This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory
Insights includes the following articles:
Intangible Assets – If I Cannot See Them, What Are
They?
“All arguments concerning existence are founded
on the relation of cause and effect.” - David Hume
In the quote above, David Hume, a famous philosopher, says that the
basis of existence is founded in...
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Tax qualified retirement plans are required to hold employer and
employee contributions in an irrevocable trust, which is separate
from the employer’s funds. ERISA, which governs these
programs, creates various types of legal liability for a plan’s
fiduciaries. Department of Labor penalties and
litigation from plan participants can arise, and can be brought
against an individual fiduciary. The issue of who is or is
not a fiduciary is not determined solely by a person’s
title.
ERISA’s...
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This spring, companies who sponsor 401(k) plans can expect their
inbox to be full of new information. The Department of
Labor’s plan fee disclosure rules are set to take effect April 1,
2012. Service providers of 401(k) plans will then be required
to provide employers with figures for the direct and indirect
compensation they receive to service plans. They will now
need to disclose recordkeeping fees separately from all other fee
disclosures. They also must detail indirect compensation, such...
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Not-for-profit organizations face many challenges in attracting
and retaining executive talent. Compensation programs (types and
amount) that can be offered to these executives are much more
limited than those which are offered to private sector
executives. Many organizations do not have in-house
capabilities to analyze and propose programs that provide
competitive compensation. Donors may perceive that executives are
overpaid, and are therefore the organization is providing fewer
services....
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This month's
Special Delivery e-newsletter includes the following
articles:
Year-End Tax Planning
Once again we find ourselves with the Holidays upon us and we wish
you and your family all...
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There’s one word that can be used to describe the stock market
as well as estate and gift tax laws over the past few years and
that is “volatile” Unfortunately, volatility often scares
clients into taking the “wait and see” approach but in reality,
there’s no time like the present to do some estate planning and
make lifetime gifts.
What are the current laws:
- Beginning January 1, 2011, the federal estate, gift, and
generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions were all set at $5
million with a top...
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Understanding who is a plan fiduciary
may be more complex than expected. The Random House dictionary
defines a fiduciary as “a person to whom property or power is
entrusted for the benefit of another.” It is important to
understand a fiduciary is determined either by being specifically
named or appointed or unintentionally by the functions one
performs.
A named fiduciary is someone specifically named in the
plan document or appointed by the plan sponsor as being responsible
for operating the...
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Several tax breaks are on the books for 2011 but may be gone next
year unless they are extended by Congress. One of those is the
option to deduct state and local sales and use taxes instead of
state and local income taxes.
-
What it is: Currently, taxpayers have
the ability to deduct, as an itemized deduction, either State and
Local sales tax or State and Local income tax.
-
Who it applies to: Although this deduction
usually applies to our snow birds that have moved their residency
to Florida,...
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Remember the old fable about the ant
and the grasshopper? The ant labors all summer long storing up
food for the long winter ahead, while the grasshopper spends the
warm summer months singing, dancing and playing. Then when the
winter arrives, the grasshopper finds itself dying of hunger while
the ant is taking inventory of all the food it had stored. The
story concludes with the grasshopper, ill prepared for the
hardships of winter, struggling for survival and ultimately
starving to death.
Sur...
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The issue of
whether a worker should be treated as an employee or an independent
contractor has been an area of significant IRS interest for
decades. The IRS has the ability to assess significant
employer penalties for failure to withhold employment and income
taxes on a worker who should have been treated as an employee.
If an employer is faced with this
issue upon an IRS examination, the IRS will typically offer to
settle the penalties at a discounted rate under Internal Revenue
Code (IRC)...
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Many taxpayers who were willing to pay income taxes on their
retirement funds at 2010 rates (or under the special installment
rules allowed) in exchange for tax-free future earnings, converted
their traditional individual retirement account (“IRA”) to a Roth
IRA. Each of these 2010 conversions should be closely scrutinized
to ensure that the taxable amount on the conversion does not exceed
the current fair market value of the account.
A market decline gives taxpayers a chance to convert a...
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Despite the recommendations from the
Blue Ribbon Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies and the
call from thousands of private companies across the country, the
Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) has decided that there should
not be separate accounting standards for privately held businesses
and publicly traded companies.
It was the recommendation of the
Blue Ribbon Panel (and the hope of small businesses across the
country) that a separate independent standard-setting board would
be...
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The 2011 edition of our Survey of Northeast Ohio's Construction
and Real Estate Industries seems to be pointing to a brighter
future for many of those in the construction industry. Survey
respondents are more confident about opportunities in the Northeast
Ohio market, have seen increasing job sizes and are finding
financing somewhat easier to come by. While there were many
positives in this year’s survey, competition is still keeping
margins very tight and obtaining bonding remains a concern.
Oppo...
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On Friday evening, the S&P downgraded the United States’
sovereign debt rating to AA+ for the first time in our
history. While we all saw yesterday what a huge impact this
downgrade could have on our stock portfolios, there is also a
considerable effect on the process by which we as valuation
practitioners value closely-held companies. For years,
valuators have based their analyses of cost of capital on the
assumption that the U.S. debt is “risk-free.” For example,
our firm typically uses the...
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Did
you hear that? That loud sigh of relief? That was me
exhaling now that it is official that football will be on my TV
screen during Sunday afternoons this fall. Now that teams are
wrapping up the mad scramble to add free agents and resign players,
the football world’s collective thoughts naturally turn to which
team is the favorite to win the NFL championship. At the
beginning of the year, there are always a number of teams that the
pundits believe have a good shot at making a title run. As...
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Join area business professionals at the Skoda Minotti office as
we continue our monthly audio book discussion with the help of
David B. Rust, President of Audio Group, A business audio book
club for time-starved people.
September's featured audio book: The 4-hour Workweek - by
Timothy Ferriss
Meeting Details
Date: September 6, 2011
Time: 7:30-9:00 a.m. - A light breakfast will be
provided
Location: Skoda Minotti Office, Mayfield Village,
Ohio
Cost: $45 per session
Meeting Facilitator: David B. Rust,...
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As the Internal Revenue Service continues to move into the
electronic age, it has adopted the EFAST-2 filing system to
electronically file tax returns related to employee benefit
programs. For the 2010 tax year, the IRS provides a choice of
filing mediums for tax-qualified retirement programs that cover
‘one-participant’ plans—the paper Form 5500-EZ or the
electronically filed Form 5500-SF. Let’s briefly go over the
filing rules:
-
What is a “one participant plan?” A
‘one-participant plan’ is a...
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CLEVELAND – Skoda Minotti, a CPA, business and
financial advisory firm, has once again been named a World Class
Customer Service award winner, as presented by Smart Business
Magazine. With this year’s award, Skoda Minotti became one of only
four companies to have won this award in each of the five years
since its inception.
“At Skoda Minotti, a key component of our firm’s vision is to
create a culture of continually improving client service,” says
Skoda Minotti partner, Mike Trabert, CPA. “This...
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Reduced Taxes for Exporters Extended: Are You Taking
Advantage of the IC-DISC?
Does your Company export goods to Canada, Mexico, or other
countries? Do you provide engineering, architecture, or
design for property constructed outside the United States? If
so, you may be eligible for a Federal income tax incentive known as
an Interest Charge Domestic International Sales Corporation (the
"IC-DISC"). The IC-DISC could potentially save you a
significant amount of US income taxes.
Click here to...
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