business must do. Of course, it’s easier said than done. Here are five ways to speed up collections:

1. Streamline the billing process. You can’t collect what you don’t bill. Invoice customers promptly — as soon as the product ships, if possible. Or, if your company provides services, track billable hours daily and bill monthly — or as often as permitted under the customer’s contract. Implementing an electronic payment system, or upgrading your existing one, may accelerate invoicing and enable faster receipt of receivables.

2. Reward early birds and penalize procrastinators. Enticing customers to pay before the due date may require early-bird discounts, such as a small percentage off bills or value-added perks for those who pay on time or improve their payment histories. Conversely, you might consider assessing fees on past-due payments. However, many companies decide to waive late charges as an act of goodwill when customers immediately resolve outstanding balances.

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Get 2 tax benefits from 1 donation: Give appreciated stock instead of cash

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Published: Monday, 03 October 2016 09:29

Written by Phillip Strickler, CPA.CITP

If you’re charitably inclined, making donations is probably one of your key year-end tax planning strategies. But if you typically give cash, you may want to consider another option that provides not just one but two tax benefits: Donating long-term appreciated stock.

More tax savings

Appreciated publicly traded stock you’ve held more than one year is long-term capital gains property. If you donate it to a qualified charity, you can enjoy two benefits: 1) You can claim a charitable deduction equal to the stock’s fair market value, and 2) you can avoid the capital gains tax you’d pay if you sold the stock. This will be especially beneficial to taxpayers facing the 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT) or the top 20% long-term capital gains rate this year.

Let’s say you donate $10,000 of stock that you paid $3,000 for, your ordinary-income tax rate is 39.6% and your long-term capital gains rate is 20%. If you sold the stock, you’d pay $1,400 in tax on the $7,000 gain. If you were also subject to the 3.8% NIIT, you’d pay another $266 in NIIT.

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