There are many factors that can help an economy to grow, including productivity gains, wage growth, sound governmental policies, healthy banking systems, etc. A lack of all of these items will hurt economic growth, and there is one more often overlooked item that can and will devastate an economy over the long haul. It’s probably […]
Taxes
Who Will Come Out Ahead When Filing Their Returns This Season?
Who will benefit the most from the tax law changes this year? The biggest winners will be: Corporations: With reduced corporate tax rates of 21% versus the previous 35%, most corporations will come out ahead. Although corporations that have income of less than approximately $75,000 may not benefit. Business owners: Business owners that operate sole-proprietorships, […]
Paid Sick Leave in NJ? What You Need to Know
Another change in New Jersey that affects both employers and employees in the state is paid sick leave, which was effective starting October 29, 2018. Here are the details: Number of sick days: The New Jersey Earned Sick Leave Law allows employees to accrue 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up […]
Are there Alternatives to Traditional Health Insurance?
My last post titled, “Did You Know that NJ Now Requires All Residents to Have Health Insurance?” gave a few exceptions to the new New Jersey mandate that requires all New Jersey residents to have health insurance. One of the exceptions to the mandate is health care cost sharing, which almost no one has ever […]
Did You Know that NJ Now Requires All Residents to Have Health Insurance?
Starting this year, New Jersey is requiring all residents to have health insurance. Even though the Federal government has gone in the opposite direction, there are a handful of states that have their own mandates or are considering a mandate. What are some of the requirements, exceptions, and penalties regarding this new law? Requirements: The […]
How Long Should You Save Your Tax Returns and Financial Records?
The IRS says that you should normally keep your records for 3 years, and for some situations you should keep them for 6 to 7 years. However, I strongly disagree and here is what you should do and how to do it: Tax returns: Do you want to know the prudent answer to how long […]
8 Red Flags That Could Trigger an IRS Small Business Audit
My colleague, Brad Paladini, has granted me permission to post this article that was originally posted on his blog: Last year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audited just over one million returns. That’s a lot less than the 1.74 million returns they audited in 2010, but it’s still no fun for the millions of taxpayers that had […]
Be Careful When Making Online Payments to the IRS
We usually recommend that taxpayers make their tax payments online to the IRS and states. Here are the benefits, but a few caveats to watch out for: Benefits: When making payments online, your payments are generally credited on the day that you make the payment. Additionally, you can clearly apply your payments to a prior […]
How to Successfully Start a Second Business
Quite often entrepreneurs want to start a second business or even possibly a third, fourth and so on. What are the ways to make this successful, especially without selling or potentially harming your existing business(s), and what are some alternatives? Similar or complementary business: Instead of say, an attorney, starting a restaurant, they may consider […]
So You Want to Flip Homes?
Buy a house, put in a few improvements, and then sell it for a much higher price. Do it again and again. It sounds so simple, but here are a few pointers to keep in mind if you want to succeed with house flipping: Experience: If your experience in real estate is performing repairs on […]