Real Estate/Construction Accounting

As business and real estate owners and officers navigate financing avenues to help support growth or expansion of their business, traditional lending isn’t the only option.  On Thursday May 9^th, 2013 I attended the Alternative Financing Forum sponsored by PNC and Buckley King.  The forum was driven by three separate stake-holders in the greater Cleveland marketplace, Kristi Eberhardt, a Director with PNC, Christine Nelson, VP with Team NEO and Deb Janik, Sr. VP with the Greater Cleveland...

Wondering what the real estate and construction buzz in downtown Cleveland is all about? Below you’ll find a guest blog from Henry Schneps of Better Business Brokers, LLC with his take on the latest happenings in downtown Cleveland. Feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts in the comments section below.

There is a buzz in downtown Cleveland coming from construction in the central business district and from the east bank of the flats.  This construction is generating a lot of excitement as...

Discussion continues on the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA), and their impact on small and mid-sized businesses.

According to a White House study, small businesses tend to pay insurance premiums that are 18 percent higher on average than large businesses pay for the same coverage. The ACA addresses this cost disparity in a variety of ways.

Click here to read more about what's new with the Affordable Care Act and the American Taxpayer Relief Act. 

For...

This month's Special Delivery includes:

• Update Your Email Preferences
• Key Tax Elections on 2012 Returns
• A "Perfect Storm" of Tax Deductions
• New IRS Program for Misclassified Workers
• Obama Signs Cybersecurity Executive Order
• Free Life Sciences E-Book: Delivering the Right Message Throughout the FDA Approval Process
   

Update Your Email Preferences

As business advisors, we want to make sure we are providing our clients and business contacts with messages and updates relevant to your individual and/or...

This month's Special Delivery includes the following:

• Overview of New "Fiscal Cliff" Law
• Medical Deductions: No Sugar Coating
• Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation Now Offers Group Coverage for Start-Up Companies
• Free E-Book: Fair Value and Financial Valuations: Measuring the Intangibles
• Free E-Book: Pay-Per-Click Advertising Tips
• Top 5 Blogs of 2012

Overview of New "Fiscal Cliff" Law

The new American Taxpayer Relief Act—officially signed on January 2, 2013—averted a drastic plunge off the...

We have recently written blogs discussing the changes in the Repairs and Maintenance rules and regulations.  We have reviewed the changes to the basic rules reviewing what type of expenditures have to be capitalized and looked at the changes to the definition of a Unit of Property (UOP), as it relates specifically to real estate.  In this blog, we will expand the discussion on these changes to cover the General Asset Account (GAA) rules, related election, and the importance of understanding and...

Recently, it has become more common for business entities to have cost segregation studies performed on their real property in order to accelerate depreciation deductions for tax purposes.  The study is usually done by an engineer who breaks down the property from 39 year real property into 5, 7 or 15 year personal property.  This is considered a change in accounting method.

In a recent case (Peco Foods vs. Commissioner, TC Memo 2012-18) the IRS and tax court disallowed the application for...

Courtesy of Fred Ode, CEO/Chairman - Foundation Software, Inc.

According to the United States Census Bureau, there are over two-and-a-half million firms involved in the construction industry in the U.S. That’s a lot of competition.

The good news is, just like you, they started their business and grew it from the ground up. They made mistakes, learned from them, and gradually improved not only the work they do but also how they do it. The even-better news is that, by expressing an interest...

The Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) recently introduced a new incentive program entitled The Grow Ohio Incentive Program. Ohio employers who enroll for the incentive program come July 2013, will be able to receive one of the two premium discount options listed below:

1. The opportunity to join a group-experience-rating program and receive a maximum workers’ compensation (51%) premium discount throughout the year (effective on their first day of coverage).
2. An automatic 25% discount on their...

This month's Special Delivery e-newsletter includes:

• Facing Up to the AMT Threat
• Bask in the Tax Glow of Winter Conventions
• IRS Adjusts Retirement Plan Limits
• Free Seminars:  Tax Consequences of the 2012 Election
• Checking Controls:  How to Determine if  Your Company Needs a SOC Report

Facing Up to the AMT Threat

The “alternative minimum tax” (AMT) should not catch anybody by surprise anymore. This so-called stealth tax, which was initially aimed at only the highest echelon of individual...

With the 1st phase of the Innerbelt Bridge construction of I-90 in Cleveland in process, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is officially beginning the 2nd phase.  This project will use a public private partnership option (P3) after Ohio enacted legislation in 2011 becoming the 30th state in the nation to permit P3’s.  The use of a P3 is crucial to this project because in January 2012, ODOT announced it had a $1.6 billion budget shortfall in terms of being able to fund all...

Subcontractors and suppliers have to pay all kinds of taxes.  Most taxes are obvious and they expect them.  What about USE TAXES? These are taxes contractors may not expect and may not be accounting for in bids.

In this webinar for the Builders Exchange and American Subcontractors Association Webinar Series, I discussed the exemptions, the problem areas, and explained when contractors are a vendor and when they are a consumer.

The government knows that people have missed these issues and is now...

This is a reminder that companies will soon be in a position to again decide on their group workers' compensation program for the rate year beginning July 1, 2013.  The deadline to sign up with any group is February 28, 2013.  Even though the BWC has not changed its maximum discounts, it is still an opportunity to save precious dollars.

One of the most important decisions you can make is the selection of your Third Party Advisor (TPA).  In this regard, it is critical that you have the most...

While the upcoming presidential election will no doubt have an effect on tax policy, the following tax provisions are currently set to expire, effective 1/1/13.

For a more comprehensive overview of these changes, check out our latest Tax Advisory Insights
e-newsletter.

• 2% temporary social security payroll tax cut on wages: The social security portion of the employee contribution will return to 6.2%.
• Qualified dividends rate: Qualified dividends are currently taxed at 15%. All dividends will be...

The idea of a mobile, collaborative project team started with providing every team member with smart devices (smart phones and tablets).  As smart phones have evolved over the years, wireless networks have improved and the data plans offered have become more affordable.  And as a result, within the construction industry, the marketplace began developing construction specific mobile apps for a variety of construction management tasks, including remote time entry, punch lists, and basic cost...

Many companies have long been aware of the Research and Development (R&D) tax credits that exist within the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). However, the R&D credit remains one of the most misunderstood and underutilized tax credits available today. Traditional misconceptions are that only the largest U.S companies can benefit from these credits or that only “high-tech” industries who conduct their operations in a laboratory or testing facility would qualify.

The reality is that many industries,...

This issue of Real Estate Monitor includes the following articles:

Real Estate: 10 Top Issues

By Alvin Arnold

As the condition of the global economy continues to cause uncertainty across all industries, The Counselors of Real Estate, an international professional association of top real estate executives, asked its members to identify the top 10 broad structural issues that will define the real estate industry over the next 10-30 years.

Click here to learn more about the real estate industry's top...

With campaign season in full swing, contractors would be wise to pay attention to an oft-debated issue: corporate tax reform.  Contractors and other businesses should be prepared for changes to the tax code and determine what impact the changes will have based on their business’s tax structure.   Depending on what changes are actually made, the previous benefits of operating as a pass-through entity (LLC’s, partnerships, S-Corps) may be mitigated.

Although tax reform has been debated before,...

With the presidential election set for less than a month away, there are still uncertainties surrounding taxes in 2013.

Not only are people concerned from a business basis about the tax changes, but also from an individual level as well.  The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2012 and revert back to the 2001 levels, increasing the top tax bracket from 35% to 39.6% and the lowest tax bracket from 10% to 15%.  Long-term capital gains are scheduled to be taxed at 20% versus the...

This year marked the fifth edition of the Skoda Minotti Real Estate and Construction Group’s surveys of the Northeast Ohio Real Estate and Construction industries. The following is an overview of the survey highlights, but feel free to click here to download the complete survey results.

Construction summary
One good overall gauge of the Northeast Ohio construction industry comes from the question, “What do you see as the biggest threat to your business over the next 12 months?” While the number...