Benford’s Law is a long-standing statistical precept that remains as relevant in fighting fraud as ever. The premise is that, in sets of random data, multidigit numbers beginning with 1, 2 or 3 are more likely to occur than those starting with 4 through 9. But crooks don’t necessarily know this. When manipulating financial data,
Ellenbogen
Oct 22, 2019
Oct 17, 2019
Understanding and controlling the unemployment tax costs of your business
- By Ellenbogen
- Business
- 0 Comments
Employers must pay federal unemployment tax on amounts up to $7,000 paid to each employee as wages during the year. The tax rate is 6% but it can be reduced by a credit for contributions paid into state unemployment funds. Typically, the more claims made against a business, the higher the unemployment tax bill. But
Oct 16, 2019
Is a self-directed IRA right for you?
- By Ellenbogen
- Estate, Financial Planning
- 0 Comments
Traditional and Roth IRAs can be powerful estate planning tools. With a “self-directed” IRA, you may be able to amp up the benefits of these tools by enabling them to hold nontraditional investments that offer potentially greater returns. Self-directed IRAs offer the same estate planning benefits as traditional IRAs, but they allow you to transfer
Oct 15, 2019
Take advantage of the gift tax exclusion rules
- By Ellenbogen
- Taxes
- 0 Comments
As we head toward gift-giving season, you may be considering giving cash or securities to your loved ones. Taxpayers can transfer amounts free of gift taxes to their children or others each year through the use of the annual federal gift tax exclusion. For 2019, the exclusion is $15,000 to each person. If you’re married,
Oct 10, 2019
Avoid excess benefit transactions and keep your exempt status
- By Ellenbogen
- Non-Profit
- 0 Comments
Certain activities can increase a not-for-profit’s risk of losing its tax-exempt status. These include ignoring the IRS’s private benefit and private inurement provisions. A private benefit is any payment made by a nonprofit that’s beyond reasonable compensation for the services provided or goods sold or for services or products that don’t further your tax-exempt purpose.
Oct 8, 2019
Typosquatters profit from common user errors
- By Ellenbogen
- Fraud
- 0 Comments
The Web has opened plenty of new avenues for criminal behavior. For example, you may have heard of cybersquatting. Someone registers a site’s domain name that includes a trademark and then tries to profit by selling that name to the trademark owner. But are you familiar with typosquatting? You should be — because these schemes
Oct 3, 2019
Withdraw cash from your corporation while avoiding dividend treatment
- By Ellenbogen
- Business, Taxes
- 0 Comments
Do you want to withdraw cash from your closely held corporation at a low tax cost? The easiest way is to distribute cash as a dividend. However, a dividend distribution is taxable to you as a shareholder but it’s not deductible by the corporation. But there are several alternatives that may allow you to withdraw
Oct 2, 2019
The chances of an IRS audit are low, but business owners should be prepared
- By Ellenbogen
- Business, Taxes
- 0 Comments
As a business owner, are you worried about an IRS audit? The good news is that the odds against being audited are in your favor. The IRS audited 0.6% of individuals in fiscal year 2018. Businesses and high-income people are more likely to be audited, but audit rates are historically low. However, some tax return
Oct 2, 2019
Withdraw cash from your corporation while avoiding dividend treatment
- By Ellenbogen
- Business, Taxes
- 0 Comments
Do you want to withdraw cash from your closely held corporation at a low tax cost? The easiest way is to distribute cash as a dividend. However, a dividend distribution is taxable to you as a shareholder but it’s not deductible by the corporation. But there are several alternatives that may allow you to withdraw
Oct 1, 2019
Getting the goods on hidden assets
- By Ellenbogen
- Fraud
- 0 Comments
An acrimonious divorce, ownership dispute or occupational theft incident could all lead an individual or business to wrongfully hide items of value. In such cases, fraud experts use a variety of tools to uncover the assets, starting with net worth analysis. This looks at changes in a person’s worth, reconciling those changes with income and