Posts Tagged ‘Liability’

A Walk Down the History of Insurance

March 1st, 2011

egyptian 300x229 A Walk Down the History of InsuranceStudies have shown that the idea of cover dates back to ancient times. It is known, for example, that the ancient Egyptians insured cargo shipped from one destination to another. The basic idea of cover is to guard against, or protect against, monetary loss of a product or object. The potential loss could occur during transit, or while stationary. The cost of this insurance is governed by time, the replacement value of the product, and the risk factor the product is exposed to. The risk of loss is greater, for example, in the ocean shipment of a product than it is by local land shipment. People have bought insurance against loss on almost every item imaginable. There are items that are uninsurable, but they are hard to find. Many cover Cos. specialize in “hard to insure items”. Lloyds of London is a famous example of a Co. that will supposedly write an insurance policy on anything! The cost of exotic or hard to replace items can be extremely high. It depends on the item, its uniqueness, and what it would cost to replace it, if it can be replaced. So, cover should be viewed and divided into categories.

Life cover is insuring against the loss of life. The cost of life insurance depends on the age of the person. How much longer will they live? The physical condition of the person. Do they have a terminal illness? And so forth. Life cover is also divided into categories. For example whole life, term, etc.

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Creating an LLC – Limited Liability Company

February 3rd, 2011

Creating an LLC is one of the most popular forms of business registration in the US. Creating an LLC is possible to do without having to employ a lawyer even though most experts advise that it is always in a company’s best interests to get financial advice before making any important business decision.

Creating an LLC is mostly designed to separate personal and business financial interests of the business owners. Creating an LLC does not limit a business from having any management structure that meets their particular business requirements. There is no requirement for a yearly general meeting of a LLC or to prepare reports from such a meeting, but it is recommended to keep meetings for tax purposes.

However, creating an LLC does have a few drawbacks. They consist of having to pay the appropriate levies and taxes to register and there are some reporting requirements depending on the state in which the LLC is registered.

Many entrepreneurs prefer to setup an LLC for tax reasons. LLCs avoid “double tax” because the income of the Limited Liability Company itself is not taxed at the company level. Instead, taxes on profits and deductions of losses are calculated at the individual level on the personal tax return of each LLC member (owner).

Creating an LLC does give many business owners a sense of comfort since they are not liable for any of the debts, activities or the responsibilities of the company beyond their ownership stake. If something goes wrong then they will lose their asset and investment in the Limited Liability Company but they will not lose anything they own personally if they are operating under a limited liability business form. For many small business owners this in itself is well worth the time, energy and money involved to Start LLC.

Tax Debt Problems – How to Reduce Your Tax Liability

December 27th, 2010

tax debt Tax Debt Problems   How to Reduce Your Tax LiabilityLet’s face it, no one wants to owe money to the government but it can happen to any one of us at any time. Owing more taxes than you expect can occur in any number of ways such as excessive capital gains through stock sales, not paying enough taxes throughout the year, not filing tax returns at all or simply exaggerating your deductibles. Tax debt problems can happen but there are ways to reduce your tax liability without losing everything you own.

Personally, I innocently double-dipped on some taxes for a relocation payment I received. I thought taxes were already taken out of the check so I included the amount ($5,000) as taxes paid on my tax return. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Not only did I owe the 5k in taxes but also the amount I received as a refund because I added it to my return. Luckily for me, this was not a massive error in judgement but it could have been much worse. The best thing I did was to accept my mistake and take care of the problem.

Don’t ignore the problem - The worst thing you can do is pretend this is not happening to you and hope it all goes away. If you ignore the problem, it will, in fact, get much worse. Even before the IRS contacts you about a problem, they have already added penalties and interest to the amount you own.

For every week and month that goes by without a resolution, the penalties and interest will increase and the IRS may even impose liens on your property. Do the right thing and contact the IRS to understand the situation before it’s too late.

Assess your situation - Once you have spoken with the IRS and confirmed that you do indeed owe back taxes, you’ll have to decide whether you can manage to pay the debt with seeking outside assistance.

In order to reduce or eliminate fees that continue to accrue while the debt is owed, you’ll need to pay the amount in full. If you can only manage a payment plan, interest and penalties will continue to be added to the total, making your debt even larger. Depending on the amount you owe, it may be wise to seek professional assistance and have them work with the IRS for you.

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The Benefits of Choosing Accountants at Smaller Firms

July 12th, 2010

When it comes to handling your accounts and taxes, or anything that has to do with money for that matter, people will of course want the best. Accountants from large multi-national companies are places that people tend to go to first. And sure, there are some benefits to picking a larger corporation to handle your accounting needs (accuracy, liability confidence, proven-track record, etc). But going with a smaller accounting firm may better suit the needs of individuals who want a more personal experience with their accounting needs.

There a lot of people that take comfort and look for the kind of satisfaction that you can get from a personalized and less formal setting when it comes to someone handling their taxes and bookkeeping. Just like in relationships with other professionals who care for your needs, such as family doctors, dentists, and lawyers, the relationship that you establish with your accountant is not any different.

Working with someone that you can actually talk to and develop a long term relationship with is very important to many people when it comes to handling something as sensitive as their finances. With accountants that work at smaller firms, you get some of the advantages that don’t commonly exist with larger companies. When you sign on to be one a client of accountants working at a smaller company, you are given an accountant professional that is friendly, highly capable, and knowledgeable on ways that are best to keep you and your financial state in the highest regard. But at the same time, smaller firms of accountants want you to get service that is tailor made for your situation. They understand that not everybody’s financial situation is the same, and that is why the service should not be standardized either. To be able to provide the best service for you, they also try to create informal relationships with you where you can ask questions about your finances, and learn about the process as you go along.

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What is Bookkeeping?

January 30th, 2010

bookkeeping 300x300 What is Bookkeeping?Some folks have created a terribly successful career in bookkeeping whereas other folks have just thought about a career in bookkeeping but have never acted on it. Bookkeeping is not the identical as accounting, this can be a common misperception. Accounting is a much larger range of financial duties and responsibilities, where bookkeeping is just one function that provides some of the basic information required for accounting.

Bookkeepers need to have a very good eye for detail, as a simple numeric error can easily report on erroneous figures that can be very hard to identify where the error is. Bookkeepers need to be very patient and methodical in their approach to their work and when required have great analysis skills to identify erroneous book entries. Bookkeepers perform all manner of record-keeping tasks and need to be flexible in their relationships with their customers, as quite often their customers do not have as much skill in bookkeeping as they do.. They prepare what are known as supply documents for all the operations of a business – the buying, selling, transferring, paying and collecting. The documents embody papers like purchase orders, invoices, credit card slips, time cards, time sheets and expense reports. Bookkeepers conjointly verify and enter in the source documents what are referred to as the money effects of the transactions and different business events. Those include paying the workers, making sales, borrowing cash or buying products or raw materials for production.

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