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Plain-text accounting insights, tutorials, and updates from the Beancount.io team.

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14 min read

Your Workers' Comp Premium Audit Is Coming: How to Pass Without a Surprise Bill

A workers' comp premium is payroll ÷ 100 × class rate × experience mod, so the year-end audit re-tests both variables against your actual records. This guide covers the three audit types and what triggers each, the documents auditors request, why overtime premium is only excludable when recorded separately by employee and week under NCCI Rule 2-B-2, the 2026 NCCI officer caps of $3,400 weekly maximum and $1,700 minimum, and why payments to a subcontractor without a current certificate of insurance get charged to you as payroll.

Mike Thrift

payrollinsuranceaudit
14 min read

Why Zelle Never Sends You a 1099-K (and Why That Doesn't Mean the Money Is Tax-Free)

Zelle is not a third-party settlement organization under Section 6050W, so it files no 1099-K at any amount — while Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Stripe, and Square do once the federal threshold of more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions is met, restored retroactively by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Income is taxable either way, and this guide shows the reconciliation system that keeps multi-rail freelance books accurate.

Mike Thrift

tax-compliancepaymentsfreelance
17 min read

Why Your SaaS Can Owe State Tax on Sales You Never "Made" Anywhere: The Throwback and Throwout Trap

A throwback rule can push a home-state sales factor from 20% to 60% on the same revenue by adding untaxed 'nowhere' sales back to the numerator; throwout, which shrinks the denominator instead, takes it to 33%. About 20 states plus D.C. still throw back tangible sales, five repealed their rules since 2019, and P.L. 86-272 protects none of your SaaS receipts.

Mike Thrift

multi-state-taxsaasnexus
14 min read

Virginia's New 5-Employee Discrimination Threshold: An SB 637 Compliance Guide

Effective July 1, 2026, Virginia's SB 637 drops the Virginia Human Rights Act employer threshold from 15 employees to 5 and extends the filing window from 300 days to two years. Any business with five or more employees for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks is now covered for every prohibited practice — not just discharge. Here is the 20-week counting rule, a seven-step compliance checklist, and the payroll and retention records an investigator asks for first.

Mike Thrift

compliancesmall-businesslegal
13 min read

Vermont Saves and New York Secure Choice: The 2026 Auto-IRA Rules for Small Employers

Vermont Saves reached employers with five or more workers on July 1, 2026, and New York Secure Choice finished its three-wave rollout on July 15, 2026. What each program requires, the penalties ($20 rising to $75 per employee in Vermont, $250 per employee per year in New York), and how to book the withholding as a payroll liability rather than an expense.

Mike Thrift

payrollretirement-planscompliance
12 min read

Your Business Is Not a Retirement Plan: Why 34% of Owners Save Nothing and How to Fix It in 2026

34% of U.S. small business owners have no retirement plan, and more than 80% of a typical owner's net worth sits inside the business. This guide compares the SEP IRA, Solo 401(k), and SIMPLE IRA at 2026 limits ($72,000, $24,500 deferral, $17,000), explains the SECURE 2.0 credits worth up to $5,000 a year for three years, and gives a five-step plan to start saving this quarter.

Mike Thrift

retirement-plansretirement-savingssep-ira
16 min read

The Silver Tsunami Is Here: How to Buy or Sell a Business in the $5 Trillion Great Ownership Transfer

About 6 million U.S. small and mid-sized businesses will change hands by 2035 as baby boomer owners retire, and McKinsey estimates more than 1 million of those are sellable, representing up to $5 trillion in enterprise value — yet only about 35% of owners have a succession plan. This guide covers the three-year seller timeline, how valuation multiples of 2x to 4x SDE are earned, SBA 7(a) and seller-financing structures for buyers, due diligence, and the bookkeeping habits that separate a sellable business from one that quietly closes.

Mike Thrift

succession-planningbusiness-exitbusiness-valuation
15 min read

When 5% of Your Customers Drive 40% of Your Returns: Serial Returners, Returns Reserves, and Refund Liability

ASC 606 treats a right of return as variable consideration, so an $80,000 sales month with a 9% historical return rate is $72,800 of net revenue, a $7,200 refund liability, and a recoverable-inventory asset — not $80,000 booked as final. This guide shows how to build a category-weighted reserve from 12 months of your own data, flag the 5 to 10% of buyers who generate 30 to 40% of returns, and apply graduated account limits that stay documented and defensible.

Mike Thrift

ecommerceretailrevenue-recognition
14 min read

Is an 18% Service Charge a Tip? The IRS Four-Factor Test and What It Costs Your Restaurant Payroll

A mandatory service charge fails the IRS four-factor tip test, so it is wages rather than tip income — you owe both FICA shares on it, lose the Section 45B credit on Form 8846, and it is excluded from the new OBBBA qualified-tip deduction. Covers the four-factor test, the journal entries that keep Service Charge Revenue separate from Tips Payable, and the payroll, tip-credit, sales tax, and fee-disclosure changes a restaurant hits the day it switches.

Mike Thrift

restaurantpayrolltax-compliance
12 min read

Is a Remote Work Stipend Taxable? Accountable Plans, Substantiation, and What Lands on the W-2

A $75-a-month internet stipend paid without documentation is supplemental wages — reportable in W-2 Box 1 and costing the employer roughly 7.65% in matching payroll tax on top. The same $75 is tax-free and off the W-2 under a written accountable plan meeting all three tests in Treasury Regulation 1.62-2 — business connection, substantiation within 60 days, and return of excess within 120 days. This guide covers the two IRS paths, the five mistakes that flip a plan to taxable, the separate GL accounts and payroll pay types that keep the treatment straight, and the state statutes that require reimbursement regardless of federal tax treatment.

Mike Thrift

remote-workaccountable-planpayroll
17 min read

QuickBooks Desktop 2023 Support Ended May 31, 2026: Your Migration Checklist

QuickBooks Desktop 2023 hit end of support on May 31, 2026 — payroll tax tables stopped updating, bank feeds, Desktop Payments, direct deposit, e-filing, Workforce, online backup and security patches all shut off on June 1, while local company files still open normally. A pre-migration cleanup checklist, the three viable paths (QuickBooks Online, Enterprise, or a different platform), the Desktop-to-Online export steps, and the post-migration reconciliation that proves the ledger moved intact.

Mike Thrift

quickbooksmigrationpayroll
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