The straight line

What an extraordinary year! This year’s audits were some of the most interesting we have seen in a long time. Many of you enjoyed extremely successful years by capitalizing on all of the positives in the short list above. While others not so fortunate were negatively affected by some of the events, a few managed to successfully straddle their ups and downs and come out even.

The fortunes of any company have, historically, been closely tied to how well they managed risk. Written policies, approved by the board of directors and adhered to in practice, are of critical importance to ensure that the company operates within prescribed risk tolerances. In today’s fiercely competitive and challenging environment, an up-to-date policy manual, appropriate to a company’s functions and business plan, may be more important than ever. There are numerous benefits to having a relevant and effective policy manual, and severe consequences to having one that is stale and out of date.

Without a clearly written policy, using additional paid time off as a benefit when deciding employee compensation, could put you at risk for a lawsuit.

Effective January 1, 2009 mergers of credit unions will be accounted under the “Acquisition Method” of accounting. Each merger will require an acquirer to be identified. Further, the acquirer is required to recognize the assets acquired and the liabilities assumed to be measured at their fair values as of the date the acquirer achieves control.

The Department of Labor is helping companies remind their employees about the importance of saving for retirement. A series of four posters is available for companies to display. You can print them from the web site address below and display them in your workplace, or e-mail the messages to each of your employees. The posters come in text and graphic format and are available in English and Spanish.

W-9/1099 Reporting It is important for each business that issues checks to non-employees to have a form W-9 on file. Form W-9 is the non-employee equivalent of form W-4. Now is a good time to review your files to make certain that these forms are on hand and current. The information contained on form W-9 is used to determine if a form 1099 must be filed. Even you don’t need to issue a 1099, you are still required to have a W-9 on file. If a proper W-9 is not on file, backup withholding should be withheld from each check issued to the non-employee. Otherwise, the IRS can disallow related tax deductions and assess taxes equal to the backup withholding which you did not withhold, plus penalty and interest.