If you’re like many Americans, letters from your favorite charities may be appearing in your mailbox acknowledging your 2020 donations. But what happens if you haven’t received such a letter — can you still claim a deduction for the gift on your 2020 income tax return? It depends.
Continue Reading What to Know About Charitable Deduction Substantiation
Many people are more concerned about their 2020 tax bills right now than they are about their 2021 tax situation. That’s understandable because your 2020 individual tax return is due to be filed in less than three months (unless you file an extension).
However, it’s a good idea to acquaint yourself with tax amounts that may have changed for 2021. Below are some Q&As about tax amounts for this year.
Be aware that not all tax figures are adjusted annually for inflation and even if they are, they may be unchanged or change only slightly due to low inflation. In addition, some amounts only change with new legislation.
Continue Reading Have Questions About Your 2021 Tax Situation?
Jen: This is the PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook®. I’m Jen Lemanski, and I’m here today with Emily Smikal, a Director in our tax department and one of the faces of the PKF Texas not-for-profit team. Emily, welcome to the Playbook.
Emily: Thanks, Jen. Thanks for having me.
Jen: So, I’ve heard you talk before about this thing called “unrelated business income tax.” How does that impact not-for-profits, and what should they know?
Emily: First, let’s call it UBI just to keep it more simple. UBIT, unrelated business income tax, is an income tax imposed on certain not-for-profit organizations that conduct certain activity that is not related to their tax-exempt purpose.
Jen: So, what would qualify for that?
Continue Reading How Unrelated Business Income Tax Impacts Not-for-Profits
The Consolidated Appropriations Act signed at the end of 2020 changed the eligibility and increased the amount of credit for the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC). Do you have questions about what to consider in your approach to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgiveness?
In our continued efforts to provide helpful information for clients and friends
Jen: This is The PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook®. I’m Jen Lemanski, and I’m back again with Nicole Riley, a Director on our audit team and one of the faces of PKF Texas’ not-for-profit team. Nicole, welcome back to The Playbook.
Nicole: Thanks. Glad to be here.
Jen: So, audits. You know, it’s the beginning of the year, people are starting to get things pulled together for their audit process. What could a not-for-profit organization do to make that process smoother when it comes time?
It’s been almost a year since many not-for-profit organizations sent staffers home — to work-from-home mode. For many not-for-profits and employees, remote work has been a positive experience.
And as the pandemic fades, you’ll probably need to decide whether employees should remain where they are, return to the office or work a hybrid schedule.
Continue Reading Considering Permanent Work-From-Home for Your Not-for-Profit?
Jen: This is The PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook®. I’m Jen Lemanski and I’m back once again with Carlos Gomez, an audit manager, and one of the faces of PKF Texas’ Contract Compliance Services team. Carlos, welcome back to The Playbook.
Carlos: Thanks for having me, Jen.
Jen: So, we’ve been talking about different kind of audits throughout the series, and how about you share a little bit about what a royalty audit is.
Carlos: A lot of royalty audits that we performed is on behalf of a client who is not necessarily in a certain industry, whether it be consumer goods, toys, apparel, those types of things. And for this specific instance, we have a client who is in the automotive industry, and a way to build their brand recognition and loyalty is to have toys and have apparel. And so, a kid gets a truck, and his dad has a Ford F-150, and they get a Ford F-150 toy car for Christmas. It kind of builds that loyalty and brand loyalty.
Jen: So, when they’re building that brand loyalty, where does the royalty audit come in?
Continue Reading Royalty Audit – What is it and What are the Benefits?
There’s a new IRS form for business taxpayers that pay or receive certain types of nonemployee compensation and it must be furnished to most recipients by February 1, 2021. After sending the forms to recipients, taxpayers must file the forms with the IRS by March 1 (March 31 if filing electronically).
The requirement begins with forms for tax year 2020. Payers must complete Form 1099-NEC, “Nonemployee Compensation,” to report any payment of $600 or more to a recipient. February 1 is also the deadline for furnishing Form 1099-MISC, “Miscellaneous Income,” to report certain other payments to recipients.
If your business is using Form 1099-MISC to report amounts in box 8, “substitute payments in lieu of dividends or interest,” or box 10, “gross proceeds paid to an attorney,” there’s an exception to the regular due date. Those forms are due to recipients by February 16, 2021.
Continue Reading Due Soon: New Form 1099-NEC and Revised 1099-MISC
Data analytics can actually save not-for-profits time and effort, because it helps prevent bad decisions that must later be revisited and revised. Most not-for-profit organizations collect vast volumes of data, but according to a study conducted by EveryAction and Nonprofit Hub, only 40% of not-for-profits regularly use that data to drive decisions.
The majority of organizations that don’t analyze and apply data say they lack the time or staff to dedicate to it.
Here’s how data analytics can help with decision making:
Attending college and pursuing higher education is one of the biggest investments that parents and students ever make. If you or your child (or grandchild) attends (or plans to attend) an institution of higher learning, you may be eligible for tax breaks to help foot the bill.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was enacted recently, made some changes to the tax breaks.
Here’s a rundown of what has changed.
Continue Reading Understanding Revised Tax Benefits for Higher Education