Blog & Newsroom

September 30 marks another key date on the calendar regarding action needed to properly manage your own or an inherited IRA.  

If a loved one has passed, the final determination of who the “designated beneficiaries” of a that individual's IRA are must be completed by September 30 of the year following that person's death.

Related read: Important Considerations for Non-Spouse Beneficiaries

This determination is required for purposes of calculating the Required Minimum Distributions ("RMD") from a decedent’s IRA. A “designated beneficiary,” (a term defined in the Internal Revenue Code) is one who is set to receive IRA assets when the account owner dies and to any trusts that may list specific requirements.
 

Confronting the latest scheme to target taxpayers, the IRS and its Security Summit partners warned (on September 22, 2016) that scammers have sent fake emails purportedly containing CP2000 notices, which are used in the IRS’s Automated Underreporter Program.

Read more about IRS Scams by Howard Kass

The IRS emphasized that it never sends these notices by email, and instead uses the U.S. Postal Service (IR-2016-123).

The October 1st deadline is fast approaching...

If you have less than 100 employees, you have until October 1 to set up a SIMPLE IRA plan for you and your employees.  Keep in mind that you can't have another qualified retirement plan (example: a 401(k), 403(b), profit sharing, or defined benefit plan) and a SIMPLE IRA.

After more than three years of debate, comment, and revision, the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) much-anticipated Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-14, Presentation of Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Entities, was released on August 18, 2016.

The newly released ASU will change the way all not-for-profits (NFPs) classify net assets and prepare financial statements. To view the standard in its entirety, visit the FASB's website here.

Adoption of FASB ASU 2016-14 will result in significant changes to financial reporting and disclosures for NFPs. FASB believes the update will improve NFP financial statements and provide more useful information to donors, grantors, creditors, and other financial statement users. The standard is effective for annual financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017 and for interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018.

If you have a question about your not-for-profit financial reporting, contact us. We're ready to meet with you and start the conversation. Email skrantz@zinnerco.com or 216.831.0733. 

Based on presentation by Robin Baum at the 2016 Cleveland Boy Scout Estate Planning Seminar. Article submission to the Ohio Probate Law Journal

Many closely-held business owners devote the majority of their lives to developing a successful business. 

Therefore, as part of their estate planning strategy, small business owners want to ensure that the worth of their business is properly valued, especially if the business must be sold in order to pay estate taxes.  If drafted properly, a buy-sell agreement is an effective tool that can be used to set the value of a closely-held business interest. 

Read more from Deanna Alger, CPA

 Cybersecurity. What if I said I can give you five security tips you can implement in five minutes that will help greatly mitigate the risk of your home or business computer system from becoming a target for cybercriminals?  Yes, it can be that easy! 


While there are certainly savvy hackers out there, the reality is many breaches of security stem from common, no-cost proactive measures that most overlook.

Here are our top five:

 Protect Your Ability to Exclude the Gain on the Sale of Your Home

Be proactive! On December 1, 2016, the minimum salary threshold for the FLSA's white-collar exemptions increases to an annual $47,476.

This more-than doubling of the salary test is the biggest change to the FLSA in decades, and will add an approximate 4.2 million employees to the ranks of the non-exempt, to whom you must pay overtime if they work more than 40 hours in a week.

As a result of this regulation, businesses will need to start tracking hours for exempt salaried employees who are at or below the $47,476 threshold.

If you have questions about this or other overtime rules and your business, contact any of our professionals at 216.831.0733 or info@zinnerco.com. We're ready to start the conversation. 

 

So through some miracle, you ended up with enough healthy players at the end of your season to triumph in your fantasy football championship.  Although you may still be riding that high, like yours truly, it’s good to know how this may or may not affect your tax return for this year.  With fantasy football becoming ever more popular year after year, it’s becoming a larger target to the IRS.