Tracing Holocaust Victims’ Assets: An Investigative Auditor’s Perspective
1996, United States Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, began an inquiry into Swiss banks’ involvement in hiding Holocaust victims’ assets. Specifically, the inquiry examined the procedures by which the Swiss banks conducted the initial search in 1995 that stated that only 893 accounts were found, holding $32 million. The committee […]
Growing Business, Mounting Employment Taxes: A Bankler Case Study
Business growth is great. It’s the American dream. But without the right team on your side, the IRS can quickly turn that dream into a nightmare. “I failed to realize that middle management was the key to making it all work,” a business owner—now a Steven Bankler, CPA, Ltd. client—confessed when explaining how his company’s […]
Divorce And The Family Business
You won’t own your business forever. Many small business owners neglect to acknowledge that simple fact. Perhaps your exit will be planned to perfection and you’ll either sell to a third-party or leave via a strategic family succession plan. Or maybe life will throw you a curveball. Divorce is certainly one of those curveballs that […]
Employee Fraud Is More Common Than You Think
Is someone at your business “cooking the books” behind your back? Don’t bet against it. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), small businesses (with fewer than 100 employees) average 28 percent more fraud losses than large businesses. On average, those businesses lost more than $150,000 each. The ACFE recently provided methods to […]
Don’t Be Fooled: How You Can Detect Business Fraud
I’ve spent decades investigating business fraud as a forensic accountant and expert witness, often at the state and federal levels. The lessons I’ve learned about human behavior and motivation during this time have benefitted my clients in surprising ways. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the typical organization loses 5 percent of revenue […]
Exit Strategies: A Lesson From The Trenches
When Randy Smith started his own business at 28 years old, he truly set out on his own: with no partners and no investors. What he envisioned with his point-of-sale technology company, he achieved. Now, at 53, Smith has sold his company and successfully retired. We asked him to share some of the smart moves […]
How Much Is Your Business Really Worth?
While it may seem like it now, you won’t be running your business for all eternity. At some point, you’ll likely retire from or sell your company. To that end, you’ll need an exit strategy. When clients come to us without clear exit strategies, we often find that the hardest component for them to master […]
The Social Security Tax Trap
Taxes are behind one of the oldest business-owner curses: The more you pay yourself, the more it could cost you in the long run. A huge culprit in this scenario is the Social Security tax. Most often, what you put into Social Security is nowhere near what you get out of it in benefits. And […]
Your Family Business Structure Matters
Deciding how to structure your family business often comes down to what will save you the most in current taxes. With a business owned by multiple family members, however, there are other considerations with longer-range impact. In fact, your business structure could affect whether or not your family can remain in business for generations to […]
Family Succession Planning: Four Careful Considerations
I asked San Antonio business consultant John Dini, one of the nation’s leading experts on business ownership and exit planning, for his advice on handing down the family business. As the author of Hunting in a Farmer’s World, Beating the Boomer Bust and 11 Things You Absolutely Need to Know About Selling Your Business, Dini […]