Employee Praise and Last Minute Tax Tips

April 7, 2015 by

59948705Google has been for a while now considered one of the best places to work for.  Thousands of new applications are received daily for employment at Google, and even a movie has been made about Google being the place to be.  Taken those points into account, one has to consider whether Google is actually doing things right.  According to research done by The Gallup Organization, they discovered that for a place to be considered a great place to work, one of the four characteristics they had to have was recognizing and praising employees for doing good work.  They stated that; “Praise and recognition are essential building blocks of  a great workplace.”

To read more about this topic follow this link. To read more about tax tips, follow the links below.

Last Minute Tax Advice for the Self-Employed

Every tax paying American knows April 15 is the deadline to file your federal income tax return, but do you know about this year’s tax code changes that can have a big effect on your 2014 tax return and your wallet? As the American public, including millions of self-employed business owners, race to meet the April deadline, there are some important changes to the tax code to keep in mind that could help ensure your return is filed accurately – and with the greatest possible financial benefit.

 Health Care Penalty:

The biggest change is the new health-care penalty, if you chose to not to obtain qualified health-care coverage. As part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), everyone is required to sign up for health-care coverage, or face a penalty that increases each year for non-compliance.

5 Tax Breaks Overlooked By Small Business Owners

For the small business owner, tax season can be stressful, and the prospect of shelling out a load of money to the government is not exciting. That’s why small business owners love tax benefits. Here are 5 tax benefits that are often overlooked by small business owners that can save your business money.

Please consult your tax professional before following any of the suggestions below. If you do your taxes yourself, there is a resource which compares the online offerings of TurboTax, TaxAct, and HR Block.

1. Have Lunch Meetings  
If you often buy lunch (eat-in or take-out) while you are working, you might be able to deduct 50% of meal expenses. If you and your business partners or employees have meetings, consider having meetings over lunch.
As long as the dining expenses are reasonable, you are allowed to deduct 50% of meal costs when eating with business partners and employees while conducting business operations. If you buy lunch every day and spend around $8, you can deduct $4. If you do the math, that amounts to over $1000 a year in claimable deductions ($4/day x 5 days x 52 weeks).

Getting coverage Small-business owners seek affordable health care options for workers

The days when Annapolis’ Prographics offered all of its employees health insurance may have ended.The graphics firm’s owners are considering their options as they try to get 2015 coverage for their staff of six by next week’s deadline.

Costs have increased so much, they said, that it might be cheaper for employees to get their own insurance through Maryland’s exchange, rather than doing so through the company.For weeks, Chris Larson and his employees have been examining coverage options that last year came with a $300 monthly premium but would go up to$700 in 2015.
The same employees could qualify for $344 premiums by getting individual coverage through the exchange.”We’re sort of being forced to look at other options,” said Larson, who runs the firm with his wife, Carol. “We have to look at where everybody falls and make the decisions of cost savings.”
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