On March 18, 2010, President Obama signed the new Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HIRE) into law. This federal legislation creates brand new tax breaks for hiring and retaining unemployed workers Here’s a quick rundown on two of these key tax breaks:

Periodically we receive inquiries regarding how long you should keep old records. In general, record retention periods are the same for electronic records and their hard copy counterparts.

Back in 2006, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) formally announced that it would reconsider the accounting for leases, and as we enter the second quarter of 2010, they are preparing to release a preliminary standard. Although the final rules and changes are not anticipated to be finalized for another year or two, you can expect some significant changes on how you will need to begin accounting for your lease agreements in the future.

The following items reflect answers to frequently asked questions, and highlights some important tax information.

Form IA 137 is used to compute the ethanol promotion tax credit. This form and credit are quite confusing, but beginning January 1, 2009 an ethanol promotion tax credit is available to taxpayers who: are retail dealers of ethanol blended gasoline, and who operate motor fuel pumps at an Iowa retail motor fuel site. Note that for this credit, a tank wagon is considered a fuel site.

The topic of how much retained earnings is appropriate keeps surfacing as well. One of the concerns that comes up is how the proceeds of a sale of the company would be distributed if the company were to sell. And, with the retained earnings being significant relative to the equity in the names of the members, the concern turns to how vulnerable the cooperative is to an offer that could be perceived as attractive to the members but would end up being a discounted sale of the coop– one heck of a bargain for a buyer.