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

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Wales Business Rates 2026: The Three-Tier Multiplier and the £116M Transitional Cushion

From 1 April 2026 Wales replaced its single non-domestic rates multiplier with three — 0.350 for retail under £51,000 rateable value, 0.502 standard, 0.515 above £100,000 — and is phasing revaluation increases above £300 at 33% in 2026-27 and 66% in 2027-28 with £116 million of transitional relief. Here is how to check which multiplier applies, verify the relief line on your bill, and budget the pre-programmed step-ups.

mike

tax-compliancesmall-businessretail

Trump Accounts and ERISA: How to Offer the $2,500 Employer Contribution Without Creating a Plan

DOL Technical Release 2026-02 says employer Trump Account contribution programs generally are not ERISA pension plans, provided participation is voluntary and the employer adds no conditions, investment influence, ERISA claims, or extra consideration. This guide covers the four conditions, how the $2,500 per-employee and $5,000 per-child caps interact, and the payroll coding that keeps both reconciled.

mike

employee-benefitspayrollcompliance

When a TPS Work Permit Expires: A Restaurant Employer's I-9 Reverification and Payroll Playbook

Haiti and Syria TPS employment authorization documents have lapsed after a summer of shifting USCIS dates, and continuing to schedule an affected worker exposes a restaurant to per-worker penalties under INA section 274A. This guide covers the Form I-9 Supplement B reverification sequence, the five mistakes that turn paperwork into a discrimination claim, and how to book the overtime, temp-agency, and recruiting costs of rebuilding a roster.

mike

restaurantpayrollcompliance

Filed Early and Found a Mistake? How a Superseding Return Replaces Your Original Before the Deadline

A superseding return is a complete second return filed before the deadline (including extensions) that legally replaces your original, unlike a Form 1040-X amendment filed after it. It preserves elections reserved for original returns and can stop interest and penalties — but when filed during an extension period it does not reset the three-year assessment or refund clocks, which run from the first valid return.

mike

taxtax-filingtax-deadlines

The Student FICA Exemption: Who Qualifies, and Where Payroll Gets It Wrong

Wages paid to a student by the school they attend are exempt from the 7.65% FICA tax under IRC Section 3121(b)(10), but only when the worker clears all four Revenue Procedure 2005-11 tests — at least half-time enrollment, under 40 hours a week across all campus jobs, no professional role, and no career-employee benefits. This guide covers the safe harbor, the five-week break rule, the graduation cliff, and how to correct withholding in either direction.

mike

payrolltax-compliancewithholding

When Steel and Copper Prices Move After You Bid: A Contractor's Guide to Estimates and Change Orders That Hold

Steel mill products are up roughly 21 percent and copper products 16–25 percent year over year after the April 2026 Section 232 tariff restructuring set a 50 percent duty on metal-heavy goods. This guide shows contractors how to break out metals as dated line items, tie escalation clauses to a published BLS index with clear thresholds and proof requirements, and run monthly job-cost reviews so price spikes become approved change orders instead of lost margin.

mike

constructionjob-costingtariffs

Why Splitting Cash Deposits to Stay Under $10,000 Can Be a Federal Crime — Even When the Money Is Clean

Structuring — breaking cash into sub-$10,000 deposits to avoid a Currency Transaction Report — is a felony under 31 U.S.C. 5324 carrying up to 5 years in prison, and the government never has to prove the money was dirty. Here is how CTRs and Form 8300 actually work, which innocent deposit habits look like evasion, and the cash records that prove your intent.

mike

compliancebsafincen

Elder Financial Exploitation: A Business Owner's Guide to Protecting Aging Parents' Money

Banks tied roughly $27 billion in suspicious activity to elder financial exploitation in the year ending June 2023, per FinCEN. A practical guide for business owners — the five scams draining parents' accounts, the warning signs to watch in their finances, how to get read-only visibility without starting a family fight, and the bookkeeping rules that protect you if you end up holding the power of attorney.

mike

fraud-preventionpersonal-financeestate-planning
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