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Congress has announced that the 0.2% FUTA surcharge will not be extended before June 30, 2011. Employers have been required to pay a flat rate of 6.2% on the first $7,000 of each employee’s annual wages for FUTA. The 6.2% FUTA rate included a temporary 0.2% surcharge that was first added in the 1970’s. The FUTA rate will be reduced from 6.2% to 6.0% effective July 1, 2011. Employers will still receive the 5.4% credit for paying state unemployment on time, reducing the FUTA rate to 0.6% on wages paid up to the annual FUTA limit of $7,000.
The IRS has announced that the business standard mileage rate for transportation expenses paid or incurred beginning January 1, 2012, will be 55.5 cents per mile, unchanged from the rate in effect during the final six months of 2011. For further information please visit www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-12-01.pdf
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The rapid proliferation of smartphones and tablet computers is exposing corporate networks and information to unprecedented risk, and organizations worldwide should expedite efforts to shore up their cybersecurity systems.
The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued final regulations under ERISA Section 408(b) (2) requiring covered service providers of pension benefit plans to disclose comprehensive information about their fees and potential conflicts of interest to ERISA-covered plan fiduciaries. The new rules, Reasonable Contract or Arrangement Under Section 408(b)(2) - Fee Disclosure, become effective with respect to both existing and new contracts or arrangements between covered plans and covered service providers as of July 1, 2012. The new rules do not apply to welfare benefit plans.
Fraud in the form of corruption compromises the integrity of the world economy, stunting economic growth and causing political and social upheaval.
Check the form against your last pay stub of 2011 to make sure the company reported the correct amounts earned and withheld. If you find a mistake, contact your employer.
The following is a summary of the most important tax developments that have occurred in the past three months that may affect you, your family, your investments, and your livelihood. Please call us for more information about any of these developments and what steps you should implement to take advantage of favorable developments and to minimize the impact of those that are unfavorable.
Few new accounting standards take effect in 2012, but many are under development.
Guidelines Regarding Withholding Tax on Owners of Pass-Through Entity
Effective January 1, 2012 any business or contractor that wants to use the NM resident business preference when contracting with the state of New Mexico under RFP’s or competitive bid will need to obtain a new resident business certification from the State of New Mexico. The following news flash explains the new rule change.
Annual updated payroll tax information schedule providing you with the new general rules concerning payroll tax rates, limits, and deposit requirements for the year 2012.
The Nov. 1, 2011 deadline for persons who have signature authority over, but no financial interest in, foreign financial accounts to file Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) is quickly approaching. This deadline was extended by IRS in Notice 2011-54, 2011-29 IRB 53, in order to give those individuals extra time to gather the necessary information to file complete and accurate FBARs for 2009 and earlier calendar years.
We have compiled a checklist of actions based on current tax rules that may help you save tax dollars if you act before year-end. Not all actions will apply in your particular situation, but you will likely benefit from many of them. We can narrow down the specific actions that you can take once we meet with you to tailor a particular plan.
A Grant Thornton survey found 54% of global businesses are not aware a major accounting change: the virtual elimination of off-balance sheet leases. The survey found that awareness of the change was greatest in the United States, followed by Mexico and Chile. Awareness was lowest in mainland China, followed by Denmark and Turkey.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced on Wednesday, October 19, 2011, that the 2012 social security wage base will be $110,100, up from $106,800 where it had been set for the past three years. As in prior years, there is no limit to the wages subject to the Medicare tax; therefore all covered wages are still subject to the 1.45% tax.
The IRS has issued a draft version of 2011 Form 940, Schedule A, Multi-State Employer and Credit Reduction Information. Under Title XII of the Social Security Act, states with financial difficulties can borrow funds from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits.
Form 8939, Allocation of Increase in Basis for property Acquired From a Decedent and its instructions.
A district court has determined on summary judgment that the former operations director and chief of a non-profit corporation was liable for the trust fund recovery penalty under Code Sec. 6672. The court rejected the taxpayer's argument that the chief financial officer (CFO) should have collected and paid the taxes, finding that Code Sec. 6672 imposes liability on all responsible persons, not just the most responsible person.
Late on October 5, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced S. 1660, the American Jobs Act of 2011. Reid made changes to the President's original Jobs Act proposal by replacing the original pay-fors in the President's plan with a millionaires' surtax. Reid's bill also would add a provision deferring controversial governmental contractor withholding until 2014.
The death of a spouse is a wrenching event. To make the pain and anxiety worse, survivors find themselves grappling with financial and legal questions at a time when many people understandably aren't thinking clearly.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) today approved a revised accounting standard intended to provide more information about an employer's financial obligations to multiemployer pension plans. Multiemployer pension plans commonly are used by an employer to provide benefits to union employees who may work for many employers during their working life, thereby enabling them to accrue benefits in a single pension plan for their retirement.
Year-end tax planning—Claim the nonbusiness energy property credit while you can Practice Alert Of the many energy-saving provisions in the Code, few are more accessible to ordinary taxpayers than the $500 credit for nonbusiness energy property. The Code Sec. 25C credit can apply to relatively inexpensive, easy-to-do (perhaps even do-it-yourself) items—the installation of insulation (e.g., exterior caulking and weather-stripping), doors, and windows—as well as slightly more expensive but standard items such as central air conditioning and heat pumps. However, currently this credit only applies through 2011, and the prospects for an extension are uncertain. As a result, homeowners should consider accelerating energy-saving home improvements into this year if doing so will generate a credit.
Did you convert a traditional individual retirement account into a Roth IRA last year? And is the Roth now worth less than on the conversion date, thanks to the stock market's erratic performance? If you answered yes to both questions, you're stuck paying taxes on value that no longer exists.
The Internal Revenue Service has some important information to share with individuals who have sold or are about to sell their home. If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may qualify to exclude all or part of that gain from your income. Here are ten tips from the IRS to keep in mind when selling your home.
IRS provides useful tips regarding deductions associated with an employment-related household move [IRS Summertime Tax Tip 2011-16]
The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released a new Accounting Standards Update to improve employer disclosures for multiple-employer pension plans.
Depreciation deductions under Code Sec. 168 and expensing deductions under Code Sec. 179 are far more generous this year than they will be next year. In short, for those businesses confident enough to expand in these challenging economic times, now is an excellent time to buy machinery and equipment (and make expensing-eligible qualified real estate purchases).
After a bitter partisan battle, on August 2 Congress passed and the President signed into law S. 365, the "Budget Control Act of 2011." The initial $1 trillion round of deficit reduction over fiscal years 2012 through 2021 doesn't include revenue hikes, but the second, $1.5 trillion round of deficit reduction over the same years may feature fundamental tax changes as part of the work-product of the bill's newly established Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (JSC).
The IRS on Tuesday issued final regulations (TO 9542) governing elections by individual taxpayers, corporations and partnerships to deduct startup expenses or organizational expenditures. The regulations adopt with a slight change temporary regulations the Service issued in 2008 (TD 9411).
Read news on Ricci, its principals and its team.
External Links
GASB Fact Sheet about Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions
New Mexico veterinarians are often unaware of a tax deduction available to them.
On the evening of September 8, 2011 President Barack Obama proposed a $447 billion package of tax cuts and spending initiatives to spur economic growth as he outlined his American Jobs Act to a joint session of Congress. Many of the items included in his speech have been proposed and debated over the last several years, with some previously enacted on a smaller scale. The major difference in this current proposal is the size and magnitude of the tax breaks.
A recent survey by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners found that US businesses lost $994 billion to fraud in the last year alone. More than half of the respondents reported increased fraud losses in the past year. Eighty percent expect fraud to increase. Since 60 percent of fraud cases involve losses of $100,000 or more, fraud detection and prevention are vital for all businesses. Small and midsized businesses are especially vulnerable. And most companies’ internal control practices are better at catching small frauds than they are at catching schemes that could bankrupt their company.
In today’s turbulent economy, many companies have taken difficult measures such as eliminating product lines and positions in order to cut costs. But there is a more practical method of increasing efficiency and therefore improving financial results.
GASB No. 54, Fund Balance Reporting and Governmental Fund Type Definitions - The objective of this Statement is to enhance the usefulness of fund balance information by providing clearer fund balance classifications that can be more consistently applied and by clarifying the existing governmental fund type definitions. This Statement establishes fund balance classifications that comprise a hierarchy based primarily on the extent to which a government is bound to observe constraints imposed upon the use of the resources reported in governmental funds. This Statement applies only to governmental funds (general fund, special revenue fund, capital projects fund, and debt service funds). The classifications are nonspendable, restricted committed, assigned and unassigned. Further information regarding the definition of each fund can be found at the following site: http://www.gasb.org/st/summary/gstsm54.html. GASB No. 54 is effective for periods beginning after June 15, 2010.
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