by Blair Butters | Jul 11, 2017 | Uncategorized
The DMA Tax & Accounting team works with numbers everyday, but when our staff recently realized we are officially celebrating 10 years as DMA this month, it made us sit back and think about what it means to be able to serve our clients for that amount of time. DMA began more than 30 years ago as the former Goetz and Associates. The accounting firm had many long-time clients, and a stellar reputation in the community. Dale Miller, current majority owner of DMA, joined the firm, eventually purchased it, and a few years later renamed it. Blair Butters is a part owner, and took a similar path with DMA. Both Dale and Blair have years of CPA and tax preparation experience, but believe success in business is based on providing superior levels of customer service. DMA was awarded a “Best of Monona” in 2016 for standing behind those beliefs. “Running a business is as much about having a great supporting staff as it is about customers, “ Dale says. “Interacting with clients and seeing their businesses grow or change makes me excited about coming to work everyday.” “Great customers and great employees are most important to the success of a business. Treat both well, and you will have long-term loyalty from both,” Blair says. The Small Business Administration’s survey of business survival shows about 2/3 of new or renamed businesses survive the first 2 years, and about half, survive more than five. Given those statistics, DMA is thriving beyond its own expectations, which both Dale and Blair acknowledge were set by previous owner Fred Goetz. “When we took over the business,...
by Blair Butters | Jun 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
If you own or lead a business and you are planning to host a party or picnic for your employees this summer, you are probably simply hoping it will be a fun way to bring your staff together. But, you may also be able to take a large or full tax deduction for the expenses related to the gathering. Deductible Expenses Typically, your business is limited to deducting 50% of allowable meal and entertainment expenses. But some expenses, like those associated with your summer party or picnic, are 100% deductible. This includes meals, recreation, social activities, and entertainment at the summer or holiday party or picnic you are holding for your employees. But, to qualify for the 100% deduction, your entire staff has to be invited. They don’t have to attend, but all of your employees must be given the opportunity to come to the party or picnic. Here are a few other examples of expenses that may be fully written off: Food, water, and coffee provided at your business for employees Meals provided at your business to more than half of your employees as part of working extra hours, weekends, or holidays Food or beverages provided to the public for promotional purposes Tracking Expenses Ready to move forward with your summer party or picnic? There are a number of IRS requirements, including certain records you’ll need to keep to prove your expenses are 100% deductible. You must be able to prove: Amount of expense Time, date, and place of expense Purpose for expense Who benefited from expense (employees, public) You will find your company can reduce its tax...
by Blair Butters | May 4, 2017 | Uncategorized
Do you struggle to try and save money? If you are a business owner, pursuing financial goals should be a priority, but it can be difficult to stay on track. The good news? You don’t need to have a substantial income to get your savings underway. Here are 5 simple tips to support your journey as you work to grow your savings, and boost your dreams Determine your goals: Goal setting is an essential habit if you want to win in the saving money game. Writing down your financial goals and keeping the list somewhere you can see it, such as on your refrigerator, will get you to stick with it, versus not having any goals at all. Make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T.: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time oriented. Figure out how long it might take you to save for each goal with a tool like Bank of America’s savings goal calculator. Create small steps for each goal to make achieving it less scary and more manageable. And celebrate when you reach each milestone…you deserve it! Make a budget …And stick to it! You need to establish where you are — before you determine where you are headed. It’s not as scary or difficult as it may seem. And when you get control over what you are spending vs. saving, it will add freedom to your life and help you make the best choices to benefit your long-term goals. Saving money is not about depriving yourself, but rather empowering your efforts. Cut excess spending Do you carefully track your expenses? Each and every one, from your daily...
by Blair Butters | Jan 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
Owners of small businesses have many hats to wear. You may be salesman, operations manager, credit and collections manager and financial officer all in one business day or even hour. Some small business owners are happy with this as they have control over all aspects of their business and want privacy in their business affairs. However, if your small business has a good product or service, inevitably word gets around and the volume of your business increases. When this happens you may become overwhelmed with certain aspects of the work involved and may wish to delegate some of the duties to a third party. One of those duties is the accounting role, which is often paperwork and compliance-heavy and tends to be very detail oriented. However, hiring a full-time employee to do this accounting work may be prohibitively expensive for a small business. The alternative is to delegate some of the duties to an independent accountant. So when might be good times to work with an accountant? There are a number of situations where it would be appropriate to work with an accountant, but here are several: Starting a business When starting a business, there are a number of variables with regard to the legal structure of your organization. An accountant will be able to explain the difference in the taxation and requirements of the different types of legal structures such as sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, corporation, and subchapter S corporation and will be able to assist you in determining which structure is most suitable for your business. The accountant will also be able to tell you...
by Blair Butters | Jan 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
Every year tax accountants mail, or e-mail, tax organizers to previous year clients usually containing a listing of questions to be answered, some basic personal information and a series of pages for the client to provide current year information for wages, investment income, itemized deductions and various other activities, deductions and credits that were applicable in the prior year. It all looks so long, so boring, and for many people the tax organizer is not understandable. I get it – it’s not interesting to the average person. Some clients complete the organizer and provide all of the information requested. For those of you that are in this category, you can skip the remainder of this article. For those still reading, here are three good reasons to complete the organizer that you may or may not be aware: -It may save you time as your accountant will be less likely to contact you to request additional information. The organizer helps you make sure that you do not forget to provide relevant current year information to the tax preparer. Many tax organizers not only ask for information for the current year, but also provide your prior year information which will remind you to provide similar information this year if it applies. If the prior year item does not apply it also gives you the opportunity to indicate that it does not apply this year. Answering the list of questions will provide your tax preparer with information to complete certain portions of your tax return without additional questions. This is especially important now with questions regarding health care coverage, identity theft and...
Recent Comments