Top 5 Business Tips on How to be Sure You Are Adequately Insured

With the economy still sputtering, your business needs to take advantage of the resources available to them. SCORE (http://www.score.org) offers useful, free resources, business counseling and business tools to small businesses.

One of SCORE’s great resources is its lists of “Top 5 Business Tips.” My pick for this week is SCORE’s 5 tips on How to be Sure You Are Adequately Insured  - check it out at: http://www.score.org/5_tips_om_8.html.

We recommend involving your accountant and business lawyer in reviewing your business insurance needs to ensure you adequately address and cover your business risks.

SCORE is a partner with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and is a national association dedicated to helping small business owners form and grow their businesses. SCORE offers terrific free resources, business counseling and business tools for small businesses.

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For information on how the business lawyers at Griffith & Jacobson, LLC can help your business grow, contact Arieh M. Flemenbaum at 312-236-8110 or by email at Contact Us (http://www.gjlaw.com/contact). Or visit us at our website: http://www.gjlaw.com

Griffith & Jacobson, LLC – We know business – Chicago’s Business Lawyers.

There is Still Time for Your Business to Take Advantage of the HIRE Act!

There is still time for your business to take advantage of the tax credits available for hiring unemployed workers.  The tax credits are available in 2010 as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act.

There are 2  tax benefits are now available to employers hiring workers who were previously unemployed or only working part-time:

1. Employers who hire unemployed workers this year (by 12/31/10) may qualify for a 6.2-percent payroll tax incentive. This hiring incentive effectively exempts the employers from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to the hired employees for 2010. Employers would still need to withhold the employee’s 6.2-percent share of Social Security taxes, as well as employer and employee’s shares of Medicare taxes and withholding for income taxes.


2. In addition, for each worker retained for at least a year, businesses can claim an extra general business tax credit, up to $1,000 per employee, when the company files its 2011 income tax returns.

See the following IRS article for more guidance: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220326,00.html

IRS delays reporting requirements for Group Health Care Coverage for Businesses

Under the recently passed Affordable Care Act of 2010, businesses should have started reporting group health care coverage in 2011. The Act requires businesses to report the value of employer-sponsored health coverage, by indicating the cost of the health insurance coverage they provide employees on each employee's annual Form W-2.  However, IRS has decided to delay such reporting requirements.

The IRS determined that interim relief was needed to to provide employers the time they need to make changes to their payroll systems or procedures in preparation for compliance with this requirement. So, the IRS will defer the reporting requirement for 2011, making that reporting by employers optional in 2011. The interim relief from the IRS does not require companies to file the reports until 2012.

See IRS guidance: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-2010-69.pdf http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220809,00.html