Health Reimbursement Agreements (HRAs) have been around since the 1970s, but are getting more attention due to the recent changes implemented by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury. On June 13, 2019, they issued a new rule beginning in 2020 that allows employees to use an HRA set up by their employer to pay for health insurance premiums, a perk that was not allowed under previous HRA rules.
A Per Diem (Latin for “per day”) is a fixed daily reimbursement that a business gives to its employees who are traveling longer than a day for business purposes. Per Diem payments can be given for both lodging and meals & incidental expenses (M&IE) or only M&IE, depending on the situation and where the employee is traveling. For example, the company may have a dedicated condo for employee travel in a specific city and thus would not need to reimburse its employees for lodging there. M&IE includes any expense associated with traveling away from home that doesn’t fall into the lodging category. M&IE examples are meals, room service, luggage handlers, dry cleaning, and tips.
Continue reading
1. Limited LiabilityThe most popular reason people form an LLC is to protect their personal assets. LLCs ensure that, legally, you are not held personally responsible for the debts and liabilities as a result of the company’s business. This avoids personal litigation, seizure of personal property, and bankruptcy.
When starting a new business, one of the first decisions to make is whether to form your company as a sole proprietorship, partnership, Limited Liability Company (LLC) or incorporating a business. Incorporating an existing business brings up other questions of when, why and how. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type, but the benefits of incorporating your business should play a key role in your decision-making process. Here are the top 3 reasons to incorporate your business:
As tax season comes to an end and you file away your records, you may be looking at your ever-growing file cabinet and wondering, “can I get rid of some of these documents?” While there are many reasons to keep or discard certain paperwork, there are some documents you should never throw away! (IRS Tax Returns and supporting documents should be kept for 5-7 years, by the way.)
Below are the 9 paper documents you should keep forever in their original form:
By now, you’ve received (and sent out) various tax documents, statements, and even email notices advising where to retrieve your tax documents. So much information . . . how to organize it all? Here are a few tips on how to organize the source documents and tax information you create and receive.
Here are some things to consider that may save you some money when filing your state and federal income taxes:
Typically it works out better financially for couples to file a joint return because the IRS does give joint filers one of the largest standard deductions. However, there are times when it is better to file separately, and here are the top reasons why you may want to: