Hey, we’re down to the wire. Have you filed your taxes yet? Many people are throwing around the fun extension to see if that’s the right move for them.

Let’s clarify some things.

There are a lot of myths and problems around extensions that people just don’t understand. In my many years of practice, many people have told me, “oh, I don’t wanna file an extension.” And when I push back and say, “tell me why”. “Oh, because I always filed by the April deadline”.

Alright, but again, why? And usually there’s no good answer. The real answer is they’re afraid because they don’t understand it. So let’s clarify some things; make this easier—an extension is actually a wonderful tool that I encourage everyone to use, and I’ll explain why.

Why file an extension?

Filing an extension, first off, gives you more time to gather the information. There are actually two deadlines that happen on that April day, whether it’s April 15th or shortly thereafter.

One, you must make a payment if you owe the money with the tax return, if you owe the IRS money, or the states it’s due, then there is no extension of time to pay.

What there is an extension of is time to file, time to gather all of the information, time to make sure it’s in the rightful places before you submit that tax return to the IRS.

So if you’re saying, I wanna file an extension because I don’t have that kind of money and I owe a lot of money, that’s not a valid solution. An extension will not save you anything and will not give you any break on the day the money is due. It’s still due mid-April.

So why would I want an extension, even if I’m getting a refund? Maybe you want an extension.

Advantages of an extension

Let’s talk about a couple of advantages of an extension.

1st advantage

The first advantage is it gives you more time to gather information. Maybe you haven’t had the chance to go through and get all your charitable contributions lined up and you’re at the last minute down to the wire and you can’t seem to find some things or you’re missing a receipt or two.

Give yourself a break.

You’ve got a little more time. Gather it, do an estimate and figure out how much you owe. If you owe anything, pay that in and gather all of the information to file an accurate return.

2nd advantage

Next, there are several things that allow you when you extend to give you an extension of the time to do certain tax maneuvers.

So for example, if you’re self-employed and you wanna make a retirement contribution, but you’re not sure, or if you don’t have the money just yet, you can actually extend your tax return and make that contribution by the extended due date.

The extended due date for individuals is October 15th or thereabouts. So October 15th, you could make a retirement contribution and lower your tax liability from the prior year in 2022.

Good deal gives you more time. Leverage that time in this relationship with the IRS.

3rd advantage

The third reason that you may wanna file an extension is to attempt to reduce your audit risk.

Now, I know a lot of people say, “oh, there’s no truth to that”. And if you ask the IRS, if I file later, will I have a lower audit risk? They will tell you no.

But I’ve seen scientific studies and there is something to this. The IRS has a certain number of returns that they wanna review each year and based on criteria, and the later you fall, the more their auditors are already busy and have already got cases in place, they may not get around to it.

So even if it’s not a hundred percent true, if it gives us a shot, it’s worth that shot! It’s a free stab, right?

File closer to the deadline

So take that opportunity to extend your returns file closer to the deadline. Don’t forget about it, but file closer to the deadline to attempt to reduce your audit risk.

And one of the really important new thing that has come about in the last two years is interpretations of laws are changing retroactively now.

So just last week, the IRS came out with an update and said, if you filed your return early on and you received a state rebate check last year, several states in the US issued excess funds that they had in their coffers back to their taxpayers as a form of a rebate. They said, now, “oh, we think that ought to be taxable”. Prior to this announcement, they were not taxable.

So you’re not off the hook. If you filed early and you left that off, technically you owe the money, and if you’re ever audited, the IRS would charge you back for that. So they want you to amend your return to add that to it.

Now filing one tax return is hard enough, let alone filing multiple returns with amendments based on changes and new interpretations. There may even be something in your favor that comes out.

So for that other reason, I also say file the extension, put it in the marinade, let it hang out. So finish up your returns well in advance. Give yourself a break.

Stick it in the marinade over the summer. Set yourself a little reminder or ticker to come back to that and file it later on. Review it again with a fresh set of eyes. Make sure you didn’t forget anything and file them.

So for all of our clients, that is our strategy. All returns are done well then advance. We put them in the marinade. Let them hang out for a while. If anything comes up, if anything gets remembered, you wake up in the middle of the night and say, “oh my gosh, I forgot to record. I forgot to deduct this deduction”. No problem. We can add that in for you.

So use a freebie that the IRS gives you. You got a great benefit there. Use it. File an extension today.

For additional read: IRS Says “Wait a Minute”

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post Why You Should Always Extend Your Returns appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

As promised to wanna give you a little brief EIDL update for businesses that have closed down. I was on a call yesterday with the South Carolina District Office of the SBA. They had an open forum where you could ask any questions you like.

So I popped on that forum first thing and asked, “what is the status of loans of EIDL loans for businesses that have gone out of business and are no longer operating?”.

The gentleman who answered from the South Carolina office said, “you should be making all of your payments as usual and you can contact the Loan Servicing Center“.

This was all on chat from my side; so I put in a repeat column/follow-up to say:

What happens to the businesses completely dissolved? There is no operation, there’s no bank account, and there’s no personal guarantee under the $200,000 limit?

The gentleman said they should still continue to make their payments, and he suggested that…

If the loan is still out there that the treasury can go after them in other ways.

I’m quite puzzled by this because what other way is there if a business doesn’t exist, doesn’t have any assets, doesn’t have any money, and there’s no personal guarantee of the owner, there is nothing to go after.

I frankly don’t think the gentleman had any idea what I was dealing with the situation on EIDL loans for the businesses that have closed.

He sounded quite like a robot and just said they should keep making payments. Now we all know that’s not a possibility if a businesses closed, they have no money, they’re not going to make payments. For additional read: Will I Go to Jail if I Can’t Pay My EIDL Loan

So my take on this is the SBA still doesn’t have a plan, so we’re gonna keep watching and I’ll keep asking those questions when they come up with these periodic events.

I will keep asking the questions.

The news for you is there really is no change. Keep at it the same way. If you’d like to contact the Loan Servicing Center, please let me know what you hear from your end, and I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on the latest and greatest in the EIDL default crisis.

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post EIDL Update from the SC District Office appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

I’d like to share an email that I received from a listener about her EIDL loan. She says that she got an EIDL loan, closed her business, and it was dissolved through the Secretary of State as well. Closed the business bank accounts and she also had to file personal bankruptcy.

The SBA loan has been a huge question of mine, causing me not to sleep at night as the notices are now coming in that it’s time to pay. She says her loan was $23,000 and her bankruptcy attorney said that he didn’t believe anything would happen.

Her accountant on the other hand said she wasn’t sure that she’s heard of people going to jail over these loans, but it’s only $23,000, so I think I might be okay. She wants to know what I think will happen. She also said that she was concerned that they might take a tax refund.

All right, let’s get looking at some circumstances surrounding the loans.

#1

First off, as I mentioned in my prior video, just had a call with the SBA office in South Carolina and it doesn’t sound like anything is penetrating out to those regional state offices about EIDL loans yet. So that tells me that I really don’t think the SBA has a plan yet and how they’re going to handle all these businesses that have closed and the loan defaults.

#2

Secondly, yes, it is true that if you owe a debt that eventually it can pass through to other government organizations and they can try to offset. If 20 years ago you had a bad loan, you might eventually see that it’s coming back and they’re, offsetting your tax refunds based on that.

Now, I will tell you that’s a super rare case and I have not seen any of those in a really long time. Also, we all know the speed at which the IRS works and anything in our government, which is very slow. So it will be many, many years to come, in my opinion, before we see any kind of offsetting of debts if there is going to be.

#3

Third, she mentioned her accountant said, you might go to jail. Nobody’s going to jail for this kind of alarm. The people that you see in the media who are going to jail are high profile celebrities and people who took millions of dollars and went out and bought Bentley’s and went on extravagant trip trips and bought a lot of possessions.

Your average Joe business owner does not need to worry about going to jail over this unless you have fraudulently take money in these programs. And for that, honestly, you need other cases. You don’t need an accountant, you need a lawyer.

So don’t be afraid that you’re going to jail over these.

Business issues have happened for years and years. It’s never easy, it’s never fun, but they do work themselves out. So I want you to put your head on your pillow, take a nice sleep tonight and don’t worry that you’re gonna go to jail over $23,000 in this case.

Again, if you took out a $5 million loan and you have a Bentley outside and a fancy house and you took a lot of vacations, you might wanna ring up your attorney. But I think that’s far and few between from our listeners who are viewing this and truly trying to figure out the best circumstance to make this loan and their business default via palatable option so they can move on.

So I will continue to keep you posted. If you have questions about an EIDL loan that you would like us to record a video about, please don’t hesitate to send those in.

Just as a reminder, we’re not doing any consulting or work on trying to remove loans, but as a public service we are keeping everybody abreast of what we hear and as soon as we know something new we will post another video.

So please make sure to subscribe and continue to follow us. For the latest and greatest.

For additional read: Can’t Pay Your #EIDL Loans? Here is What To Do

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post Will I Go to Jail if I Can’t Pay My EIDL Loan appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

Think of it as an extra formal receipt that shows both the IRS and your vendor how much was paid – they mark it down as an expense on one end, income on the other.

Don’t believe everything you hear either – even LLCs may require these forms.

1099-Misc and/or 1099-NEC documents

Your business may need to issue 1099 forms, such as a 1099-Misc and/or 1099-NEC documents. This includes any rent or service payments you make of $600 or more to individuals or LLCs that aren’t taxed as corporations – though you’ll want the recipient’s W9 form on hand just in case! Home office rents don’t qualify; this only applies for other types of equipment rentals.

When you’re dealing with vendors, let their names do the talking. If it includes Corp., Inc., PA, PC, or if they are a publicly traded company, there’s no need to collect a W9. Make sure that their full name appears on payments when writing checks for good record-keeping.

Payments via credit card or apps

Payments made via credit card or PayPal for goods and services don’t need a 1099-Misc form as there is already a paper trail – the vendor may receive a 1099-K from their payment processor instead. However, Venmo/CashApp are unsuitable for business purposes, so you’ll still need to issue them with form 1099-Misc if used. Just remember that issuing this twice means double-counting income – avoid doing so by using third-party processors like Zelle.

If your purchase was solely for physical items with no service component, there is no need to worry about a 1099-Misc form. That’s only necessary when paying someone for services related to your business. For purchases in your personal life, keep the tax forms and paperwork at bay, as 1099s are not required for personal payments.

Filing form 1099-MISC

If you’re submitting paper copies, be sure to file Form 1099-MISC by March 1st of the following year; if filing electronically, make it before March 31st. For Form 1099-NEC, things are even tighter – no extensions allowed, so all parts must arrive at their respective destinations (the IRS or a non-employee) by January 31st. And don’t forget about state taxes too – an additional Copy 1 may also need to be submitted on that date.

Filing 1099 forms is more important than you might think. Not only can the IRS disallow deductions if not filed, but businesses may also face penalties of up to $280 per noncompliant form. Worse still, an intentional disregard for filing requirements could lead to fines as high as 10% of the income reported on that same missed statement. Don’t let hefty fees ruin your business. Make sure all forms are submitted on time each year.

Track1099 online software

Filing your 1099-Misc forms with the IRS doesn’t have to be a hassle. Track1099 makes it super easy. With their online software, you can easily file and even mail physical copies of each form.

Plus, they take care of electronically filing them directly with the IRS, so you don’t have to worry about missing important deadlines. It’s fast, straightforward, and can even import information directly from your accounting software.

What more could you ask for? Start by creating an account on their website and follow this simple 3 step process: (1) acquire W9s from each vendor, (2) enter those details into Track1099’s online system, then (3) let them take care of e-filing all paperwork to the IRS.

It’s a good idea to ask for W9 information from all vendors, even if you don’t think you’ll be paying them more than $600 this year. We like using the phrase, “Not a dime without a W9”. To remember this critical step, make it a part of your process for paying vendors now. That way, there won’t be any surprises come tax time!

For additional read: 1099-K is a Tattle Tale of Personal Income

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post Need To Understand 1099’s appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

If you’re worried about getting your taxes filed and finalized with the April 15th deadline coming up, I’m going to give you some reasons you might want to rethink that decision.

Rethink Your Decision

Now, paying by April 15th is always a good idea. If you go beyond April 15th to pay on your taxes, you’ll have penalty and interest. So I’m not suggesting that you not pay your taxes, but what I’m suggesting is that you put those tax returns in the marinade and hold on to them without transmitting the final copy to the IRS until closer to the extended deadline in October.

New Facts about Filing the 1099-K

I’m going to give you a reason why I suggest that today. One more reason that just came about it is now the end of March, so less than a month from the filing deadline and the IRS has just come out with some new facts about filing the 1099-K.

We have another video about that if you wanna reference that, but that actually didn’t come out until mid-March of 2023, so less than a month under the belt.

For reference: 1099-K is the Tattle Tale of Personal Income

Now, if you’d received a 1099-K, but done what most people did when they said, “ah, I just sold my old refrigerator, that doesn’t count“. And through that by the wayside, the IRS is now telling you they have a new way. They want you to report that 1099-K so that you don’t get a notice later on, and the IRS doesn’t send you a bill.

No Guidance on New Rules and Regulation

So the IRS is now behind the eight ball a lot and is not able to issue guidance on new rules and regulations in a timely fashion to allow you to file your return by April 15th.

There are still rules that are being clarified and coming out well after the deadline.

So do yourself a favor, put that return in the marinade and extend it.

Wait; and if there are any other things that come about later on, you won’t need to file an amended return to make those adjustments. There could also be ways that you’ll save taxes that come out based on clarifications as well, so make sure that you’re able to take advantage of that.

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post Why You Should Not File Your Taxes by April 15 appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

Have you ever been at the doctor’s office where the receptionist at the front window tells you, “hold on just a minute while I take this call”. Let’s analyze that a little bit. Everybody’s been through that, but I’m sure that can be frustrating for both parties.

First, you as the customer, were there talking to somebody and trying to resolve something. Now the phone is run and someone has jumped right in front of you to get their question answered. Is that really fair?

Well, we think there’s a better way, and we’ve used it for a long time in our firm. We don’t have a ringing phone in our office. We actually don’t accept phone calls.

You may be surprised by that, but then it’s very untraditional for a CPA firm. However, let me tell you what our solution is and why we think it’s better.

We do all of our communications primarily through our app and email as our first response.

Sometimes I’ll record a video back to somebody if just a two or three sentence answer. Can’t resolve that to explain a little better, and also so you can see my face and get all of the benefits of physical contact to understand a message.

Also, a lot of us just aren’t into reading a long voluminous email when we need to just get to the root of an answer and get a question. Even though it may be more complex, we’re lazy. We don’t like to read that much.

Zoom Meeting

Secondly, if you do have a concern where we need to have a little back and forth, you’re expanding your operations. You want to hire a new manager role, you wanna sell your business, you have some goals you want to achieve, and you need some help—those involve more than just an email conversation, so we’ll schedule a call.

That call and will not be on the phone. It’ll be a Zoom meeting. We use Zoom meetings, and we’ve been using them since long before COVID and long before it was cool.

We’ve been using Zoom meetings to communicate with our clients for over eight years now. It’s been a long time since we’ve had face-to-face meetings because our clients are located all throughout the country.

So our Zoom meeting is precious to us. It does a couple of things that a phone call can’t accomplish.

Sharing Screens

First, the obvious. We can share screens and show you things, look at financial numbers, look at how situations would work out. We have the option of having visual impact along with our audio communication.

Focused Zoom Meeting

Next, our meetings are at a scheduled time. They’re focused. When I have a meeting with you, I will be 100% focused on that meeting. I’m not writing something, researching something on the internet, doing a tax return.

When it’s time to meet, I’m hands down, ready to talk just to you. You have 100% of my attention, and I will have 100% of your attention so that we can resolve your issues efficiently and very quickly so that you don’t have to wait.

Recorded (Rewatch) Meeting

Next up, the other part that we really love is we record every Zoom meeting with our clients. That meeting is accessible by our clients, by you, as well as by me. Couple of things. If I talk to five people in one day, I don’t wanna be the one who gets confused about what we talked about.

I’m not perfect by any means. However, I can go back and pull up our conversation and rewatch it. I can refresh myself on what we talked about.

Also, how many times have you been to the doctor and you come out of the doctor’s office after he is told you a whole bunch of things and you get home and you say, “well, I can’t remember what he said about that”, or “he called it something, but I don’t remember”.

Well, you don’t have to be focused on taking thorough notes throughout our meeting because you’ll be able to rewatch our conversation too in case you forget or if you’re in the implementation phase and you wanna be able to walk through something step by step.

Transcribe Meeting

We also transcribe our meetings in most cases, so they’re easily searchable. So if I said, “Hmm, I had a conversation about somebody working with this insurance company and we had a resolution to it, who was that?” Not to worry. I could search through my conversation history and figure out who it was so that we can use that knowledge to make your business better and to help you answer your questions.

Bottomline

So if you really kinda like the old style of traditional telephone calls, dropping off things, mailing things, we might not be the place for you.

Our firm is more advanced in looking at innovative ways to make sure that our business owners have access to us and all of our brain power without having to deal with the interruptions of a phone ringing or of having to look for paper that’s manually sent to us.

If you are looking for a solution that is efficient and innovative and allows you to have that type of conversation with your CPA, I’d be happy to talk to you.

For additional read: Looking for a Local CPA

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post Hold On While I Take This Call (Why We Use Zoom Meeting) appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

Do you have a point of sales (POS) system or some other e-commerce system that you process your sales in? Something other than your financial accounting system?

If you do, chances are you’ve looked into the possibility of integrating the two systems. So lining it up so that the sales flow from one system into your accounting system.

I have dealt with a lot of integrations, I used to work in the programming side and looking at custom integrations, so I’ve got a lot of experience in that area and I’m going to offer you some advice.

Please Don’t Integrate Them

Please don’t integrate them, usually it creates more of a mess than it solves, and each of those systems has a different purpose. Your point of sales (POS) system is meant to track which items you sell, track your inventory, track the cost versus the sale price, those types of statistics.

Your financial accounting system doesn’t need to duplicate that information, it should just simply be tracking the amount of income that you’ve received and all the expenses associated with it.

In a very simplistic case, as most small businesses are going to have, I do not recommend integrating those two pieces of software.

They are Stand-alone Systems

Each of them can stand alone, so allow your point of sales (POS) system to produce the information you need about what products are selling and how quickly they’re selling, and allow your financial accounting system to do the job of recording the revenues that you receive as well as the expenses.

You may have to make a once a month adjustment to include the sales tax or move that properly or if you want to do a once a month breakout on your financial statement, probably no more than five to eight categories in income. If you have much more than that, it really dilutes the effect of looking at the financial statement.

I don’t recommend breaking it down into very tiny granular pieces, that should be left for the point of sale (POS) system. So hope this helps you, because if you get garbage into one system and it doesn’t sync right, you’ll be contaminating the other system.

So do yourself a favor and don’t worry about the integration. It’s just not necessary. Have a great day!

For additional read: Reimagining the Role of Accountants

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post Why Your POS Should NEVER Integrate with Your Accounting Software appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

There’s big news on the IRS front on the form 1099-K. If you recall, this form is issued from people like eBay, PayPal, all of those kinds of companies. If you receive more than $600, the controversy came in with that magical $600 number.

But these forms come out to you whether you are a business or an individual. So they have some weird tax consequences that have not really been clarified until now.

The IRS put out a fact piece on their website and will include the link down below on March 23rd of 2023 that talked about some examples and how they want you to treat these things.

In their examples

They say, if you bought a refrigerator for a thousand dollars and you sold it on lovely Facebook marketplace for $600, you have a loss of $400.

Now you’ll get a 1099-k theoretically for the $600 that you received, unless it was in the form of cash or a check from one of the companies like a Venmo ,or an eBay, or PayPal.

What do you do with that? Well, since you have a loss, that’s not deductible, so you don’t need to do anything.

But let’s flip this around

Let’s say you had some sporting event tickets or concert tickets, and in their example, you bought the tickets for $500, you sold them for $900. Now you have a profit or a gain of $400.

Well, even if it was a personal sale, they’re saying you need to report that. So you need to report it on your Schedule D, Form 8949 is the detail of the sales that goes along with that and let that flow through. So it could be short or long-term depending on when you bought those tickets and resold them.

So if it was over a year, that would be long-term capital gains on the sale of concert tickets, how exciting! And the gain on the sale of a personal item is taxable.

Now for years, this has just kind of gone under the table. Nobody’s really talked about it. We all know everybody sells things. You know, your proceeds from the yard sale, are those taxable? Well, they could be if you put them on a 1099-K because you took electronic payments.

Now on the opposite side

Although they want the tax on the gain, the loss is not deductible. So you don’t get to deduct that at all.

So if you receive that, you need to report it as well. So they don’t think that the proceeds were a gain. So you would report those proceeds as taxable even though you didn’t get any profit.

So you’re gonna report those on line 8, other income listed as 1099-k personal items sold at a loss per their instructions. So you can report up to your cost, but not more than the proceeds so at worst case, you go to zero.

Again, going back to that thousand dollars refrigerator that you sold for $600, you’re gonna report the $600 as incoming income, but show that you had $600 worth of an expense so you don’t have to pay taxes on those proceeds.

So, new info! Another new thing to worry about for your taxes.

Do keep an eye out if you receive a strange form: a 1099-K for your personal. Don’t just toss that aside, include that with your tax information, and we’ll have to get those reported along with your tax returns.

Hope that helps you avoid having an issue later on with the IRS.

For additional read: About Form 1099-K

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post 1099-K is a Tattle Tale of Personal Income appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

Life is just too short to work this hard without some fun and without accomplishing some of your bucket list items.

So let’s talk about the bucket list for a minute. I was at a conference back in August at Xerocon, and Ben Nemtin came in to speak and he spoke about his bucket journal.

The bucket list for him was a process when he was a teenager and headed into his high school college years, he decided to write down what it was he wanted to do, no matter how extravagant or how easy it was, he wanted to write it down.

And what he accomplished, and we’ve all heard these statistics, is that 42% more things get done if you write them down. So you’re much higher to accomplish those things if you write them down.

So let’s think a little bit more about your bucket list as we approach year end and make sure your goals are in alignment.

All work, and no play doesn’t make for a great person.

You want to make sure that you spend time with your family and friends, and we are all about that here. So let’s take a moment to jot down some bucket list items. I’ve accomplished many of the things that were on my bucket list, and some didn’t even appear until much later in life. I never realized I wanted to travel the country and see all of the things in our world here, to go to Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon.

Obviously there are a lot of places that we like to go and travel is a big piece of the bucket list, but there are other things: I wanted to have a successful business—I didn’t know that as a teenager, I knew that as I started to grow older, I want to have a family and my son, my husband and I treasure all those things. But, many of the times we have fleeting ideas.

Things come into your mind you think it would be great to go see or do this, but then the next day comes along, we get busy and we forget about it.

Start writing things down

Well, I encourage you to take a moment to start writing down the things you would like to do, no matter how far out they may seem.

Ben Nemtin told the story about playing basketball. Now, a lot of people love to play basketball, but his dream was to play basketball with the president. And if you check out his website, you’ll find the story and see the video of how that actually happened. So sometimes just by writing things down, we make them happen.

So on your bucket list, make sure that you’re accomplishing and looking at things from both a personal perspective, as well as a business.

We’ve all heard to write down goals for our business because if we write those down and measure them, we’ll accomplish them. Well, why shouldn’t we do that with, with our personal goals too?

So take a moment and jot down a little list and see what you can accomplish. Also, if you’d like, Ben has a bucket journal. It’s a great thing on Amazon, he sells it, and on his website, the website is writeyourlist.com and he did a great speaking presentation and really gave us a lot to think about.

So check out his material and tell me what’s on your bucket list. How can we all come together to help you accomplish those things?

For additional read: Financial Tips To Make Your Money Work For You

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post The Importance of Documenting Your Bucket List appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.

I know everyone has been waiting on the edge of their seat for more news about the EIDL loan process and we are still seeing some slow movement, nothing very hard yet in the way that we deal with defaults or people who can’t make their payments.

But we are seeing a little bit of information and I’ll give you some insights on what I’ve seen so far from people who’ve shared back with me about their conversations with the SBA.

SBA Questionnaire

One business owner that I know of had closed his business. It had actually been, gone back foreclosed by a bank on some equipment.

So the business was completely done for the bank, took their equipment back, the business was dissolved to the state, and the SBA sent a questionnaire to this gentleman who owned the business to ask him, first, is your business closed?

And the answer to that if you come upon these questions, if your business is dissolved through the Secretary of State, meaning you have an entity: yes, the answer is yes. Your business is closed.

It asked if he had any intentions of paying the EIDL loan back. The answer should be “no”, pay attention to personal guarantee information and how big your loan was. You can reference our previous videos for more information about that.

Stick to the Facts

But you wanna make sure that you are going with concise answers and be direct and to the point. If the SBA gives you one of these questionnaires, you’ll wanna state facts, not feelings and emotions. Stick to the facts.

So just like if you were going to court, your lawyer would tell you yes or no answers and stick to the facts. Don’t go outside the bounds of creating your sob story here. This is not the place for that, that would be on the initial inquiry to say, “Hey, I can’t pay my loan back. My business was closed”.

But if the SBA gives you these questionnaires, I’d love to see what they send to you in comparison, I’ve only seen this come through on one particular case and that one actually came out of California.

So it also helps us to know what area of the country you’re in or where those pieces of information came from the SBA employees, independent contractors, all throughout the country and they’ve been doing that throughout the EIDL loan process because they just don’t have enough staff to handle this.

You will receive calls

So, first I will tell you that when you do receive calls, don’t be surprised if it comes in as like an unknown number. Some of these calls you can’t really clarify a hundred percent to make sure they’re not scammers calling you.

I personally received a call the other day where someone left a voicemail and said they were calling about my COVID EIDL loan and wanted to talk to me.

However, they did not say in that message that they were calling from the SBA.

So be careful. There are a lot of people out there scamming their way through this trying to get information.

Do not provide information over the phone

Unless you are 100% able to confirm where that person is getting your information.

If they call you, I would suggest that you tell them what I’ve just said, that you’re concerned about identity protection, and you would like them to email you something specifically from their email showing that they are the one that’s supposed to be calling you and do not give your email for them to email you.

Verify and match

If they are truly from the SBA, they should reply to your email and provide you with your loan number so that you can verify and match and make sure that person is actually from the SBA.

You cannot be too careful in these situations.

So if you’ve had any updates on how things are going with default situations, business closing, or being unable to pay your EIDL loan at the full scheduled rate, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re trying to provide this information back to the general public to help everyone get through this situation.

Please note we are not taking on any consulting engagements or setting meetings to discuss the EIDL loans, but we promise we will feed this information back to you through our content on YouTube to keep everyone aware of what we know.

Thank you very much!

For additional read: EIDL: Tell The SBA You Can’t Pay

Connect with us!

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Please make sure to check out our blog and our website link below. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post. Email me at donna@calculatedmoves.com.

Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves

Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly, and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA, as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.

The post Can’t Pay Your #EIDL Loans? Here is What To Do appeared first on Calculated Moves, PC.