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Keeping Your Balance: How to effectively tax plan in an election year

By Kristina Stamatis
POSTED: May 17, 2012
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The Bush Era tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2012 and there is not a hint of change in sight. A chance of an agreement between Democrats and Republicans before the November elections seems highly improbable. Many are predicting last minute changes that will delay the 2013 filing season. Given the [...]

Keeping Your Balance: A look at the expectations of LPs in a post-Great Recession world

By Mark J. Kovaleski
POSTED: May 10, 2012
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We are fortunate here at MMB to have the technical expertise and global outreach of our alliance firm, BDO Seidman. This article will share the perspective of two leading partners in BDO’s Private Equity and Transaction Advisory Services practice, Michael Kuczborski and Jerry Dentinger. Michael and Jerry teamed up for a Q&A with Scott Paladini, [...]

Keeping Your Balance: Creative ways to attract corporate sponsorships

By Susan Lebbon
POSTED: May 3, 2012
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With the decline of public donations many nonprofit organizations are attempting to find creative ways to attract corporate sponsorships. However depending on the structure of these sponsorships nonprofits may have unknowingly created income subject to the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT). The Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 513(i) provides a safe harbor for certain payments [...]

Keeping Your Balance: IRS updated analysis explains which form to use

By James W. Rahmlow
POSTED: April 26, 2012
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In a recent publication, the Government Accountability Office indicated that there existed some confusion as to the duplication of information that appears on TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), and Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets. Noting that the two forms were developed to meet two different government [...]

Keeping Your Balance: Cost allocations for nonprofit organizations

By Raymond J. Jacobi Jr.
POSTED: April 19, 2012
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There has been a lot of publicity recently about the propriety of the functional allocations of expenses reported on the financial statements, tax returns and cost reports for nonprofit organizations. Some state and local agencies have been modifying their procedures to focus on the cost allocations reported to them each year. Why the increased scrutiny? [...]

Keeping Your Balance: NYS debates ownership rules for service firms

By Katherine Welc
POSTED: April 12, 2012
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Perhaps a sign of the times and the true sign of the comingling disciplines in the worlds of service professionals is the debate that is taking place in New York state regarding non-CPA owners of CPA firms. Currently, there are 48 states and jurisdictions that follow the Uniform Accountancy Act (UAA) Section 7(c) (1) and [...]

Keeping Your Balance: Retirement plan fee disclosure shows progress

By Scott Lockwood
POSTED: April 5, 2012
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From a survey conducted in 2011 by AARP: • 71 percent of plan participants said they pay no fees for plan administration. • 62 percent said they have no idea how fees might impact their savings. • 81 percent said fees charged are important to making decisions about their plan investments. If you have fiduciary [...]

Keeping Your Balance: Expansion of IRS ‘Fresh Start’ program provides relief

By James W. Rahmlow
POSTED: March 30, 2012
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In 2011, the IRS launched its Fresh Start initiative to help taxpayers who had encountered economic difficulty in paying their taxes resulting from the most recent economic downturn. The primary benefits of the 2011 program were the streamlining of the installment agreement process for more small entities and the modification of certain aspects of the [...]

Keeping Your Balance: The role of a board nominating committee

By Carol Gubb
POSTED: March 22, 2012
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Numerous rules have been put into place by regulators since the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) and the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act (2010), including revisions to national stock exchange listing requirements. These rules, coupled with current proposals, are being designed to address the unease and unrest of shareholders and the public left by [...]

Keeping Your Balance: A look at other valuation discounts

By Kristin S. Coffey
POSTED: March 15, 2012
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Trust and estate attorneys are familiar with the discounts that are common to the valuation of closely held businesses and business interests: 1) the discount for lack of control and 2) the discount for lack of marketability. The application of these discounts is dictated primarily by the valuation assignment. There are, however, other valuation discounts [...]

Keeping Your Balance: Final fee disclosure regulation issued

By Megan Broomfield
POSTED: March 9, 2012
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With the final regulations under ERISA §408(b) (2) disclosure rules just released by the Department of Labor, I wanted to alert you to the key features of the final regulations as well as changes from the earlier, interim final version. Additionally, I am going to recap the upcoming 404(a)(5) participant disclosures and how those disclosures [...]

Keeping Your Balance: Tax breaks for self-employed health insurance premiums

By Burton S. Speer
POSTED: March 2, 2012
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We all know that health insurance costs keep rising. Congress has attempted to help small businesses by increasing the benefits related to deducting the costs of health insurance. Knowing the rules can help increase this benefit, while the failure to adhere to them can result in the untimely loss of the deduction. First of all, [...]

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