Acuity Blog

Use qualified auditors for your employee benefit plans

Employee Benefits Blue Marker

Employee benefit plans with 100 or more participants must generally provide an audit report when filing IRS Form 5500 each year. Plan administrators have fiduciary responsibilities to hire independent qualified public accountants to perform quality audits.

Select a qualified auditor

ERISA guidelines require employee benefit plan auditors to be licensed or certified public accountants. They also require auditors to be independent. In other words, they can’t have a financial interest in the plan or the plan sponsor that would bias their opinion about a plan’s financial condition.

But specialization also matters. The more training and experience that an auditor has with plan audits, the more familiar he or she will be with benefit plan practices and operations, as well as the special auditing standards and rules that apply to such plans. Examples of audit areas that are unique to employee benefit plans include contributions, benefit payments, participant data, and party-in-interest and prohibited transactions.

Ask questions

Employee benefit plan audits are a matter of more than just compliance. The auditor’s report highlights any problems unearthed during the audit, which can serve as a springboard for improving plan operations. The conclusion of audit work is a good time to ask such questions as the following:

  • Have plan assets covered by the audit been fairly valued?
  • Are plan obligations properly stated and described?
  • Were contributions to the plan received in a timely manner?
  • Were benefit payments made in accordance with plan terms?
  • Did the auditor identify any issues that may impact the plan’s tax status?
  • Did the auditor identify any transactions that are prohibited under ERISA?

Experienced auditors can also suggest ways to improve your plan’s operations based on their audit findings.

Protect yourself

Employee benefit plan audits offer critical protection to plan administrators and employees. Your company can’t afford to skimp when it comes to hiring an auditor who is unbiased, experienced and reliable. Contact us for more information on hiring a plan auditor.

© 2017


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Can the WOTC save tax for your business?

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Employers that hire individuals who are members of a “target group” may be eligible for the Work Opportunity tax credit (WOTC). If you made qualifying hires in 2016 and obtained proper certification, you can claim the WOTC on your 2016 tax return. Whether or not you’re eligible for 2016, keep the WOTC in mind in your 2017 hiring, because the credit is also available for 2017.

In fact, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (the PATH Act) extended the WOTC through 2019. The PATH Act also expanded the credit beginning in 2016 to apply to employers that hire qualified individuals who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more.

What are the “target groups’?

Besides the long-term unemployed, target groups include:

  • Designated community residents who live in Empowerment Zones or rural renewal counties,
  • Long-term family assistance recipients,
  • Qualified ex-felons,
  • Qualified recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF),
  • Qualified veterans,
  • Summer youth employees,
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients,
  • Supplemental Security Income benefits recipients, and
  • Vocational rehabilitation referrals for individuals who suffer from an employment handicap resulting from a physical or mental handicap.

How much is the credit worth?

Qualifying employers can claim the WOTC as a general business credit against their income tax. The amount of the credit depends on the:

  • Target group of the individual hired,
  • Wages paid to that individual, and
  • Number of hours that individual worked during the first year of employment.

The maximum credit that can be earned for each member of a target group is generally $2,400 per employee. The credit can be as high as $9,600 for certain veterans. Employers aren’t subject to a limit on the number of eligible individuals they can hire. In other words, if there are 10 individuals that qualify, the credit can be 10 times the amount listed.

Certification requirement

Before you can claim the WOTC, you must obtain certification from a “designated local agency” (DLA) that the hired individual is indeed a target group member. You must submit IRS Form 8850, “Pre-Screening Notice and Certification Request for the Work Opportunity Credit,” to the DLA no later than the 28th day after the individual begins work for you.

But if you hired long-term unemployment recipients between January 1, 2016, and May 31, 2016, the IRS extended the deadline to June 29, 2016, as long as the individuals started work for you on or after January 1, 2016, and before June 1, 2016.

The WOTC can lower your company’s tax liability when you hire qualified new employees. We can help you determine whether an employee qualifies, calculate the applicable credit and answer other questions you might have.

© 2017


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IFRS vs. GAAP: Some public companies want a choice

IFRS on blackboard

U.S. public companies are required to report their financial results using U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). But, since 2007, hundreds of foreign companies listed on U.S. stock markets have been able to report financial results using International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) instead of GAAP. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently considering a proposal that, if approved, would allow domestic companies to supplement their GAAP results with IFRS results. Here’s the latest.

Dueling standards

Throughout the world, companies use two predominant accounting standards to report their financial results: GAAP and IFRS. The primary difference is that GAAP tends to be prescriptive and rules-based, whereas IFRS tends to be subjective and principles-based.

There are also subtle differences in the accounting methods that are allowed under each standard. For example, the last-in, first-out inventory (LIFO) method is common in the United States, but it’s not permitted under IFRS.

History lesson

Most of the countries in the world, including member states of the European Union, have adopted IFRS. And they’ve been increasingly pressuring U.S. accounting regulators to use global accounting standards.

In 2008, the SEC floated the idea of adopting IFRS as the primary financial reporting regime for U.S. companies. Then the financial crisis hit. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) continued working on convergence projects. But it was clear that U.S. interest in IFRS had started to wane.

In 2012, the SEC released a much-awaited report on IFRS in the United States. The report described the challenges of adopting IFRS, rather than making recommendations on whether international accounting standards should be used for domestic companies.

Work in progress

Last year, the SEC announced plans to issue a proposal that would allow U.S. public companies to voluntarily disclose limited IFRS information as non-GAAP supplemental information to their regular GAAP financial statements.

However, this proposal was put on hold because of leadership changes at the SEC (due to the new presidential administration as well as an unrelated resignation of the Chief Accountant last fall). Once rulemaking efforts resume full-swing, public companies with global operations may pressure the SEC to issue a proposal that would permit supplemental IFRS disclosures, as well as to continue pursuing additional IFRS convergence efforts.

© 2017

 


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SEPs: A powerful retroactive tax planning tool

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Simplified Employee Pensions (SEPs) are sometimes regarded as the “no-brainer” first choice for high-income small-business owners who don’t currently have tax-advantaged retirement plans set up for themselves. Why? Unlike other types of retirement plans, a SEP is easy to establish and a powerful retroactive tax planning tool: The deadline for setting up a SEP is favorable and contribution limits are generous.

SEPs do have a couple of downsides if the business has employees other than the owner: 1) Contributions must be made for all eligible employees using the same percentage of compensation as for the owner, and 2) employee accounts are immediately 100% vested.

Deadline for set-up and contributions

A SEP can be established as late as the due date (including extensions) of the business’s income tax return for the tax year for which the SEP is to first apply. For example:

  • A calendar-year partnership or S corporation has until March 15, 2017, to establish a SEP for 2016 (September 15, 2017, if the return is extended).
  • A calendar-year sole proprietor or C corporation has until April 18, 2017 (October 16, 2017, if the return is extended), because of their later filing deadlines.

The deadlines for limited liability companies (LLCs) depend on the tax treatment the LLC has elected. Furthermore, the business has until these same deadlines to make 2016 contributions and still claim a potentially hefty deduction on its 2016 return.

Generally, other types of retirement plans would have to have been established by December 31, 2016, in order for 2016 contributions to be made (though many of these plans do allow 2016 contributions to be made in 2017).

Contribution amounts

Contributions to SEPs are discretionary. The business can decide what amount of contribution it will make each year. The contributions go into SEP-IRAs established for each eligible employee.

For 2016, the maximum contribution that can be made to a SEP-IRA is 25% of compensation (or 20% of self-employed income net of the self-employment tax deduction) of up to $265,000, subject to a contribution cap of $53,000. The 2017 limits are $270,000 and $54,000, respectively.

Setting up a SEP is easy

A SEP is established by completing and signing the very simple Form 5305-SEP (“Simplified Employee Pension — Individual Retirement Accounts Contribution Agreement”). Form 5305-SEP is not filed with the IRS, but it should be maintained as part of the business’s permanent tax records. A copy of Form 5305-SEP must be given to each employee covered by the SEP, along with a disclosure statement.

Of course, additional rules and limits do apply to SEPs, but they’re generally much less onerous than those for other retirement plans. If you think a SEP might be good for your business, please contact us.

© 2017


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Is annual financial reporting enough?

Business man with stethoscope. Business, health, technology concept

Businesses generally issue year-end financial statements to let investors and lenders evaluate their financial health. But proactive stakeholders — including the company’s CEO and board of directors — may want more than one “snapshot” per year of financial results. Interim statements let stakeholders know how a company is doing each quarter or month, but they also have drawbacks and limitations.

Benefits

Interim reports may provide signals of impending financial turmoil due to, say, the loss of a major customer, significant uncollectible accounts receivable or pilfered inventory. Or they might confirm that a turnaround plan appears successful or that a startup has finally achieved profits. In short, they allow stakeholders to check up on performance, giving them either midyear peace of mind or the opportunity to implement corrective measures early on.

Limitations

But beware: Interim financials usually don’t conform to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Outside accounting firms rarely review or audit interim statements because of the cost to do so. Absent external oversight, internal finance and accounting personnel with bad news to report might be tempted to cook the books to appear more profitable.

Interim numbers may omit many of the adjustments that external accountants make at year end, such as estimates for bad-debt write-offs, accrued expenses, prepaid items, management bonuses or income taxes. In addition, some companies save tedious bookkeeping procedures, such as physical inventory counts and updating depreciation schedules, until year end. So interim account balances might reflect last year’s amounts or be based on historic gross margins.

It’s also important to realize that some companies are seasonal. If there are operating peaks and troughs, for example, you can’t multiply quarterly profits by four to reliably predict year-end performance. For seasonal operations, you may want to benchmark last year’s monthly (or quarterly) results against the current year-to-date numbers.

When the numbers don’t add up

If interim statements reveal irregularities or trigger concerns, consider seeking outside accounting expertise. We can conduct a forensic investigation or agreed-upon procedures that target high-risk account balances or an account that was previously adjusted by auditors. Contact us for more information.

© 2017

 


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