Jen: This is the PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook®. I’m Jen Lemanski, and I’m here Chris Hatten, the leader of our transaction advisory services practice. Chris, welcome back to the Playbook.

Chris: It’s my pleasure to be here.

Jen: So, Chris, how would you describe the current state of the M&A markets?

Chris: Well, if I had one word, I would say “hot.” Right now, it’s probably the busiest I can recall it being in my career. I think what kicked it off for us is a lot of the sell-side transaction once people came out of COVID and were ready to get going again.

Jen: So, is that the main driver or are you seeing other factors in what’s making M&A markets so hot?

Continue Reading The Current State of M&A Markets

A few years ago, IRS Revenue Procedure 2018-15 changed the rules regarding not-for-profit restructuring. If you’ve participated in a restructuring in the past, you’ll be relieved to know that in many cases it’s now easier.

a person sitting at a table looking at a laptop and talking with their hands to someone; image used for blog post about not-for-profit restructuring

Even so, if recent challenges have led your organization to consider restructuring, it’s important to work with a professional advisor, such as a CPA.

Continue Reading Not-for-Profit Restructuring – What are the Challenges?

If you’re fortunate enough to own a vacation home, you may want to rent it out for part of the year. What are the tax consequences?

a wooden house in a snow-covered area of the woods; image used for blog post about tax consequences of renting out a vacation home

The tax treatment can be complex. It depends on how many days it’s rented and your level of personal use. Personal use of the vacation home includes use by you, your relatives (even if you charge them market rent) and use by nonrelatives if a market rent isn’t charged.

Continue Reading Your Tax Bill if You Rent Out Your Vacation Home

Russ: This is the PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook®. I’m Russ Capper, and I’m here with Kirsten Strieck, president of Joint Ventures Strategic Advisors. Kirsten, welcome back to the Playbook.

Kirsten: Thanks for having me, Russ.

Russ: You bet. Okay. Last time you were on, we talked about JVSA and we kind of got into the service area by first really talking about your audit service. But there’s a lot more than that right?

Kirsten: There absolutely is.

Russ: Okay. Tell us about that.

Kirsten: JVSA, in the past, has always provided consulting and advisory services to the joint venture departments in the energy sector. And so, we’ve recently bundled all those up, and we’ve formed a new division called JV Solutions.

Russ: And what all does that include?

Continue Reading How JV Solutions Can Help

Budgetary shortfalls may have your not-for-profit looking for new sources of support. If those sources are international, be careful. Activities, such as soliciting donations, recruiting members and selling products in foreign countries, can raise tax and legal issues.

a world map with different international currencies; image used for blog post about not-for-profit international activity

Continue Reading Be Careful if Your Not-for-Profit has International Activity

If you own a valuable piece of art, or other property, you may wonder how much of a tax deduction you could get by donating art to charity.

an empty gold and wooden picture frame; image used for blog post about donating art to charity tax rules

The answer to that question can be complex because several different tax rules may come into play with such contributions. A charitable contribution of a work of art is subject to reduction if the charity’s use of the work of art is unrelated to the purpose or function that’s the basis for its qualification as a tax-exempt organization. The reduction equals the amount of capital gain you’d have realized had you sold the property instead of giving it to charity.

For example, let’s say you bought a painting years ago for $10,000 that’s now worth $20,000. You contribute it to a hospital. Your deduction is limited to $10,000 because the hospital’s use of the painting is unrelated to its charitable function, and you’d have a $10,000 long-term capital gain if you sold it. What if you donate the painting to an art museum? In that case, your deduction is $20,000.

Continue Reading What You Need to Know About Donating Art to Charity

Russ: This is the PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook®. I’m Russ Capper, and I’m here once again with Brian Baumler, senior vice president of Joint Ventures Strategic Advisors. Brian, welcome back to the Playbook.

Brian: Thank you, Russ. Really appreciate being here.

Russ: So, we’ve talked about this Strategic Advisors thing a couple of times. Take us back to the beginning and tell us how this thing got built.

Brian: Obviously, back a number of years ago, we were already doing joint venture services already.

Russ: We being PKF?

Brian: Yeah, PKF. PKF happens to be one of the ventures, if you will, in the ownership structure of Joint Ventures Strategic Advisors. But we were working with a very fragmented workforce. A lot of them, in order to do the best job you can, they really need to be energy specialists in the areas of discipline, really understanding the drill bit, all the way to the burn value chain, if you will, in the operations of oil and gas and oil and gas production, operation production. But in doing so, it became very hard for us to maintain continuity resources.

Continue Reading The History and Beginnings of JVSA

Whether your not-for-profit is continuing to hold videoconference board meetings or is back to in-person gatherings, you don’t want to waste members’ time. Board meetings need to be long enough to accomplish agenda items and keep your organization on track, but not so long that the meetings become tedious and unproductive.

person holding a little alarm clock; image used for blog post about not-for-profit board meetings and keeping them short

The key is good planning.

Continue Reading Keeping Your Not-for-Profit Board Meetings Short