The ceiling is still raised--in fact, said raise has been made permanent (well, it's been put into effect through 2013, and if it's not made permanent or extended further before then, we'll eat our own shorts). Credit FDIC Head Sheila Bair, an altogether remarkable politician--check out this profile of her.

However, a post at OPEN Forum sounds a welcome cautionary note. FDIC coverage is not always all that it appears to be, it seems.

Specifically, there are five instances in which your FDIC coverage is not what you might expect it to be:
-If you think your bank account is a business account (which is entitled to increased protection), but the bank considers it a personal account, then it will only be insured up to $250k.
-If two banks at which you have accounts merge, then your combined account may all of a sudden turn out to be over the ceiling--and, after six months, the amount over the ceiling will be uninsured.
-If your account is non-deposit, then it's not insured. Only deposit accounts are insured. Here's the FDIC's explanation.
-If your account is at one of the 160 credit unions that use private insurance, then it's not insured by the FDIC (it is insured by a private company). Definitely something to ask about.
-If your account contains an employee benefit plan, then it's still insured, but the calculations that determine how much is insured are different; the FDIC explains here.

These caveats need not cause stress. Simply conduct some basic due diligence so that you know exactly what the federal government is insuring of your money. And then bask in the FDIC's comforting embrace.

As to whether things are indeed turning around, Scott Goltz of You're The Boss says: yes, they are--"if you are still in business, take a deep breath. We have probably survived the worst of the economic collapse." And OPEN Forum reports on a new study finding that most small business owners agree: 88% perceive business opportunities; 61% expect growth in the next year; 57% think investing in their businesses is currently a smart move.

So if Oz really is at the end of the road, how do you make sure you don't fall by the wayside in the meantime?

Goltz has some good advice on this score. First: focus on cash flow. Every small business owner ought to tack his mantra up on their walls: "companies go broke because they run out of cash, not because they are unprofitable." To be sure, if you are unprofitable, then you will also, eventually, run out of cash. But now that genuinely decent times are on the horizon, the important thing is to focus on keeping the cash coming in, minimizing how much of it is leaving (in the form of expenses), and holding out until good times enable you to make some real money again.

Second, he recommends that you address employee strengths and weaknesses. Essentialy, he's not necessarily suggesting that you eliminate entire positions--indeed, that's something you've likely already done if you've needed to. But he is suggesting that if you have certain employees who maybe are not working out as well as they could be, that now is the time to replace them. He hints at a current dynamic at play, which is that there is an extremely strong buyer's job market: there are lots and lots of qualified people out there looking for a limited number of spots. Now is the time to pounce and nab the best personnel you can find.

Finally, he suggests utilizing six-month data. We've now spent a solid six months of recession, where everyone has known we are in a recession and there is indeed less uncertainty about where exactly we are heading (as opposed to, say, last October, which was both dismal and filled with uncertainty). Extrapolating from the past six months to the next six should yield predictions that are, if anything, less positive than what will come to pass. Don't let those numbers go to waste.

And don't let the next six months go to waste! Now is your final chance to slim down, get sharp, and be ready for a period during which, just perhaps, you can once again grow your business.

In the tax world, a "red flag" is a big bright thing sticking out from a tax return that provokes the raging bull known as the IRS to investigate more closely, and perhaps conduct an audit. Matadors may find it handy to unfurl their red flags; taxpayers will not.

Red flags are exactly what Peter Pappas writes about in a recent post on his The Tax Lawyers Blog. (Hat-tip to Joe Kristan of Roth & Company, P.C.)

Here’s Pappas’s list of the "5 Slam Dunk Audit Red Flags"

1. Home Office Deduction
2. Job Expenses
3. Rental Losses
4. Schedule C Expenses (which is to say, business expenses).
5. Charitable Contributions

You can read Pappas’s post in its entirety to get the entire picture, but here are some suggestions that he says may dilute the red flag status of these deductions.

1. File your return in a timely manner.
2. Use a recognized software program to prepare and print your return.
3. File the return electronically.
4. Have a respectable CPA, tax lawyer, or IRS Enrolled Agent sign your return as tax preparer.
5. Attach explanatory statements to your return where necessary.

We’re already six months through the current tax year so it’s not too early to consider Pappas’ suggestions. In fact, when it comes to tax matters, it’s never too soon.

Jerry Kalish is founder and President of National Benefit Services, Inc., a Chicago-based employee benefit consulting and administrative firm that serves private-held companies, publicly traded companies, and public sector employers. He blogs at The Retirement Plan Blog and can be reached at jerry@nationalbenefit.com.

Well, we have another post in us on The State of Entrepreneurship, and it once again results from the dialectic between a pessimistic Scott Shane and a less-pessimistic John Tozzi.

Shane writes: "Most Americans would like to believe that this country is getting more entrepreneurial over time. While I wish this were true, the data don’t agree. Policy makers need to take a look at these data and acknowledge the pattern." And Shane has the charts to prove it. We don't want to rip them off; but go to his post and see for yourself. Disheartening stuff.

What's to blame? Shane fingers Wal-Mart and the like: "Large, efficient companies are able to out-compete small start-ups, replacing the independent businesses in many markets. Multiply across the entire economy the effect of a Wal-Mart replacing the independent restaurant, grocery store, clothing store, florist, etc., in a town, and you can see how we end up with a downward trend in entrepreneurship over time." Indeed, Shane has literally written the book on this phenomenon. It's a compelling explanation.

But Tozzi takes a different view.

Without denying the Wal-Mart effect, Tozzi points to the "emergence of niche markets where many small players compete, without the dominance of a Wal-Mart-like giant, or even mass markets where niche players are gaining a foothold." This is straight out of Chris Anderson's famed book The Long Tail, in which Anderson--the editor of Wired--predicts an infinitely fractured marketplace increasingly shifting away from a select few blockbuster goods and towards many, many, many more smaller-selling niche goods.

How does Tozzi rebut Shane's convincing graphs? He notes that they all start twenty years ago, and, arguing that "there could be an inflection point around the beginning of this decade," he predicts that the data we get in the coming years could show that things turned around for entrepreneurship in America thanks to the long tail/increased prevalence of niche markets. Again, compelling.

We took Tozzi's side last time; this time, we're a little more bearish. Tozzi's point certainly carries during boom times, especially the middle of this past decade: increased consumer spending really did prove a boon both the Wal-Marts and the tiny businesses of the world, which benefited from increased profitability of niche markets. The rising tide truly did lift both the big and little boats. However, the past two years (and especially the past year) have not been so kind to consumer spending, and while that ultimately hurts everyone, it's going to hurt the little guys, operating in their little niche-markets, far, far more than it is going to hurt the Wal-Marts (indeed, Wal-Mart is still managing to turn profits).

So on the one hand, we think that Shane's numbers might be a little misleading (although we don't doubt their integrity), and that his "Wal-Mart effect" explanation might be a little oversimplified (though we don't doubt its ultimate validity). However, recessions have the effect of simplification, and we'd suspect that entrepreneurship indeed is taking a disproportionate hit as of late.

In essence, the article recommends that you do your own homework--and a lot of it. It recommends Georgetown University's healthinsuranceinfo.net, the National Health Law Program's healthcarecoach.com, and the Kaiser Family Foundation's site. And even with all of those resources, it still may also be worth consulting an independent agent, or several (make sure they have a license!), particularly if it's your first time buying on your own.

Beyond that, caveat emptor! Buy insurance, not just a discount card. Look beyond premiums: make sure you have a catastrophe insurance, that your out-of-pocket costs are capped, that your percentage of doctors' visits is reasonable.

And don't forget to see if you're eligible for federal unemployment-related health benefits! Our very own Jerry Kalish expounded on how the federal stimulus law expanded that coverage--check it out.