Archives for September 2015

What is Cost Segregation?

September 25, 2015 by mrice

What is Cost Segregation

Cost segregation is the process of identifying your assets and classifying those assets correctly for the purpose of paying federal taxes. In this process, personal assets that are mixed with real property assets are separated out, so all assets can be depreciated properly and potentially increase your bottom line.

Cost Segregation Studies
A cost segregation study is performed to determine which assets can be claimed as personal property instead of real property. These items usually include indirect construction costs, non-structural elements of buildings, and exterior land improvements.

By separating these assets, they can be depreciated over a shorter term which will reduce your current income tax liabilities and increase cash flow. This decreased depreciation period is typically between five and fifteen years instead of the twenty-seven and a half to thirty-nine years for non-residential real property.

For example, items such as carpeting, wall paper, parts of the electrical system, and even sidewalks and landscaping all qualify for the shorter depreciation periods.

Eligibility and Advantages of Cost Segregation
To be eligible for cost segregation, a building must have been purchased, remodeled, or constructed since 1987. This method of tax reduction is best used on new construction, but it can be used retroactively on older buildings as well.

Beyond the benefits of reduced tax liability and increased cash flow, a cost segregation study will provide your business with an audit trail of all costs and asset classifications. This will help put to rest any unwanted inquiry from the IRS in its early stages. Finally, during this process, you may identify possible ways to reduce your real estate tax liabilities as well.

While there are some costs associated with performing a cost segregation study, as long as the assets in question are valued over $200K, it’s worth the time and expense to complete the study and categorize these assets correctly.

Why Small Businesses Need Agreements in Writing

September 16, 2015 by mrice

Why Small Businesses Need Agreements in Writing

Small businesses often capitalize on their less formal, more personal, approach to their customers and clients. While there is nothing wrong with this approach in general, it should not extend to business agreements and legal matters. On the contrary, a small business should insist on reducing all agreements to writing just like their larger counterparts do.

Regardless of what type of small business you own, chances are your customers or clients are drawn to the fact that you are able to provide more personalized attention without the need for them follow inflexible procedures or goes through three different people before they can speak to someone who can help them. The informality of your business, however, should stop there.

Unfortunately, disputes occur in all businesses. Whether it is a dispute with a supplier, an advertiser, a customer, or a landlord, it can-and most likely will-happen at some point in time. When a dispute arises, documentation is the key to settling the dispute. If your dispute ends up in court the law always favors a written agreement over a verbal agreement. Having the agreement in writing to begin with, however, creates an excellent chance that you will be able to resolve the dispute outside of the courtroom.

Many disputes are the result of honest misunderstandings. A smaller percentage of disputes are the result of unscrupulous individuals trying to take advantage of new, potentially naïve, small business owners. Either way, having a written agreement that clearly outlines the terms and conditions of your business with an individual or company ensures that you are prepared to defend yourself should a dispute arise for any reason.

As a small business owner you are likely working with a very tight budget and are therefore hesitant to spend money on legal fees charged to draft agreements. While this is certainly understandable, you should look at written agreements as a type of insurance. A relatively small outlay of funds now will protect you from a much greater expense down the road. If a dispute arises and you have no written agreement to back up your position there is a much higher probability that the dispute will turn into a lawsuit. A lawsuit, in turn, will require you to hire an attorney. Your attorney fees to defend a lawsuit will be substantially higher than they would have been to draft a written agreement that could have prevented the lawsuit.

You have undoubtedly worked hard to get your business off the ground. By insisting on written agreements in all of your transactions you are helping to protect your investment and ensuring the future success of your business.

Corporate Inversions, the loophole that needs to be closed.

September 9, 2015 by mrice

Corporate Inversions – Why this Loophole Needs to be Fixed

A corporate inversion, simply put, is a method corporations use to reduce their tax responsibilities. While this loophole may present a sound tax solution for the corporation in question, it has a direct impact on tax revenue collected by the United States government, as well as on competition between companies.

A corporate inversion takes place when a U.S. corporation renounces it’s citizenship by merging with a smaller company in a foreign country. This country typically has a more favorable corporate tax structure as well as tax rules that allow the U.S. corporation to reduce its tax burden.

Once the corporation merges with the foreign entity, it declares the new country as its place of residency. At that point, the United States can no longer impose or collect taxes on the corporation for future or past income. While this may be a positive situation for the company, it does has a negative effect as it reduces tax revenue for the U.S. as well as creates an atmosphere of unbalanced competition between corporations that have transacted an inversion and those that have not.

Over the last decade, corporate migration has increased to the point that now only one-tenth of total tax revenues collected come from corporations. That’s down from one-third in the 1950s. In fact, in the past ten years, a total of 47 U.S. corporations have performed corporate inversions and changed their legal residences to countries outside of the United States.

While it stands to reason that a corporation should do all it can to reduce its tax burden, and it could even argue that doing so is its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders, this particular tax loophole is stripping tax revenues from the U.S. government at an unsustainable rate.

In addition it is also pitting the corporations that have made an inversion against the corporations that have not creating a toxic business environment which is why this is one loophole that needs to be fixed.

AMT- The most hated tax of all

September 2, 2015 by mrice

AMT – The Most Hated Tax of All

The AMT, also known as the alternative minimum tax, is one of the most hated taxes in the United States and for good reason. For those individuals above a certain threshold of taxable income, or corporations, trusts, and estates, the AMT creates a higher tax burden beyond that imposed on those that fall under the threshold.

The alternative minimum tax was first originated with the thought that those individuals and corporations in the higher tax bracket were able to find and utilize large tax breaks that the middle class could not. It was decided that the AMT would ensure that those with the highest incomes would pay a minimum tax rate regardless of the tax breaks and loopholes they may have available to them.

The current AMT was enacted in 1982 and is applied to all taxable income when an individual or entity’s taxable income falls above a pre-determined level. In 2013, that level was tied to inflation, or CPI rates. As it stands now, the alternative minimum tax rates are 26 and 28%, and to determine whether or not you are subject to regular tax rates or the AMT rates, you would be required to calculate your taxes twice. This can become problematic as the AMT does not allow the same deductions as the regular tax does, so your adjusted income levels will be different.

The bottom line is you will be required to pay the higher of the two rates. It can become quite complicated to determine if you are subject to the AMT as well as what deductions are allowed and which are not. Often, the best course of action is to contact a qualified tax accountant to walk you through the process.

The AMT is hated for good reason. It’s complicated and some would say creates a separate class of citizens that is being penalized for their financial success.