A revocable trust — sometimes known as a “living trust” — can provide significant benefits. They include the ability to avoid probate of the assets the trust holds and facilitating management of your assets in the event you become incapacitated. To obtain these benefits, however, you must fund the trust — that is, transfer title of assets to the trust or designate the trust as the beneficiary of retirement accounts or insurance policies.

Inventory your assets

To the extent that a revocable trust isn’t funded — for example, if you acquire new assets but fail to transfer title to the trust or name it as the beneficiary — those assets may be subject to probate and will be beyond the trust’s control in the event you become incapacitated.

To avoid this result, periodically take inventory of your assets. This can better ensure that your trust is fully funded.

Max out FDIC insurance coverage

Another important reason to fund your trust is the ability to maximize FDIC insurance coverage. Generally, individuals enjoy FDIC insurance protection on bank deposits up to $250,000.

But with a properly structured revocable trust account, it’s possible to increase that protection to as much as $250,000 per beneficiary. So, for example, if your revocable trust names five beneficiaries, a bank account in the trust’s name is eligible for FDIC insurance coverage up to $250,000 per beneficiary, or $1.25 million ($2.5 million for jointly owned accounts).

Note that FDIC insurance is provided on a per-institution basis, so coverage can be multiplied by opening similarly structured accounts at several different banks. FDIC rules regarding revocable trust accounts are complex, especially when a trust has more than five beneficiaries, so talk to us to maximize insurance coverage of your bank deposits.

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Most retirement plan distributions are subject to income tax and may be subject to an additional penalty if you take an early withdrawal. What’s considered early? In general, it’s when participants take money out of a traditional IRA or other qualified retirement plan before age 59½. Such distributions are generally taxable and may be subject to a 10% penalty tax.

Note: The additional penalty tax is 25% if you take a distribution from a SIMPLE IRA in the first two years you participate in the SIMPLE IRA plan.

Fortunately, there are several ways that the penalty tax (but not the regular income tax) can be avoided. However, the rules are complex. As the taxpayer in one new court case found, if you don’t meet the requirements, you’ll be forced to pay the penalty.

Basic rules

Some exceptions to the 10% early withdrawal penalty tax are only available to taxpayers who take early distributions from traditional IRAs, while others can only be used with qualified retirement plans such as 401(k)s.

Some examples of exceptions include:

• Paying for medical costs that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income,
• Taking annuity-like annual withdrawals under IRS guidelines,
• Withdrawing money from an IRA, SEP or SIMPLE plan up to the amount of qualified higher education expenses for you, your spouse, children or grandchildren, and
• Taking withdrawals of up to $10,000 from an IRA, SEP or SIMPLE plan for qualified first-time homebuyers.

Facts of the new case

Another exception is available for the total and permanent disability of the retirement plan participant or IRA owner. In one case, a taxpayer took a retirement plan distribution of $19,365 before he reached age 59½, after losing his job as a software developer. According to the U.S. Tax Court, he had been diagnosed with diabetes, which he treated with insulin shots and other medications.

The taxpayer filed a tax return for the year of the distribution but didn’t report it as income because of his medical condition. The retirement plan administrator reported the amount as an early distribution with no known exception on Form 1099-R, which was sent to the IRS and the taxpayer.

The court ruled that the taxpayer didn’t qualify for an exception due to disability. The court noted that an individual is considered disabled if, at the time of a withdrawal, he or she is “unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or to be of long-continued and indefinite duration.”

In this case, the taxpayer was previously diagnosed with diabetes, but he had been able work up until the year at issue. Therefore, the federal income tax deficiency of $4,899 was upheld. (TC Memo 2023–9)

Lessons learned

As the taxpayer in this case discovered, taking early distributions is one area where guidance is important. We can help you determine if you’re eligible for any exception to the 10% early withdrawal penalty tax.

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An array of tax-related limits that affect businesses are indexed annually, and due to high inflation, many have increased more than usual for 2023. Here are some that may be important to you and your business.

Social Security tax

The amount of employees’ earnings that are subject to Social Security tax is capped for 2023 at $160,200 (up from $147,000 for 2022).

Deductions

• Section 179 expensing:
  • Limit: $1.16 million (up from $1.08 million)
  • Phaseout: $2.89 million (up from $2.7 million)
• Income-based phase-out for certain limits on the Sec. 199A qualified business income deduction begins at:
  • Married filing jointly: $364,200 (up from $340,100)
  • Other filers: $182,100 (up from $170,050)

Retirement plans

• Employee contributions to 401(k) plans: $22,500 (up from $20,500)
• Catch-up contributions to 401(k) plans: $7,500 (up from $6,500)
• Employee contributions to SIMPLEs: $15,500 (up from $14,000)
• Catch-up contributions to SIMPLEs: $3,500 (up from $3,000)
• Combined employer/employee contributions to defined contribution plans (not including catch-ups): $66,000 (up from $61,000)
• Maximum compensation used to determine contributions: $330,000 (up from $305,000)
• Annual benefit for defined benefit plans: $265,000 (up from $245,000)
• Compensation defining a highly compensated employee: $150,000 (up from $135,000)
• Compensation defining a “key” employee: $215,000 (up from $200,000)

Other employee benefits

• Qualified transportation fringe-benefits employee income exclusion: $300 per month (up from $280)
• Health Savings Account contributions:
  • Individual coverage: $3,850 (up from $3,650)
  • Family coverage: $7,750 (up from $7,300)
  • Catch-up contribution: $1,000 (no change)
• Flexible Spending Account contributions:
  • Health care: $3,050 (up from $2,850)
  • Dependent care: $5,000 (no change)

These are only some of the tax limits and deductions that may affect your business and additional rules may apply. Contact us if you have questions.

© 2023

An array of tax-related limits that affect businesses are indexed annually, and due to high inflation, many have increased more than usual for 2023. Here are some that may be important to you and your business.

Social Security tax

The amount of employees’ earnings that are subject to Social Security tax is capped for 2023 at $160,200 (up from $147,000 for 2022).

Deductions

• Section 179 expensing:
  • Limit: $1.16 million (up from $1.08 million)
  • Phaseout: $2.89 million (up from $2.7 million)
• Income-based phase-out for certain limits on the Sec. 199A qualified business income deduction begins at:
  • Married filing jointly: $364,200 (up from $340,100)
  • Other filers: $182,100 (up from $170,050)

Retirement plans

• Employee contributions to 401(k) plans: $22,500 (up from $20,500)
• Catch-up contributions to 401(k) plans: $7,500 (up from $6,500)
• Employee contributions to SIMPLEs: $15,500 (up from $14,000)
• Catch-up contributions to SIMPLEs: $3,500 (up from $3,000)
• Combined employer/employee contributions to defined contribution plans (not including catch-ups): $66,000 (up from $61,000)
• Maximum compensation used to determine contributions: $330,000 (up from $305,000)
• Annual benefit for defined benefit plans: $265,000 (up from $245,000)
• Compensation defining a highly compensated employee: $150,000 (up from $135,000)
• Compensation defining a “key” employee: $215,000 (up from $200,000)

Other employee benefits

• Qualified transportation fringe-benefits employee income exclusion: $300 per month (up from $280)
• Health Savings Account contributions:
  • Individual coverage: $3,850 (up from $3,650)
  • Family coverage: $7,750 (up from $7,300)
  • Catch-up contribution: $1,000 (no change)
• Flexible Spending Account contributions:
  • Health care: $3,050 (up from $2,850)
  • Dependent care: $5,000 (no change)

These are only some of the tax limits and deductions that may affect your business and additional rules may apply. Contact us if you have questions.

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If you own an interest in a closely held business, a buy-sell agreement should be a critical component of your estate and succession plans. These agreements provide for the orderly disposition of each owner’s interest after a “triggering event,” such as death, disability, divorce or withdrawal from the business. This is accomplished by permitting or requiring the company or the remaining owners to purchase the departing owner’s interest. Often, life insurance is used to fund the buyout.

Buy-sell agreements provide several important benefits, including keeping ownership and control within a family or other close-knit group, creating a market for otherwise unmarketable interests, and providing liquidity to pay estate taxes and other expenses. In some cases, a buy-sell agreement can even establish the value of an ownership interest for estate tax purposes.

However, because circumstances change, it’s important to review your buy-sell agreement periodically to ensure that it continues to meet your needs. The start of a new year is a good time to do this.

Focus on the valuation provision

It’s particularly critical to revisit the agreement’s valuation provision — the mechanism for setting the purchase price for an owner’s interest — to be sure that it reflects the current value of the business.

As you review your agreement, pay close attention to the valuation provision. Generally, a valuation provision follows one of these approaches when a triggering event occurs:

• Formulas, such as book value or a multiple of earnings or revenues as of a specified date,
• Negotiated price, or
• Independent appraisal by one or more business valuation experts.

Independent appraisals almost always produce the most accurate valuations. Formulas tend to become less reliable over time as circumstances change and may lead to over- or underpayments if earnings have fluctuated substantially since the valuation date.

A negotiated price can be a good approach in theory, but expecting owners to reach an agreement under stressful, potentially adversarial conditions is asking a lot. One potential solution is to use a negotiated price but provide for an independent appraisal in the event the parties fail to agree on a price within a specified period.

Establish estate tax value

Business valuation is both an art and a science. Because the process is, to a certain extent, subjective, there can be some uncertainty over the value of a business for estate tax purposes.

If the IRS later determines that your business was undervalued on the estate tax return, your heirs may face unexpected — and unpleasant — tax liabilities. A carefully designed buy-sell agreement can, in some cases, establish the value of the business for estate tax purposes — even if it’s below fair market value in the eyes of the IRS — helping to avoid these surprises.

Generally, to establish business value, a buy-sell agreement must:

• Be a bona fide business arrangement,
• Not be a “testamentary device” designed to transfer the business to family members or other heirs at a discounted value,
• Have terms that are comparable to similar, arm’s-length agreements,
• Set a price that’s fixed by or determinable from the agreement and is reasonable at the time the agreement is executed, and
• Be binding during the owner’s life as well as at death, and binding on the owner’s estate or heirs after death.

Under IRS regulations, a buy-sell agreement is deemed to meet all of these requirements if at least 50% of the business’s value is owned by nonfamily members.

Contact us if you’re in need of help reviewing your buy-sell agreement.

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Every business wants to find them, but they sure don’t make it easy. We’re talking about cost cuts: clear and substantial ways to lower expenses, thereby strengthening cash flow and giving you a better shot at strong profitability.

Obvious places to slash costs — such as wages, benefits and overhead — often aren’t a viable option because the very stability of your operation may depend on them. But there might be other ways to lower expenses if you dig deeply enough. Here are three ways to perhaps uncover some cost-cutting opportunities.

1. Study your suppliers

Many companies find that just a few of their suppliers account for most of their spending. By identifying these vendors and consolidating spending with them, you may be able to put yourself in a stronger position to negotiate volume discounts. Consolidating your supplier base also tends to streamline the administrative work associated with purchasing.

On a related note, how well do you know your suppliers? One way to ensure you’re working off an abundance of relevant information is to conduct a supplier audit. This is a formal process for collecting key data points regarding a supplier’s performance to manage quality control and ensure you’re getting an acceptable return on investment.

2. Go green

Given the already noticeable effects of climate change, operating an environmentally friendly company has become imperative. But going green can, under the right circumstances, save you money as well.

Refurbished computers or office furniture often can be found at substantial savings compared with their brand-new counterparts. If you no longer need equipment, computing devices or office furniture, you may be able to sell them to a liquidator or dealer. You’ll not only bring in some money on the sales, but also free yourself of the need to store and maintain the items.

In addition, look at your facilities. If you own the property on which you operate, research energy efficient upgrades to the HVAC and lighting systems. Naturally, making such upgrades will cost you money initially, but you may be able to lower energy costs over the long term. What’s more, you might qualify for tax credits for installing certain items.

3. Explore outsourcing, tech upgrades

Many business owners try to cut costs by doing everything in-house — from accounting to payroll to HR. But if the staffing and expertise just aren’t there, these companies often suffer losses because of mistakes and mismanagement. Although you’ll obviously incur costs when outsourcing, the time and labor it saves you could end up being a net gain.

Carefully chosen and implemented technology upgrades can serve a similar purpose. Many products on the market today are so robust and fully featured, upgrading to them is almost comparable to outsourcing.

Again, you’ll need to spend money in the near term but, eventually, you could lower the cost of doing business. For example, the right customer relationship management system can help you generate sales leads and focus on your most profitable existing customers.

Snip, snip, snip

Lowering expenses is often difficult, but looking for ways to do it is an important activity to undertake regularly. This is particularly true now that inflation is a major factor in the economic landscape. Please contact us for help identifying and lowering your company’s most “cuttable” costs.

© 2023

The IRS opened the 2023 individual income tax return filing season on Jan. 23. Even if you usually don’t file until closer to the mid-April deadline (or you file an extension), you may want to file early. It can potentially protect you from tax identity theft. In these scams, a thief uses another person’s personal information to file a fraudulent return early in the filing season and claim a bogus refund. Another benefit of early filing is that if you’re getting a refund, you’ll get it sooner. This year, the filing deadline to submit 2022 returns, file an extension and pay tax owed is April 18 for most taxpayers. If you’re requesting an extension, you’ll have until Oct. 16 to file.

The deadline for businesses to file information returns for hired workers is almost here. By Jan. 31, 2023, employers must file Forms W-2 that show the wages paid and taxes withheld for 2022 for each employee. They must be provided to employees and filed with the Social Security Administration (SSA). Employers must also file Form W-3 to transmit Copy A of W-2 forms to the SSA. The Jan. 31 deadline also applies to Form 1099-NEC. These forms are provided to recipients and filed with the IRS to report non-employee compensation to independent contractors. Complete Form 1099-NEC to report any payment of $600 or more to a recipient. Questions or need help? Contact us.

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