Understanding Simplified Employee Pensions
SEP Basics The SEP is a stripped-down retirement plan mainly intended for self-employed individuals and small corporate employers. If you're self-employed, you can make an annual deductible contribution of up to 20 percent of your income to a SEP account. If you're...
Court Likens ‘Book of Business’ to Professional Goodwill
Finby v. Finby, 2013 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 9097 (Dec. 18, 2013) A California divorce case in which one spouse was a financial advisor with an impressive client list raised a host of conceptual and technical valuation questions as to the community’s interest in her...
When Goodwill Takes Center Stage
According to the International Glossary of Business Valuation Terms, goodwill is defined as: "That intangible asset arising as a result of name, reputation, customer loyalty, location, products, and similar factors not separately identified." The remainder of value...
A Direct Way to Save Time and Money
The term direct deposit does not apply to payroll only. This can be a time and money saving service to businesses in other ways too. What about the checks written for expense reimbursements or commissions? For a corporation, how about depositing the dividend checks of...
Business Interruption Insurance: A Lifeline When Disaster Strikes
2014 might not have had a very active hurricane season, but it did have its fair share of other natural and manmade disasters, including blizzards, wildfires, mudslides, and riots. These tragedies serve as sobering reminders to always expect the unexpected. When it...
Is A Home Office Tax Deductible?
Many Maine-based small business owners start out with an office in their homes. An important benefit to this is being able to deduct the expense of the office on the tax return. It’s key for home-based business owners to know that in order to receive the deduction,...
Court Pans Valuation Based on Expert’s Fiction, Not Fact
Ward v. Ward, 2014 W.Va. LEXIS 128 (Feb. 14, 2014) In a divorce case, the husband appealed to the state’s highest court, arguing that the lower courts accepted a valuation of his business interest that did not reflect the company as it was on the valuation date....
Small Businesses Can Face Big Fraud Losses
Many Maine-based small business owners assume their companies are less susceptible to fraud than large corporations. It seems like their operations are more tightly controlled, with many trustworthy and longtime employees on the payroll. Unfortunately, however, this...
Court Decisions Make it Easier to Deduct LLC Losses
What happens if you're the owner of a limited liability company (LLC) that generates tax losses, and you don't spend a lot of time in the activities of the business? The losses might be classified as passive, and your ability to currently deduct them might be severely...
Lost Profits or Lost Value of the Business?
When there is an alleged breach of contract between two businesses, can one sue the other for both damages and loss of business value? As an example, say that Trusty Trucking Company loses its contract to deliver insulation for its primary customer, Good Insulation...