The straight line

One of the most costly — yet easily prevented — disasters for any business is the failure to secure ownership of intellectual property (IP). Here are the details you need to know. Under the law, the ownership of copyrights and inventions may actually belong to your employees and independent contractors unless there is a prior written...

The Work Opportunity tax credit (WOTC) is a federal income tax credit that’s available to businesses that hire members of certain “targeted” groups. Here’s how your business may be able to benefit from this potentially lucrative tax break. The Basics The WOTC encourages businesses to hire from certain categories of workers who face significant barriers to...

Do you regret converting your traditional IRA into a Roth IRA? Fortunately, a taxpayer-friendly aspect of the Roth conversion rules is that you have until October 15 (adjusted for weekends) of the year following the year of a conversion to reverse it. In other words, the deadline for reversing any 2016 Roth conversions is October 16,...

If numbers are a barometer of success and figures don’t lie, how do we explain the following contradictory evidence: More than 50 percent of all chief executives of Fortune 500 companies had C or C- averages in colleges.   Sixty-five percent of all U.S. senators were in the bottom half of their classes.   Seventy-five percent...

Credit sales are a fact of business life. And to keep those accounts from spinning out of control, your company must maintain a delicate balance between the total cost of bad debts and your profit gains. Your cash manager needs to constantly monitor your total receivables and bad debts. Part of the process involves weighing the...

School is back in session. So, it’s time for a refresher on tax breaks for work-related education expenditures. Here’s what individual taxpayers need to know. American Opportunity Credit The American Opportunity credit equals 100% of the first $2,000 of qualified postsecondary education expenses plus 25% of the next $2,000 of qualified education costs (subject to certain...