By Mark Sheffield, Principal
ASL Emerging Business Group
Historically many Silicon Valley start-ups have been unable to generate immediate benefit from the R&D credit because of having no taxable income. The law changed with 2016 tax returns. If you have qualifying research activities and expenditures in 2016, you can now use the credit to offset payroll taxes in 2017. This new and exciting benefit is for start-ups that have gross receipts for five years or less, and less than $5 million of gross receipts in 2016. (more…)
By Anu Joshi, Tax Manager
ASL Family Wealth & Individual Tax Group
As promised during his campaign, on April 26, 2017 President Trump unveiled a new broad tax-cut plan. Besides slashing business and individual tax rates and eliminating the net investment income tax and the alternative minimum tax, the proposal also includes eliminating certain itemized deductions such as the state and local income tax deductions. However, deductions for mortgage interest and charitable giving are expected to stick around. (more…)
By Kay Filler, A&A Principal
ASL Assurance & Accounting
Historically originating through the lens of the independent auditor, whose auditing standards require the auditor to consider “going concern” matters and potentially include cautionary language in the auditor’s report, all companies that issue GAAP-based financial statements are now required to perform their own evaluation and provide explanatory footnote disclosures in defined circumstances. (more…)
By Patrick Ngai, Audit Manager
ASL Nonprofit Group
The internet has been around since the 1980s. Personal computers and smartphone technology had experienced exponential advancements on an annual basis since the 1990s. There was a time when it would take a full 10 minutes of load time just to get to the homepage of Yahoo.com. Now, we basically have the collective knowledge of the entire human civilization in the palm of our hand. (more…)
By Jeff Faust, Director of Valuation Services
ASL Business Valuation Services
The recent reports by PitchBook and the Silicon Valley Business Journal indicate that 2017 will be a healthy year for Venture Capitalists. Experts believe that the Venture Capital (VC) industry is coming back to “normal” levels after the boom of activity in 2015.
Interestingly, there was a lot of talk recently about the VC funding cooldown which raised concern about the Series A funding crunch. The recently published 1Q 2017 PitchBook report confirms that angel and seed financing continued to decline in 2017, and it is getting more difficult to secure Series A financing. In fact, first-financing activities have been falling since the middle of 2015. (more…)
By Samantha Ramirez, Tax Senior
ASL Nonprofit Group
For nonprofit organizations, no income tax may be due, but an annual return must be provided by certain exempt organizations in order to maintain tax-exempt status. Tax-exempt organizations typically file a Form 990, but depending on the amount of gross receipts or the total value of assets, the organization may have options for filing a more simplified form. Below we have outlined the requirements for each form: (more…)
By Julie Malekhedayat, Principal
ASL Family Wealth and Individual Tax Planning Group
Estate tax repeal is on the wish list of both the Republican party and the new President and is an idea that is generally popular with voters. However, a repeal of the existing transfer tax system would likely impact taxpayers in ways they are not aware of. In 2015, only 4,918 estates paid estate taxes, but the beneficiaries of all estates benefited from the income tax savings of a higher tax basis for the assets they inherited. Historically the repeal of an estate tax has been accompanied by changes in income tax rules that could reach far more taxpayers than the estate tax itself. (more…)
By Jeff Faust, Director of Valuation Services
ASL Business Valuation Services
Late last year, we wrote a few times about the looming regulations affecting valuation discounts under the IRS Proposed Section 2704 Regulations.
The comment period ended on November 1st and the public hearing in Washington D.C. was held on December 1st to a capacity crowd. Here are some quick highlights from the hearing that were published by BV Wire: (more…)
By Mark Sheffield, Principal
ASL Emerging Business Group
In a previous Emerging Business Group seminar, we talked about the importance of diligent learning. In case you missed it, here is a snapshot:
Some experts on learning say the world is changing so rapidly that only fifteen percent of what we know today is likely to be relevant in five years. So, in five years our knowledge will be 85% irrelevant unless we are diligent learners. Diligent learners are not necessarily the smartest people, but they usually surpass the smartest people, like the tortoise and the hare, in their accomplishments. They know how to persistently learn. Diligent learners are on a constant trajectory in gaining relevant knowledge; while the relevant knowledge of average learners decreases over time. Here are two attributes of diligent learners: (more…)
