Maximize Your Time: Overcome Distractions During Busy Season

Post by Glenn Frank

March and April are some of the busiest times for accounting firms and professionals. Every minute counts during this busy season! For those that are distracted  while working, whether at the office or at home, it can be hard to move productively through the day. These distractions can adversely affect quality of work, employee morale and employee relationships.
Here is a Quick List of Distractors and Some Suggested Solutions

Need to check your email too many times a […]

IRS Warns About W-2 Phishing Scam

Post By Sean Urbany

Late last week, the Internal Revenue Service issued an urgent warning related to a recent spike in email phishing scams. The statement warns about a specific scam where cybercriminals are disguising their email address as to appear as an executive from the targeted organization. The cybercriminal then sends an email to individuals in the human resources or payroll departments of the organization requesting copies of all employee Form W-2s. The IRS indicates that this scam is […]

Kentucky Becomes Right-To-Work State

On January 9, 2017, Kentucky enacted law making it a right-to-work state, effective immediately.  The Kentucky law is prospective, applying to all new contracts and those renewed or extended after 1/9/17.  The law also includes a special provision that prohibits public sector employees from strikes or work stoppages and requires the public sector employees’ written consent in order to deduct dues or similar payments from their pay.
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Supreme Court Win For Self-Insured Health Plans

Posting by Larry Beebe
On March 4, the Supreme Court ruled self-insured health plans do not have to comply with a Vermont law that required them to submit to the state “information relative to health care costs, prices, quality, utilization, or resources required.” The third party administration of a self-insured health plan was issued a subpoena by Vermont to gain this information and threatened severe penalties for non-compliance. The plan refused to provide the information and argued the reporting requirements […]

2016 MILEAGE RATES ANNOUNCED

Posting  by Sarah McCraine
The IRS has announced the 2016 standard mileage rates effective for mileage driven on or after January 1st, 2016. The optional standard mileage rate multiplied by the number of miles driven is a simplified method commonly used to calculate the deductible cost of using a vehicle for business purposes. In addition, the rates can be used to calculate the deductible mileage allowed for attending medical appointments, moving, or when driving to serve with a charity.

The 2016 rates […]

Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders for the Family Business Part 3 of 4

Posting by Geoffrey D. Brown, CPA, Principal

In the last two posts we talked about identifying potential leaders and educating the next generation of family business leaders. In this post I’ll discuss setting standards for work experience for developing leaders.

If several (or all) of your children have a desire to work in the family business, it’s obvious that not all of them can ascend to the role of CEO, so as leaders, finding the right fit for them is important. […]

Upcoming OLMS Webinars on Common Reporting Errors for Forms LM-2 & LM-3

Sue Weaver

It has come to our attention that the Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) is offering free webinars on common reporting errors made on Forms LM-2 and LM-3.

Details regarding times and dates are below. While these are free and open to the public, there is a registration limit of 200 participants per webinar.

Our LM-2 specialist and other professionals will be sitting in on these webinars; we plan to post an overview of each webinar on the […]

Business Cybersecurity Basics: Protecting Your Company from Hackers

Alex Helfand, ENCE, Computer Forensic Specialist

As an executive, what keeps you up at night? Many leaders fret about revenue growth, client retention, and, increasingly, the possibility of fraud or cyberattacks. If you are worried about your business’s cybersecurity, you’re not alone: a recent survey (PDF) by the National Small Business Association (NSBA) shows that 94% of business owners are worried about this issue.

Unfortunately, these fears are not baseless. Nearly half of the survey respondents reported that their businesses were […]

How Family Business Advisors Can Help Communicate Difficult Topics

Posting by Geoffrey D. Brown, CPA

Family business leaders have many responsibilities and roles. These often cross lines between business matters and personal family concerns, and therefore cover more topics of a sensitive nature than just one or the other. This is more than one person could or should typically handle, especially when that person is responsible for the overall business. That’s where family business advisors – typically a mix of professionals including a certified public accountant, an attorney, a […]

Dealing with Cousins, Aunts, Uncles and Leadership Diffusion in the Third Generation and Beyond

Posting by Geoffrey D. Brown, CPA

The impetus for creating a family business may be as simple as a parent wanting to provide his or her child with a business that will be there to provide work and financial security for life.  Those family businesses that even make it to the second generation, as we often discuss here at the Greater Washington DC Family Business Alliance, are relatively few.   Further complicating this growth is the fact that families are not […]