Posted by Lewis Hunter on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 @ 12:22 PM
Jacksonville Business Journal has given Hunter & Associates P.A. a 2010 Diversity Award for its work as a Professional Service Provider for minority-owned businesses in Northeast Florida.
Hunter & Associates was one of eight award winners and the only its category. Hunter & Associates provides accounting, business development and consulting services to small- and medium-sized businesses.
Hunter & Associates was honored for helping clients get certified as Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, thereby generating business opportunities. The firm has extensive experience in auditing firms that work with government agencies, which often seek DBEs as contractors and consultants.
In a profile of the firm in the Aug. 6-12 issue of The Business Journal, client Nina Sickler, president of Landmark Engineering Inc., stated that the financial audit that Hunter & Associates conducted of her transportation-engineering company helped it earn a DBE certification with the Florida Department of Transportation. Sickler also stated that the firm helped her evaluate tax issues and manage expenses.
Because it works with numerous small businesses and DBEs, Hunter & Associates conducts many audits for the FDOT and often provides financial management training for the department’s contractors. Hunter & Associates also has contracted with the U.S. General Services Administration to provide accounting and development services to agencies and companies that work with them across the country.
“Government agencies and the contractors that work with them are focused on ways to maximize their time and minimize their expenses,” said Lewis Hunter, president of Hunter & Associates. “We help them find ways to do both.”
About Hunter & Associates P.A.
Based in Jacksonville, Fla., Hunter & Associates provides accounting, business development and consulting services to small- and medium-sized businesses. The firm also assists government agencies and contractors. Hunter & Associates provides accounting and development services to government agencies through a contract with the U.S. General Services Administration.
As a member of the international RAN ONE network of Certified Public Accountants, Hunter & Associates has invested heavily in specialized training and tools.
Additionally, Hunter & Associates Principal Lewis Hunter is a partner in international consulting firm ROCG, which specializes in assisting entrepreneurs with business transitions.
Contact:
Lewis Hunter
Hunter & Associates P.A.
Phone: (904) 731-9222
E-mail: lhunter@huntercpa.com
###
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Tue, Apr 27, 2010 @ 01:07 PM
For small business owners considering expanding their staff, 2010 is the year to do it. The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act signed into law on March 18, 2010 offers significant tax incentives for businesses who hire the unemployed.
In order to qualify, business owners must hire a candidate between Feb. 3, 2010 and Jan. 1, 2011. The candidate must also have been unemployed or working less than 40 hours per week (for a different employer) for at least 60 days before being hired full time.
If the business owner hires a candidate who fits the above criteria, they will receive the following tax breaks:
- Exemption from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax on employee paychecks after March 18, 2010.
- If the employee stays on the job for at least 52 weeks, the business owner can file for an additional $1,000 credit per qualifying employee.
The HIRE Act allows business owners to write off up to $250,000 invested in company equipment this year. The provision is intended to give business owners the money they need now in order to grow in this struggling economy.
If you're planning on hiring a new employee, do some research to see if your business can also qualify for some of these tax incentives. With such a high national unemployment, chances are good that you may qualify. For more information and details on the HIRE Act, check out HIREAct.org and the IRS Q&A Web site.
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Wed, Apr 14, 2010 @ 01:36 PM
In times when everyone is trying to cut costs and save money, surprise expenses can become a major setback. One expense many Americans can't live without is an automotible. If you've found yourself in need of a new vehicle but can't decide whether to buy or lease, there are some financial factors you should be aware of before you make your decision.
Buying - advantages:
- You will own the vehicle and continue to build equity as you make payments
- Vehicle owners have the option to sell the vehicle at its depreciated resale value
- You can set a time limit to pay off your loan, and after, you will be debt free for vehicle payments
- No commitment for a certain period of ownership, meaning you can sell the vehicle at any time
- No mileage restrictions or penalties
Buying - disadvantages:
- Monthly payments are generally higher than leasing
- After the manufacturer's warranty is up, you are responsible for all maintenance costs
- The buyer usually must give a down payment
- Most financing loans come with a substantial interest rate depending on the buyer's credit history
Leasing - advantages:
- Lower monthly payments
- Cost-free maintenance during the lease period
- Some companies give lease-to-buy offers, allowing you to purchase the vehicle at its depreciated resale value at the end of your lease
- You can trade in a lease every few years for a newer model
- If the vehicle you desire costs more than you can afford, you might be able to afford to lease the vehicle
- Leased vehicles used for business purposes can easily be deducted on your taxes
Leasing - disadvantages:
- At the end of your lease, you don't own anything and have not built any equity
- You must pay high cost-per-mile penalties if you go over your mileage limit
- You can expect to have a monthly payment as long as you are leasing the vehicle
- Insurance companies often charge more for coverage on leased vehicles
- Security deposits are typically required at the beginning of a lease
There is no definitive answer to which is better - buying or leasing. It is a matter of personal preference and individual financial situations. Below are links to several resources for those looking to buy, sell or lease a vehicle.
Use Kelley Blue Book to calculate your vehicle's depreciated resale value.
Learn more about leasing a vehicle using Lease Guide's lease kit.
Get the CarFax before you purchase a used vehicle.
Know your FICO score and credit history before purchasing a new vehicle.
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Thu, Apr 08, 2010 @ 08:06 AM
Besides the benefits of reducing your environmental footprint, using "green" energy products can also get you some tax breaks.
The government has incentivized using energy efficient products and renewable energy systems by offering tax credits. Here are some green tax credits you should consider when filing for taxes this year, as well as preparing for next year.
Home Improvement
By making your home more energy efficient with ENERGY STAR certified products, you will not only save on your utility bills, but can also get 30 percent of the cost of improvements up to $1,500 back. These improvements include insulating your house, using HVAC heating and air conditioning, and using metal or asphalt roofing materials to reflect heat. Keep in mind that this credit expires on Dec. 31, 2010.
Alternative Fuel
Using wind mill energy, solar energy and geothermal heat will qualify you for a tax credit that doesn't expire until December of 2016. By using alternative energy sources in your primary or secondary residences (if you own the properties), you can get back 30 percent of the total cost of improvements.
You can learn how to apply to the above tax redits by visiting EnergyStar.com.
Hybrid Vehicles
Buying a hybrid or electric vehicle can qualify you for a tax credit of up to $7,500 depending on the vehicle. Although these vehicles are often more expensive off the lot, they will save you money on expensive gasoline in the long term. For a full list of qualifying vehicles, visit FuelEconomy.gov.
These tax breaks are available to individuals, but businesses can also qualify by making energy-efficient improvements to office buildings and company vehicles. For more information on how to start or transition to a green business, see the Green Business Guide.
Remember that going green isn't done overnight. If you haven't made energy-efficient changes in time for the 2009 tax season, start preparing now for 2010.
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Wed, Apr 07, 2010 @ 08:58 AM
This year, thousands of Americans contributed to the Haiti disaster relief through a variety of nonprofit foundations. But how many of these individuals will remember to claim these financial contributions when doing their taxes?
Charitable contributions are among the most commonly forgotten tax deductions, and they can save you a lot.
The following are some helpful tips to consider when claiming charitable contributions:
- A new law allows those who gave money to the Haiti earthquake relief to deduct contributions when filing for their 2009 tax returns. According to Notice 1396, these contributions must have been made after Jan. 11, 2010 and before March 1, 2010. They must also have been made to qualifying organizations. This type of deduction is rare as the contribution was made to a foreign country, so those who gave should take advantage of it. Visit IRS.gov for an overview of all charitable contribution legislation and updates.
- Keep all receipts. Whether you've texted contributions, gave cash or used your credit card, be sure to collect and record all charitable transactions throughout the year. You can't deduct your time or services given to charities, but anything financial can be included in your taxes. Don't forget that if your total contribution exceeds $5,000, you will need to break contributions down into categories. Click here for 10 more tips for deducting charitable contributions.
- Contribute to a qualifying charity. However good they may be, contributions to just any charitable organization may not be tax deductible. The IRS has an official list of charities that qualify for tax-deductible contributions. You can view this list on the IRS Web site.
Do yourself and the community a favor this year by giving charitable contributions and claiming them on your tax forms.
Charitable contributions are just one of the many tax deductions that people often forget to claim. Click here for 10 more deductions you may qualify for so you can get the most out of your tax return.
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 @ 12:19 PM
I want President Obama to aggressively create
jobs, but....
I don't want him to spend too much. In fact, I want him to cut the deficit. I want him to do something about the failure of the financial markets so it will never happen again, but...
I don't like government regulation. The government shouldn't meddle in the free markets! I want health-care reform legislation - coverage for the uninsured and coverage if I lose my job, but...
I don't want the government to overreach. I want something to be done about the rising and out-of-control cost of medical care, but...
I don't want government telling doctors, hospitals and drug companies how to run their businesses and how much they can get paid.
I am against all these reform measures. They have gone too far...or maybe they have not gone far enough. Either way I am mad as hell.
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Mon, Mar 15, 2010 @ 08:10 AM
The April 15 deadline for personal tax filing is just around the corner. If you've
been unemployed in the last year, you may not know how to approach your taxes. Don't let questions about claims and returns allow you to procrastinate. Although you may not have the same steady salary you've had in past years, you can still take advantage of several tax claims and government offers in order to make the most out of your tax situation. Here are just a few:
- Severance pay. If you received a severance package from your last employer, you should file for taxes as soon as possible. You may be sitting on a substantial refund.
- Job search claims. Job search expenses are often overlooked as items you can deduct. If you've traveled for interviews, subscribed to job posting Web sites or received resume counseling, you can claim these expenses on your taxes. Looking for work can be a job in itself, so make sure you treat it as work from home when you file for taxes.
- Unemployment. Filing for unemployment is a smart option. Not only will you receive a monthly taxable income, but it also helps the economy as it is part of the stimulus package. It's there for you to use, so take advantage of it.
- Work from home. Many workers who lose their jobs during a recession make ends meet by doing contract or freelance work from home. Those who work from home can claim the expense of the home office, including portions of utilities and insurance on the home. Direct expenses such as office supplies can also be claimed.
Tax season can be stressful, especially if you are unemployed. There are many resources available to help you learn how to accurately file for taxes and get the best returns. Click here for a list of tax-related resource sites.
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Tue, Mar 09, 2010 @ 10:10 AM
The last few years have drained small businesses of resources, so it's more important than ever for business owners to prepare year around in order to get the most out of their tax returns. The next quarterly filing deadline is June 15. Business owners should keep in mind three tax credits that qualifying businesses can file for to get a better return.
- Research and Development Credit. The federal government wants to reward businesses that look for ways to enhance efficiency. Businesses who spend resources to research and re-organize the company departments in order to streamline systems and improve production can file for this credit.
- Domestic Activities Deduction. Businesses that manufacture a product within the United States, as well as businesses in the U.S. real estate industry, can file for this deduction. This deduction was created in a government attempt to promote domestic production in order to stimulate the economy.
- Cost Segregation Studies. This credit is for businesses that own their own buildings and use them for production and manufacturing. A cost segregation study can accelerate the depreciation deduction on the building. A large portion of the cost of a building used for manufacturing is considered to be a separate cost than the actual structure's cost. These costs could be included with machinery and equipment used for production and can be depreciated faster, improving cash flow.
Another credit small businesses should keep an eye out for is part of the new jobs bill - if it passes. The pending jobs bill says that companies who hire new employees will be exempt from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December. They will also receive an additional $1,000 credit if the new employee stays in the job for a full year.
Don't wait until the last minute to start preparing for your quarterly filing dates. Prepare your documents and keep tax claims in mind year around, and you will get the most out of your returns. The quarterly filing dates for 2010 are: March 15, June 15, Sept. 15 and Dec. 15.
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Mon, Oct 05, 2009 @ 09:40 AM
In the last blog post, I listed some of the lessons that I have learned as an entrepreneur, as well as examples of smart thinking by other business owners. This post is full of additional wisdom and lessons I have found to be useful.
Make decisions. Then, look for evidence that would change your mind. This practice is most critical when a business owner prepares a business plan. Strategies, goals, objectives and visions for the future are all reduced to paper. Record all original thoughts and creative ideas first. Then, a wise businessperson would ask, "What evidence would persuade me to rework my plan?" Entrepreneurs should look for key performance indicators that, when monitored, might confirm or falsify the assumptions in the business plan.
For example, a beverage distributor takes on a risky new product line. The profit potential of even a modestly successful rollout would be very attractive. The wise business owner pores over the individual store data where the product will be distributed, thinking there may be a larger opportunity for sales in a certain area of the city. Informal interviews with store owners and customers found that the new beverage line has a strong appeal among a certain ethic group and a negative appeal to the rest of the city.
The new investment was curtailed and the marketing strategy is reworked to develop a very strong, albeit smaller, niche market. Results from the first quarter come in, and the sales projections exceeded expectations. Because of the distributor's wise entrepreneurial thinking, the strategy was a success.
Everyone has an opinion. One entrepreneur keeps a sign prominently placed on his desk that says, "Without data you are just another person with an opinion." Opinions are valuable, but certainty is rare. A wise businessperson is ready at the drop of new data points to redraw the projection curve, rework the spreadsheets, call in the analysts and get ready for a change in direction.
Life is random. Three good quarters in a row does not necessarily make a lucky streak. It is common sense to most people that if a business has been around 40 quarters, or 10 years, then there will be three quarters that are better than any of the others. A wise businessperson knows that by mere chance, those quarters could all occur one right after the other.
Entrepreneurs are powerful re-framers. Where others see problems, entrepreneurs see opportunity. As one businessman, who was standing in the middle of his small town that had just been struck by a Category 2 hurricane said, "This hurricane has just inflicted $50 million dollars of improvements for my town."
Ask -"Remind me." Memories can be fickle and are predictably biased toward more recent information. A wise entrepreneur will ask that current financial information always to be compared to prior periods.
Have a healthy humility. There is no such thing as 100 percent confidence. Entrepreneurs, as keen observers of the human condition, will reflect on some of the situations they have dealt with and recount a story that goes something like this:
"I was in a meeting with my advisors and my management team discussing a difficult situation. I asked for everyone's judgment. Each had a slightly different take, but what surprised me was that everyone present assessed the confidence in their judgment to be 90 percent OR HIGHER."
They all can't be right. Entrepreneurs formally or intuitively know that each decision carries with it a probability of being correct and of being wrong.
Know the meaning of "when I think, I fall asleep." Thinking is hard and attention falters. We start out taking about information with lots of concentration and energy, but then our attention flags. As one entrepreneur once told me, "If something is important enough I read or have it told to me more than once, each time trying to emphasize different parts of the report or presentation."
Regression toward the mean. This can best be explained in an example. One entrepreneur had a shop that produces laminated cabinets for schools. They implemented lean manufacturing principles, so they organized in work groups. Periodically, one group will have an extraordinary week. This happened once in the previous quarter. Several weeks went by and the foreman was disappointed that he had not achieved the same great performance since that record week two months ago. "Maybe it's our reward system," he said. "Maybe we should have given them a bonus."
The entrepreneur explained to his foreman that in any human endeavor, where randomness is even a small factor, you will have performances that seem extraordinary. The odds are the next performance will not be as good. In fine entrepreneurial fashion of seeing opportunity where others see problems, this remarkable entrepreneur and his foreman designed an incentive program that rewarded sustainable improvements in performances. The incentive to perform was secondary, this entrepreneur said. The most important result was to have his employees learn and focus on processes and tasks that produce sustainable results.
Please add your voice to this discussion by leaving a comment on this blog, or e-mailing me at lhunter@huntercpa.com. I will incorporate your lessons into future postings. Until then, keep learning.
Posted by Lewis Hunter on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 @ 03:00 PM
There is little evidence that says rational people are predisposed to starting new businesses. However, those that are irrational, lazy thinkers who start businesses are often weeded out by the cruel and certain judgment of the marketplace.
The marketplace provides an unwavering feedback loop - good decisions are rewarded, poor decisions are punished. For example, loaning money to a not-so-dependable brother-in-law might cost an entrepreneur a few dollars and some grief personally, but imprudently extending trade credit to customers could be a death knell to their business.
Successful entrepreneurs are clear thinkers with unclouded judgment. These attributes can be natural or learned. The following are several wisdoms that successful entrepreneurs have found true, as well as common cognitive errors that they manage to avoid (most of the time):
Do not depend on memories. Memories can often be biased. Past experiences with a problem employee should not necessarily drive the decision to change personnel policies. When running a business, you cannot always depend on what's worked in the past.
Know that probability does not go both ways. If a business owner faces a claim from a former employee who is 100 percent disabled due to carpal tunnel syndrome, two statistics could make the difference in defending against the claim.
400,000 cases of carpal tunnel syndrome are reported by 
American office workers but only 1 in 25,000 results in 100 percent disability.
- 99 percent of all cases of total disability due to carpal tunnel syndrome are shown to be work related.
The wise entrepreneur knows that it he will not prevail by claiming, "Just because the plaintiff worked for me and now has carpal tunnel syndrome does not mean working for me caused the plaintiff to be 100 percent disabled."
"Hindsight is 20/20."...but it is often worthless. Entrepreneurs are skeptical of experts who diagnose problems of the past. If a construction project has a major fail point, a business owner might call the company's staff and outside consultants together for a "lessons learned" session. A rigorous thinker would ask, "Given that we know the outcome, what could we have done better?" They would also ask, "What could we have done better with all we knew at the time?"
Predictability is more obvious looking back than forward. Let's say an accounting firm is asked to release a draft of a financial statement that it is compiling. The firm sends the client a draft that is not the latest and differs significantly from the most current version. The problem looks to be one that could have been prevented by a more attentive staff. However, upon further review of drafts in files that were not released to clients, the partners of the accounting firm concluded that their firm did not have a strong version-control system.
Don't jump on all bandwagons - just the ones that make sense. This is perhaps the least likely error an entrepreneur will make. Entrepreneurs at their core are independent individuals. They know that the crowd can be wrong, but they also know a good thing when it comes along.
You have blind spots. "If the only tool you have is a hammer, then all the problems look like nails." Or, "We just need to work harder." Most successful entrepreneurs have worked through this issue early on. If their expertise is marketing, they have learned that lackluster profits are not always solved by more sales...they hire and engage people with the skill to look at problems in different ways.
As you can see there is much to be learned about being an entrepreneur. These are just a few of the many lessons that I have learned personally and through others. Please add your voice to this discussion by leaving a comment on this blog, or e-mailing me at lhunter@huntercpa.com. I will incorporate your lessons into future postings. Keep learning.