1. Maintaining a 2.5 GPA or better
2. Not using drugs or getting expelled from school
3. Being a good citizen

If the pledge is fulfilled through the end of the senior year of high school, the student will be awarded a tuition scholarship.  This tuition scholarship will cover the cost of tuition for up to 4 years as long as the student stays in school.

As a Twenty-first Century Scholar student they can receive free tutoring and help with finding a part time job until they attend college. Parents must complete the application by June 30th of their child’s 8th grade year.

There are income restrictions and the number of scholarships is limited. If you would like more information on this program please call Debbie at SBS CPA Group at 260-338-0833 or go to their website at http://www.in.gov/ssaci/2345.htm.

Debbie Bridge

The easiest way to reach your CPA is to email them!  The next easiest way is to call them on one of the days when they cover the office!  Our schedule is:

• Monday and Tuesday, Brent Bracht is in the office
• Wednesday and Friday, Mike Sylvester is in the office
• Thursday, Karena Sylvester is in the office

Our certified public accountants are in the office more often than listed above.  Brent is also in the office at least for part of the day on Wednesday and Thursday (Friday he is off).  Mike is in the office at least for part of the day on Monday and he is generally in the office from 8:30 AM – 10 AM  on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Mike is off the rest of Tuesday and Thursday).  Karena is off on Mondays.  On Tuesdays she is out of the office at remote client locations and generally does not get back to the office until late afternoon.  She is generally in the office Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8:30 AM – 10 AM and off the rest of those days.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Mike Sylvester, CPA/ABV, MBA

At SBS CPA Group we specialize in the needs of business owners and we will partner with you and your business and help you grow and be successful!  Some things your small business accountant should offer include:

1) Paying monthly bills and reconciling your bank accounts, credit cards, and loans.  This is a critical task that many business owners do not take the time to do properly.  This can result in significant late fees and penalties when you pay your venders late or “bounce” checks.  Your financial statements cannot be prepared until this task is performed.

2) Preparing your monthly or quarterly financial statements.  Your financial statements are necessary to secure small business loans and are critical when internally analyzing your business.  Every business
should have financial statements prepared at least once per quarter.

3) Payroll and payroll tax services.  Employees are critical to the success of every small business and employees must be paid.  The taxing agencies have complicated rules concerning payroll and payroll taxes and most business owners should hire a professional to provide this service for them.  The late fees and penalties for filing your payroll tax forms late can be quite severe.  If your 941 taxes are paid one day late the IRS will levy a penalty of 10%.  For example if your business owed $1,000 in 941 taxes and paid them one day late the IRS will levy a penalty of $100 due to this late payment.

4) Answering your questions throughout the year in a prompt and courteous fashion.  SBS CPA Group specializes in small businesses and our Certified Public Accountants can answer almost all of your questions with a quick phone call or email.  Running a business is complicated and selecting the right accountant is critical to the success of your business.

5) Business and personal income tax preparation.  The rules governing business tax return preparation are quite involved and it is almost impossible to purchase do-it-yourself software and self-prepare your business income tax returns correctly.  Most of the large tax franchise locations do not prepare business income tax returns because they do not have the expertise necessary to properly prepare them.

6) QuickBooks training and support.  Many of our clients do at least some of their own bookkeeping and a few do their own payroll and payroll taxes as well.  QuickBooks is a software package that business owners can use to handle their bookkeeping, payroll, and payroll taxes.  We are QuickBooks experts and we can train you how to use QuickBooks.  Better yet, we can answer your QuickBooks questions throughout the year.

We offer a free initial consultation to all prospective new clients.  Please give us a call today at 260-338-0833 and schedule a time to learn how we can help you grow your business!

Mike Sylvester, CPA/ABV, MBA

The Indiana Department of Revenue (INDOR) is also mandating that all new businesses pay their withholding and sales taxes using their online system called INTAX.  I think INTAX is a user friendly system that only has one drawback; you cannot pay or file Food and Beverage tax forms using INTAX.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (INDWD) also has a new
system called Uplink.  This system isn’t as user friendly as the others.
Additionally, to pay this tax, INDWD is requiring a $3 convenience fee.  The other taxing agencies don’t charge a fee to use their online payment systems.  I don’t like Uplink as well as the others; that being said I still prefer to use it rather than file paper forms.  I like the fact that when using the online systems I can ensure that the forms have been filed and paid in real time!

Brent Bracht, CPA

There are several things Fort Wayne business owners should know about Tangible Business Personal Property Taxes:

1. All businesses are required to file these forms once per year.  This includes Sole Proprietors, LLC’s, Partnerships, S corporations, C Corporations, etc.
2. All businesses are required to file these forms even if they do not receive a blank one from the Assessor’s office.
3. Due to tight budgets many local Assessor’s are aggressively ensuring that all businesses file these forms.  One of our client’s recently let us know that an employee from the “Assessor’s Office” walked through their business to ensure they are in compliance with the rules.
4. If you do not file the Forms on time you can be charged significant penalties and late fees.
5. The Assessor’s feel that all businesses have tangible business personal property and they tend to audit any business that files forms showing that the business owns no tangible business personal property.

We will not start filing these forms until after April 17th for obvious reasons.  Once you get these forms please email them, fax them, mail them, or drop them off in our office and we will prepare these forms for you.

If you have any questions about these forms please give us a call at 260-338-0833 after April 17th and we will be happy to answer your questions!

Mike Sylvester, CPA/ABV, MBA

 
To protect yourself you should retain your receipt which states the place, date, amount, who attended and what was discussed.  It is important to remember that most business meals have a 50% deduction limit (the other 50% is disallowed).  There are instances when a greater than 50%  deduction is allowed (transportation workers and office parties).   Please ask if you do not understand these  rules or need more clarification.

Brent Bracht, CPA

For example, if you buy a computer for your small business, under Section 179 you can deduct the full cost of that computer in the year of purchase rather then spread the cost out over five years as required by the IRS.

So what types of small business property does Section 179 apply to?  The property must be “tangible, depreciable, personal property which is acquired for use in the active conduct of a trade or business.”  If you give us a call one of our Fort Wayne CPA’s can explain what the IRS means with this statement!

There are annual limits on the 179 deductions your Fort Wayne small business can elect to use.  The maximum section 179 deduction for 2011 is $250,000.  Since section 179 is targeted towards small businesses this annual limit is reduced by the amount by which the cost of section 179 property placed in service in the tax year exceeds $800,000.

For the last several years a large majority of tax preparers and business owners have aggressively used accelerated depreciation and section 179 in order to lower their current year taxes.  We do not believe it is always appopriate to use section 179.  We carefully consider the tax situation of our clients when making this determination.

Please give one of our Certified Public Accountants a call at 260-338-0833 today!

Mike Sylvester, CPA/BV, MBA “Accredited in Business Valuation”

Congress extended the payroll tax cut for the first two months of 2012 – meaning employees only pay 4.2% social security instead of the normal 6.2%.  This tax cut was set to expire, but of course Congress is trying to get it extended at “the last minute.”

So don’t let your payroll be out of date, every time you are prompted to update your payroll tax tables, please make sure you do so.  Additionally, I highly recommend you update your payroll tax tables before you run your first March payroll.  To update your payroll tax tables, go to the employee menu at the top of the page and then select Get Payroll Updates.

If you have any questions regarding any payroll taxes, please feel free to give us a call at 260-338-0833 and ask for Brent or Karena!

Karena Sylvester, CPA

1. It is difficult to get it done in one weekend.
2. The bookkeeping is often wrong because items are misplaced or the business owner cannot remember what each receipt was for.

The largest problem with this method is the business owner has no idea exactly how much money they have made or lost until early the following year.  Further they do not know which expense categories increased, which revenue stream decreased, etc.

Bookkeeping should be done on a regular basis.  Our Fort Wayne CPA’s handle the bookkeeping for many of our small business clients in northeast Indiana.  We have clients we handle weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, and everything in between.  Our CPA’s travel to the offices of many of our Fort Wayne business clients.  Many of our clients drop their small business bookkeeping and accounting off at our office on the north side of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Small business bookkeeping and accounting is critical to the success of any small business.  We can show you how to handle your bookkeeping in an efficient manner or we can handle it for you!  Please give us a call today at 260-338-0833!

Mike Sylvester, CPA/ABV, MBA

The Indiana Department of Revenue (INDOR) is also mandating that all new businesses
pay their withholding and sales taxes using their online system called INTAX.  I think INTAX is a user friendly system that only has one drawback:  you cannot pay or
file the Food and Beverage taxes using INTAX.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (INDWD) also has a new
system called Uplink.  I find that this system isn’t as user friendly as others.
Additionally, to pay this tax, INDWD is requiring a $3 convenience fee
which the other agencies don’t change.  While, I don’t like Uplink as well as the others, I still prefer to use it rather than filing with paper forms because you can see in real time whether or not the forms have been successfully filed and returns paid.