Should your business offer the new emergency savings accounts to employees?
As part of the SECURE 2.0 law, there’s a new benefit option for employees facing emergencies. It’s called a pension-linked emergency savings account (PLESA) and the provision authorizing it became effective for plan years beginning January 1, 2024. The IRS recently released guidance about the accounts (in Notice 2024-22) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published some frequently asked questions to help employers, plan sponsors, participants and others understand them.
PLESA basics
The DOL defines PLESAs as “short-term savings accounts established and maintained within a defined contribution plan.” Employers with 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans can opt to offer PLESAs to non-highly compensated employees. For 2024, a participant who earned $150,000 or more in 2023 is a highly compensated employee.
Here are some more details of this new type of account:
- The portion of the account balance attributable to participant contributions can’t exceed $2,500 (or a lower amount determined by the plan sponsor) in 2024. The $2,500 amount will be adjusted for inflation in future years.
- Employers can offer to enroll eligible participants in these accounts beginning in 2024 or can automatically enroll participants in them.
- The account can’t have a minimum contribution to open or a minimum account balance.
- Participants can make a withdrawal at least once per calendar month, and such withdrawals must be distributed “as soon as practicable.”
- For the first four withdrawals from an account in a plan year, participants can’t be subject to any fees or charges. Subsequent withdrawals may be subject to reasonable fees or charges.
- Contributions must be held as cash, in an interest-bearing deposit account or in an investment product.
- If an employee has a PLESA and isn’t highly compensated, but becomes highly compensated as defined under tax law, he or she can’t make further contributions but retains the right to withdraw the balance.
- Contributions will be made on a Roth basis, meaning they are included in an employee’s taxable income but participants won’t have to pay tax when they make withdrawals.
Proof of an event not necessary
A participant in a PLESA doesn’t need to prove that he or she is experiencing an emergency before making a withdrawal from an account. The DOL states that “withdrawals are made at the discretion of the participant.”
These are just the basic details of PLESAs. Contact us if you have questions about these or other fringe benefits and their tax implications.
© 2024
IRAs: Build a tax-favored retirement nest egg
Although traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs have been around for decades, the rules involved have changed many times. The Secure 2.0 law, which was enacted at the end of 2022, brought even more changes that made IRAs more advantageous for many taxpayers. What hasn’t changed is that they can help you save for retirement on a tax-favored basis. Here’s an overview of the basic rules and some of the recent changes.
Rules for traditional IRAs
You can make an annual deductible contribution to a traditional IRA if:
- You (and your spouse) aren’t active participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans, or
- You (or your spouse) are active participants in an employer plan, and your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) doesn’t exceed certain levels that vary annually by filing status.
For example, in 2024, if you’re a joint return filer covered by an employer plan, your deductible IRA contribution phases out over $123,000 to $143,000 of MAGI ($77,000 to $87,000 for singles).
Deductible IRA contributions reduce your current tax bill, and earnings are tax deferred. However, withdrawals are taxed in full (and subject to a 10% penalty if taken before age 59½, unless one of several exceptions apply). Under the SECURE 2.0 law, you must now begin making minimum withdrawals by April 1 of the year following the year you turn age 73 (the age was 72 before 2023 and 70½ before 2020).
You can make an annual nondeductible IRA contribution without regard to employer plan coverage and your MAGI. The earnings in a nondeductible IRA are tax-deferred but taxed when distributed (and subject to a 10% penalty if taken early, unless an exception applies).
Nondeductible contributions aren’t taxed when withdrawn. If you’ve made deductible and nondeductible IRA contributions, a portion of each distribution is treated as coming from nontaxable IRA contributions (and the rest is taxed).
Amount you can sock away
The maximum annual IRA contribution (deductible or nondeductible, or a combination) is $7,000 for 2024 (up from $6,500 for 2023). If you are age 50 or over, you can make a $1,000 “catch-up contribution” for 2024 (unchanged from 2023). Additionally, your contribution can’t exceed the amount of your compensation includible in income for that year.
Rules for Roth IRAs
You can make an annual contribution to a Roth IRA if your income doesn’t exceed certain levels based on filing status. For example, in 2024, if you’re a joint return filer, the maximum annual Roth IRA contribution phases out over $230,000 to $240,000 of MAGI ($146,000 to $161,000 for singles). Annual Roth contributions can be made up to the amount allowed as a contribution to a traditional IRA, reduced by the amount you contribute for the year to non-Roth IRAs, but not reduced by contributions to a SEP or SIMPLE plan.
Roth IRA contributions aren’t deductible. However, earnings are tax-deferred and (unlike a traditional IRA) withdrawals are tax-free if paid out:
- After a five-year period that begins with the first year for which you made a contribution to a Roth IRA, and
- Once you reach age 59½, or upon death or disability, or for first-time home-buyer expenses of you, your spouse, child, grandchild, or ancestor (up to a $10,000 lifetime limit).
You don’t have to take required minimum distributions from a Roth IRA. You can “roll over” (or convert) a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA regardless of your income. The amount taken out of the traditional IRA and rolled into the Roth IRA is treated for tax purposes as a regular withdrawal (but not subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty).
There’s currently no age limit for making regular contributions to a traditional or Roth IRA, as long as you have compensation income. Contact us if you have questions about IRAs.
© 2024
Seeing the big picture with an enterprise risk management program
There’s no way around it — owning and operating a business comes with risk. On the one hand, operating under excessive levels of risk will likely impair the value of a business, consume much of its working capital and could even lead to bankruptcy if those risks become all-consuming. But on the other hand, no business can operate risk-free. Those that try will inevitably miss out on growth opportunities and probably get surpassed by more ambitious competitors.
How can you find the right balance? One way to manage your company’s “risk profile” is to implement a formal enterprise risk management (ERM) program.
Optimization, not elimination
Most businesses have internal controls to prevent fraud, maintain compliance and reduce errors. But an ERM program goes much further. It’s a top-down framework that starts at the C-suite and addresses risk at every level of the organization. An effective ERM program helps you and your leadership team not only identify major threats, but also devise feasible strategic, operational, reporting and compliance objectives.
Traditional risk management techniques, which are often informal and ad hoc, use a “siloed” approach. In other words, each department focuses on minimizing its own risks. The efficacy of this approach is limited at best, for a couple reasons. First, it fails to address how risks may arise in the way departments interact — or don’t interact — with each other. Second, it often wrongly assumes that the goal of risk management is to eliminate risk. In truth, the proper goal of risk management is to optimize risk; that is, develop strategic objectives and operate the business under acceptable levels of inevitable risk.
An ERM program takes an integrated approach. It recognizes that many risks are enterprise-wide and interrelated. For example, say a business identifies a new vendor offering substantially reduced prices on key materials. From the accounting department’s perspective, the deal may seem like a no-brainer. But an analysis under an ERM program could reveal that the vendor is situated in a high-risk area for natural disasters or civil unrest. Or the ERM analysis might show that the vendor is a bad match technologically or has poor cybersecurity.
Good starting point
Naturally, every company’s framework for an ERM program will differ depending on factors such as its size and structure. But one tool that’s proven helpful to many businesses is the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission’s (COSO’s) Enterprise Risk Management — Integrated Framework, which was originally published in 2004.
COSO is a joint initiative of five private sector organizations that develop frameworks and guidance on ERM, internal controls and fraud deterrence. The five organizations are the American Accounting Association, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Financial Executives International, the Institute of Internal Auditors and the Institute of Management Accountants.
The original COSO framework covers four categories of objectives: strategic, operations, reporting and compliance. It also sets forth eight key components: 1) internal environment, 2) objective setting, 3) event identification, 4) risk assessment, 5) risk response, 6) control activities, 7) information and communication, and 8) monitoring. Note that, in 2017, COSO published an updated complementary publication entitled Enterprise Risk Management — Integrating with Strategy and Performance.
Perfect framework
Are you tired of putting out fires or having to rethink major strategic decisions because they’re just a little bit off the mark? If so, a formal ERM program may be the solution you’re looking for. We’d be happy to help you build the perfect framework for your business.
© 2024
Update on IRS efforts to combat questionable Employee Retention Tax Credit claims
The Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) was introduced back when COVID-19 temporarily closed many businesses. The credit provided cash that helped enable struggling businesses to retain employees. Even though the ERTC expired for most employers at the end of the third quarter of 2021, it could still be claimed on amended returns after that.
According to the IRS, it began receiving a deluge of “questionable” ERTC claims as some unscrupulous promotors asserted that large tax refunds could easily be obtained — even though there are stringent eligibility requirements. “We saw aggressive marketing around this credit, and well-intentioned businesses were misled into filing claims,” explained IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
Last year, in a series of actions, the IRS began cracking down on potentially fraudulent claims. They began with a moratorium on processing new ERTC claims submitted after September 14, 2023. Despite this, the IRS reports that it still has more than $1 billion in ETRC claims in process and they are receiving additional scrutiny.
Here’s an update of the other compliance efforts that may help your business if it submitted a problematic claim:
1. Voluntary Disclosure Program. Under this program, businesses can “pay back the money they received after filing ERTC claims in error,” the IRS explained. The deadline for applying is March 22, 2024. If the IRS accepts a business into the program, the employer will need to repay only 80% of the credit money it received. If the IRS paid interest on the employer’s ERTC, the employer doesn’t need to repay that interest and the IRS won’t charge penalties or interest on the repaid amounts.
The IRS chose the 80% repayment amount because many of the ERTC promoters charged a percentage fee that they collected at the time (or in advance) of the payment, so the recipients never received the full credit amount.
Employers that are unable to repay the required 80% may be considered for an installment agreement on a case-by-case basis, pending submission and review of an IRS form that requires disclosing a significant amount of financial information.
To be eligible for this program, the employer must provide the IRS with the name, address and phone number of anyone who advised or assisted them with their claims, and details about the services provided.
2. Special withdrawal program. If a business has a pending claim for which it has eligibility concerns, it can withdraw the claim. This program is also available to businesses that were paid money from the IRS for claims but haven’t cashed or deposited the refund checks. The tax agency reported that more than $167 million from pending applications had been withdrawn through mid-January.
Much-needed relief
Commissioner Werfel said the disclosure program “provides a much-needed option for employers who were pulled into these claims and now realize they shouldn’t have applied.”
In addition to the programs described above, the IRS has been sending letters to thousands of taxpayers notifying them their claims have been disallowed. These cases involve entities that didn’t exist or didn’t have employees on the payroll during the eligibility period, “meaning the businesses failed to meet the basic criteria” for the credit, the IRS stated. Another set of letters will soon be mailed to credit recipients who claimed an erroneous or excessive credit. They’ll be informed that the IRS will recapture the payments through normal collection procedures.
There’s an application form that employers must file to participate in the Voluntary Disclosure Program and procedures that must be followed for the withdrawal program. Other rules apply. Contact us for assistance or with questions.
© 2024
If you gave to charity in 2023, check to see that you have substantiation
Did you donate to charity last year? Acknowledgment letters from the charities you gave to may have already shown up in your mailbox. But if you don’t receive such a letter, can you still claim a deduction for the gift on your 2023 income tax return? It depends.
What the law requires
To prove a charitable donation for which you claim a tax deduction, you must comply with IRS substantiation requirements. For a donation of $250 or more, this includes obtaining a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the charitable organization stating the amount of the donation, whether you received any goods or services in consideration for the donation and the value of any such goods or services.
“Contemporaneous” means the earlier of:
- The date you file your tax return, or
- The extended due date of your return.
Therefore, if you made a donation in 2023 but haven’t yet received substantiation from the charity, it’s not too late — as long as you haven’t filed your 2023 return. Contact the charity now and request a written acknowledgment.
Keep in mind that, if you made a cash gift of under $250 with a check or credit card, generally a canceled check, bank statement or credit card statement is adequate. However, if you received something in return for the donation, you generally must reduce your deduction by its value — and the charity is required to provide you a written acknowledgment as described earlier.
No longer a tax break for nonitemizers
Currently, taxpayers who don’t itemize their deductions (and instead claim the standard deduction) can’t claim a charitable deduction. Under previous COVID-19 relief laws, an individual who didn’t itemize deductions could claim a limited federal income tax write-off for cash contributions to IRS-approved charities for the 2020 and 2021 tax years. Unfortunately, the deduction for nonitemizers isn’t available for 2022 or 2023.
More requirements for certain donations
Some types of donations require additional substantiation. For example, if you donate property valued at more than $500, you must attach a completed Form 8283 (Noncash Charitable Contributions) to your return.
And for donated property with a value of more than $5,000, you generally must obtain a qualified appraisal and attach an appraisal summary to your tax return.
Contact us if you have questions about whether you have the required substantiation for the donations you hope to deduct on your 2023 tax return. We can also advise on the substantiation you’ll need for gifts you’re planning this year to ensure you can enjoy the desired deductions on your 2024 return.
© 2024
3 common forms of insurance fraud (and how businesses can fight back)
Businesses of all shapes and sizes are well-advised to buy various forms of insurance to manage operational risks. But insurance itself is far from risk-free. You might overpay for a policy that you don’t really need. Or you could invest in cheap coverage that does you little to no good when you need it.
Perhaps the most insidious risk associated with insurance, however, is fraud. Dishonest individuals, whether inside your company or outside of it, can exploit a policy to defraud your company. Let’s explore three of the most typical forms of insurance fraud and some best practices for fighting back.
1. Premium diversion
According to the website of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, this is the most common form of insurance fraud. It occurs when an employee or insurance agent fails to submit premium payments to the underwriter. Rather, the person steals the funds for either personal use or to cover other business expenses.
It might seem like there’s not much you can do to stop an unethical insurance agent from committing this crime. But you can reduce the odds of running into a fraudster by performing a thorough background check on any insurance agent or broker that you choose to work with.
Internally, if possible, segregate the duties of the employee who submits premium payments from the person who accounts for those funds. Don’t allow one employee to control the whole process. In addition, educate all staff members about the danger of premium diversion and the consequences — such as termination and prosecution — of committing it or any type of fraud. Implement a confidential hotline so employees can report suspicious activities.
2. Workers’ compensation schemes
Under one of these scams, an employee exaggerates or fabricates an injury or illness to receive workers’ compensation benefits. For example, a worker might mischaracterize a relatively minor injury suffered at work as a major one. Or an employee could submit a claim for a condition that isn’t related to work.
To help prevent false workers’ comp insurance claims, develop required reporting processes for employees. Staff members should provide detailed information about incidents and any medical treatment they received. Your insurer should be able to provide comprehensive forms and suggest industry-specific measures to ensure employees provide truthful, relevant claims information.
Also, conduct regular audits of workers’ comp claims. Doing so may uncover patterns of fraudulent activity — even long-running schemes. For instance, if one employee repeatedly submits claims but is known to engage in physically demanding or dangerous activities outside of work, it may be appropriate to scrutinize those claims.
3. Health insurance scams
Here, a perpetrator might add a fictitious employee to your company’s plan or use a stolen or “synthetic” (mixture of real and false) identity to enroll a nonexistent dependent. The fraudster then pockets whatever reimbursements come in.
To reduce the risk of such scams, establish strong plan verification procedures. These might include background checks on all participants, including submissions of required documentation such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers. Additionally, conduct regular plan audits to reconcile those enrolled with current payroll records and department headcounts.
Just a few
Unfortunately, these are just a few of the types of insurance fraud that can strike your business. Any one of them can cost you real money, slow down productivity as you deal with the mess, and hurt your reputation in the marketplace and as an employer. We can assist you in tracking your insurance costs and establishing internal controls that help prevent fraud.
© 2024
9 tax considerations if you’re starting a business as a sole proprietor
When launching a small business, many entrepreneurs start out as sole proprietors. If you’re launching a venture as a sole proprietorship, you need to understand the tax issues involved. Here are nine considerations:
1. You may qualify for the pass-through deduction. To the extent your business generates qualified business income, you’re currently eligible to claim the 20% pass-through deduction, subject to limitations. The deduction is taken “below the line,” meaning it reduces taxable income, rather than being taken “above the line” against your gross income. However, you can take the deduction even if you don’t itemize deductions and instead claim the standard deduction. Be aware that this deduction is only available through 2025, unless Congress acts to extend it.
2. You report income and expenses on Schedule C of Form 1040. The net income will be taxable to you regardless of whether you withdraw cash from the business. Your business expenses are deductible against gross income and not as itemized deductions. If you have losses, they’ll generally be deductible against your other income, subject to special rules related to hobby losses, passive activity losses and losses from activities in which you weren’t “at risk.”
3. You must pay self-employment taxes. For 2024, you pay self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare) at a 15.3% rate on your net earnings from self-employment up to $168,600, and Medicare tax only at a 2.9% rate on the excess. An additional 0.9% Medicare tax (for a total of 3.8%) is imposed on self-employment income in excess of $250,000 for joint returns, $125,000 for married taxpayers filing separate returns and $200,000 in all other cases. Self-employment tax is imposed in addition to income tax, but you can deduct half of your self-employment tax as an adjustment to income.
4. You generally must make quarterly estimated tax payments. For 2024, these are due April 15, June 17, September 16 and January 15, 2025.
5. You can deduct 100% of your health insurance costs as a business expense. This means your deduction for medical care insurance won’t be subject to the rule that limits medical expense deductions.
6. You may be able to deduct home office expenses. If you work from a home office, perform management or administrative tasks there, or store product samples or inventory at home, you may be entitled to deduct an allocable part of certain expenses, including mortgage interest or rent, insurance, utilities, repairs, maintenance and depreciation. You may also be able to deduct travel expenses from a home office to another work location.
7. You should keep complete records of your income and expenses. Specifically, you should carefully record your expenses in order to claim all the tax breaks to which you’re entitled. Certain expenses, such as automobile, travel, meals, and home office expenses, require extra attention because they’re subject to special recordkeeping rules or deductibility limits.
8. You have more responsibilities if you hire employees. For example, you need to get a taxpayer identification number and withhold and pay over payroll taxes.
9. You should consider establishing a qualified retirement plan. The advantages are that amounts contributed to it are deductible at the time of the contributions and aren’t taken into income until they’re withdrawn. You might consider a SEP plan, which requires minimal paperwork. A SIMPLE plan is also available to sole proprietors and offers tax advantages with fewer restrictions and administrative requirements. If you don’t establish a retirement plan, you may still be able to contribute to an IRA.
Turn to us
Contact us if you want additional information regarding the tax aspects of your business, or if you have questions about reporting or recordkeeping requirements.
© 2024
Filing jointly or separately as a married couple: What’s the difference?
When you file your tax return, a tax filing status must be chosen. This status is used to determine your standard deduction, tax rates, eligibility for certain tax breaks and your correct tax.
The five filing statuses are:
- Single
- Married filing jointly,
- Married filing separately,
- Head of household, and
- Qualifying surviving spouse.
If you’re married, you may wonder if you should file joint or separate tax returns. It depends on your individual tax situation.
In general, you should choose the filing status that results in the lowest tax. But keep in mind that, if you and your spouse file a joint return, each of you is “jointly and severally” liable for the tax on your combined income. And you’re both equally liable for any additional tax the IRS assesses, plus interest and most penalties. That means the IRS can come after either of you to collect the full amount.
Although there are “innocent spouse” provisions in the law that may offer relief, they have limitations. Therefore, even if a joint return results in less tax, some people may still choose to file separately if they want to only be responsible for their own tax. This might occur when a couple is separated.
In most cases, filing jointly offers the most tax savings, especially when the spouses have different income levels. Combining two incomes can bring some money out of a higher tax bracket. Filing separately doesn’t mean you go back to using the “single” rates that applied before you were married. Instead, each spouse must use “married filing separately” rates. They’re less favorable than the single rates.
However, there are cases when married couples may save tax by filing separately — for example, when one spouse has significant medical expenses. Medical expenses are deductible only to the extent they exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income (AGI). If a medical expense deduction is claimed on a spouse’s separate return, that spouse’s lower separate AGI, as compared to the higher joint AGI, can result in a larger total deduction.
Only on a joint return
Keep in mind that some tax breaks are only available on a joint return. The child and dependent care credit, adoption expense credit, American Opportunity tax credit and Lifetime Learning credit are only available to married couples on joint returns. And you can’t take the credit for the elderly or the disabled if you file separately unless you and your spouse lived apart for the entire year. You also may not be able to deduct IRA contributions if you or your spouse were covered by an employer retirement plan and you file separate returns. And you can’t exclude adoption assistance payments or interest income from Series EE or Series I savings bonds used for higher education expenses.
Social Security benefits
Social Security benefits may be taxed more when married couples file separately. Benefits are tax-free if your “provisional income” (AGI with certain modifications, plus half of your Social Security benefits) doesn’t exceed a “base amount.” The base amount is $32,000 on a joint return, but zero on separate returns (or $25,000 if the spouses didn’t live together for the whole year).
Circumstances matter
The filing status decision you make when filing your federal tax return may affect your state or local income tax bill, so the total tax impact should be compared. There may not be a simple answer as to whether a couple should file jointly or separately. Various factors must be examined. We can help you make the most advantageous choice. Contact us to prepare your return or if you have any questions.
© 2024
How businesses can reinvigorate strategic planning
For businesses, and people for that matter, the beginning of the calendar year can be a bit of a grind. The holidays have passed, summer vacations are relatively far off and everyone is trying to build momentum for a strong, healthy year.
Amongst all the nose-to-the-grindstone stick-to-itiveness, however, you and your leadership team shouldn’t lose sight of strategic planning. Your competitors probably haven’t, and the business landscape is always shifting in ways large and small. If you’ve let strategic planning slide a bit recently, here are some ways to reinvigorate it.
Push back against procrastination
Ideally, most companies should engage in an active strategic planning initiative at least once a year. This would involve doing research and holding meetings that eventually result in actionable, measurable goals.
However, some businesses may get so caught up in day-to-day operations that strategic planning goes by the wayside. Sometimes, this is a positive sign. Perhaps the company is so busy and profitable that it must focus on maximizing the opportunities at hand.
But it can be dangerous as well. A sudden market shift or disruptive competitor may leave the business flat-footed. Generally, companies shouldn’t let more than three years pass without productively engaging in strategic planning.
Go to your happy place
Because strategic planning is all about the big picture rather than the day-to-day, the process tends to work best when you put the people involved in a fresh setting. This is why the company retreat has long been an iconic undertaking, often depicted in movies and TV shows.
Granted, there is the potential for excessive spending and counterproductive distractions when organizing and holding one of these events. But if planned carefully and undertaken mindfully, getting your strategic planning team out of the office, or away from their computer screens at home, may pay off.
Engage an outside facilitator
Intuitively, it may seem like a business owner or CEO should lead a strategic planning session. And this can certainly be a cost-effective approach. But the objectivity of an outside professional may be worth investing in.
First, a facilitator may be able to better create a “there are no bad ideas” environment. Team members are often more willing to speak freely when they’re not directly addressing the owner or chief executive of the company. Plus, experienced facilitators are usually good at “working the room” (making people feel at ease), as well as adhering to a productive agenda.
Devise an action plan
Strategic planning should never be all talk and no action. Typically, the first session will review the business’s mission (what it does), vision (where it’s going), current financial results, and perhaps some of its recent notable successes and setbacks. It’s critical, however, to be results oriented. This means:
- Setting several clearly worded goals,
- Devising reasonable strategies for pursuing those goals, and
- Identifying the specific objectives that will enable you to accomplish the goals.
One way to ease the pressure of strategic planning is to not try to do everything at once. If you can accomplish the three points above in one session, schedule a follow-up meeting to devise an action plan with a timeline and assigned responsibilities. That plan can then be formally approved by business ownership.
Helpful voices
One last point: Don’t restrict strategic planning to only internal voices. Your professional advisors can also lend their expertise to the process, whether by attending a session or reviewing an action plan. For help with the financial side of strategic planning, contact us.
© 2024
What’s the best accounting method route for business tax purposes?
Businesses basically have two accounting methods to figure their taxable income: cash and accrual. Many businesses have a choice of which method to use for tax purposes. The cash method often provides significant tax benefits for eligible businesses, though some may be better off using the accrual method. Thus, it may be prudent for your business to evaluate its method to ensure that it’s the most advantageous approach.
Eligibility to use the cash method
“Small businesses,” as defined by the tax code, are generally eligible to use either cash or accrual accounting for tax purposes. (Some businesses may also be eligible to use various hybrid approaches.) Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) took effect, the gross receipts threshold for classification as a small business varied from $1 million to $10 million depending on how a business was structured, its industry and factors involving inventory.
The TCJA simplified the small business definition by establishing a single gross receipts threshold. It also increased the threshold to $25 million (adjusted for inflation), expanding the benefits of small business status to more companies. For 2024, a small business is one whose average annual gross receipts for the three-year period ending before the 2024 tax year are $30 million or less (up from $29 million for 2023).
In addition to eligibility for the cash accounting method, small businesses can benefit from advantages including:
- Simplified inventory accounting,
- An exemption from the uniform capitalization rules, and
- An exemption from the business interest deduction limit.
Note: Some businesses are eligible for cash accounting even if their gross receipts are above the threshold, including S corporations, partnerships without C corporation partners, farming businesses and certain personal service corporations. Tax shelters are ineligible for the cash method, regardless of size.
Difference between the methods
For most businesses, the cash method provides significant tax advantages. Because cash-basis businesses recognize income when received and deduct expenses when they’re paid, they have greater control over the timing of income and deductions. For example, toward the end of the year, they can defer income by delaying invoices until the following tax year or shift deductions into the current year by accelerating the payment of expenses.
In contrast, accrual-basis businesses recognize income when earned and deduct expenses when incurred, without regard to the timing of cash receipts or payments. Therefore, they have little flexibility to time the recognition of income or expenses for tax purposes.
The cash method also provides cash flow benefits. Because income is taxed in the year received, it helps ensure that a business has the funds needed to pay its tax bill.
However, for some businesses, the accrual method may be preferable. For instance, if a company’s accrued income tends to be lower than its accrued expenses, the accrual method may result in lower tax liability. Other potential advantages of the accrual method include the ability to deduct year-end bonuses paid within the first 2½ months of the following tax year and the option to defer taxes on certain advance payments.
Switching methods
Even if your business would benefit by switching from the accrual method to the cash method, or vice versa, it’s important to consider the administrative costs involved in a change. For example, if your business prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, it’s required to use the accrual method for financial reporting purposes. That doesn’t mean it can’t use the cash method for tax purposes, but it would require maintaining two sets of books.
Changing accounting methods for tax purposes also may require IRS approval. Contact us to learn more about each method.
© 2024