Keeping yourself safe from potential identity theft and watching out for scams remains important even removed from tax season. The IRS knows this and is taking steps to keep your information safe.

Last week, the agency announced that it would stop faxing tax transcripts this month. It also plans to stop third-party mailing of tax returns and transcripts in July. The IRS has found that criminals can impersonate taxpayers or authorized third parties to get those transcripts and use them to file fraudulent returns. This doesn’t mean that you can never get a legitimate transcript if you need one.  In fact, it is still easy for a taxpayer to do it themselves online by verifying their identity.

At the same time, the IRS is also raising the alarm on a couple of new scams aiming to get your personal information. Two of biggest are claiming that your social security number is going to be suspended or canceled and demands from a Bureau of Tax Enforcement.

We will take on the SSN one first.  Let this be the most giant red flag you can ever encounter when it comes to scams.  If someone wants your social security number, and you aren’t 100% sure who they are and that they should have it, don’t give them any information.

These demands are often coming through frightening robocall voicemails. They talk of potential punishments that sound awful, and they would be if they were true. But if these calls come out of nowhere and speak vaguely of things that you cannot connect to legitimate information that is because they are not real.

Another trick that I like to do with these calls is do a Google search of the number these calls come from. A large percentage of the time this will return a list of people at least searching for the number if not labeling it as a scam.  Either way, that should make you feel more confident that you can ignore it.

As for the Bureau of Tax Enforcement, it sounds real legitimate, doesn’t it? Well, it doesn’t actually exist. When you get a letter in the mail, though, that threatens a tax lien or levy because of delinquent taxes, paying money to the Bureau of Tax Enforcement sounds like a valid way to keep that from happening.

This one feels extra dangerous because it bypasses some of the warnings that are often put out for how to avoid schemes. One is that the first contact from the IRS will come through the mail and not via phone, email, or social media. Well, they bypassed that.  It also seems to be seeking a legitimate way of payment.  You’re sending a check to a seemingly legit organization and not wiring money, buying odd gift cards, or using any other unorthodox form of odd payment. The money is also not demanded quickly.

This shows how scammers are always trying to stay a few steps ahead of knowledge getting out to the public. They are not simply going to be defeated in one arena and then give up. So be sure you also stay ready to take in new information and remain diligent when something doesn’t feel quite right.

How you feel about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at this point probably largely has to do with how your tax return looked this year. The numbers from a country-wide standpoint said that things largely remained unchanged from the government’s standpoint. That does not, however, mean that there were not some big changes on a personal level.

That’s why in the time since the tax season ended I have written a bit about being proactive and making changes to help your own situation. It would take some huge surprises for the rules to change again before next year. So you need to do what you can to leverage your situation underneath the current system.

Possibly in an actual bit of surprise, though, the IRS may be helping with this.

Over the last week, the agency has issued a draft of a new W-4 form. Remember that form you filled out when you started your job to say how you wanted your taxes handled and then never thought about again? Yeah, that form.

The changes here are largely due to the TCJA, so allow me to get a little tax jargon-y for only a paragraph. That W-4 form you may still vaguely remember was based on withholding allowances, which was tied to the amount of the personal exemption. This is why it had a little questionnaire about your family and life situation to help you determine how you may want to fill out the form. This worked pretty well for most people. The revamped rules, though, have led to a more complicated form, but one that will be better at actually taking into account your personal situation.

First, let me state that this new W-4 is a draft only.  The real form will only come out later this year. Also, it will be for the year 2020 so any changes you want to make for this year must be done on a current form. It is still worth looking at the changes made, though.

One of the new things on the draft version of the form is the ability to account for multiple jobs. This even includes if you are married filing jointly and both you and your spouse work. This is key because your total income could be much higher than what you earn at the job for which you are filling out the form.

In the same vein, there will also be spots in include income earned from other areas and possible deductions. This is a much fuller version of your total tax picture than was seen on the W-4 form in the past (although you also had the opportunity to withhold additional amounts of money if you so chose).

This new form is a bit more complicated and will take a little more work to accurately fill out. This may feel daunting, and it could even be argued that it will increase the chance of errors. The idea, however, is that it is designed to give a fuller picture and more accurately report what should be withheld form one’s paycheck to fulfill your tax obligation. These are only good things.

Accomplishing good things aren’t always something you can do on your own, though, so as always we remain here to help you make your tax picture work to your best advantage, even if that involves filling out some new forms.

Maybe you can blame this on my mind being a little scattered now that tax season is over.  I, however, will frame it as my mind is more open.

Either way, here is a little take on three news stories I saw earlier this week that I thought had lessons in them that were worth passing along.

First off, Pizza Hut’s original pan pizza is being remade. Whether or not there is then any value left then in the “original” moniker can be debated, but if the goal is to make a better product, that can’t be too bad, can it?

Beyond that, this CNN article was actually more interesting than I thought it would be, describing how Domino’s, Papa John’s, and Pizza Hut are in a tug-of-war competition to stay relevant, have new offerings, and embrace new technologies.

On the surface, it may seem like this is too much work for the companies. I mean those are three names that everyone knows, and everyone knows what they offer. It does, however, go to show that even when you reach a high level of success you cannot just rest on your laurels.

There is value in having a traditional offering. There can be greater value in realizing when your traditional offering needs to evolve if you want to continue holding your position (remember Kodak?). Be great at what you do - and we don’t have to get into a discussion here about what makes “great” pizza, these companies are still great at what they do - but also do not remain stuck in your ways. Only then can your famous name carry on.

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Speaking of iconic names …

The brand and intellectual property of Sports Illustrated was sold recently for $110 million to Authentic Brands Group. That sentence has to be framed like that because Meredith Corporation, the former owner, will continue to publish the magazine and website under the Sports Illustrated name. What this means is that Sports Illustrated brand is worth more than the magazine that began the brand.

Names can stand for something beyond your current work, so be sure you’re standing for the right things.

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And speaking of standing for something …

MacKenzie Bezos joined the rank of the world’s wealthiest people following her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.  She recently committed to giving at least half of her estimated $36.6 billion worth to charity.

Do you read stories like that and think about how nice it would be to have that amount of money with which to do good? Then I urge you to still do what you can with what you have. When it comes to how you spend your money, there is value in the feeling you get from helping others that can outweigh the pleasure of purchasing goods.

With changes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, making charitable donations became less of a tax issue for many, so I wanted to take the chance to close this week with that reminder that it’s still worth doing.

There have been a lot of changes coming to QuickBooks Online recently. I know that this only affects a limited number of people directly, but some of the issues it raises reach further than QBO users. So I promise I won’t get too in-depth on just the QBO stuff in this space, for no one wants to read THAT much about bookkeeping software.

To give it some attention, though, QBO is based on a tier plan, essentially meaning you pay more the bigger your business is, which is pretty reasonable since you’ll be taking up more online space. The price has gone up, though, and you can also be forced into a higher advanced tier if your company uses more than 250 chart of accounts listings and/or 40 locations and classes.

250 listings on a chart of accounts could sound like a lot of things to track, but it is certainly not a ridiculous number, and some types of businesses don’t even have to get THAT large to get there. A lot of times, though, this is a place where we see businesses having some extra stuff that is just pushing that number up, cluttering up a profit and loss statement, and really serving little purpose.

Remember that one debit from three years ago that you weren’t sure how to classify and you started a new category for it? Of course not, but your chart of accounts does and that category thus still exists.

So if you are worried about the rising cost of a QuickBooks Online subscription and want a little personal guidance on how you fall within the programs rules, let us know and let’s set up an appointment.

This type of checkup, though, to see if your bookkeeping and reporting is really tracking and reporting what is most important to you can be a good idea no matter what platform you are using to track it. The issues that can keep you from working at an optimal level can be many:

Did you have a professional set up our bookkeeping when your business started?

Has your business grown since you started?

Are you offering different products and services than when you started?

Are you tracking similar expenses in separate accounts?

Do you know what each line on your P&L means?

Do you understand what transactions are going onto each of those lines?

Having good answers to these questions will let you know what level of a program like QuickBooks Online is necessary for your business. Having good answers to these questions will also help you understand how your business is working and help you make better decisions.

No matter what software you are using for bookkeeping (even if it’s an Excel spreadsheet or receipts in an envelope), having a hold on tracking it all correctly is necessary for optimal performance. And no matter how you are doing it, you may have questions on how to do it better. So you, too, let us know and let’s set up an appointment to discuss those things.

In speaking with a colleague this week, I realized that I may have missed some pieces in my last blog aimed at people thinking about starting new businesses. It’s not that anything I said was wrong, but that there are some other points that business owners (and potential business owners) need to think about that deserved a little more spotlight. So here is my attempt to shine that light.

A slight word of caution first.  None of these notes are intended to be, or should be taken as, advice for your particular situation. In fact, one of the biggest takeaways should be that every situation and every business is different.  The key is that you want to address these things to make the decisions that are right for you and your business.

One of these decisions that have to be made is what type of business you are going to be from a legal perspective.  I don’t want to use this space to go deep into LLCs, C Corps, S Corps, etc. - I mean, we’re still early here, you don’t want to go to sleep already. Suffice to say that there are differences and things such as whether you are going at this alone or have partners and how you will pay the taxes for the business (to be probably too simplistic, whether you account for it with a separate business return or on your personal return) all come up at this point.

Another key thing is going to be how you define success. If this is only something you ever envision to be a side gig, success could simply be not losing money. Then again, you may want that side gig to pay for a vacation for your family each year. And is that something that could be accomplished in the first year or will it take two or three to bring to fruition?

But then, what do you have to do to make that happen? Are you producing a product? If so, how many of that product will you need to produce (and sell) to get there? Are you providing a service? If so, how many clients will you need to serve to get there?

Then again, you may be looking to start a business that is immediately going to be what you do full-time. Defining success can be very different there. How many customers will you need to get enough money to get by? How many customers will you need to make enough money to get to a higher, thriving level? Will you be able to handle that time commitment? At what point will you be able to bring in new or more employee(s) and continue to grow?

Being a little bit deliberate in these areas will help you move you toward those success benchmarks. And you can’t be expected to have all these answers – or even know how to arrive at them - from the start. I could never claim that we will have all these answers for you. I am confident, though, that we can provide some of them and point you in the direction of where to find the ones we can’t.

It’s National Small Business Week, which is something that causes two reactions around here. First, it is great to be a small business ourselves that is operating outside of a large corporate structure. Second, it is great to be able to help other small businesses succeed.

Last week, I wrote a good bit in this space to existing businesses about not allowing recordkeeping to lapse now that tax season is over. It is not always high on the list priorities for a small business owner, since their efforts are often better utilized in other aspects of the business. Since that time, the IRS has also chimed in with the kinds of records small businesses should keep. That’s a good place to start if you just want to know what you should be keeping and for how long. Just remember that being sure everything is recorded correctly is also key.

I want to steer away from existing businesses now, though, and use the spirit of the week to talk to those who want to start new businesses. This does not even have to be a huge thing, it can be a small side gig you do outside of your normal work hours.  I would wager that most people give thought to some business idea along these lines at some point in their life.

The biggest roadblock to this can be time. If you already have a lot of commitments between work, family, hobbies, etc., it can be difficult to feel that you have the time necessary to make a new endeavor a success. I would remind you, though, that most of these ideas do not need to be huge (at least to start). Chances are you are having these thoughts because it’s something you WANT to do. It is possible that this could feel like another hobby – just one that can make you some money. So take stock of the things you do spend your time on.  If you do have a schedule full of things you want to do more than pursue any business idea, great, you are living a fulfilling life. But if you do have a small amount of time and want to pursue it, that can be enough.

I say that can be enough because if you begin with the right mindset and planning your setup will free up some time. I think the right mindset is a combination of being prepared and not going at it alone. Preparation involves some simple questions (although the answers can be very difficult and call for deeper discussions than I can offer here) such as what service/good you are providing, who will want it, and how you are going to let them know you offer it. You must also be sure that the legal and financial pieces of it are set up correctly.  It is much easier to do that at the start than to go back and try to clean up messes in the future.

Therein is where you should not start doing it alone.  A little help with legally creating your entity comes with the comfort of knowing you did it right.  A little help with best financial practices gives you a better chance to succeed and really know how things are going. If you’ve made it this far, hopefully you already feel that we will be on your side, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you want a little more guidance in getting off the ground.

This is one of those times when you will have to forgive me for not putting a lot of words out there. With It being the last day of Tax Season for us here in Massachusetts.

But let me start with two important words – thank you.

The end of tax season is always a bit heartening even through the exhaustion. To have clients that return to our organization year after year, especially in this world of increasing options, is uplifting. It allows us to feel the value of what we provide and to strengthen those bonds that we make with many of our clients, and dare I even say friends.

This is something that I feel every year, but it was augmented this year. The uncertainly of what one’s tax picture looked like was greater in the wake of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. For the most part, that uncertainty was quelled as many returns weren’t THAT different than previous years. And it’s always nice to give good news to people who worried that they may be receiving bad news.

Some clients, though, received that bad news. I’m sure you have heard some of these stories through other means, so I will not elaborate much here. Just with the rule changes we had, there were bound to be some people on the bad side of them, and some ended up way on the bad side.

And yes, it wasn’t nearly as nice to deliver news to these people, but to have the ability to walk them through what changed, how it affected that final number, and to start thinking about what we could do to lessen the hurt in the future was still heartening.

This is because beyond the numbers is the comfort of knowing you are being taken care of and that someone has your back. That is something that we pride ourselves on here.

But it is also something that we received from our clients. You are the ones who let us do what we do and the trust you place in us takes care of us. So yes, thank you.