Tax and Financial News August, 2019

3 Big Tax Issues to Look Out for in Your Estate Plan

There are three big tax issues that can derail an otherwise well-executed estate plan. These include Family Limited Partnerships, Revocable Trust Swap Powers and Trust Situs. Below we explore the pitfalls with each issue.

Fixing FLPs

Family Limited Partnerships (FLP) are often created to hold investments or business assets in order to leverage a valuation discount, exert control and provide asset protection.

First, to understand the valuation discount, take the example in which an FLP owned a family business valued at $10 million. A straight 25 percent interest in this business would therefore be worth $2.5 million. However, due to valuation discounts for a non-controlling interest that would not be readily available for sale or able to control liquidation, the 25 percent might actually be valued at $1.7 million for estate tax purposes.

Second, FLPs also could be set up to allow the founder or parents to control operations even after a majority of their interest is given away.

Lastly, FLPs can protect assets. If an interest owner is sued, the claimant might not be able to exercise their claim, especially if they sued a minority interest holder. Instead, they could be limited to receiving a charging order. A charging order limits the claimant to only the distributions that interest holder would be entitled to and protects the other owners.

FLPs that ignore legal upkeep and technical legal formalities can jeopardize these the protection benefits by causing the FLP entity to be disregarded. Common errors include co-mingling personal and entity assets and ignoring the legal requirements to have current signed governing instruments.

On the valuation front, many FLPs were set up to provide valuation discounts at a time of significantly lower estate tax exemptions. Not only is this unnecessary, but the valuation discount can actually hinder the heirs by passing along a lower asset value when the basis is stepped up at death.

Swap Powers

Traditionally, irrevocable trusts are by definition trusts that cannot be altered (hence the name irrevocable). Uses include carving out assets from an estate to better protect the assets and provide tax savings.

Irrevocable trusts are often structured as “grantor” trusts for income tax benefit purposes. Grantor trusts allow the grantor to report the trust income on their individual 1040, effectively having the grantor pay the tax burden and bypass the trust. This strategy can reduce the grantor’s estate.

There are numerous ways to create grantor trust status. Including swap powers is the most common. Swap powers allow the swapping of personal assets for trust assets of equivalent value. The problem with swap powers is that little attention is paid to them and they aren’t exercised in the right circumstances, leading to adverse income tax consequences.

It’s best to review the value of trust assets annually or even more often if the grantor is in poor health so you know when to exercise the swap powers. It’s also a good idea to involve your estate planning attorney and CPA if you are going to exercise the swap powers. This will ensure the swap is handled according to the rules of the trust document and properly reported on your tax returns.

Trust Situs Selection

Trust situs is the state where your trust is based. It determines which state law administers and rules the trust. Frequently, the trust situs is simply set up in the same state where the trust creator is a resident.

While simple, using a home state as the trust situs is not always best. A person’s home state may not provide the best protections or state taxation. The way around this is to “rent” a different trust jurisdiction. Doing so can allow you to lower or altogether avoid state income taxes. You’ll have to factor in the costs to do so as there will be more legal fees and trustee fees since an institution will need to hold the trust to create the state nexus. Overall, you can often come out ahead.

Conclusion

The best thing you can do is to review your current or potential trust with your estate planning attorney and CPA. This way you can stay on top of both the formalities and mechanisms in place to maximize the protections and benefits of the trust.

 

§

 

General Business News August, 2019

Understanding and Applying Accounting Reports and Ratios

When it comes to tracking incoming sales and outgoing expenses, there are many ways businesses can keep up with their invoices and implement strategies to reduce the time they spend on unpaid sales.

Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio

Simply defined, the accounts receivable turnover ratio is a way of showing what percent of a company’s receivables or invoices are paid by clients. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration explains this ratio is determined by “dividing average accounts receivable by sales.” Determining average accounts receivable is done by adding the beginning and ending figures — be it a month, quarter or year, then dividing by 2. Determining the sales figure is calculated by taking the total sales still on credit and deducting any allowances or returns from the gross sales figure.    

If the beginning and ending accounts receivables for a 12-month period were $20,000 and $30,000, the average accounts receivable would be $50,000/2 or $25,000. If the gross sales were $200,000 for the 12-month period and there were $20,000 in returns, it would leave $180,000/$25,000 or an accounts receivable turnover ratio of 7.2

Accounts Payable Turnover Ratio

The payable turnover ratio is determined by taking all purchases from suppliers and dividing the supplier purchase figure by the mean accounts payable figure. The average accounts payable figure is calculated by adding the starting accounts payable figure and the ending accounts payable figure, normally at the beginning and ending of a period, such as 12 months. From there, the summed up accounts payable figure is divided by 2 to get an average.  

A business made yearly purchases on credit for about $250,000 from suppliers and had returns to those suppliers for about $20,000. If at the beginning of the 12-month period accounts payable were $11,000, then at the end of the period the accounts payable balance was $26,000, the total figures would equal $37,000.

From that point, there would be $230,000 in net yearly purchases on credit for the business and an average of $18,500 for the period’s accounts payable. Dividing the $230,000 by $18,500 equals 12.43. Therefore, the business’ accounts payable turned over about 12.5 times during the period. As the SBA explains, the higher the ratio, the more dependent companies are on accounts payable to acquire inventory.   

Accounts Payable Aging Report

When it comes to defining an accounts payable aging report, businesses can use this tool to determine and organize outstanding accounts payable to vendors or suppliers and how much each is owed. While it can be broken into discreet time frames, such as net-14 or net-60 or net-90, depending on how the supplier and business decided on payment terms, commonly accepted time frames established are: up to 30 days; 31 to 60 days; and so on.

This report is used to organize which supplier invoices are due and when. One important consideration to note is if the report assumes that all invoices are due within 30 days. If there’s special arrangements or terms from important suppliers, it could need adjusting as determined by individual supplier payment terms.  

By using an accounts payable aging report, businesses will see when they need to pay their bills on time and what percentage are being paid on time (or not). It will help businesses see if they’re paying late fees by organizing invoices. Businesses can also identify if there’s a need to negotiate with suppliers for reduced payments for early payments or for extended time to pay invoices if cash flow is an issue. 

Accounts Receivable Aging Report

Similar to an accounts payable aging report, an accounts receivable aging report helps businesses track outstanding invoices owed by clients. It also contains the client name, the time when payment is due and how late, if at all, client invoices are for issued invoices.

These reports help businesses determine the likelihood of debt becoming bad, and if unpaid invoices need to be sent to collections or written off. It can also measure in short and long terms how clients have made timely payments on their invoices. This can help businesses determine if they should reduce existing credit terms to their clients or to make an offer to discount what’s owed in order to get an otherwise uncollectible invoice paid.

Whether a company owes money or expects to be paid for a product or service, with the proper accounting tools, there’s a way to keep track of all inflows and outflows.

 

§

 

Tip of the Month August, 2019

Pass It On: Accounting Tips to Share With Kids

It’s never too early to helps kids understand accounting – the concepts of earning and spending. Here are a few ways to teach your little ones about how money works and even have a little fun.

Play Money Games

One way to explain the principles is by playing games like Monopoly and The Game of Life. However, if you want to be more homegrown and less commercial, bake some cookies, bag and price them, and turn your kitchen into a store. You might even get a toy cash register and calculators to make the whole experience more authentic. Then record the earnings, expenses and profits. This will really give children a “taste” of accounting!

Create a Family Budget

When sharing this activity with your kids, you don’t have to include every single expense – just those that they can easily understand, such as mortgage or rent, electricity, gas, phone, groceries and so on. Then, ask them to write up a budget of their own and include their income and expenditures for an allotted amount of time, perhaps a week. This way, you can demonstrate the importance of tracking money and explain that this is a common way that businesses and families deal with their finances.

Teach Them About Checking Accounts

Even though checks are being used less and less these days, a check register is still a good way to show kids how to reconcile expenses. First, you can let them watch you write a check, then explain how to record the check in the register. Then, get some generic deposit slips from your bank and demonstrate how deposits and withdrawals work. Finally, tell them that these transactions will be sent to them each month in a statement – you might even show them one you have to help them visualize the concept.

Explain Debits and Credits

Grab a blank sheet of paper and write a large T on it. Above the left side of the bar, write “Income: Money In” and above the right side of the bar, write “Expenses: Money Out.” Point out the difference between the two sides. If your child has an allowance, a way of earning money by doing chores or if they have a summer job, then ask them to pretend that they’re going to spend some of their money on things they’d like, such as games or candy. Have them record the amounts of earned income in the left column. Then ask them to imagine spending the money on the things they want and have them record those expenses in the right column. Then subtract the expenses from the income. This is quite effective because it helps kids see the money going in and out of an account. When they get a feel for how this works, they might be a little less interested in spending every cent they earn.

There are many other tools you can use to teach your children how money works, but these are a few good ones to get you started. As many parents can attest, helping kids comprehend how to manage money is one of the best lessons you can teach them.