Shark Tank at The Fox Theatre in Atlanta April 14th 11:00 AM.
http://abc.go.com/site/casting-shark-tank
Enter at your own risk.
Shark Tank anyone?
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Guaranteed payments vs draws in funded startups
So I got this challenge from @rkischuk (cool guy, check him out if you run a company with a bunch of products with tons of SKUs – it will be worth your time). I digress, @rkischuk threw down the gauntlet on Twitter as follows:
“With the increase in funded LLC startups, would love to see someone like @theTechCPA blog on tax implications of founder “draws” vs salary.”
As the resourceful person I am, I enlisted the support of a wise tax expert down the hall from me, Barry Schimler.
He explained Continue reading
Cool perks for hiring (darn developers) and the tax consequences
Some folks are coming up with interesting perks like zero gravity experiences and other ideas(outside of signing bonuses which evidently bore developers) to attract new talent.
I was talking with one entrepreneur on Wednesday, and he asked how that was taxed – was it W-2 income to the employee after they got hired or could it be written off as a business expense.
Intrigued at the question I enlisted the help of a colleague that does a bunch of the tax returns for the entrepreneurs we represent, Melany Diaz (she is great). She quickly got back to me that any fringe benefit you provide is taxable and must be included in the recipient’s pay unless the law specifically excludes it. That sounded bad but I decided to go deeper in the abyss and explore the exclusions, who know maybe zero gravity experiences could qualify…wierder things are in our tax code. Continue reading
Learning Twitter … @stammy got me started … how do you help your ecosystem?
Yesterday night I saw an interesting tweet from Paul Stamatiou (@Stammy to his Tweeps), it said:
“When was the first time that Twitter “clicked” for you and you understood it?”
I’ve actually been thinking about how I got started on Twitter ever since @stammy took his job at Twitter.
Three years ago I got that this Twitter thing was powerful, but I had no idea how to get started (being a part of a CPA firm comes with a lot of perks but being cutting edge on social media three years ago was not one of them). Anyway I was judging the Top 40 Innovator’s of Georgia and I found out that one of the other judges knew a thing or two about Twitter (@stammy).
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Top 5 questions for 2012/2013 tax credits #leavenomoneyonthetable
I asked Anne Yancey, who is the best at identifying state and federal incentives for my clients, to come up with the top 5 questions that trigger a potential tax credit (i.e. state and federal money woo hoo!).
Most incentives are available for businesses that engage in any of the following industries: manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, information technology, clean energy, financial services, telecommunications, research & development, life science, defense.
Here are the questions she came up with for us:
1. Is the company expecting growth in 2013 or in the next few years (i.e. adding new employees or new/replacement assets? Has the company added at least 5 new jobs or $1M in fixed assets at a single location in the prior 3 years?
Sh*t My Dad Says and the Fiscal Cliff
My wife and I listened to the book Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern over the break and it just cracked us up. While my dad is nowhere near as quotable, I’ve always appreciated his view on taxes. He is a small business owner that has had a steadily growing business for the last 30 years.
Years ago my dad and I were talking about taxes, I was asking his thoughts about taxes going up and his answer shocked me.
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Replacing stock options with restricted stock – question received
Recent question received (data/names changed):
The board just approved the issuance of 50,000 shares of restricted stock to an employee to vest over three years.
His 100,000 options that he received last June when he was hired will be cancelled.
Would this be considered substitution?
My response:
Here is the technical guidance for that very issue:
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2012 Technology Summit interview
Last year I did an interview with Business Radio X at the Technology Summit – it is attached here for your listening pleasure.
Topics covered: top innovators from 2012, tax credits, startups.
TheTechCPA at the 2012 Technology Summit
My first time to link to an audio file on another site – so hopefully it works.
I’m scheduled for my next Business Radio X interview on January 7th – what should the next topics be?
Business combinations – recent question received
Recent question received (data/names changed):
I have a brain puzzler relating to acquisition accounting that I’d like to run by you. In thinking through the proper way to account for the intangibles that are on the books when our company was acquired by Acquisition Co., what happens to those after the acquisition? Do they remain on the books?
For example, let’s say we had $2,000,000 of Customer List on the books with $500,000 of Accumulated Amortization. When acquired, do these zero out? Or do they continue to amortize?
My response:
The old intangibles do go to zero. However, then under the business combination rules you would do purchase accounting and establish new values for those intangibles and record those as a part of your purchase price allocation. Then you amortize at the new values.
Additional thoughts:
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How to get the most out of a venture conference
Venture conferences can be great gatherings to feature technology companies for a region. It occurred to me at a recent venture conference that many of the tech companies did not fully take advantage of the conference merely because they hadn’t been through the process 1) ever or 2) in quite a while.
So here are some thoughts to consider if you plan on participating in a venture conference:
