Healthcare Archives | Rick Norris

Obamacare and Your 2015 Tax Return

There is still confusion about Obamacare among individuals, businesses, and maybe even politicians. The IRS has been sending explanations about certain provisions.

The following is an IRS release regarding the individual responsibility for your 2015 tax return. Believe it or not, you might be exempt.

The Affordable Care Act requires you, your spouse and your dependents to have qualifying health care coverage for each month of the year, qualify for a health coverage exemption, or make an Individual Shared Responsibility Payment when filing your federal income tax return. If you had coverage for all of 2015, you will simply check a box on your tax return to report that coverage.

However, if you don’t have qualifying health care coverage and you meet certain criteria, you might be eligible for an exemption from coverage. Most exemptions are can be claimed when you file your tax return, but some must be claimed through the Marketplace.

If you or any of your dependents are exempt from the requirement to have health coverage, you will complete IRS Form 8965, Health Coverage Exemptions and submit it with your tax return. If, however, you are not required to file a tax return, you do not need to file a return solely to report your coverage or to claim an exemption.

For any months you or anyone on your return do not have coverage or qualify for a coverage exemption, you must make a payment called the individual shared responsibility payment. If you could have afforded coverage for yourself or any of your dependents, but chose not to get it and you do not qualify for an exemption, you must make a payment. You calculate the shared responsibility payment using a worksheet included in the instructions for Form 8965 and enter your payment amount on your tax return.

Whether you are simply checking the box on your tax return to indicate that you had coverage in 2015, claiming a health coverage exemption, or making an individual shared responsibility payment, you or your tax professional can prepare and file your tax return electronically. Using tax preparation software is the best and simplest way to file a complete and accurate tax return as it guides individuals and tax preparers through the process and does all the math. Electronic filing options include IRS Free File for taxpayers who qualify, free volunteer assistance, commercial software, and professional assistance.

More Information

Determine if you are eligible for a coverage exemption or responsible for the Individual Shared Responsibility Payment by using our Interactive Tax Assistant on IRS.gov.

For more information about the Affordable Care Act and filing your 2015 income tax return, visit IRS.gov/aca. If you need health coverage, visit HealthCare.gov to learn about health insurance options that are available for you and your family, how to purchase health insurance, and how you might qualify to get financial assistance with the cost of insurance.

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IRS CIRCULAR 230 DISCLAIMER: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service, we inform you that any tax advice contained in this e-mail (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and may not be used, for the purpose of (a) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or state tax authority, or (b) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. Any accounting, business or tax advice contained in this communication, including attachments and enclosures, is not intended as a thorough, in-depth analysis of specific issues, nor a substitute for a formal opinion, nor is it sufficient to avoid tax-related penalties. If desired, (Firm) would be pleased to perform the requisite research and provide you with a detailed written analysis. Such an engagement may be the subject of a separate engagement letter that would define the scope and limits of the desired consultation services.

Business Strategy: Don’t Replicate, Innovate

Business Strategy: Don’t Replicate, Innovate

I remember back around 1990 when a film producer client told me about a great script of a kid who foiled robbers. I responded that it sounded like Home Alone. His eyes lit up and he said, ” That’s why it will be a hit because the Home Alone concept is so big now.”This meeting came back to me when I read Shira Levine’s article, What it will take to become the internet’s next big thing. It reminds me of so many copy cat product and services.

So many business persons set their strategy in the direction to replicate what a successful business person has already accomplished. That is not American Ingenuity. These businesses just ride on the coattails of the creativity of others.

Read On

Competitive vs Competitor, Knowing the Difference Using the Southwest Airlines Story

Do you know that difference between the competitive intelligence and competitor intelligence? Does it matter, or is it just a play on words? Join Rick and Brandon as they use one of Seena Sharp’s books, Competitive Intelligence Advantage which can give you the small business edge that you have been searching for.

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Business Models: The Big Data Pitfall

When my youngest son Austin was in middle school, his small business enterprise was known as “the candy man.” He would go to the 99 Cent Store and buy about $50 of candy in bulk. He then broke them down selling them in small quantaties for $1-$5 in his small business. My favorite story is when he would approach the kids who were not strong in math. It went like this, “Hey, sell you 4 airheadsfor $6.00 ?” The kid pulled back, “No way, that’s a rip off?” My son would respond, “Ok, how about 3airheads for $5.00?” “Cool, I’ll take that deal!” screamed his customer. (For you math-challenged people, he increased the sales price from $1.50 cents each to $1.67 cents for each airhead). My son didn’t realize it, but regardless of the victory of increasing his profit, he degraded his merchandise to the status of a commodity.

Read On

We hope our articles were informative. All questions, comments,and feedback are welcome.

Sincerely,

The LA CPA

How Does a Small Business Grow? You Can Try to Think Like A Rock Band

How Does a Small Business Grow? You Can Try to Think Like A Rock Band

We were called the Mini Playboys. Three ten year old musicians who temporarily put down their rock roots to play old standards, big band, and Italian songs. The band consisted of a drum, guitar, and accordion. We almost never played like this for our friends for the obvious reasons, but played at old folks parties and restaurants. Heck, we each earned $5.00 an hour in 1967 when minimum wage was $1.40. Great money! Our band focused on a strategy to hit a particular niche market, and it worked for 2 years until we went our separate ways.

I came across an article by Apryl Peredo

Read On

Predicting and Accomplishing Your Business Success

Do you own a struggling small or mid-sized business? Are you between jobs and want to start your own business, but are intimidated with the high failure rate? Join Rick and Brandon as they use a method described in Les McKeown’s Predictable Success, Getting your organization on the growth track-and keeping it there. Learn about the business’s good and bad cycles and the stages they go through. Rick and Brandon leave you with tips on how to get out of bad cycles and into a balance, which he calls Predictable Success.

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Business Vision and Goals: Understand the Target You are Aiming For

In the early 1970s, I watched a Stanford professor choose Jim Plunkett, (Stanford’s star quarterback) to demonstrate perception and the brain. The professor placed a pair of glasses on Jim that caused his vision to be distorted, shifting everything he sees to the right about 20 degrees. Jim missed his attended receiver throwing consistantly to the right by 20 degrees.

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We hope our articles were informative. All questions, comments,and feedback are welcome.

Sincerely,

The LA CPA

Are Business Strategies Obsolete? Does it Matter?

My wife and I have started a new hobby of collecting and reselling small antiques. We really enjoy “the hunt,” but one of the most rewarding aspects is our increased knowledge of 100 year old household tools. One such item was a nickle/steel handle with a cone cup on the end. The cone cup had a butterfly handle on the end of the cone that turned blades inside the cone, scraping the sides.

Almost nobody guessed its function, which was a Delmonico ice cream scoop.

Today, the basic operation of the Delmonico ice cream scoop is the same, scoop it up, and scrape it out.

Read On

Business Plans Can Be as Entertaining as a Russian Nesting Doll

Are you thinking about starting a new business? Whether you are starting a new business or wanting to expand your current business using investors, you will need a business plan. But how should you go about it? Hire a financial consultant? Or maybe buy the expensive software that churns out business plans? Join Brandon and Rick as they go through the steps of building a business plan and the pitfalls that many stumble into when doing so.

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Strategic Thinking: Don’t Confuse Tactics for Strategy

“There’s nothing worse than a sharp picture of a fuzzy concept.” -Ansel Adams

“There is nothing more wasteful than becoming highly efficient at doing the wrong thing.” -Peter Drucker

Mike Michalowicz’s article The 90-Day Method: A Strategy For Business Growth in Difficult Times offers some suggestions for business to strategize. He says that a business owner should ask what they have done in the last 90 days that has brought results, and then replicate those things that were successful. Even though these may sound like sage advice, they can be interpreted as tactics instead of strategy.

Read On

We hope our articles were informative. All questions, comments,and feedback are welcome.

Sincerely,

The LA CPA

Are Music and Small Business Creativity Leaving Us?

A Rick E Norris, An Accountancy Corp Publication

Issue: # August 12th 2015

Welcome to the LA CPA Expose’ . These articles outline business and personal financial advice on a variety of topics. You should always consult your professional and legal advisors before implementing any new strategies.

Pareto’s 80/20 Principle: Business Playing the Odds
Amazing, just amazing. No more than amazing, it was magic. That was my first reaction to the 80/20 rule when I reached into my pocket and saw that 20 % of the coins equalled 80% or more of the value. So, I read the book The 80/20 Principle, The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch.

That was a few years ago. Since then I have applied the concept of the book (and the 1906 Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who created the principle) in many business situations. Here’s a few conclusions:

Read On

Policies, Processes and Procedures can Save a Business and Even Lives

Do you run your business by the “seat of your pants?” Do you engage company policies, processes and procedures? Do you know how these three concepts differ? Join Rick and Brandon as they lift the veil off these seldom implemented small and mid-sized business necessities. Learn the importance of these components in Rick’s story as a Mounted Volunteer Patrol serving in the Santa Monica Mountains with his wife Judy, as they responded to a life-threatening emergency.
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Is Music and Small Business Creativity Leaving Us?

Have you heard? We’re still in a major recession. Well, not according to our government.

However, according to Paul Resnikoff’s article, What is the Economy Doing to Creativity , our current economic disaster may quiet musicians because of their prolonged economic struggle.

I think Paul is on the wrong side of history. Artistic and business creators could not have a better feeding ground than our current economic condition:

Read On

We hope our articles were informative. All questions, comments,and feedback are welcome.

Sincerely,

The LA CPA

Is it a Good Idea to Pay off a House?

DeBabbitting the Business Strategy Process: Can Creative People Be Developed?

My grandfather left quite a legacy. He came from Italy as a boy to start a new life. He acted in and scripted silent movies, fought in WWI, tightrope walked between two eight story buildings (without a net) over a busy Chicago street, helped build navy ships as an electrician during WWII, and founded a successful restaurant with his wife and nine kids.

His success in the variety of endevours is grounded in one quality: creativity. Creativity is a right-brain function, natural to some and alien to others. Should all brain-storming teams have a business strategist who has this trait?

Read On

Improving Your Business Immediately with Pareto’s 80/20 Rule and Tea

Would you like a quick way to improve your business? Have other projects taken too long before showing results? Learn a faster way to improve your business in different areas with Pareto’s 80/20 Rule. Join Rick and Brandon on the Improv-ing Business Podcast as they discuss Rick’s visit to the Charleston Tea Plantation and how the 80/20 Rule applies to tea.

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CPA Economic Depression Thinking: Buy Your House and Pay it off…Good Idea? Maybe.

As a CPA, I have categorized home-owner’s financial strategy into two categories over the last 32 years: One, the Depression Victim, and Two, the Leverage Junkie. The Depression Victim’s financial strategy is a person who has lived or heard about people living during the Great Depression of the 1930s. My mother is like that. The philosophy goes like this. You buy a house, and you pay it off, period…Sure, you can buy rental real estate, but don’t use your house as a piggy bank.

The other financial strategy extreme is the leverage junkie. Looking at them through my CPA glasses, I see that a person who holds that philosophy will buy a house, and then when it goes up in value, borrow against it to buy an other.

Read On

We hope our articles were informative. All questions, comments,and feedback are welcome.

Sincerely,
Rick E Norris

Fulfilling Your Passion by Creating a Non-Profit Business

Business Strategy and Tactics: What We Can Learn From How We Raise our Kids

Our kids hate us…when we don’t give them money. Oh sure, we pay of their schooling, sports, and other school-related activities, but we are determined to require them to work for their recreation money. All three of my boys have worked for me from time to time.

So, when I came across Barbara Haislip’s article, How to Raise en Entrepreneur, it rang true with lessons with business strategy and tactics:

Read On

Fulfilling Your Passion by Creating a Non-Profit Business

Do you have a passion to do charitable work? Have you thought of creating a non-profit to make the world a little bit better? Have you been asked to volunteer or participate on a board of directors of a non-profit? Today, we will be addressing this aspect of our society and some advice to starting or maintaining your own on-profit business.

Listen To Our Podcast Here

Antiquing: How My Wife Convinced Me, and The Impact on Business Strategy

It started with Chumlee. I walked through the living room to my computer and stopped to watch Rick and Chumlee on Pawn Stars discuss the historical significance of something like a musket rifle. This intrigued me, but what really got me interested in their antiques was “value.” No, I don’t mean some 1920 decorative egg, I mean something that won’t break down within two years like my microwave.

Eight years ago, we purchased moderately expensive sconces. We didn’t realized that they would only last about five years. They developed an electrical short, and succumbed to the outside elements.

Inspired by the Pawn Star’s antiques, I bought four 1929 sconces at an estate sale that I will recondition. I believe these will be a better value than going to a lamp store to pay $200 per sconce. These antiques have lasted over 80 years, and are pretty cool to look at. I believe they will be a good value.

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Mobile Payment Strategy: Is Your Small Business Developing One?

A Rick E Norris, An Accountancy Corp Publication

Issue: # July 8th 2015

Mobile Payment Strategy: Is Your Small Business Developing One?

I remember around 1970 asking for a “stingray” type bicycle with a five speed stick shift and a slick tire. I was definitely leap-frogging my friends’ stingrays who lacked multiple gears. I nailed them on the hills. My bike was the early precursor of the multi-gear mountain bikes that cost up to $5,000 today. I was ahead of the pack, for a while anyway.

Last December, I wrote about the mobile payment strategy in Is Your Viral Strategy Becoming Obsolete? I asked the question of whether your strategy and tactics are being adjusted to accommodate the next horizon? If you were, you were ahead of the pack.

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In a Company’s Strategic Culture, Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire! (But What if You Can’t See the Smoke?)
Employee resistance is the most common reason executives (and small business owners) cite for the failure of organizational change. Strong, respected change leaders i.e., people with informal influences, is needed to convince employees about the value of a new business strategy. Your effort to convince those who can influence others may create cultural change, allowing employees “own” the process. Join Rick and Brandon as they give some tips on how to nurture these key individuals.

Listen To Our Podcast Here

Social Marketing Cloud Computing: Ground Control to Major Tom

“Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown, engines on
Check ignition and may God’s love be with you”

When David Bowie sang these lyrics, the astonauts’s image touched us. We wondered what the astronaut was thinking, and why did he suffer a demise.

Cloud comuting is going private. Dan Rowinski came out with an article, The Personal Cloud will be a $12 Billion industry business by 2016. He claims that this will be the next horizon. In addition, an article by Jim Blasingame Social Media Builds Customer Communities touches on this new frontier combining cloud computing and social networking.

Read On

We hope our articles were informative. All questions, comments,and feedback are welcome.

Sincerely,

The Anthem Security Breach and Your Tax Return

If you are like us, you may have received a notice from Anthem stating your personal information has been compromised. At first, I thought, this was just another list of corporate organizations which are hacked, but this is more serious from a tax return filing point of view.

For someone to electronically file your tax return, they need three pieces of information: Name, social security number, and birthdate. That’s all. The address is irrelevant. The felon then opens up a bank account in your name and collects the refund electronically. The felon draws out the money and closes the account. What monies can this perpetrator take? I have seen them “manufacture” fake W-2s with fake withholdings that the IRS does not cross-check for sometime later. Even though this person is not taking YOUR money, they are preventing you from filing your tax return and holding up your legitimate tax refund. You will also be required to use a PIN when filing your return in the future.

The best defense is to file your return before the felon does locking him out.

Here is information from www.nextadvisor.com that is more comprehensive in dealing with the breach.

Sign up for identity theft protection which will be much better than what Anthem is offering
Be suspicious of strange phone calls, emails, and letters.
Shred your junk mail and documents before throwing them out.
Protect your medical identity and do not give out any information unless you are sure of who you are corresponding with
Be on alert for tax identity theft.

It is always good to be proactive regarding fraud. Don’t be caught offguard.

Employer Responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)

Here is another attempt by the IRS to explain employer’s responsibilities in the never-ending saga of Obamacare. If you are a growing business, make sure you are aware of the number threshold of employees requiring you to purchase health insurance.

Employers with 50 or more full-time and full-time-equivalent employees are generally considered to be “applicable large employers” (ALEs) under the employer shared responsibility provisions of the ACA. Applicable large employers are subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions. However, more than 95 percent of employers are not ALEs and are not subject to these provisions because they have fewer than 50 full-time and full-time-equivalent employees.

Whether an employer is an ALE is determined each calendar year based on employment and hours of service data from the prior calendar year. An employer can find information about determining the size of its workforce in the employer shared responsibility provision questions and answers section of the IRS.gov/aca website and in the related final regulations.

In general, beginning January 1, 2015, ALEs with at least 100 full-time and full-time equivalent employees must offer affordable health coverage that provides minimum value to their full-time employees and their dependents or they may be subject to an employer shared responsibility payment. (On January 1, 2016 that threshold is lowered to 50 employees.) This payment would apply only if at least one of its full-time employees receives a premium tax credit through enrollment in a state based Marketplace or a federally facilitated or Marketplace. Also, starting in 2016 ALEs must report to the IRS information about the health care coverage, if any, they offered to their full-time employees for calendar year 2015, and must also furnish related statements to their full-time employees.

For 2014, the IRS will not assess employer shared responsibility payments and the information reporting related to the employer shared responsibility provisions is voluntary. In addition, the employer shared responsibility provisions will be phased in for smaller ALEs from 2015 to 2016. Specifically, ALEs that meet certain conditions regarding maintenance of workforce size and coverage in 2014 are not subject to the employer shared responsibility provision for 2015. For these employers, no employer shared responsibility payment will apply for any calendar month during 2015 (including, for an employer with a non-calendar year plan, the months in 2016 that are part of the 2015 plan year). However these employers are required to meet the information reporting requirements for 2015. The employer shared responsibility provision questions and answers section of the IRS.gov/aca website and the preamble to the employer shared responsibility final regulations describe the requirements for this relief in more detail. Both resources also describe additional forms of transition relief that apply for 2015.

Small employers, specifically those with fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees, may be eligible for the small business health care tax credit.

Regardless of the number of employees, if an employer sponsors a self-insured health plan, it must report to the IRS certain information about its health insurance coverage plan for each covered employee.

More information

Find out more about the small business health care tax credit, applicable large employers, the employer shared responsibility provision, information reporting requirements and the premium tax credit at IRS.gov/aca.

Find out more about the health care law at HealthCare.gov.

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