Please join us at this year’s Life Beyond Numbers Expo! This event is geared at retirees vetting vendors in the following fields: accounting and taxation, assisted living, interior design, high-end travel, health and wellness, etc. Details below.

Friday, October 4th

Exhibit Hall open from: 9:30 AM – 2:00 PM
Breakout Sessions at: 10:30 AM, 11:15 AM, 12:00 PM, & 12:45 PM

Springfield Golf & Country Club
8301 Old Keene Mill Road, Springfield, VA 22152

Register at https://campbellwealth.com/lifebeyondnumbersexpo

As the holiday season begins and another year comes to a close, we want to invite you to a timely workshop to help ensure your financial planning and tax ducks are in a row before the end of the year. We have teamed up with Campbell Wealth Management to educate our clients and their guests on the moves that they should consider making before December 31, 2018 and April 15, 2019 as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

This is an educational event for the clients of two different firms, and seating is extremely limited. Please RSVP by Friday, November 23 by emailing Ariana at ariana@rossmoncure.com.

Crowne Plaza – Old Town
901 N. Fairfax St., Alexandria, VA 22314

Date Option 1: Wednesday, November 28th at 6:30 PM
Date Option 2: Tuesday, December 4th at 11:00 AM

We cannot emphasize enough the trouble and headaches that identity theft can cause. Please find an excellent article here, published via the American Institute of CPAs.

May 1st, 2016 and January 1, 2018 are significant dates for anyone depending on retirement income. In this workshop, we will cover fundamentals that seek to maximize income under the new Social Security rules and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

A morning event and an evening event are offered:

Morning Event – 26 April
Location: Crowne Plaza Old Town, 901 N Fairfax St, Alexandria, VA 22314
Time: 11AM to 12:30PM
There is no charge for this event.

Evening Event – 3 May
Location: Crowne Plaza Old Town, 901 N Fairfax St, Alexandria, VA 22314
Time: 6PM to 7:30PM
There is no charge for this event.

RSVP to Lauren at lauren@rossmoncure.com, and please do specify whether you will attend the morning or evening event. If you have questions or issues that you would like addressed, please submit them in advance to Rachel at r@rossmoncure.com. We appreciate your questions, as they make for a more engaging session!

Join us as we examine the financial planning and tax strategies arising from the TCJA
Hosted by a panel of CPAs from Capital Asset Management Group and Ross & Moncure Inc., this workshop will help you understand and implement the tax strategies that matter most to families and individuals.

When: Wednesday, January 24th at 6:30 pm

Where: 1000 Potomac St. NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20007

Parking: Validated in Capital Asset Management Group’s garage on Water St.

There is limited seating, so register now while reservations are still available!
Heavy hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be served.
Driving and Parking instructions will be sent after your RSVP.

Campbell Wealth Management of Old Town will hold two education events on 2017 year-end tax planning featuring Ross & Moncure’s accountants Brian Davis, Luci Weigel and Sandy Brown. All Campbell Wealth Management and Ross & Moncure clients are invited to attend. Campbell Wealth Management is a local boutique financial advisory specializing in high-net-worth individuals in or approaching retirement. Our firms share a commitment to working toward retirement certainty for our clients.

The purpose of the event is to prepare clients for the 2017 financial year-end. We will cover (1) strategies to minimize annual income taxes, (2) estate planning, and (3) 2017 legislative changes that will affect your tax bill. We anticipate a lot of interest in this event due to the pending large changes to the IRS Code, and we encourage you to register early to secure your seat.

A morning event and an evening event are offered:

MORNING – 28 NOVEMBER
Location: Crowne Plaza Old Town, Kennedy Room (second floor), 901 N Fairfax St, Alexandria, VA 22314
Time: 11AM to 12:30PM
There is no charge for this event.

EVENING – 7 DECEMBER
Location: Crowne Plaza Old Town, Kennedy Room (second floor), 901 N Fairfax St, Alexandria, VA 22314
Time: 6:30PM to 8PM
There is no charge for this event.

RSVP to Nataya at nataya@rossmoncure.com, and please do specify whether you will attend the morning or evening event. If you have questions or issues that you would like addressed, please submit them in advance to Rachel at r@rossmoncure.com. We appreciate your questions, as they make for a more engaging session!

In 2017, hackers accessed 143 million+ American consumers’ personal information via Equifax, one of America’s three primary credit reporting agencies. The data leaked included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and driver’s license numbers.

Our Recommendation: Next Steps

(1) Determine if your information was exposed at www.equifaxsecurity2017.com. From this site, click on the “Potential Impact” tab. You can then sign up for free credit monitoring.

(2) Check your credit reports periodically at www.annualcreditreport.com. Add a “Credit Freeze” or “Fraud Alert” to your credit file by calling Equifax (800-349-9960), Experian (888-397-3742) and TransUnion (888-909-8872). A fraud alert allows creditors to get a copy of your credit report only if they take steps to verify your identity. If you are very worried, you can choose to place a “credit freeze” on your account; however, be aware that a credit freeze will lock your credit and may impair your ability to get credit if you need access to money quickly, such as when an emergency arises. A fraud alert will still allow you to obtain credit, but potential creditors will ask for additional verification of your identity.

(3) File your tax returns early. Filing early is your best defense against tax-related identity theft. Submit your tax return as early as possible, before identity thieves have a chance to file a phony tax return and claim a refund using your information. Be prepared to include the details from your driver’s license to help state tax authorities verify your identity. Many states already encourage you to include your driver’s license number, issue date and expiration date with your electronically-filed tax return; a few states even require it. Providing those details can help the tax authorities process your return more quickly than will be possible without that extra information.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Luci Weigel.

Campbell Wealth Management of Old Town will hold two education events titled “A Wise Woman’s Guide to Financial Planning” featuring Ross & Moncure’s accountants Brian Davis, Luci Weigel and Sandy Brown. All Campbell Wealth Management and Ross & Moncure clients are invited to attend. Campbell Wealth Management is a local boutique financial advisory specializing in high-net-worth individuals in or approaching retirement. Our firms share a commitment to working toward retirement certainty for our clients.

During this session, we will address estate planning, spousal inheritance, retirement and downsizing, social security maximization, and income planning.

Location: Crowne Plaza Old Town, 901 N Fairfax St, Alexandria, VA 22314

Event 1: Wednesday, June 14th at 9:30am
Event 2: Thursday, June 22nd at 6pm

RSVP to Laura at laura.reynolds@rossmoncure.com, and please specify whether you will join us for the morning or the evening session.

We are partnering with Wade, Grimes, Friedman, Sutter  & Leischner, PLLC of Old Town to offer two workshops to our clients on “Piercing the Corporate Veil: When LLC’s and Corporations May Be At Risk”. Please find a brief overview of our agenda below, though this is subject to change.

(1) Relevant Tax Updates

(2) Preventing Personal Liability Related to Entity Ownership

(3) Self-Settled Spendthrift Trusts

Dates: Tuesday the 24^th of January and Thursday the 26^th of January —  5:30PM to 6:30PM

RSVP: Each session will be limited to ten participants on a first come, first served basis. Please let us know at r@rossmoncure.com if you are able to attend. The location will be provided by Rachel if space is still available.

If there is only one shareholder and no other employees, should all distributions be taken out as Reasonable Compensation?

1. If the business or the services of the shareholder are so unique that no one replace the owner and there are no other assets in the corporation, then everything taken out of the business should be treated as wages (Reasonable Compensation) and nothing should be considered a distribution.
2. If the corporation has tangible assets, such as equipment or inventory, the owner deserves a return on that investment. Likewise, if the business has employees or uses contractors, the owner deserves a return on that investment as well.
3. If the corporation has intangible assets, such as goodwill, a license to operate or a favorable lease, the shareholder should receive a return on these assets. These assets may or may not have a tax basis. An example of this would be internally developed goodwill.

Reasonable Compensation is based on the value of services provided by the shareholder to the corporation. Any additional cash available for withdrawal from the business can be taken out in the form of a distribution of earnings and profits. Reasonable Compensation must be paid before distributions are made. The return on investments accumulated since inception should be equal to or greater than the accumulated distributions. If the accumulated distribution exceeds the accumulated return on investments, all assumptions need to be reviewed and adjusted. It may be necessary to adjust the Reasonable Compensation, the value of the assets or the return on investments.

Single shareholder employees of S corporations only providing services will frequently assert that they cannot be replaced.  While this may be true on rare occasions,  more than likely they have answered incorrectly.  It may be that they do not fully understand the question. Any discussion about replacing a business owner within a company in relation to Reasonable Compensation, is about the hypothetical replacement cost of the owner. Small business owners often believe that they are irreplaceable assets, when in reality all the services they perform can be done by others.  The owners think of their consideration devotion to the company, sleepless nights, and other intangibles.  While this is probably true, it is again a matter of the hypothetical replacement of the owner.

If you have questions about the amount of compensation that you are taking from your S Corporation, call us to discuss.