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Get Your Business Costs Under Control Today

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control cost Increasing your profits requires selling more and/or spending less. While building up your sales may require an extended effort, business costs are often very ripe for a quick trimming. Here are some possibilities.

Supplies and Other Purchases

Usually, in any business, relatively few items represent a very large share of all outlays. The first step in cutting expenses is, therefore, to identify your highest costs. You may be able to trim many of these costs by making sure you always bid out significant purchases or by more actively seeking less expensive alternatives.

For many companies, inventory carrying costs are a very significant expense. Focusing on matching your inventory quantities more closely to your short-term needs could result in significant savings.

Telecommunications and Other Services

The ongoing services you buy may also offer the potential for cost savings. Revisit your choice of telecommunications vendor and your usage.

Look carefully at your costs for financial services. If you borrow or maintain a line of credit, always compare the rates from more than one financing source before you commit. Make sure you are not paying higher-than-necessary fees for your company’s checking and deposit services.

Cash Management

To control cash outlays, take advantage of discounts for early payment whenever possible. And look to delay payments for as long as you can without giving up discounts.

On the receiving side, deposit all receipts daily. And always actively pursue collection of any invoices that are past due. To help control your working capital needs and, therefore, your credit costs, try to match any new liabilities to your anticipated cash flow.

Fixed Expenses

One other category worth examining is fixed expenses that are long-term commitments. While you usually can’t change these quickly, be aware of when a window for change will open and prepare well in advance by considering lower cost alternatives.

To learn more ways to control your business costs give us a call today. Our trained staff of professionals is always available to answer any questions you may have.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your business needs with an experienced Largo CPA.

Individual Tax Deductions — A Look at What Has Changed

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Tax deductions signThe recently enacted tax reform law made some significant changes to the system of income tax deductions used by consumers. Here are highlights of the changes.

The standard deduction is increased.

The standard deduction has grown. Because of the significant increases, many taxpayers who formerly itemized their deductions may now benefit from the standard deduction instead.

 

Changes in Standard Deductions
Filing Status Old Law New Law
Single $6,500 $12,000
Married filing jointly $13,000 $24,000
Head of Household $9,550 $18,000
Married filing separately $6,500 $12,000

The deduction for state and local taxes is reduced.

For those who itemize their deductions, the maximum amount permitted for all state and local taxes (SALT) combined is $10,000 per year ($5,000 for married individuals filing separately). How the new limit affects you will depend on your specific situation. If you live in a high-tax state, you may see much of your SALT deduction reduced, and that could mean that itemizing deductions is no longer the better option.

The mortgage interest deduction has a lower cap.

For mortgage debt incurred after December 15, 2017, you may only deduct interest on debt value up to $750,000 ($375,000 for married individuals filing separately). Previously, the limit was $1 million. For home equity debt, the deduction for interest is suspended through 2025, unless the proceeds are used to buy, build, or substantially improve the home that secures the loan.

Casualty and theft losses are not now generally deductible.

Beginning this year, only losses that occur as the result of a federally-declared disaster may be deducted. Formerly, casualty and theft losses had generally been deductible to the extent they exceeded 10% of adjusted gross income (AGI).

Miscellaneous itemized deductions are suspended.

Various miscellaneous expenses, such as unreimbursed employee business expenses and tax preparation expenses, were formerly deductible as an itemized deduction to the extent they totaled more than 2% of the taxpayer’s AGI. The new law suspends the deduction for these expenses.

Charitable contributions are still deductible if you itemize.

Cash contributions will now be allowed up to 60% of the taxpayer’s “contribution base,” up from 50%. A taxpayer’s contribution base is generally equal to AGI exclusive of any net operating loss carryback for the year. This change will affect only those taxpayers who contribute a significant proportion of their income to charity.

Medical expense rules become more generous.

Taxpayers with substantial medical expenses who also itemize can now deduct unreimbursed medical expenses in excess of 7.5% of their AGI, down from the deductibility threshold of 10% previously.

Moving expenses lose their tax advantage.

The deduction for qualified moving expenses, which can be claimed even if a taxpayer doesn’t itemize, has been suspended, except for members of the Armed Forces on active duty (provided certain conditions are met).

The alimony deduction for payers is eliminated.

The tax treatment of alimony payments will change significantly under the new law. Such payments will no longer deductible by the payer (and the recipient will no longer be required to include the alimony in income). The change applies to alimony paid under any divorce or separation agreement executed after December 31, 2018.

Note that some of these provisions are scheduled to sunset in 2019 or 2026 unless Congress acts to extend them.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your tax planning needs with an experienced Largo CPA.

Family Businesses and the Next Generation

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family portraitHaving your children work in the family business is a great way to teach your kids about work ethic and money management, and to kick-start their retirement or college savings plan. Click through for tips on bringing your children into the family business.

Is having your children work in your family-owned business a blessing or a curse? Here are five tips for making it a blessing and preventing it from being curse:

Have them work elsewhere for at least five years. They need time to mature, becoming their own individuals, and to gain confidence learning and doing things as distinct human beings rather than just children of successful parents. Kids need to learn how to work, to be punctual, to earn their own money and to be held accountable. Everyone wins when potential successors have excellent training and gain skills and confidence outside the nuclear family.

Consider this scenario: A family-owned restaurant in a small town occasionally has three generations working together on a Friday night. The children are under the age of 16. Assuming that child labor laws have been taken into account, the family is content that they are passing on a tradition and family trade. The kids work one or two nights during the weekend.

In this example, the family is limiting the number of hours, and their expectations are reasonable. It’s a way for children to learn the family business and helps them gain self-respect. Indeed, one adult who remembers working with his mother in a greenhouse when he was 12 and 13 recalls that the job was hot, dirty and exhausting. However, he recalls he got paid for the work he did, and it gave him a greater appreciation for the work his parents did to support their family.

Understand generational differences. Today’s young people are far more likely to want to work to live rather than adopt their parents’ “live to work” attitude. That’s why your adult children don’t want to work 80-hour workweeks. Younger children and other employees are most probably looking for a different workplace experience.

Give psychometric assessments to make their personalities/capabilities fit their jobs. One child may be temperamentally unsuited for a position demanding detail and strict deadlines; he or she may be more of a big-picture, laissez-faire personality. Assessing such things will go a long way to improving both business function and family harmony.

Hold them accountable, but not to an unreasonable standard. Give your kids crystal-clear roles and responsibilities and regular reviews so they know whether they’re living up to their job descriptions. The biggest morale killer in small businesses is underperforming or dysfunctional family members who are allowed to meander through various roles with virtually no accountability and to inflict themselves on others in your organization. In that case, pruning the family tree almost always results in improved business productivity.

Communicate formally and regularly with a third-party facilitator. Virtually every family employee thinks he or she works harder and contributes more than anyone else and stews over this. Family businesses have a greater need for formal communication to resolve perceived contribution issues, especially if you decide a family member is ill-suited to working at your company. You need to be able to discuss volatile topics constructively and productively. Seek the help of a talented facilitator to get the most from your family business.

It can be a wonderful experience for all involved to have your children work with you. Just remember that it’s a delicate balancing act that needs your attention.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your tax planning needs with an experienced Largo CPA.

Do a Financial Review Mid-Year

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Jackson & Associates CPA PA Largo FLBefore you get involved with other things this summer, schedule a mid-year checkup. No, we’re not talking about the height/weight/blood pressure kind of checkup, we’re talking about the income statement/balance sheet/cash flow kind of checkup — a review of your business’s financial operating fundamentals.

If you review your vital financial information only when year-end rolls around, you may not know there’s a problem until it’s too late. The more often you take your company’s “pulse,” the sooner you’ll be able to notice — and react to — changes in your business situation.

Check Your Vital Signs

What should you be looking at? Start with the operating fundamentals. For example, what’s the status of accounts payable? When’s the last time you ran an aging report for accounts receivable? How quickly is your inventory turning? What is your profit margin?

These numbers are critical to running your business. You can’t make accurate decisions if your figures are old. And, by keeping track of key financial ratios, you can more readily spot trends that should be addressed sooner rather than later.

Monitor Your Budget

Next, check your spending. If overspending is a problem, creating a comprehensive budget that establishes realistic guidelines is an effective remedy. Make sure you have a budgeted amount for every line item expense on your operating statement. Then track and compare actual spending to budgeted amounts on a regular basis.

Reduce Your Debt

Avoid the temptation to take out all your profits in good years. Instead, consider reinvesting some of those earnings in the business. Using retained earnings instead of debt to capitalize your business saves money — and provides a safety net that will be there to help you through periods of lackluster sales or unexpected expenses. A healthy debt-to-equity ratio will also look great when it’s time to borrow money or sell your business.

See a Specialist

Helping owners build and maintain healthy businesses is our specialty. Let’s schedule that mid-year review of your company’s finances soon.

To learn more about financial reviews give us a call today. Our trained staff of professionals are always available to answer any questions you may have. Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your business needs with an experienced Largo CPA.

ACA Affordability Threshold to Rise in 2019

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Jackson & Associates CPA PA in Largo FL One of the main requirements of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate is that health coverage must be affordable, based on annual standards set by the IRS. Click through for the details on the 2019 increase for one of those standards.

The ACA requires that employers with 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees provide minimum essential coverage that is affordable — or face a penalty for not complying. The affordability requirement is satisfied if an employee’s premium for self-only coverage does not exceed a specific percentage of their household income or a certain safe harbor amount.

Percentage increase for 2019

Each year, the affordability percentage for health coverage is adjusted for inflation. For 2018, the rate is 9.56 percent of the employee’s household income, down from 9.69 percent in 2017.

On May 21, 2018, the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2018-34, which states that for plan years starting in 2019, the affordability percentage will increase to 9.86 percent — the highest amount since the ACA’s passage. This means that employees’ premiums for the lowest-cost self-only coverage cannot be more than 9.86 percent of their household income.

Three safe harbor options

As noted, the affordability percentage threshold applies to employees’ household income. But since it’s difficult for employers to know their employees’ household income, the ACA provides three safe harbor alternatives, which can be used instead of household income. You do not have to meet all three requirements; just one will do.

1. The employee’s W-2 wages, as shown in Box 1 of the form. For plan years starting in 2019, coverage is affordable if the employee’s premium does not exceed 9.86 percent of the amount in Box 1 of the W-2. Although this method is relatively simple to apply, keep in mind that it uses current-year wages. Therefore, you won’t know whether the affordability requirement for an employee has been met until the end of the year.

2. The employee’s rate of pay. Coverage is affordable if the employee’s premium does not exceed 9.86 percent of their monthly salary or wages. To determine the monthly rate of pay for an hourly worker, multiply the hourly pay rate by 130 hours.

For instance, an employee makes $15 per hour at the start of 2019. Multiply $15 by 130, which equals $1,950. Then multiply $1,950 by 9.86 percent, which comes to $192.27. Coverage is affordable as long as the employee’s premium does not exceed $192.27. For salaried employees, affordability is based on monthly salary.

The rate-of-pay method cannot be used for employees who are paid solely by commission, nor can it be used for tip wages.

3. The federal poverty level. The employee’s premium for the lowest-cost self-only coverage cannot be more than 9.86 percent of the most recently published FPL for a single person.

Applicable large employers should take the affordability standard into account when designing their 2019 health care plans — since pricing below the threshold could trigger penalties, as mandated by Section 4980H(b) of the ACA.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your tax needs with an experienced Largo CPA.

Could Your Sales Invoices Be Better? How QuickBooks Online Can Help

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Jackson & Associates CPA QuickbooksEvery interaction with your customers can enhance your image. Here’s how QuickBooks Online contributes to that.

Getting paid by your customers—on time, and in full—can take some effort on your part. You set smart due dates and enforce them. Price your products and services so they’re both reasonable and profitable. Accept online payments.

But are your invoices working for you here? QuickBooks Online provides sales form templates that you can usually use without modifying. But it also offers tools that support multiple kinds of customization. It helps you shape the content and appearance of your invoices and their accompanying messages to be consistent with your company’s brand.

These may be cosmetic changes, but they can affect the way customers react to communications from you. You have few chances to make an impression, so anything you can do to enhance and personalize every interaction will have impact on their impression of you. Neat, well-designed sales forms convey professionalism and attention to details.

Here’s a look at what you can do.

Editing Fields

Unless you use every single field in QuickBooks Online’s default sales form template, your invoices will look sloppier than they might otherwise. The site gives you control over much of the content that your customers will see. To make changes, click the gear icon in the upper right of the screen and select Account and Settings, then Sales. You’ll see Sales form content in the left column. Click on any of the fields to the right to open a more thorough list of options.


QuickBooks Online lets you turn fields on and off in your sales forms and specify other preferences.

Click on the status (On, Off) in the right column to change it. When you’re satisfied with your selections, click Save. Then close that window by clicking the X in the upper right corner.

You have more options than these. Click the gear icon again, and then Your Company | Custom Form Styles. You’ll see that there is already a “master” form. You can either edit it or create a new one. We recommend leaving the master form alone so you always have a clean copy to consult if you get tangled up while you’re working.

Click the down arrow in the New style box in the upper right and select Invoice. In the screen that opens, enter a descriptive name for your template in the field at the top and then click Content. A graphical representation of your invoice will appear in the right pane, grayed out. It’s divided into three sections: header, footer, and table (the middle of the invoice where you describe what you sold). Each displays a small pencil icon on the right side of the screen. Click the one in the middle to make that area more visible.


It’s easy to specify which fields should appear on your invoices, what the labels should say, and how wide the space should be.

As you check and uncheck boxes to indicate what content should be included, your invoice on the right will change to reflect your actions. You can Preview PDF by clicking that button in the lower right. When you’re satisfied with the changes you’ve made to all three sections, click on the Design tab.

Changing the Look

You don’t have to be a graphic artist to have QuickBooks Online forms that look attractive and consistent, which highlight your brand. The site provides tools that give you control over the appearance of your invoices, not just their content. Click each link below the Design tab to:

  • Choose a template.
  • Add your company’s logo.
  • Select a color scheme and fonts.
  • Change the printer settings to accommodate letterhead, for example.

Choosing Your Words


You have control over the messages that go out with your invoices.

Finally, click the Emails tab. Options here let you customize the emails that are sent to customers along with their invoices. Again, changes you make in the left pane will be reflected in the graphical version on the right side.

When you’ve completed all of your modifications, click Done.

We gave you this whirlwind tour of QuickBooks Online’s invoice customization options so you’d know what was possible. We expect you might need some assistance when you sit down to apply the concepts you’ve learned about to your own company’s sales forms. We’re available to help you present a polished, carefully-crafted image representing your brand to your customers.

Social media posts

Are you satisfied with the image you convey to customers through your QuickBooks Online sales forms? We can help you make them more customized and effective.

You have few chances to interact directly with your customers. Make sure your QuickBooks Online sales forms convey the image you and your brand deserves.

QuickBooks Online comes with sales form templates that may work for your company, but did you know you have control over their appearance and content?

Your customers pay attention to the sales forms you produce for them. QuickBooks Online lets you improve on the default templates it provides making a better impression to your client.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your QuickBooks accounting needs with an experienced Largo CPA.