Owsiak Accounting & Tax Services LLC

The Bench Accounting activities near 2024 year-end, potential business closing followed by an acquisition, are a reminder to business owners to understand business operations, potential risks, and develop continuity and recovery plans. Even when working with third parties, business owners should ? Understand their business processes including the roles of systems and third parties. Documentation is better! ? Clearly define Roles and Responsibilities between parties.? ? Define and implement a Records Retention Policy to understand your information retention requirements, access requirements, and storage location requirements. ? Complete a Risk Assessment including identifying those events that could challenge your operations.? ? Define a Business Continuity and Recovery Plan to execute when needed. For small businesses, don’t let cost prevent this work! Template accelerators exist and can be customized to your business.

The gig economy can present challenges to taxpayers engaged in this activity. Check out our website to learn more about how you can get up-to-speed on requirments.

The local accounting firm should be about more than tax filings once a year! Individual and families are looking for help to manage the financial stress. - Who is your resource for finance questions? - Who is helping you establish and realize financial goals? - Who is the extra set of eyes on your financial health? For individuals, our firm provides personal accounting advisory and tax planning advisory services in addition to tax filing. Why? Naturally, conversations about personal finances and budgets get into earnings, cash flow, and large expenses (like taxes, tax withholdings, and long term tax planning!). The best way to manage financial stress is to engage a team throughout the year that will work to understand your goals and build a plan that works for you!

The accounting talent shortage is real however many activities once core to the local CPA firms, like tax prep and bookkeeping, have moved offshore or have been taken up by both software companies looking to move into full service offerings or private equity buying out regional firms. I have yet to see an article on these market players and trends in work shifting away from accountants. Good news - Businesses are hungry for accountants who can define and design systems. For accountants exiting larger firms, moving to project-based systems delivery roles may offer the compensation and career opportunities they seek!

Q4 is a great time to revisit tax planning activities with your accountant for year end and next year. 1) Many employers have open enrollment for benefits around calendar year end for next year. Are you working with your tax professional to understand your selection options? For example, a change in dependents or a change in income may have tax consequences. For joint filers with two jobs, are you tax planning and benefit selecting together? 2) November is typically when tax firms pivot to tax filing prep for next year. Firms may have limited availability for tax planning as year end and tax season approaches. 3) You have time to calculate any change to your withholding and submit a W-4 to your employer for the current year and next year.

While this article on scams related to Clean Energy Tax credits is a few weeks old, it’s a good reminder that tax scammers are working year round (not just January to April), and it’s best to verify who you’re contracting for tax prep services. Even better, a benefit to finding a reputable tax preparer and establishing a long term relationship is…you have someone that understands your tax situation and can help you navigate tax-related questions.

With April 15th behind us, we’d like to thank our customers who joined us for our first tax season! We look forward to working with many of you throughout the year to ensure next year’s filing is also a success!