Summer hours are in effect: Our offices close at NOON on Fridays from May 17th to July 12th
Our offices are closed tomorrow 1/7/25 from 8am – 1pm for a firm event. Thank you.
Summer hours are in effect: Our offices close at NOON on Fridays from May 17th to July 12th
Our offices are closed tomorrow 1/7/25 from 8am – 1pm for a firm event. Thank you.
Stay on top of filing and reporting deadlines with our tax calendar! Our tax calendar includes dates categorized by employers, individuals, partnerships, corporations and more to keep you on track.
If you’ve been bitten by the net investment income tax (NIIT) in the past three years, you may now be ready to explore strategies that avoid or reduce your exposure. This surtax can affect anyone with consistently high income or with a big one-time shot of income or gain.
Let’s review the basics of the NIIT. Congress passed the 3.8% Medicare surtax on investment income in 2012 to help pay for the Affordable Care Act. The surtax became effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2012. The NIIT affects taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) above $200,000 for a single person, above $250,000 for a couple, and above $125,000 for a married person filing separately. (MAGI is generally the last number on page 1 of your Form 1040 – your gross income less certain allowable deductions.) Notably, a marriage penalty is built into this surtax and the surtax threshold levels are not indexed for inflation going forward.
The amount of net investment income subject to the NIIT is the lesser of (1) your net investment income or (2) the amount by which MAGI exceeds the threshold discussed above.
What income is subject to the NIIT? Generally net investment income includes the following:
Strategies to Reduce Your Net Investment Income:
Strategies to Reduce Your Modified Adjusted Gross Income:
As you can see, higher income taxpayers with investment income have some planning options when it comes to limiting the impact of the surtax, but in many cases, there may not be a way to avoid it. Bottom line? The NIIT is complex and all strategies should be discussed with your tax and investment advisors before implementation to avoid other unintended tax consequences.
First in a Series
As healthcare reform inevitably moves forward, the concept of value-based care is one that physicians cannot afford to ignore.
At its core, value-based care focuses on rewarding good work rather than good workloads. It represents a wholesale shift by the federal government and private payers from paying for procedures and volume, to paying for outcomes and value.
What is driving the evolution to value-based care? In essence, employers, health plans and the federal government have expressed serious concerns related to:
– Perceptions of unsustainable costs
– Recognition that fee-for-service drives volume, not value
– Awareness of the potential for savings
– Current poor performance on quality indicators
These stakeholders have a desire for more value for the money spent.
Value-based care utilizes new payment models to reward better results in terms of cost, quality and outcome measures. These new payment methodologies include:
Accountable Care Organizations — The Affordable Care Act included a Medicare provision that allows healthcare providers to participate in accountable care organizations (ACOs). Utilizing shared savings/risk models, ACOs are incentivized to enhance quality, improve beneficiary outcomes and increase the value of care for a defined population across a broad scope of services.
Bundled Payments — Value-based care also seeks to incentivize coordination of care through bundled payments. For example, a cardiology group may partner with its local hospital to ensure coordinated care for patients admitted for angioplasty. The relationship might involve the hospital, the hospitalist, the discharge nurse, the cardiologist and even the primary care physician. A single payment is divvied up among the providers, with positive outcomes rewarded and negative ones penalized (legislation reduces Medicare payments for potentially preventable hospital readmissions).
Outcomes-based Reimbursement — This pay-for-performance financial model links a portion of a provider’s revenue to a quantifiable performance standard that reflects process or outcome criteria.
Patient Center Medical Home —In this financial model, a group of primary care providers agree to accept responsibility for managing the health of and delivering services to a defined population for a per-patient payment.
Another component of value-based care is what pundits are calling “show-me medicine.” Healthcare providers will increasingly be incentivized to track outcomes and quality metrics and, at some point, will be penalized for not participating in quality reporting programs (e.g., Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting Initiative). Ultimately, payers will reward positive outcomes and adherence to best practices.
It is estimated that 50 percent of physician compensation in the next 10 years will be value-based. As that happens, physicians will certainly face new issues and opportunities.
Opportunities will arise because physicians are so integral to health care delivery and health care stakeholders will be concerned with physician success in a value-based world. As a result, physicians will have critical choices to consider. They will want to work with healthcare partners that fully and fairly enable an equitable approach to compensation. Equally attractive to physicians will be hospitals and health systems that provide clinical and business resources that promote effective collaboration — everything from care coordination and patient engagement tools to predictive models for health outcomes.
Value-based care is a complex issue requiring careful analysis of its potential impact on physician practices. Please look for our continuing blog articles on this topic.
Small and medium-sized businesses should be aware that inspections of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, are on the rise. Penalties resulting from inspections where Form I-9 violations are found can be significant. Employers who conduct self-audits and correct procedural or form deficiencies can be prepared and potentially avoid heavy fines.
Governmental inspections of a business’ Forms I-9 may be conducted by officials from or employees of the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Justice, or the Department of Labor. Employers are generally given three business days’ notice of an inspection.
The Notice of Inspection (NOI) requires the employer to produce I-9 forms for all its employees and former employees for whom retention requirements were still in effect. Officials generally choose where they will conduct a Form I-9 inspection. For example, officials may ask that an employer bring Forms I-9 to an ICE field office. Sometimes, employers may arrange for an inspection at the location where the forms are stored.
Investigators will then inspect the I-9 forms to determine violations. Violations of a lesser nature, such as technical violations, may include a failure from the employer or employee to fill out all required information. The more serious offenses, referred to as substantive violations, include such failures as not verifying or reviewing the required document presented by the employee, or failing to fill out an I-9 for an employee. They have found that 76 out of every 100 Forms I-9 have errors with paperwork violations costing $110 to $1,100 for each individual.
Accordingly, employers should ensure that proper I-9 procedures are in place to avoid penalties.
On December 17, 2015 ICE and the Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices (OSC) published guidance for employers who seek to perform their own internal Form I-9 audits. Their guidance is intended to help employers structure and implement self- audits in a manner consistent with employer sanctions and anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The guidance is very specific, answers most questions, and spells out how to correct errors and omissions. To view or download a copy of the Guidance for Employers Conducting Internal Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 Audits, Click Here.
After conducting a self-audit it may be helpful to determine your penalty exposure. Add up the number of missing forms and major problems to calculate your exposure. Missing forms are generally penalized at around $1100 per form for the record-keeping violation plus around $1500 per person for a knowing employment violation. (ICE assumes that persons without forms are illegal.) Major problems usually result in fines of between $800 and $1000 per form. If your exposure is significant, consider a training seminar for staff completing I-9 forms.
For additional guidance, see Self-Auditing Your I-9 Forms? Know These Rules, from the Society for Human Resource Management.
On January 8, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department withdrew a controversial proposal to alter Internal Revenue Code section 170(f)(8) that would have allowed charitable nonprofits to collect and report personal information, including Social Security numbers, from donors who contribute $250 or more. Tim Delaney, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, had rallied against the effort, arguing the rule could have a chilling effect on donors.
Nearly 38,000 Americans agreed and submitted their comments. "The Treasury Department and the IRS received a substantial number of public comments in response to the notice of proposed rulemaking," the IRS said in its statement. "Many of these public comments questioned the need for donee reporting, and many comments expressed significant concerns about donee organizations collecting and maintaining taxpayer identification numbers for purposes of the specific-use information return."
"This is a prime example of the power of nonprofit advocacy and what can be achieved when charitable nonprofits speak up to protect the public, our missions, and the communities we serve," said Delaney.
Inside Public Accounting (IPA) presented its first ranking of the nation’s TOP 300 accounting firms—the only one of its kind. Stockman Kast Ryan + Co. (SKR + Co.) was named one of the largest accounting firms in the nation.
In the Accounting Services Department at Stockman Kast Ryan + Co, we take a balance sheet approach when closing a set of books. This means each account on the balance sheet (assets/liabilities and equity) is reconciled to source documents (bank statements, amortization schedules, payroll and sales tax returns, etc.) before closing the net income for the year. We view all the transactions during the year to capture any reclassifications that may need to be reallocated to a different account as well as reconciling expenses such as payroll.
There are many things to take into consideration when finalizing a Year End Closing.
Generally, we will make the final year-end adjustments to the balance sheet to zero out the owners’ distributions/draws for the upcoming year as well as to record depreciation. Occasionally, we have additional tax adjustments that may also affect your books.
We know that closing out your books for the year can be a daunting task. But taking the time to prepare now will likely save you both time and money later. “Clean” books make the tax preparation process that much easier and efficient. If you have questions regarding any of the suggestions listed here, please let us know.
On December 18, the Senate passed the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (the PATH Act), which the House had passed on December 17. Many popular tax breaks had expired December 31, 2014, so for them to be available for 2015, Congress had to pass legislation extending them. But the PATH Act does more than that.
Instead of extending breaks for just a year or two, which had been Congress’ modus operandi in recent years, the PATH Act makes many popular breaks permanent and extends others for several years. The PATH Act also enhances certain breaks and puts a moratorium on the Affordable Care Act’s controversial medical device excise tax.
It’s not all good news for taxpayers, however. For example, while the PATH Act does extend bonus depreciation through 2019, it gradually reduces its benefits. And it extends some breaks only through 2016.
Here is a quick rundown of some of the key breaks that have been extended or made permanent that may benefit you or your business.
Many of the PATH Act’s provisions provide an opportunity for taxpayers to enjoy significant tax savings on their 2015 income tax returns — but quick action (before January 1, 2016) may be needed to take advantage of some of them. If you have questions about what you need to do before year end to maximize your savings, please contact us.