Category: Accounting

Form 1099

A Form 1099 is a type of “information return”. It is a tax form that you get in the mail if you received certain types of income during the year. You generally have to report the information from a 1099 on your tax return.

A 1099 is similar to a W-2, but while a W-2 reports wages, salaries, and tips, a 1099 reports many other kinds of income. There are many different varieties of 1099 form, and each one is used to report different, specific types of income.

The IRS requires you to report all taxable income, even if you do not receive a 1099 for a particular payment you received. For example, if you earned less than $600 as an independent contractor, the payer does not have to send you a 1099-MISC, but you still have to report the amount as self-employment income.

What If I Don’t Receive a 1099 on Time?

If you are expecting a 1099 and you do not receive it by February 15, the IRS recommends contacting them at 800-829-1040. You will be able to use a substitute form to file your return, and you may even still be able to efile it.

Small Business Cash Flow

SMALL BUSINESSES — whether just starting up or in the heights of success — face common challenges while managing risk. Success or failure is determined by how the business owner responds. And that’s a challenge itself as many new owners are coming from non-business backgrounds, learning as they go.

More than 400,000 small businesses are started every year. And fewer than half survive past the five-year mark, the typical benchmark of success for small businesses, according to the Small Business Administration, or SBA. Following a dip during the Great Recession, small business loans have seen a 63.9 percent jump over the past 5 years, according to the SBA.

The Small Business Administration has seen this boom with individuals seeking SBA loans in areas such as online businesses, food services and small business manufacturing. “Over the past two years, we’ve seen such an uptick that we’ve approached our cap for loans that Congress had set for us and had to request an increase,” says Miguel Ayala, spokesman for the Small Business Administration.One of the biggest challenges for new and established business owners is cash flow management. And it often starts rearing its head when a business opens. Money is going out, but not necessarily coming in at the same rate.

Challenge 1: Cash Flow Management

MANY PEOPLE just want to start a business but don’t think of all the pieces that accompany it. Planning ahead can help offset many of the initial cash flow problems small businesses face. While most new owners allot for about three to four months of costs, some recommend at least six months so there’s a cushion in place. Others advise businesses to make sure they have a plan in place, one that covers all possible scenarios — good and bad.

Source: New York Times

IRS 2015 Tax Brackets

The Internal Revenue Service has announced the annual inflation adjustments for a number of provisions for the year 2015, including tax rate schedules, tax tables and cost-of-living adjustments for certain tax items. These are the applicable numbers for the tax year 2015 – in other words, effective January 1, 2015. They are NOT the numbers and rates that you’ll use to prepare your 2014 tax returns in 2015 (if you’re looking for those, you’ll find them here). These numbers and rates are those you’ll use to prepare your 2015 tax returns in 2016. Got it? Good. Here are the highlights:

Tax Brackets. The big news is, of course, the tax brackets. Here’s what they look like for 2015:

Individual Taxpayers Single_ratesMarried Individuals Filing Joint Returns and Surviving Spouses

MFJ_oldMarried Individuals Filing Separate Returns MFS2

Source: Forbes