Tax Alerts Archives - Wiss & Company, LLC

Reading Financial Statements 101 – Quick Tips To Identify Potential Errors

Written on May 15, 2018. Posted in Tax Alerts.

The last thing your company or organization wants is unreliable financial statements. Your partners, investors, lenders and especially your company’s bottom line depend on numbers from your accounting department that you can comprehend and trust. To minimize the potential for errors, make sure that the following criteria are met when reporting your numbers: Balance Sheet Asset accounts should have debit balances and liability accounts should have credit balances. As long as your...

The New Partnership Audit Rules Effective January 1, 2018

Written on February 20, 2018. Posted in Tax Alerts.

By Mike Bodrato, CPA, JD As part of the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2015, Congress made significant changes in the procedures used by the IRS to conduct partnership audits (including LLCs treated as partnerships) and their partners. Proposed regulations were issued on January 19, 2017, but prior to being released were withdrawn by executive order. New proposed regulations were issued on June 14, 2017. The new partnership audit rules repeal the current regime under the Tax Equity...

QBI and Guaranteed Payments

Written on January 30, 2018. Posted in Tax Alerts.

While there is much to say about the complexity and application of the new Qualified Business Income (“QBI”) deduction provided under the recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, I am going to focus on a narrow aspect of these rules that could have a significant impact on partners and partnerships. Under the new QBI deduction provisions, effective after January 1, 2018, an owner of a sole proprietorship, S corporation or partnership is entitled to a deduction equal to 20% of the “qualified...

Revamping Your Chart of Accounts

Written on January 2, 2018. Posted in Tax Alerts.

By Wiss Associate In last month’s post, we discussed what your company’s chart of accounts should entail and its prominence to the accounting and financial side of your organization. Now let’s see why and when you should reorganize the information that will make up your chart of accounts. Why to Take Action Your spotless and well-organized accounts will help your company prepare your books for the following activities: Working with your outside accounting advisors for quick and...

The Benefits of a Clean Chart of Accounts

Written on December 5, 2017. Posted in Tax Alerts.

By Wiss Associate As a business owner or executive, year-end processes and reporting can be a nightmare – but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t need to scramble when your accountant asks for your tax deductible items or when your auditor requests various reports so they can perform testing. It should be a simple process to go into your accounting system and run reports with 100% confidence they are complete and accurate. But how do you know if they are truly complete and accurate?...

The Importance of Audit Documentation

Written on November 14, 2017. Posted in Tax Alerts.

By Wiss Employee Numbers don’t lie, but they also don’t talk. Instead, clearly documented words in a work paper speak for the numbers, and in the case of audit documentation, this is how an auditor proves to others — including, perhaps, a court of law — that an audit was thoroughly and effectively executed. Despite the critical nature of this task, auditors often question whether the effort it takes to provide sufficient documentation is worth the end result. A competent...

Breaking the Accountant Stereotype

Written on November 6, 2017. Posted in Tax Alerts.

By Wiss Associate Think of an accountant, and what do you picture? If you follow the common societal stereotype, you may envision someone with a pocket protector and a beige plastic raincoat who goes to bed cuddling his calculator, with no emotion and no social competence. A person who would rather recite the square root of pi than eat pie. Think of an entrepreneur, and you probably picture an entirely different image. Beyond the sheer sophistication of the word “entrepreneur” itself,...

Accounting and Finance: A Forbidden Love

Written on February 7, 2017. Posted in Tax Alerts.

By Connor Doyle Accounting, our Romeo, and Finance, our Juliet. Two houses, both alike in dignity, in fair New York City, where we lay our scene, from ancient bond break to new maturity, where credit balance makes cash on hand burst seams. Accounting and finance, though both safely under the business umbrella, are divergent in ideology. Finance wants to spend and raise money for the future of a business while accounting wants to keep track of all that has happened in the past. But,...

Preparing for a Financial Audit

Written on November 29, 2016. Posted in Tax Alerts.

By Randy Cohen “We’re being audited.” Those three little words can strike fear into the heart of any executive. Nobody likes the prospect of an outsider combing through the books and potentially exposing errors. Yet as unpleasant as a financial audit can be, with the right attitude and approach, it can prove a valuable tool for improving your business — and an auditor can be viewed as a trusted adviser instead of as an adversary. The key to an efficient and successful financial audit...

Focus on Your Process: Take Full Advantage of Your Accounting Software

Written on October 25, 2016. Posted in Tax Alerts.

By Carolyn Hall Your business can be using the best accounting software in the world, but unless your team is following standard processes, you’re not taking full advantage of your investment. Here’s how to make sure your system is running efficiently and that you have the right people and processes in place. When setting up a new system, lay out all of the steps involved and continue to communicate to team members throughout the lifecycle of a product or service. Project management...

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