The "ADD" Accountant

Introducing Patrick Payroll

I am always wanting to give my clients more. It’s a curse, really. That being said, I am proud to share with you all the latest addition to the Patrick Accounting family of services, Patrick Payroll. As a local payroll partner, the Patrick Payroll staff will work hand-in-hand with businesses in order to implement a payroll solution that meets any and every unique need. Once in place, businesses will work with a dedicated payroll specialist throughout the payroll process to ensure continuity—reducing errors and saving time and money. We all could save a little time and money these days, right?

As part of the launch of Patrick Payroll, we have updated our advanced online client center within the Patrick Accounting website to include additional information such as new employee or changes to your employee forms, New Hire Packets, and Blank Payroll Forms.

Patrick Payroll will also provide optional services such as Pay-As-You-Go Workers Compensation, Direct Deposit Pay Cards, and Online Access to W-2s and Paystubs. To assist our very valued clients in gaining a well-rounded understanding of the additions, we will be providing a webinar to show-off these brand new features over the coming weeks.

We want to be the single source for your accounting needs, so a strategic move for us to better serve our clients was offering outsourced payroll. We want to provide maximum convenience and the best, most highly advanced technology—all your fingertips, simply and effectively.

What do you want out of your accounting firm?

Patrick Accounting Opens New Office-Open House September 23rd

Come join us September 23rd from 4:30-6:00 as we celebrate our move into our new office.  We are currently having a referral contest.  The winners are to be selected at the open house.   The prizes are to include an IPAD, 32 inch television, and some great restaurant gift certificates....

It should be a great time and a wonderful way to break in the place as we celebrate....

Our new office address is 9045 Forest Centre Drive Ste 101 Germantown, TN  38138

the add accountant named #8 on top 100 accounting advice blog

Cool note of the day....The ADD accountant was names a top 100 accounting advice column (actually #8) by another blogger.

I will say that this may make me put more accounting stuff up here and less about the Red Sox..... na more sox.....

2010 HIRE ACT....More info to come!

Well along with the much anticipated health insurance "reform" bill that was approved, little was made of last Thursday's new small business incentive called the HIRE act....

Be rest assured we are on top of it and have already scheduled a training seminar this Friday March 26th to learn more ourselves so that we can pass on the information and help with the implementation of how it affects you in your 2010 hiring plans.....

Here are the basics....

Extension of enhanced small business expensing (Section 179). The new law gives a one-year lease on life to enhanced expensing rules, which allow qualifying businesses the option to currently deduct the cost of business machinery and equipment, instead of recovering it via depreciation over a number of years. For tax years beginning in 2010, the maximum amount that a business may expense is $250,000, and the expensing election begins to phase out when a business buys more than $800,000 of expensing-eligible assets. These dollar limits are the same as those that were in effect for 2008 and 2009.

Payroll tax holiday and up-to-$1,000 credit for employers who hire unemployed workers. To help stimulate the hiring of workers by the private sector, the new law exempts any private-sector employer that hires a worker who had been unemployed for at least 60 days from having to pay the employer's 6.2% share of the Social Security payroll tax on that employee for the remainder of 2010. A company could save a maximum of $6,621 if it hired an unemployed worker and paid that worker at least $106,800—the maximum amount of wages subject to Social Security taxes—by the end of the year. As an additional incentive, for any qualifying worker hired under this initiative that the employer keeps on payroll for a continuous 52 weeks, the employer is eligible for an additional non-refundable tax credit of up to $1,000 after the 52-week threshold is reached, to be taken on their 2011 tax return. In order to be eligible, the employee's pay in the second 26-week period must be at least 80% of the pay in the first 26-week period.

Workers hired after the date of introduction of the legislation (Feb. 3, 2010) are eligible for the payroll tax forgiveness and the retention bonus, but only wages paid after the date of the new law's enactment receive the exemption for payroll taxes.

Here are some additional features of the new hiring incentive:

• The tax benefit of the new incentive is immediate. It puts money into a business' cash flow immediately, since the tax is simply not collected in the first place.
• The tax benefit generally applies only to private-sector employment, including nonprofit organizations—public sector jobs are generally not eligible for either benefit. However, employment by a public higher education institution would qualify. 
• There is no minimum weekly number of hours that the new employee must work for the employer to be eligible, and there is no maximum on the dollar amount of payroll taxes per employer that may be forgiven.  
  
• For workers that would otherwise be eligible for the “Work Opportunity Tax Credit,” the employer must select one benefit or the other for 2010—no double dipping.
• An employer can't claim the new tax breaks for hiring family members.
• A worker who replaces another employee who performed the same job for the employer is not eligible for the benefit, unless the prior employee left the job voluntarily or for cause.
• For the hiring to qualify, the new hire must sign an affidavit, under penalties of perjury, stating that he or she has not been employed for more than 40 hours during the 60-day period ending on the date the employment begins.
• The incentive is not biased towards either low-wage or high-wage workers. Under the measure, a business saves 6.2% on both a $40,000 worker and a $90,000 worker.
• The payroll tax holiday does not apply with respect to wages paid during the first calendar quarter of 2010, but the amount by which the Social Security payroll tax would have been reduced under the payroll tax holiday provision during the fist calendar quarter is applied against the tax imposed on the employer for the second calendar quarter of 2010.
• The Act creates a similar new set of rules permitting a payroll tax holiday for railroad retirement tax purposes.
• The credit for retaining qualifying new hires is the lesser of $1,000 or 6.2% of the wages paid by the taxpayer to the retained worker during the 52-consecutive-week period. Thus, the credit for a retained worker will be $1,000 if, disregarding rounding, the retained worker's wages during the 52-consecutive-week period exceed $16,129.03. However, the credit is not available for pay not treated as wages under the Code (e.g., remuneration paid to domestic workers).
  

So as you can see, as always, the government's help comes with lots of catches, caveats, and exceptions!  As we learn more we will share and communicate what it means for you!

Thanks

Matt

Cash for Clunkers...Dead? and an aside on the Sox

White House Tells CEOs to Pony Up for Meal After Lunch With Obama - Political News - FOXNews.com.

Looks like the Cash for Clunkers is out of cash.....now if only the government will realize this before they print or borrow more from China to pay for a watered down, bureaucratic run, rationed, and quickly to be broke healthcare plan that Americans don't want, and can't afford.....can't tell I am bitter about this garbage that Washington is slamming down our throats, huh!

Now let's talk about the Red Sox....today was not the best day to be a Sox fan....2004 and 2007 titles may be tainted (say it ain't so, Papi!)....I don't know what I would do if I was put in the position to change myself from a middle of the road player that could be out of baseball to a guy that after 2005 season signed a 4 year deal worth in excess of $50 million....yeah read that right 50...5-0.....MILLION.....The guy was a platoon player up to 2003...part-time....constantly hurt...

I am not saying I would do it, I think it would be hard to sleep at night, BUT.....damn 50 million changes his family life for multiple generations.....

I hope that it is not true, but like I told my dad today (who by the way is a DAMN yankee fan)  Our steriod guys beat your steriod guys....Not great solace, but that is all I have left.....

Olympics and Red Sox

These Olympics are messing up my sleeping patterns more than my usual late night haunts of SportsCenter, that 70s show, and diners, drive-ins, and dives on the Food Network.  However, the thing that sucks about the NBC broadcast is that you get like 3 minutes of action for every 57 minutes of sob stories, family history, or interviews with the winners of events we did not even to get watch.  They do not let you know what is coming up and when, so you end up watching sync diving or water polo.  I mean water polo is fun and all but why would I watch men's water polo.  I have enjoyed the beach volleyball IMMENSELY (particularly the womens).  However, no baseball and way to much diving for my taste.

That being said it does allow me to be distracted from watching the Red Sox get their brains beat in 2 out of the last 4 games.  I mean they warmed us Joey Cora's little brother tonight.  Buchholz started tonight and was staked to a 4 run lead which he ended up giving up after a VERY SOLID 2 2/3 innings pitched.  He needs to be sent back to Pawtucket and told to start breathing through his eyelids and maybe start wearing a garter belt with a flower in the front.  Everyone was talking about his lack of mental capabilities at the beginning of the year, but I believed the hype that he was the next coming of Christ.  Lester on the other hand I had my doubts on as he always seemed to have trouble commanding the strike zone.  Tells you what an out of shape accountant knows about big league pitching and doubting the insight of people that get paid MILLIONS to measure and evaluate pitching.

Anyway, I will keep staying up late watching Fez and Red Foreman, watching the same SportsCenter at least twice, and will try to see who wins gold in the 10M women's synchronized platform diving coming up next at 2:26 a.m. central time or watching the latest infomercial.