IRS Dirty Dozen Tax Scams

John Merchant, CPA, CFE

Each year the Internal Revenue Service announces its “dirty dozen” tax scams, representing twelve of the most prevalent and bothersome fraudulent scams and schemes perpetrated by taxpayers, paid preparers and others.

The IRS recently announced its Dirty Dozen for 2009 and it included hiding income offshore, filing false claims for refunds, taking frivolous positions on tax returns to lower tax liability and misuse of trusts.  One of the schemes that has made the Dirty Dozen several times […]

Benefit Plan Funds Should Have a Collections Policy for Payroll Audits

Posting by Ron Chandler, CPA

I recently have encountered various types of benefit plan funds that do not have a credit or over-payment policy for payroll audits or for collections in general.  I recommend that all funds have a collections policy and include credits and over-payments in that policy. Some funds within the construction industry do not allow credits for vacation, 401k or define contribution plans, but allow credits for health and welfare and defined pension plans within some time […]

Why We Don’t Do Payroll Audits – Reason 2

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

“Participants Would Complain If They Did Not Get Credit”

There are some participants who would complain if the amount reported is in error.  One of our pension fund clients once received a complaint from a participant who said 40 hours had not been reported on his behalf.  Almost 2000 hours had been properly reported on his behalf.  When we did a payroll audit, we found that the employer had failed to report one week of a […]

Beating a Hasty Retreat: Using a Family Company Retreat to Improve Your Family-Owned Business

Posting by Joel C. Susco, CPA, Principal

Ah, the business retreat.  It seems to offer something fun and stress-reducing, like travelling to a beautiful, peaceful destination and partaking in some team-building games by day and cocktail parties by night.  But there are often more business-related events planned, whether or not the participants are made aware of this in advance.  Fans of the show The Office witnessed a company retreat where leadership succession was being determined by the winner in a […]

Why We Don’t Do Payroll Audits – Reason 1

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

“Our Auditors Send Out Confirmations and Get No Exceptions”

Who do your auditors send the confirmations to?  If they send them to the employers, the employer would confirm what has been paid.  The confirmation does not address the amount that should have been paid.

If the confirmation is sent to a plan participant, the assumption is that the participant has kept accurate records to confirm the amount paid.  Many participants will not respond to a confirmation request […]

Estate Tax Planning in a Family-Owned Business – Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

Posting by Jacqueline M. Thompson, CPA

No one likes to think about death.  Except perhaps for the family-owned funeral home, but they have a very good reason for this.  Contemplating our mortality is unpleasant, and is made more complicated when our passing involves both personal assets and a family business.  You and your employees work very hard to make your family-owned business profitable; it would be a shame to lose much of this to taxes when the owner passes.  This […]

Commitment of Non-Family Employees in Your Family-Owned Business

Posted in DCFBA Blog, Management | Post By Joel C. Susco, CPA, Principal

Posting by Joel C. Susco, CPA, Principal

It seems the key word in “family-owned business” is family, and for good reason.  Being part of a family and a part of the same business really ties those employees and owners who are in the family in virtually every possible way, in most or all aspects of their lives.  Being a devoted employee or manager in a family-owned business when […]

Why We Don’t Do Payroll Audits

Posting by Larry Beebe, CPA

We hear the excuses all the time.  Some multi-employer plans don’t do payroll audits and they have excuses as to why they don’t do them.  Here are the top ten excuses for plans not doing payroll audits:

Our auditors send out confirmations and get no exceptions.
Participants would complain if they did not get credit.
The plan has strong internal controls over the contribution process.
The union business representatives police all of the jobs.
Our […]

FBI Going Undercover Against Financial Fraud

John Merchant, CPA, CFE

ABC News reports that John Pistole, Deputy Director of the FBI, communicated to Congress that the FBI has launched undercover investigations in response to the growing number of reports and allegations of fraud in financial institutions.  Pistole reported that this is the FBI’s attempt to be proactive in discovering fraud involving mortgage lending, securitizations, bankruptcies and other corporate and financial fraud.

 

For more information, visit http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=7134443&page=1.

Persistence Pays Off With Completing Payroll Audits

Posting by Kurt Needles, CPA

We tried numerous times to contact an out-of-town delinquent company to schedule a payroll audit. We had no success.  We finally decided to send a confirmation facsimile with a scheduled date the payroll audit would be conducted. We made it clear that the date would remain in effect unless someone from the company contacted us.  We knew the company received the correspondence because the company contacted the Local Union about the audit.

The owner never contacted […]