If you find yourself on the IRS mailing list, here’s what to do. Scan the heading. The first line, generally printed in bold type and centered beneath your name and address, will tell you why the IRS is contacting you. Questions about missing information, additional taxes owed, or payments due mean you’ll want to take prompt action to avoid more notices or assessments of interest and penalties. Review the discrepancy. You’ll find the tax form and
June 30, 2016, is the deadline for filing the 2015 Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, known as the FBAR. Not sure if you need to file? The general rule is that a return is due when you have a financial interest in, or signature authority over, foreign financial accounts if the aggregate value of those accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. The requirement applies to both individuals and
The latest credit cards have a new feature: a half-inch square on the card’s face that looks like a mini circuit board. The square is a small computer chip called an EMV. The acronym stands for Europay, MasterCard, and VISA, the developers of the technology. Over the next several years, these chip-embedded cards are expected to replace the familiar magnetic strip technology on cards that you now swipe at point-of-sale devices. When you use your EMV
Looking for suggestions to reduce your 2016 business tax liability? Here are three tips to consider as summer gets underway. Business trips. When you travel on business this summer, you can write off your expenses – including airfare, lodging, and 50% of the cost of meals – if the primary motive of the trip is business-related. Costs attributable to personal side trips are nondeductible. If you travel by car, deduct actual business-related auto costs or a
June 15, 2016, is the due date for making your second installment of 2016 individual estimated tax. You can pay online, by phone, with a credit or debit card, or by check. June 15 is also the due date for calendar-year corporations to make second quarter 2016 estimated tax payments.
“Discovery” is the phase of a lawsuit before trial in which the two sides have a right to demand relevant information from each other. Sometimes, big companies suing little companies try to “bury” the little company with endless requests for information, hoping to find some stray helpful tidbit or simply pressure the little company to settle to avoid the burden and expense. But starting in 2016, the federal court rules have been changed to limit this
This can be a tricky question, because it often turns on whether the public is likely to actually be confused. In one recent case, a California company called White Oak Vineyard & Winery brought a lawsuit against a Florida vodka distiller called White Oak Spirits. The vodka company argued that wine and vodka are different products, and that no one would be confused by the two names, especially since White Oak Vineyard was not a nationally
Starting in 2017, companies that have federal contracts must allow employees to earn up to seven paid sick days per year, under an executive order signed by President Obama. Employees can earn one sick day for each 30 hours worked, up to seven days per year. These days carry over from one year to the next, although an employee who quits or is fired without using them doesn’t have to be compensated for them. Sick leave
Did you know that executives and other employees may have a legal obligation to be “loyal” to their companies? This means that they have to act in the company’s interest, and not deliberately harm the company or take advantage of it for their own interest. This came up in a recent New Jersey case where a timeshare company hired a COO who made $500,000 a year. The company eventually fired the COO, claiming that he had
The Abercrombie & Fitch clothing chain cannot require its salespeople to buy and wear Abercrombie & Fitch clothes in order to work there, says a federal court in California. The court okayed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 62,000 Abercrombie employees in the state, based on the claim that the company’s “look policy” required them to buy Abercrombie clothes – and then buy new Abercrombie clothes every time the company issued a new sales guide. The
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