Payroll fraud schemes can be costly. According to a 2024 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) study, the median loss generated by payroll fraud incidents is $50,000. It’s essential to know the payroll schemes making the rounds and how to prevent them or at least catch them before they go on very long.
If you’ve filed your 2024 tax return, you may be eager to do some spring cleaning, starting with tax-related paper and digital clutter. The documentation needed to support a tax return may include receipts, bank and investment account statements, K-1s, W-2s, and 1099s. How long must you save these records? Three years is the general rule. But don’t be hasty: Failure to keep a paper trail for the information reported on a tax return could lead to problems if the IRS audits it.
If you’re preparing to file your 2024 federal income tax return and your tax bill is higher than you’d expected or your tax refund is smaller than you’d hoped, there might still be an opportunity to change it. If you qualify, you can make a deductible contribution to a traditional IRA until the filing date of April 15, 2025, and benefit from the tax savings on your 2024 return.
After successfully navigating the start-up phase, your business has a strong foundation for growth. At the growth stage, business and financial advisory services become essential. Focus on these two key areas to elevate your company to the next level.
If you own or manage a business with employees, you could be personally responsible for paying a harsh tax penalty. It’s called the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP). It applies to the mishandling of Social Security and income taxes that must be withheld from employees’ wages.
With so many people working remotely, it’s become more common to think about moving to another state, perhaps for better weather, to be closer to family or to reduce living expenses. Retirees also look at out-of-state moves for many of the same reasons. If you’re thinking about such a move, consider taxes before packing up your things.
Working from home isn’t new, especially for self-employed people. But during the height of the pandemic, millions of jobs were moved from employers’ premises to employees’ private homes. Many continue working from home and wonder if they qualify for the home office tax deduction.
Tax-saving benefits are generally available when your business puts newly acquired qualifying assets into service. Under Section 179 of the tax code, companies can take substantial depreciation deductions, subject to various limits adjusted annually for inflation.
Right now, you may be more focused on what you’ll owe (or receive as a refund) when you file your 2024 tax return in April than on tax planning for the new year. However, as you work through your annual tax filing, you should familiarize yourself with amounts that may have changed for 2025 due to inflation adjustments.
Companies without a disaster recovery or business continuity plan need only consider the aftermath of recent hurricanes. News reports estimated property damages from Hurricane Helene alone last year to be more than $59.6 billion, plus disruption of untold businesses and services.
