New headlines are screaming across our papers. More than ½ of our public school students are in low-income families. The Southern Education Foundation has published their report A New Majority Update- Low Income Students in the South and Nation with those findings.
Many of you know, I have served as the CFO for a few legal firms. One of my longest affiliations was with a family law practice. (Don’t you just love that euphemism… family law, aka divorce. One of the most contentious of all law practices.)
Continue reading The biggest asset in a divorce…
I have written about “reasonable compensation” rules, as they apply to those small businesses that employ the “S” (that used to mean ‘small’ business) designation. This designation means one is incorporated or has set up an LLC and elected to be taxed as an S entity. (The IRS demands you provide them a signed- by each and every stockholder- Form 2553.)
Continue reading What? I am losing money and must take a salary?
So, we’ve talked (this is the 3rd part in the daily series about current economics) about who is funding the US treasury. Mostly workers, which surprised most of you. Mostly the poor and the middle class, which clearly confounded you. (Remember- it’s payroll taxes that provide about 45% of the federal take, and the income taxes of the non-rich provide another 15% of the federal take. The rich (top 10%) provide 30% of the annual federal receipts via income taxes and corporations finish off the totals by contributing about 10%.)
Continue reading Living Wages- Take 3
Do I really care about the minimum wage per se? (I know, I’ve written about it before- as recently as 45 days ago or so: Wage Follies.) No, I worry about living wages and the middle class.
Soooo. You’ve heard it. You know it. Corporations all complain about that 35% tax rate- but few, if any, are paying taxes at that rate. Big companies pay virtually ZERO % and middle-market companies pay 15 to 18%. (By the way, a whole slew of single-owner corporations pay a mandated 35% tax rate!) And, our clients- the ones we convinced to form LLC’s and S entities to save on taxes want us to explain how come they are not paying taxes at the 15% to 18% rates. Continue reading Tax Rates- Pass Throughs and C’s
The US minimum wage is $ 7.25. There have been recent efforts to raise this to something more viable, but many (of a certain political ilk) aver that this would devastate business. But, let’s consider a few real facts. Continue reading Wage Follies
I have a good friend who shares dinner with me often. And, we often argue. (No, we don’t fight; there’s a vast difference. We have different politics- and can still learn from one another.) One of the recurring arguments is his belief that when he buys stock in a company, he actually owns a part of it.
Continue reading Do you own that company- or not?
Uh-oh. This time it could be for real. That oft-quoted, hardly found marriage penalty? I guess it finally had to come about, since Peter has been calling Wolf so long.
Continue reading Marriage Penalties
For years, the one crucial question I had to ask my business tax clients was, “Can you be considered to be a real estate professional?” (If you don’t recall my discussions on this matter, you can refer to my blog posts here and here.) Because without that certification, it’s possible that all expenses involved in rental real estate operations may not be deductible on one’s Schedule E (1040).
Continue reading There’s a New Tax in Town…