The straight line

It has been an interesting year for our cooperative clients. Many have enjoyed having their balance sheets, particularly their working capital, shored up with the value of the FC Stone stock. For local earnings though, we have found a mixed bag of results. Many thrived during the last year with tremendous margin improvements in grain and agronomy, although those have been offset to some degree with higher interest expense.

Smart Tax Tips: New Employee Tax Credit, Donate From Your IRA, Don't Forget Your 1099!

If your credit union generated more than $1,000 in unrelated business income, you will be required to file form 990-T and pay the appropriate tax.

This new standard now helps to clarify the status of Plans by requiring employers to recognize critical information on the financial statements instead of only recording it in the footnotes.

If you aren't aware yet, we want to inform you that most, if not all, of our audit clients will be receiving a management letter along with their audit, or shortly thereafter, this year. New Audit Standard No. 112 requires auditing firms to communicate in writing, to management and those charged with governance, any current control deficiencies they find that may be considered significant or material weaknesses, even if they communicated those findings to their clients during previous audits. Now we're taking the seriousness of conducting audits one step further. This new standard will help enhance awareness of deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting- no matter how mild or extreme those deficiencies may be- and will allow management to better assess the costs and benefits of repairing those deficiencies. Writing those deficiencies down in the report, and distributing it to management and those charged with governance, ensures that everyone has the opportunity to be on the 'same page' with the same information. All in all, this new standard will help minimize the risk of future financial misstatements, including fraud. We know you understand the importance of internal controls and identifying any deficiencies within them. We're here to help you evaluate those risks, if there are any, and address them in a cost-beneficial way. As always, we will answer any questions you may have and we look forward to continuing to serve as your auditing firm.