Category Archives: Corporate Tax / Business Planning

BST & Co. CPAs, LLP, an area accounting and management consulting firms, has released a series of year-end tax tips designed to help small businesses prepare for filing season.

Dawn Doherty is a partner at BST & Co. and a certified public accountant and tax expert with more than 30 years of experience. She began her career with the Internal Revenue Service.

Doherty shared the following tax considerations for Capital Region residents:

• Get a sense of where you stand.

Many families will see smaller refunds when they file their 2022 taxes because pandemic-related tax provisions, such as the expanded child tax credit and the dependent care credit, have expired and these credits revert to pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

Although tax tables and the standard deduction have favorably changed with inflation, taxpayers may still not have enough tax withheld or otherwise paid in throughout the year to avoid a balance due at tax filing time. Check your latest pay stub for taxable wages and withholdings. If underpaid, make an estimated tax payment on or before Jan. 15.

The IRS has a tax withholding estimator on their website that can help with a simple calculation, but it may not be useful for complex situations, pension income, or for nonresident alien status filers.

By Susan Elise Campbell
The fourth quarter of any fiscal year is a busy time for CPAs. But this year, advising clients is posing more than the usual challenges.
“It is difficult enough for CPAs to get out of 2020, much less plan for 2021, when passing laws pertaining to deductions, depreciation and taxes is delayed,” said Laurie A. Stillwell, a CPA in Saratoga Springs.
“My biggest fear professionally is that it is difficult to advise clients on how to move forward from a business and personal tax perspective,” she said. “I have never been busier, but I want to be proactive and that is nearly impossible.”
“It has been the busiest year-end in 10 years because of uncertainty with taxes and the economy,” said Paul A. Curtis, CPA, a founding partner of CMJ, LLP in Queensbury. “Our firm was in a rush to close business sales because the new administration is thinking of eliminating the maximum 20 percent capital gains rate and raising personal income tax rates.”
“A company that has grown to a million dollar business pays $200,000 under the current tax code but may have a $400,000 tax bill if they wait to cash in next year,” he said, which is why CMJ closed six major transactions in December. Uncertainty scares businesses to death.”
One issue that was clarified when the CARES Act and supplemental appropriations were signed on Dec. 27 is what would happen if small businesses were unable to repay their loans under the Payroll Protection Program.

By Stephen Kyne, CFP
There is an old curse that reads, “May you live in interesting times.” I think we can all agree that we are certainly in interesting times. From the pandemic and the economy, to the political climate, 2020 (and so far, 2021) will long be remembered as a consequential year. The question now: Where do we go from here?
2020 was a tale of two economies. Small businesses experienced a very different reality last year than large businesses. We all know local business owners who are struggling, or who have gone out of business, altogether. We know service sector workers whose financial lives are in complete collapse. Yet, on the other side, many large national businesses are booming. It’s a travesty, and our hearts go out to those suffering.
Things will get better.
For investors who stayed invested during 2020, it turned out to be a surprisingly positive year, especially in the technology sector.
This pandemic would have been untenable without recent technological innovations. Not only has technology allowed us to stay connected to loved ones during shutdowns, it has also allowed more people to work productively from home than ever before. As a result, non-tech companies, their employees and customers, have been direct beneficiaries since these companies have not had to shut down, could retain their employees, and consumers could still gain access to products and services which are essential to modern life. Imagine how much worse things would be if this had struck in the ‘90s.
What do we see for 2021?

By David Cumming
As a small business owner, you are playing a big role in driving our nation’s economy. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses create two out of every three net new jobs in the private sector. Currently, there are over 30.7 million small businesses in the U.S., accounting for 47.3 percent of all U.S. employees.
If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you wear many hats, including overseeing the finances of your business. Each day, you face critical decisions that may have an enormous impact on the future success of your company. Questions about day-to-day cash flow, attracting and retaining talented employees and balancing finances at work and at home are just some of the challenges you must consider as you grow your business.
Every business is unique, but the five critical strategies for strengthening a business for long-term growth are the same.
1. Managing cash flow
Having an effective cash flow strategy can assist you in keeping your finger on the pulse of how quickly and effectively cash is moving in and out of your business, while also working to enhance the yield on your short-term assets. You’ll also need skills and resources to address a broad range of credit structures.
2. Protecting your assets
Unforeseen events can jeopardize the value of your business. What if something happens to you, or another person who is critical to the success of the business? Or what if you get sued?

By Susan E. Campbell
As a new year arrives, many company owners review their business plans to make sure every financial decision, marketing program and staff member remain aligned with their company vision.
“Most of the time a business plan is stuck in a drawer and only revisited when the owner needs something, such as a loan,” said William Brigham, director of the Small Business Development Center of the University of Albany School of Business.
“We see a thousand businesses a year from 11 counties, and people would be surprised by the lack of a formal business plan,” said Brigham, who has been with the nonprofit organization for 20 years.
Financial advisors agree that a solid business plan is at the heart of a company’s success.

By ROB SNELL
Now that we’ve closed the book on 2019, it’s officially tax season. As you prepare your tax returns for the April 15 deadline, you might already start looking for opportunities to improve your tax-related financial outcomes in the future.
One important step you can take is to connect your tax professional with your financial advisor.
Together, these professionals can help you take advantage of some valuable strategies:
• Roth vs. traditional IRA. If you’re eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA, you might find it beneficial to have your financial advisor talk to your tax professional about which is the better choice.

By Christine Graf

Business planning involves many things. Budgets, staffing equipment and much more go into the process.

Marketing, to grow business and build a brand, is an important part of the process.

Asked what trends he sees for clients in 2019, Christopher Ryan, president of SIX Marketing said, “Everything today is based online. People are going to research you before they even do business with you,” he said. “Your web site is one of the most important tools. Make sure it is saying what you deliver. Make sure it’s clearly representative of your business.”

Marketing Kangaroo’s Kim Hickok, a brand strategist with decades of experience, said the first step is to develop a brand strategy. It defines what a business stands for, as well as the image it conveys. It also establishes long-term plans designed to achieve specific goals.

“It means knowing who you are as a business and having a story about your business. It’s about asking ‘Who are you? What’s your story? Who are you talking to?’ The brand strategy should be shared in a way that connects with an objective,” she said.

Ryan said his company doesn’t  recommend canned language on a website.

By Rob Snell

How can you assess your investment portfolio’s performance in 2018? The year was full of wild swings in the financial markets, so your own results may well have bounced around quite a bit, too.

But you can still get a clear picture of how you did if you keep your investments’ returns in the proper perspective by making sure your expectations are relevant, realistic and reviewed.

Let’s look at how these terms can apply to a meaningful evaluation of your investment progress:

Relevant. Many investors compare their portfolio returns to a popular market index, such as the S&P 500. But this comparison is not really valid for a variety of reasons. For one thing, indexes are typically not diversified across different types of investments—the S&P 500, for instance, only tracks large U.S. companies.