Blog

• Tax Tips for the Self-employed

  Posted on 02/01/2012 in Blog

  IRS.gov is a great resource for tax tips. And what better time of year to get a few helpful tips than now? The following are six key tips offered by the IRS for the self-employed business owner.There are many benefits that come from being your own boss. If you work for yourself, as an independent contractor, or you carry on a trade or business as a sole proprietor, you are generally considered to be self-employed. Here are a few tips that you should know about self-employment and self-employment taxes:Self-employment can include work in addition to your regular full-time business activities, such as part-time work you do at home or in addition to your regular job.If you are self-employed, you generally have to pay self-employment tax as well as income tax. Self-employment tax is a Social Security and Medicare tax primarily for individuals who work for themselves. It is similar to the Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld from the pay of most wage earners. You will file an IRS Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business, or C-EZ- Net Profit from Business with your Form 1040.If you are self-employed, you may have to make estimated tax payments. This applies even…

  Read More...

• January 2012

  Posted on 01/21/2012 in Newsletter

  Link Newsletter Our monthly newsletter, Link Newsletter, is full of tips, reminders, and timely advice to help you stay well informed when it comes to your business and personal finances. If you have questions about any of the articles, feel free to email Damon Yudichak at Damon@yudichakcpa.com. January 2012 Damon Yudichak Portrait by Charles Gupton In This Issue Thank You for a Wonderful Year Predictions for 2012 Business Owner Profile – Rachel Kendall About Me Thank You for a Wonderful Year I want to thank you for a Wonderful Year. It has been a great growth year for me. Our revenues this year are up 70% compared to last year, which is deeply gratifying. To all of my customers, thank you for giving me the opportunity to work for you. I truly recognize the confidence you place in me to provide you with accurate and timely financial information. I know my role is an integral part of your decision-making. This is a role I take very seriously and I will continue to seek and implement ways to improve our services for you. For those that have referred business to me, thank you for trusting me. A referral from you is…

  Read More...

• Happy New Year – Looking Forward to a Prosperous 2012!

  Posted on 01/04/2012 in Blog

  We hope that your holidays were both relaxing and joyous! The New Year is here, and with it brings resolutions. Our resolution is to continue to improve client services so that your experience with our firm is always rich. Enhancing our services means many things to us—from upgrades in technology to expanding and enhancing service offerings.Over the past year, we’ve had a steady focus on technology—implementing the latest and greatest applications to ensure that you always have 24/7 access to your information and can exchange, upload, and review your financial documents with ease and efficiency. We’ve also dedicated a great deal of time to evaluating our services and making adjustments where needed. Overall, we want you to stick with us for the long term—and that means we will always keep our resolutions!What about you? What are your resolutions? We certainly hope one of them is to continue to improve your financial health—both on a business and individual level. The New Year is the time to re-focus, re-evaluate, and re-vamp processes and operations— ultimately enhancing your financial status. We are here to help you do that…today and throughout 2012. Let’s resolve together to make this happen.We look forward to continuing a…

  Read More...

• Reminder to Go Green – Exchange All Docs in Your Portal

  Posted on 12/18/2011 in Blog

  Now that we are well into the month of December, it’s time to offer another friendly reminder to start getting your tax documents together. It’s also a good time to remind you to use your portals for both uploading your documents and receiving your tax return. Wouldn’t it be great to go completely paperless this year? And you can’t beat the convenience. No dropping off papers or disks, and no trips to the office to sign your return. It can all be handled online…from your secure, personal client portal!We’ve worked hard in our firm to go paperless, and we encourage you to do the same by using your portal. Let’s all go green together this year and enjoy a speedier and more secure tax process.

  Read More...

• Home Energy Credits Still Available for 2011

  Posted on 12/02/2011 in Blog

  The IRS recently posted a reminder to homeowners that there is still time this year to make energy-saving and green-energy home improvements and qualify for credit.The first of these credits, termed “The Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit”, is aimed at homeowners who install energy-efficient improvements such as insulation, windows, and furnaces. The credit is more limited than in the past years, but can still provide substantial tax savings. The following is a summary of this 2011 credit:- Credit rate is 10% of the cost of qualified energy efficiency improvements, which include adding insulation, energy-efficient exterior windows and doors, and certain roofs. – Credit can be claimed for the cost of residential energy property, including labor costs for installation (includes certain high-efficiency heating and air conditioning systems, water heaters, and stoves that burn biomass fuel).- Credit has a lifetime limit of $500 (of which only $200 may be used for windows). If the total of non-business energy property credits taken in prior years since 2005 is more than $500, the credit may not be claimed in 2011.- Qualifying improvements must be placed into service to the taxpayer’s principal residence located in the United States before January 1, 2012.The second credit, termed “Residential…

  Read More...

• November 2011

  Posted on 11/21/2011 in Newsletter

  Link Newsletter Our monthly newsletter, Link Newsletter, is full of tips, reminders, and timely advice to help you stay well informed when it comes to your business and personal finances. If you have questions about any of the articles, feel free to email Damon Yudichak at Damon@yudichakcpa.com. November 2011 Focused Information for the Small Business Owner Volume 4, Issue 7 Damon Yudichak Pictured at the end of his first marathon. In This Issue My First Marathon What’s With the Moon? About Me My First Marathon Last year, on October 9, 2010, I began my journey to run my first Marathon. That Thursday morning I met Jerry Kephart at 6:00 am at the Bedford Clubhouse and we ran two miles around the neighborhood. A year later on October 30, 2011, at 7:00 am, just before dawn, I stood at Arlington Cemetery overlooking the Potomac River ready to run my first ever marathon. The Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial were brightly lit. Marines were all around making sure that everything was operating smoothly. It was 36 degrees and I decided I would run in just my singlet and running shorts. A number of the other runners were bundled up in snow suits…

  Read More...

• The Sun is Setting on Several Big Tax Credits…Are You Eligible?

  Posted on 11/17/2011 in Blog

  Several key business tax breaks will expire on December 31, 2011. You may be eligible, so we wanted to ensure that you were aware of certain credits before they expire at the year’s end (2011). If you believe you are eligible, contact us to discuss further.Research Credit—offers a credit of up to 20% of qualifying research expenditures, and applies to amounts paid or accrued before January 1, 2012.Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)—allows a credit to employers who hire members of certain targeted groups: up to 40% of first-year wages and up to $6,000 per employee ($12,000 for qualified veterans and $3,000 for qualified summer youth employees). Where the employee is a long-term family assistance (LTFA) recipient, the WOTC allows a percentage of first and second year wages: up to $10,000 per employee.New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC)—allows taxpayers who hold a qualified equity investment in a qualified community development entity (CDE) a NMTC of 39% of the qualified equity investment during a seven-year credit period. Under current law, the last NMTC dollar limitation is for 2011.Differential Wage Payment Credit for Employers—enables eligible small business employers that pay differential wages to claim a credit equal to 20% of up to $20,000 of…

  Read More...

• Eliminating the terror of tax season

  Posted on 11/03/2011 in Blog

  First and foremost, we hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. Costumes, cool weather, and loads of candy…what’s better than that? While you may have been concentrated on ghosts, goblins, and more than a few Power Rangers, remember that the end of October means that year-end is coming fast. Very soon you’ll want to begin preparing for tax season to eliminate any possible terror on April 15th.To get you on the road to preparation, here are some useful tips:Don’t Procrastinate—While it seems like there is a lot of time before tax season, it creeps up on you quickly. To ensure that you are receiving every eligible credit and deduction, start organizing records now. Waiting until the last minute only works against you and can mean oversight of proper deductions, potentially increasing your tax burden. Begin Reviewing Past Returns—Giving a quick scan of past returns can help you prepare for the upcoming tax season. This exercise will help you identify deductions you may have forgotten about, as well as help you formulate questions to ask your preparer.Get Organized—Start to prepare a folder of important documents, statements, and receipts so you know what to provide your preparer. Being organized is the best way to…

  Read More...

• October 2011

  Posted on 10/21/2011 in Newsletter

  Link Newsletter Our monthly newsletter, Link Newsletter, is full of tips, reminders, and timely advice to help you stay well informed when it comes to your business and personal finances. If you have questions about any of the articles, feel free to email Damon Yudichak at Damon@yudichakcpa.com. October 2011 Focused Information for the Small Business Owner Volume 4, Issue 7 Damon Yudichak Portrait by Charles Gupton In This Issue My First Decision Five Lessons I Learned from Uncle Sam Recipe for Success About Me My First Decision I took a non-traditional path to completing college. I started my college experience right on schedule right after high school. I had always been attracted by my math and science courses and everyone told me that I should become a doctor. I embraced that idea and started my pre-med studies. After the third week of my organic chemistry class I realized that medicine was not going to be my career. Given that I didn’t know what I wanted to continue studying, I decided to put college on hold until I figured out what degree I was going to invest in. In my apartment complex, I made a friend who had just finished a…

  Read More...

• Join Us This Tax Season on Team GREEN!

  Posted on 10/19/2011 in Blog

  Tax season can be overwhelming, especially when you consider all the paper and manual tasks involved. We’ve worked hard in our firm to go paperless—creating a digital filing system that puts clients’ documents at our fingertips…so when you ask, we can send needed files to you immediately.Working with electronic files is far more efficient, so this year we encourage you to provide your tax source documents to us within your client portal. In turn, we will also deliver your tax return in your portal—there for you to review and retrieve when it’s convenient for you, 24/7. By following a paperless tax process you can eliminate:Manually printing, collecting, and delivering your tax source documents.Scanning in and emailing sensitive data (it’s far more secure to exchange files via your client portal).Receiving a printed copy of your return to manually file.And all of this adds up to a speedier and more secure tax process!Join us this year on Team GREEN!

  Read More...