Key 2024 inflation-adjusted tax parameters for small businesses and their owners

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The IRS recently announced various inflation-adjusted federal income tax amounts. Here’s a rundown of the amounts that are most likely to affect small businesses and their owners.

The rising tide of bot attacks: Exploiting identity vulnerabilities

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In recognition of International Fraud Awareness Week, we take a look at ways that financial institutions, companies, and individual persons can protect their identities from online bots

Some businesses may have an easier path to financial statements

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There’s no getting around the fact that accurate financial statements are imperative for every business. Publicly held companies are required to not only issue them, but also have them audited by an independent CPA. Audited financial statements provide the highest level of assurance to third-party users that the documents in question are free of material misstatements.

11 Exceptions to the 10% penalty tax on early IRA withdrawals

If you’re facing a serious cash shortfall, one possible solution is to take an early withdrawal from your traditional IRA. That means one before you’ve reached age 59½. For this purpose, traditional IRAs include simplified employee pension (SEP-IRA) and SIMPLE-IRA accounts.

Is your business subject to the new BOI reporting rules?

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The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) was signed into law to fight crimes commonly associated with illegal business activities such as terrorist financing and money laundering. If your business can be defined as a “reporting company” under the CTA, you may need to comply with new beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rules that take effect on January 1, 2024.

What you need to know about restricted stock awards and taxes

Restricted stock awards are a popular way for companies to offer equity-oriented executive compensation. Some businesses offer them instead of stock option awards. The reason: Options can lose most or all of their value if the price of the underlying stock takes a dive. But with restricted stock, if the stock price goes down, your company can issue you additional restricted shares to make up the difference.

Businesses: Know who your privileged users are … and aren’t

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Given the pervasiveness of technology in the business world today, most companies are sitting on treasure troves of sensitive data that could be abducted, exploited, corrupted or destroyed. Of course, there’s the clear and present danger of external parties hacking into your network to do it harm. But there are also internal risks — namely, your “privileged users.”

Contributing to your employer’s 401(k) plan: How it works

If you’re fortunate to have an employer that offers a 401(k) plan, and you don’t contribute to it, you may wonder if you should participate. In general, it’s a great tax and retirement saving deal! These plans help an employee accumulate a retirement nest egg on a tax-advantaged basis. If you’re thinking about contributing to a plan at work, here are some of the advantages.

The Corporate Transparency Act

The U.S. government is quietly phasing in a new reporting requirement for a broad range of business and not-for-profit entities beginning January 1, 2024, under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) which was passed in fiscal 2021. The CTA is meant to prevent the use of shell companies to conceal the profits of criminal activities by creating a database, the Beneficial Ownership Secure System (BOSS). The only authorized users of this database will be federal and state governmental agencies, as well as financial institutions performing required due diligence with customer consent, and foreign law enforcement agencies/authorities who submit qualifying requests.

What businesses can expect from a DOL benefits plan audit

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All but the smallest businesses today are generally expected to offer employees “big picture” benefits such as health insurance and a retirement plan. Among the risks of doing so is that many popular plan types must comply with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). That means lots of rules and much documentation.