#compliance
Compliance
Navigate regulatory compliance and maintain audit-ready financial records
Natural vs. Functional Expense Classification: How Nonprofits Build the Form 990 Statement of Functional Expenses
Since ASU 2016-14, every nonprofit filing a full Form 990 must allocate expenses across program, management and general, and fundraising using a reasonable, consistent methodology — here's how time studies, square footage, and headcount allocation actually work, and the five mistakes that draw auditor scrutiny.
Organized Retail Crime and Theft-Aggregation Laws: A Small Retailer's Guide
More than 30 states now let prosecutors combine multiple small thefts into one felony charge under aggregation laws, making dated incident logs and police reports essential for both prosecution and the IRC §165 business theft-loss tax deduction.
Paying Employees in Cryptocurrency: Payroll Withholding, W-2 Reporting, and State Law Compliance
The IRS treats crypto wages as property valued at fair market value on the date of receipt — fully subject to income tax withholding, FICA, and FUTA, and reported on Form W-2. Here's how to value payments defensibly, avoid state minimum-wage violations, and prepare for Form 1099-DA cross-referencing in 2026.
Portable Benefits for Gig Workers: What the New State Laws Actually Do in 2026
Utah, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and West Virginia have passed portable benefits laws letting businesses fund contractor health, retirement, or PTO accounts without that contribution counting as evidence of misclassification under state law — but the safe harbor is state-only and doesn't touch federal IRS or DOL tests.
Portable Benefits for Independent Contractors: A Guide to the New State Laws
Utah, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and West Virginia now let businesses contribute to an independent contractor's portable benefit account without that contribution counting as evidence of employment. How the state safe harbors work, what Utah's 50% tax credit (up to $2,000 per contractor) covers, and how to track contributions in your books.
San Francisco's Commercial Vacancy Tax: Filing Rules, Rates, and Exemptions for Storefront Owners
San Francisco's Commercial Vacancy Tax charges $250 to $1,000 per linear foot of street frontage for ground-floor storefronts vacant more than 182 days a year in named neighborhood commercial districts. Every owner and tenant of a covered space must file an annual return even if fully occupied — and the separate $1,850 DBI vacant storefront registration is a second obligation entirely.
Scrap Metal Recycling Center Bookkeeping: Cash Purchases, Seller IDs, and Form 8300 Compliance
Forty-five states require scrap yards to keep seller-ID records, cash caps run as low as $30 (Washington), and IRS Form 8300 is due within 15 days on cash over $10,000. A practical guide to building a purchase ledger that survives police, state regulator, and IRS scrutiny.
The 2026 SIMPLE IRA Two-Tier Contribution Limits: $17,000 vs. $18,100 Explained
For 2026 the standard SIMPLE IRA elective deferral limit is $17,000, but employers with 25 or fewer employees (or 26-100 that raise their match) get an enhanced $18,100 limit under SECURE 2.0 — and a rounding quirk means the enhanced-tier catch-up contribution is actually lower than the standard one.
State Sales Tax Now Reaches Consulting, IT, and SaaS: A 2026 Guide for Service Businesses
Washington, Maryland, and Maine now tax IT support, consulting, and technology services as retail sales, and California's SB 122 makes SaaS taxable starting January 2027 — service businesses should check economic nexus and taxability state by state before the next filing deadline.
The Subchapter V Bankruptcy Debt Limit in 2026: What Small Businesses Need to Know
In 2026 the Subchapter V small-business bankruptcy debt limit is $3,424,000, down from the pandemic-era $7.5 million ceiling that expired in June 2024 — a bill in Congress could restore the higher threshold for businesses currently locked out of the cheaper reorganization track.
The USMCA Joint Review Started July 2026: A Small Business Guide to Tariff Risk
The USMCA's mandatory six-year joint review began July 1, 2026, giving the US, Mexico, and Canada until 2036 to decide whether to extend the agreement—small businesses claiming preferential tariff treatment should audit certificates of origin now, since a paperwork gap can be treated as customs fraud during heightened review-period scrutiny.
Visa and Mastercard Just Tightened Chargeback Monitoring Again: What the 2026 VAMP Threshold Cut Means for Merchants
Visa lowered its VAMP excessive-merchant threshold from 2.2% to 1.5% on April 1, 2026, with fines of $8 per flagged transaction, and Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Program still triggers at 100+ monthly chargebacks — here's how the ratio math catches small merchants off guard and how to bring it back under the line.