Small Business Reading Room

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I forgot!

It’s a busy, busy world, and sometimes it’s difficult to keep everything organized. I try very hard to organize everything to make my life easier. Sometimes I’m more successful than others.

I find that our business clients sometimes have difficulties keeping up with the day-to-day-never-ending demands on their life too. We all need to keep track of dates, emails, file folders, etc.

In the interest of making life easier and a little more organized, I searched the Web to find some good organizational tips that we can all hopefully benefit from. These are mainly business oriented, of course, but I had to throw in a link to organizing at home too. ;)

AARP has some free online information to organize your files and folders.

The University of South Dakota also has some tips to save your files.

Here are some tips from HGTV about organizing at home.

I hope you find these helpful! Good luck!

posted by Barbara at 4:15 PM - permalink 0 comments

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Do you have a hobby or do you have a business?

It may not matter much to you in the end, but it could make a difference come tax time.

In general, taxpayers may deduct ordinary and necessary expenses for conducting a trade or business or for the production of income. Trade or business activities and activities engaged in for the production of income are activities engaged in for profit. The “hobby loss rule”, aka Internal Revenue Code Section 183 (Activities Not Engaged in for Profit) limits the deductions that can be claimed when an activity is not engaged in for profit. In short, if an activity is not for profit, losses from that activity may not be used to offset other income.

The following factors come from an IRS educational fact sheet, and although they are not all inclusive, they may help you to determine whether your activity is an activity engaged in for profit or a hobby:

Does the time and effort put into the activity indicate an intention to make a profit?

Do you depend on income from the activity?

If there are losses, are they due to circumstances beyond your control or did they occur in the start-up phase of the business?

Have you changed methods of operation to improve profitability?

Do you have the knowledge needed to carry on the activity as a successful business?

Have you made a profit in similar activities in the past?

Does the activity make a profit in some years?

Do you expect to make a profit in the future from the appreciation of assets used in the activity?

If you have questions and need a clearer understanding of what constitutes an activity engaged in for profit and the tax implications of incorrectly treating hobby activities as activities engaged in for profit, you should speak with your accountant or tax preparer for advice.

posted by Unknown at 4:56 PM - permalink 0 comments

Monday, August 25, 2008

Business in Delaware Courts

Here's the latest:

AIG shareholders say they're owed $1 billion

Mattel seeks nearly $2 billion in fight over Bratz dolls

Chicago exchange, trade board agree on eligibility

LendingTree, IMX settle lawsuit over patent

Novartis unit sued by Endo and Penwest

We found the above at Delawareonline.

You can check out the article here:
Business in the courts

posted by Unknown at 1:29 PM - permalink 0 comments

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