As you’re no doubt aware, in early August President Trump signed a memorandum allowing employees to defer their share of Social Security taxes between September 1 and December 31, 2020. This was intended as a measure to provide individuals with extra income during this time, but merely delays the payment of these taxes and doesn’t forgive them. And now we…
The CARES Act made some significant changes to tax strategies for charitable contributions in 2020 that all taxpayers should be aware of. With everything that's happening, these CARES Act provisions provide a way to benefit worthy organizations in need of assistance while meeting your own giving and financial planning goals. Charitable donors sometimes have to juggle their priorities between providing…
Each year, the dollar limits for many employee benefits and tax-related items are updated for inflation. Usually that happens in November for the next calendar year, but the update for HSAs occurs earlier in the year, and here they are: Health Savings Account (HSA) Contributions for 2021 An individual with self-only coverage under a high deductible health plan can contribute…
The first of the long-awaited guidance on PPP loan forgiveness has now been released by the Small Business Administration (SBA). The PPP Forgiveness Application provides step by step instructions to walk you through the process. There aren’t any surprises in this document, but there is some welcome clarification: Payroll Period One of the most frequent questions we’ve received is whether…
Paycheck Protection Program Well, it's been more than 6 weeks since the CARES Act was signed, issuing in a new set of acronyms we're now all familiar with. If you hear "PPP" now, you automatically know it's the Paycheck Protection Program, right? And attempting to comply with the PPP is probably top of mind for most small business owners right…
Whoever said, "May you live in interesting times" is getting their wish! Many of us are juggling work, schooling our children, and managing the stress of the pandemic all within the confines of our homes. Here are some tips for managing all those new aspects of our interesting times. Making the transition to work from home can be challenging. Here…
The Paycheck Protection Program is the most talked about business provision of all the recent COVID-19 legislation. Many small businesses have applied and received loan proceeds intended to keep people employed during this economic downturn. It's a great program - but be sure you follow the rules, because there's a warning attached. The SBA issued their "interim final rule" (yes,…
There are three different types of leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), each with a different duration, pay rate and eligibility criteria. The FFCRA’s paid leave provisions are effective April 1, 2020 and apply to leave taken between April 1 and December 31, 2020. Only businesses with fewer than 500 employees within the United States are subject…
As you probably know, the due date for filing 2019 federal and state income tax returns (for Kansas and Missouri, at least) has been postponed from April 15 to July 15, 2020. The due date for federal estimated tax payments (as well as Missouri) has been postponed to July 15, 2020. The Kansas due date remains April 15, but the…
We have good news and bad news. The good news is that the US government is actively working to provide relief to individuals and businesses in these uncertain times. The bad news is that there are so many relief programs that it’s hard to make sense of all of them! So we’re going to use some sample questions we’ve been…