When an individual investor sells a real estate investment for profit, he or she is often concerned about whether the profit is capital gain or ordinary income. And for good reason… Basic Rules of Real Estate Profit Taxation A capital gain is often taxed at 15% (though sometimes higher if a … [Read more...] about Treating Real Estate Profits as Capital Gains
Understanding Quicken’s Annual Return Calculations
If you’re an active investor and you use Quicken for your investment recordkeeping, you may wonder about Quicken’s annual return calculation, which appears on some of the Quicken investment reports. Because this return value—technically an “internal rate of return”—is complicated to calculate and … [Read more...] about Understanding Quicken’s Annual Return Calculations
How Subchapter S Corporations Are Taxed
People often think that S corporations are complicated. That’s not really true in most cases, however. S corporations are actually less complicated, in many ways, than partnerships or limited liability companies treated as partnerships. The General Rule on S Corporation Taxation The general rule … [Read more...] about How Subchapter S Corporations Are Taxed
Quicken vs. QuickBooks
Small business owners frequently ask us, “Can I use Quicken or do I have to use QuickBooks for my business?” Since Steve, the firm’s founding CPA, is the author of both Quicken for Dummies and Quickbooks for Dummies, we can probably provide some useful information on the Quicken vs. QuickBooks … [Read more...] about Quicken vs. QuickBooks
Protecting Your Business From Embezzlement
Employee theft is extremely common, unfortunately. People steal office supplies in the fall (to use as school supplies for the children), deal with vendors who provide kickbacks (often in the form of expensive gifts and services), and sometimes even find clever ways to steal inventory and pilfer … [Read more...] about Protecting Your Business From Embezzlement
Business Strategic Planning
Business strategic planning refers to the process of choosing and then implementing one of the two traditional business strategies. These two strategies go by different names, but you can think of one as the cost strategy and the other as the differentiation strategy. If you select a cost … [Read more...] about Business Strategic Planning