Estate Planning Tips for the Sandwich Generation

Our CPAAI member firm in Pittsburgh H2R CPA firm recently posted this blog on estate planning tips for the sandwich Generation. The “sandwich generation” accounts for a large segment of the population. These are people who find themselves caring for both their children and their parents at the same time. In some cases, this includes providing parents with financial support. As a result, estate planning — which traditionally focuses on providing for one’s children — has expanded in many cases to include aging parents as well. Including your parents as beneficiaries of your estate plan raises a number of complex issues....

What is a Forensic Audit?

Is there really such a thing as a forensic audit? We get asked by attorneys frequently if we can perform a forensic audit. The truth is, there is no official product or service that a CPA offers that is called a “Forensic Audit”.  This is a term that has been bantered about in the legal community that has no basis in our standard professional literature.  Consumers often believe that a CPA performing a “Forensic Audit” is going to find all fraud and misdoings. Unfortunately, this is a false assumption. CPA’s reports are issued as “Audits”, “Reviews”, “Compilations”, “Agreed Upon Procedures” or…

What is a Trust?

“Help me!” cried my 89 year old great Aunt Ethel over the phone. Ethel was frightened and confused. She had listed her house for sale and was meeting with the realtor, who was pressuring her to sign a sales contract. As it turned out Ethel had dementia and was unable to make decisions on her own. Helping her clean her house, we discovered her trust papers. Many years ago she had “put her affairs in order.” She had a Revocable Living Trust. A Revocable Living Trust, also just called a living trust, is a written legal document created by you…

New Tax Rules for Meals and Entertainment

From our CPAAI member firm H2R CPAs in Pittsburgh, “New Tax Rules for Meals and Entertainment”. The article provides a summary of the new rules regarding meals and entertainment tax deductions, signed into law with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. by Nate DeFilippi, CPA, MBA H2R CPA is pleased to provide a summary of the new rules regarding meals and entertainment tax deductions, signed into law with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. We recommend that businesses update general ledgers in accordance with these changes to plan for the 2018 tax year. In general, the Act provides…

Internal Controls over Cash for Small Businesses and Not-For-Profits

Whether your organization is a not-for-profit or a small business, cash is one of your most valuable assets. It should be safeguarded by establishing internal controls to prevent fraud and identify errors. However, in small organizations, this may be a challenge due to limited resources for the following reasons: Hiring employees with the appropriate skillsets and experience to perform their responsibilities can be costly. For example hiring an accounting manager or CFO to prepare, organize, review, or interpret the financial reports versus hiring a bookkeeper for data entry is much more expensive. To reduce expenses, the more senior role may…

Qualified Transportation Benefits

One of the least anticipated provisions of the newly enacted “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” is that employers will no longer be able to deduct parking expenses (on the employer’s premises) for employee provided parking.  This seems odd in light of the fact that employees almost always assume that some type of free parking will be provided to them while they are working at the employer’s location.  Most employers wouldn’t want to be in the position of telling their employees they will now have to pay for their own parking.  Accordingly, business owners currently expensing monthly parking (not included as…