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Work with your payroll provider to pay deferred taxes

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Many of the relief measures passed by the federal government during the opening chapters of the COVID-19 pandemic are still relevant to employers. For example, under the CARES Act, you could defer payment of your share of Social Security taxes from March 27, 2020, through December 31, 2020.

If you opted for this relief, you must pay 50% of the deferred taxes by December 31, 2021, and pay the remaining deferred tax by December 31, 2022. Any portion of an employer’s share of Social Security tax that’s not deposited or paid by the due dates will incur penalties and interest.

Now here’s a key question: Does your organization use an external payroll services provider? If so, you must remain cognizant of your responsibility to pay the deferred employer Social Security taxes reported by such a third-party payer. In its COVID Tax Tip 2021-99, the IRS recently addressed this very subject.

Communicate and coordinate

The tax agency’s advice pertains specifically to employers making payments for deferred taxes reported by a third-party payer that files, under its own Employer Identification Number (EIN):

  • Aggregate Forms 941, “Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return,” and
  • Form 944, “Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return.”

The IRS urges employers to proactively communicate and coordinate with their third-party payers to ensure payment of any deferred taxes by December 31, 2021, and December 31, 2022. Doing so will help ensure that the deferral payments are appropriately applied to the employer’s outstanding deferred taxes. It will also help prepare the third-party payer to respond to IRS inquiries about any outstanding deferred taxes that an employer has remaining after the due dates.

Furthermore, the IRS recommends that, as feasible, employers should provide to their third-party payers the amount of deferred taxes due so the third-party payers can more efficiently make the deferral payments by the applicable due date. The Tax Tip additionally notes that, if an employer receives an IRS notice showing an unpaid amount of deferred taxes under its EIN, the employer should make its deferral payments following the instructions in the notice.

Avoid a penalty

As a reminder, an employer is solely liable for payment of the deferred taxes — even if it uses the services of a third-party payer to report the deferred taxes during the deferral period. Work closely with your payroll services provider to comply with the deadlines. We can help you identify and manage your organization’s payroll costs, including avoidance of IRS penalties.

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5 possible tax aspects of a parent moving into a nursing home

If you have a parent entering a nursing home, you may not be thinking about taxes. But there are a number of possible tax implications. Here are five.

1. Long-term medical care

The costs of qualified long-term care, including nursing home care, are deductible as medical expenses to the extent they, along with other medical expenses, exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income (AGI).

Qualified long-term care services are necessary diagnostic, preventive, therapeutic, curing, treating, mitigating and rehabilitative services, and maintenance or personal-care services required by a chronically ill individual that is provided under care administered by a licensed healthcare practitioner.

To qualify as chronically ill, a physician or other licensed healthcare practitioner must certify an individual as unable to perform at least two activities of daily living (eating, toileting, transferring, bathing, dressing, and continence) for at least 90 days due to a loss of functional capacity or severe cognitive impairment.

2. Long-term care insurance

Premiums paid for a qualified long-term care insurance contract are deductible as medical expenses (subject to limitations explained below) to the extent they, along with other medical expenses, exceed the percentage-of-AGI threshold. A qualified long-term care insurance contract covers only qualified long-term care services, doesn’t pay costs covered by Medicare, is guaranteed renewable and doesn’t have a cash surrender value.

Qualified long-term care premiums are includible as medical expenses up to certain amounts. For individuals over 60 but not over 70 years old, the 2021 limit on deductible long-term care insurance premiums is $4,520, and for those over 70, the 2021 limit is $5,640.

3. Nursing home payments

Amounts paid to a nursing home are deductible as a medical expense if a person is staying at the facility principally for medical, rather than custodial care. If a person isn’t in the nursing home principally to receive medical care, only the portion of the fee that’s allocable to actual medical care qualifies as a deductible expense. But if the individual is chronically ill, all qualified long-term care services, including maintenance or personal care services, are deductible.

If your parent qualifies as your dependent, you can include any medical expenses you incur for your parent along with your own when determining your medical deduction.

4. Head-of-household filing status 

If you aren’t married and you meet certain dependency tests for your parent, you may qualify for head-of-household filing status, which has a higher standard deduction and lower tax rates than single filing status. You may be eligible to file as head of household even if the parent for whom you claim an exemption doesn’t live with you.

5. The sale of your parent’s home. 

If your parent sells his or her home, up to $250,000 of the gain from the sale may be tax-free. In order to qualify for the $250,000 exclusion, the seller must generally have owned the home for at least two years out of the five years before the sale, and used the home as a principal residence for at least two years out of the five years before the sale. However, there’s an exception to the two-out-of-five-year use test if the seller becomes physically or mentally unable to care for him or herself during the five-year period.

These are only some of the tax issues you may deal with when your parent moves into a nursing home. Contact us if you need more information or assistance.

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Is an LLC the right choice for your small business?

Perhaps you operate your small business as a sole proprietorship and want to form a limited liability company (LLC) to protect your assets. Or maybe you are launching a new business and want to know your options for setting it up. Here are the basics of operating as an LLC and why it might be appropriate for your business.

An LLC is somewhat of a hybrid entity because it can be structured to resemble a corporation for owner liability purposes and a partnership for federal tax purposes. This duality may provide the owners with the best of both worlds. 

Personal asset protection

Like the shareholders of a corporation, the owners of an LLC (called “members” rather than shareholders or partners) generally aren’t liable for the debts of the business except to the extent of their investment. Thus, the owners can operate the business with the security of knowing that their personal assets are protected from the entity’s creditors. This protection is far greater than that afforded by partnerships. In a partnership, the general partners are personally liable for the debts of the business. Even limited partners, if they actively participate in managing the business, can have personal liability.

Tax implications

The owners of an LLC can elect under the “check-the-box” rules to have the entity treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes. This can provide a number of important benefits to the owners. For example, partnership earnings aren’t subject to an entity-level tax. Instead, they “flow through” to the owners, in proportion to the owners’ respective interests in profits, and are reported on the owners’ individual returns and are taxed only once.

To the extent the income passed through to you is qualified business income, you’ll be eligible to take the Code Section 199A pass-through deduction, subject to various limitations. In addition, since you’re actively managing the business, you can deduct on your individual tax return your ratable shares of any losses the business generates. This, in effect, allows you to shelter other income that you and your spouse may have.

An LLC that’s taxable as a partnership can provide special allocations of tax benefits to specific partners. This can be an important reason for using an LLC over an S corporation (a form of business that provides tax treatment that’s similar to a partnership). Another reason for using an LLC over an S corporation is that LLCs aren’t subject to the restrictions the federal tax code imposes on S corporations regarding the number of owners and the types of ownership interests that may be issued. 

Review your situation

In summary, an LLC can give you corporate-like protection from creditors while providing the benefits of taxation as a partnership. For these reasons, you should consider operating your business as an LLC. Contact us to discuss in more detail how an LLC might benefit you and the other owners.

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Financial statements: Take the time to read the entire story

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A complete set of financial statements for your business contains three reports. Each serves a different purpose, but ultimately helps stakeholders — including managers, employees, investors and lenders — evaluate a company’s performance. Here’s an overview of each report and a critical question it answers.

1. Income statement: Is the company growing and profitable?

The income statement (also known as the profit and loss statement) shows revenue, expenses and earnings over a given period. A common term used when discussing income statements is “gross profit,” or the income earned after subtracting the cost of goods sold from revenue. Cost of goods sold includes the cost of labor, materials and overhead required to make a product.

Another important term is “net income.” This is the income remaining after all expenses (including taxes) have been paid.

It’s important to note that growth and profitability aren’t the only metrics that matter. For example, high-growth companies that report healthy top and bottom lines may not have enough cash on hand to pay their bills. Though it may be tempting to just review revenue and profit trends, thorough due diligence looks beyond the income statement.

2. Balance sheet: What does the company own (and owe)? 

This report provides a snapshot of the company’s financial health. It tallies assets, liabilities and “net worth.”

Under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), assets are reported at the lower of cost or market value. Current assets (such as accounts receivable or inventory) are reasonably expected to be converted to cash within a year, while long-term assets (such as plant and equipment) have longer lives. Similarly, current liabilities (such as accounts payable) come due within a year, while long-term liabilities are payment obligations that extend beyond the current year or operating cycle.

Intangible assets (such as patents, customer lists and goodwill) can provide significant value to a business. But internally developed intangibles aren’t reported on the balance sheet. Intangible assets are only reported when they’ve been acquired externally.

Net worth (or owners’ equity) is the extent to which the value of assets exceeds liabilities. If the book value of liabilities exceeds the book value of the assets, net worth will be negative. However, book value may not necessarily reflect market value. Some companies may provide the details of owners’ equity in a separate statement called the statement of retained earnings. It details sales or repurchases of stock, dividend payments and changes caused by reported profits or losses.

3. Cash flow statement: Where is cash coming from and going to?

This statement shows all the cash flowing in and out of your company. For example, your company may have cash inflows from selling products or services, borrowing money and selling stock. Outflows may result from paying expenses, investing in capital equipment and repaying debt.

Typically, cash flows are organized in three categories: operating, investing and financing activities. The bottom of the statement shows the net change in cash during the period. Watch your statement of cash flows closely. To remain in business, companies must continually generate cash to pay creditors, vendors and employees.

Read the fine print 

Disclosures at the end of a company’s financial statements provide additional details. Together with the three quantitative reports, these qualitative descriptions can help financial statement users make well-informed business decisions. Contact us for assistance conducting due diligence and benchmarking financial performance.

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Can employers use health records to verify COVID-19 vaccinations?

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Many employers have asked employees to submit proof of a COVID-19 vaccination before returning to work in an office or other facility. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it’s permissible to do so if exceptions are allowed for people with disabilities and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. The requirement also must comply with other applicable laws.

As an additional layer of protection, some employers may consider asking their HR departments to confirm employees’ eligibility to return to work by checking COVID-19 vaccination claims submitted to their group health plans. Is such a step allowable?

Protecting PHI

An employer’s group health plan is considered a “covered entity” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This means it’s a separate legal entity from the employer.

HIPAA applies to protected health information (PHI) that’s created, maintained, received or transmitted by a group health plan. Because most plans are required to cover COVID-19 vaccinations as preventive services, they’re likely to have information about employees’ receipt of COVID-19 vaccinations. This information is considered PHI.

PHI cannot be disclosed to a group health plan’s sponsor unless the privacy rule’s prerequisites for such disclosures have been met. Generally, employers may disclose PHI only to employees performing administration functions for the plan. A firewall must be established between employees performing plan administration functions and other employees, preventing PHI from being used or disclosed for employment-related purposes without the plan participant’s authorization.

Confirming an employee’s eligibility to return to work at a physical location is an employment-related function — not a plan administration function. So, a group health plan would be barred from disclosing vaccination-related PHI to an HR department unless the employees themselves authorize the disclosure. And employees (or other plan participants) cannot be required to sign authorizations allowing the employer to receive PHI from the group health plan as a condition of receiving group health plan benefits.

Interacting directly

Rather than obtaining and retaining each employee’s authorization, a better approach to verifying employees’ vaccination statuses may be to have them provide proof of vaccination directly to the HR department using the COVID-19 vaccination record card approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because this direct interaction between the employee and HR doesn’t involve the group health plan, employers can avoid violating the HIPAA privacy rule.

Other laws may apply when requiring employees to submit proof of vaccination, or when addressing other COVID-19 matters arising in the workplace. The EEOC has provided extensive guidance on COVID-19 issues under the Americans With Disabilities Act and other employment laws. These laws must be considered separately from HIPAA as they may impose requirements — even in situations where HIPAA doesn’t apply.

Grappling with the pandemic

In conclusion, employers generally shouldn’t use their group health plan’s records to verify employees’ vaccination statuses for any employment-related purpose. As your organization continues to grapple with the questions and challenges raised by the pandemic, work closely with a qualified employment attorney to determine the best course of action.

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Analytics software: A brave new world in auditing

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Analytical software tools will never fully replace auditors, but they can help auditors do their work more efficiently and effectively. Here’s an overview of how data analytics — such as outlier detection, regression analysis and semantic modeling — can enhance the audit process.

Auditors bring experience and professional skepticism 

When it’s appropriate, instead of manually testing a representative data sample, auditors can use analytical software tools to compare an entire data population against selected criteria. This process quickly identifies anomalies hidden in large amounts of data that can be tagged for further examination by auditors during fieldwork. Analytical software tools can test various kinds of data, including accounting, internal communications and documents, and external benchmarking data.

If unusual transactions or trends are found, auditors will investigate them further using the following procedures:

  • Interviewing management about what happened and why,
  • Conducting external research online and from industry publications to independently understand what happened or to verify management’s explanation, and
  • Performing additional manual testing procedures to determine the nature of the anomaly or exception.

In addition, confirmations and representation letters from attorneys, customers and other external parties may corroborate what management says and external research reveals.

Audit findings may require action

Often, auditors conclude that irregularities have reasonable explanations. For instance, they may be due to an unexpected change in the company’s operations or external market conditions. If a change is expected to continue, it may alter the auditor’s expectations about the company’s operations going forward. Sometimes, a change discovered while auditing one part of the financials may affect audit procedures (including analytics) that will be performed on other accounts.

Alternatively, auditors may attribute some irregularities to inadvertent mistakes or intentional fraud schemes. Auditors usually communicate with the audit committee or the company’s owners as soon as possible if they discover any material errors or fraud. These irregularities might require adjustments to the financial statements. The company also might need to take action to mitigate financial losses and prevent the problem from recurring.

For example, the controller may need additional training on recent changes to the tax and accounting rules. Or management may need to implement additional internal control procedures to safeguard against dishonest behaviors. Or the owner may need to contact the company’s attorney and hire a forensic accountant to perform a formal fraud investigation.

Audit smarter 

Today, companies generate, process and store massive amounts of electronic data on their networks. Increasingly, auditors are using analytical tools on this data to conduct basic audit procedures, such as vouching transactions and comparing data to external benchmarks. This frees up auditors to focus their efforts on complex transactions, suspicious relationships and high-risk accounts. Contact us for more information about how our auditors use analytical software tools in the field.

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