Gusto is my favorite company to work with for so many reasons… but it just got better as I have been watching how much effort they’ve put into researching cash flow options for their small business clientele.
I’ll be circling back to this list soon to explore these in an order that I think makes most sense for my client base; I’ve also emailed them about some City of Chicago and Cook County resources that should be added to the list.
But in the meantime, please check out their downloadable list of Federal, State, and Private resources for relief, loans and grants available to small businesses.
As they mention in the post:
This spreadsheet will regularly be updated with financial resources for small businesses. Check back for the most up-to-date information, and share it with a business owner who may benefit from the support.
We’ll also be creating similar resources for unemployment benefits and sick leave. Visit the Talk Shop homepage for our latest publications, and see our COVID-19 employer guide for more helpful info.
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
I’m getting a lot of questions on this one from clients and figured it would be good info for many out there.
If you own a small business and have had to lay off or furlough staff during this difficult time, you may wish to offer those who would like to assist an opportunity to contribute to a so-called “virtual tip jar”.
The issue is that tips are taxable income that should be run through payroll… whereas most of what we’re talking about right now are rightly termed as “gifts” — which are non-taxable to the recipient. Only if the gift exceeds $15k to any one recipient does the gifter (not recipient) have to file a gift tax return. The IRS requires that to qualify as a gift, the property (usually cash in this case) must be given without expecting to receive something of at least equal value in return.
It is reasonable to argue that these gifts are not lost wages or wage replacement — nor are they income to the company and then payroll to the staff. These are people who have simply lost their jobs through no fault of their own or the business owner’s, and we’ve become friends with these folks through the years and want to help. These are the people who’ve poured us that soothing cup of herbal tea during rough times, or a shot of tequila during rougher ones. They’ve taught us to mold clay, or taught our children music. We’ve gotten to know and love them and we want to help. That’s a gift. So here are a few “tips” for making sure your tips don’t inadvertently become taxable income to your business or your staff.
1) Make sure these are in fact gifts. No fair disguising actual sales of product or services, or trades. Don’t mess this up for everyone else.
2) Use GoFundMe, rather than an existing business method of collecting payments — not Paypal, Square, Stripe or anything else. The reason is that these businesses are required by law to send a 1099-K to you and the IRS, because the government is correct to assume that in general, those funds should be considered income. Whereas, the money in this case isn’t “income” to the business, so we need to make that clear by using GoFundMe, which is set up for arms-length gifting.
3) Secondly, use your personal name and your personal bank account for this — do not run it through the business and do not use the business EIN/ Tax ID. Again, we’re trying to make it clear that this money is just a gift to the employees out of the goodness of everyone’s heart, and not a replacement of wages that would be taxable via payroll.
4) Which brings me to another important point: do not run this through payroll. Think about it: all that is happening is that a disinterested but kind third party (a plain old nice human such as myself) decides to gift money to your staff because I feel bad that they are out of work. So I give you some money, since you’re a trustworthy person who has everyone’s contact info and can fairly distribute it. And you, personally, then take the funds and hand them out. No business account, no payroll, just an altruistic gift that you are passing along as the middle man.
There are certainly situations out there and arguments to be made that in some circumstances, these funds would qualify as income to the business, and then the payments would need to be made to employees via payroll. This is not a comprehensive post designed to address all of those alternative contexts — and should not be relied on as tax advice. Please consult with your CPA or attorney for specific questions about your own business.
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a huge fan of Hector Garcia and the various webinar series he’s presented through the years. He has done so much to help QuickBooks ProAdvisors and their clients, that we are all truly indebted to him.
He maintains this helpful approach by offering a free webinar about how to assist small business clients during this difficult time. Here’s the webinar — and I’ve summarized his notes and posted them below.
Summary of Hector Garcia’s COVID-19 for Small Businesses Webinar —
What small businesses need in today’s environment:
• Cash Flow
• Morale
• Purpose
• Retooling
Cash Flow
• Generate more sales – sell online, sell other things, web-based versions of your services
• New channels and forms of income – offer delivery, pre-sell future products/services, offer white-glove “touchless” alternative
• Reduction of expenses – downsize ASAP, cut unnecessary monthly services, ask vendors for “special programs” or reduce services to bare minimum, share expenses/ call friends and colleagues to share plans and services
• Delay payment of expenses – use credit card for purchases, switch to vendors that accept credit cards, ask for payment terms or extend current ones
• Cash Injection (capital or loan) – SBA loans, State-sponsored disaster/ economic relief loans
• Float Payments
Morale
• Mental health (someone to talk to – setup mastermind groups with colleagues)
• Staying in business, staying relevant, sell “something”
• Keeping talented employees (choosing which ones to let go)
• Employees not feeling like they can lose their jobs
• Ability to know that downsized employees are going to be “ok”
• Offer-up excess capacity (staff, tools, infrastructure, knowledge)
Purpose
• Businesses should have a vision/mission statement – is there a way they can still fulfill that even if the business model substantially changes?
• If they change target market, could they still fulfill their purpose?
• If they change business models and purpose, could the new purpose be as fulfilling?
• Do you have a purpose-driven brand?
• Do you have a loyal customer base that you can contact online?
Retool
• Does the business have a valuable online presence or community? If not, time to build it.
• Does the business have a contingency plan for working from home? If not, time to start preparing one.
• Is this business “social distancing” proof? If not, time to build a plan.
• Does the business have ability to sell online? If not, time to create it.
5 Key Advisory Questions
• What opportunities to fix things about your business can you take advantage of during the interruption?
• What have you learned about your business during the interruption that you didn’t know before?
• If you could have done something before the interruption what would it have been?
• As your business returns to normal what opportunities are there for you to better serve your customers?
• What is the question, that if you had the answer, would allow you to more easily recover from the interruption?
Thinking outside the box —
• Digital Tip Jars
• Gift cards, Pre-paid services, packaged discounted future services
• Reduction of services, but maintaining the customer relationship
• Delivery
• Serving the essential industries (food distribution, healthcare)
• Distilleries making sanitizer
• Restaurants (Curbside pickup, free TP/sanitizer, selling frozen food, selling “kits”)
• Farmers (drive trough fresh market)
• Babysitting for healthcare workers working overtime – https://www.mncovidsitters.org
• Drive-through confessions – https://www.deseret.com/platform/amp/faith/2020/3/23/21189502/confessions-drive-upcatholic-sacrament-faith-religion-parishioners-grace-mercy-forgiveness-covid
• Online Classes – “Zoom” version of their business – https://www.facebook.com/GuzmanDojo/?hc_location=ufi
Loans
• Check your state’s Dept of Revenue website
• County & City resources
• Check Gusto’s COVID-19 Resources spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SRBZE2_6Nftwd02M6Oxj8MoeuZ7y93spXIgIPhkkp2w/edit#gid=0
• SBA Disaster Loan
• SBA Express Bridge Loans
Tips for Loan preparation:
• Owner’s credit will be pulled, so get a copy of the credit report (Experian, Equifax, and Transunion all offer FREE versions).
If score is under 700, have statement ready to explain areas of issues in the credit
• Use the credit report to build debt (liabilities) portion of Personal Financial statement
• Identify debt that is listed both on the individual’s (owner) personal credit and also on business balance sheet (have that narrative ready)
Beyond loan application and submitting tax returns, proactively prepare:
• Personal Financial Statements for all owners (SBA form 413)
• Business Debt Schedule SBA form 2202
• Monthly sales figures: 3 years historic, plus current year with estimate/forecast – SBA form 1368
• Have all 4506-T Forms readily signed for personal and business tax returns
• Have copies of extensions filed for 2019 returns (if extension was filed)
• Have books completed up to last month prior to loan application
• Draft a Loan narrative of what the loan proceeds will be used for, how you will be able to stay in business and keep employees on staff
• Draft Financial projections that show the post-interruption numbers supporting a profitable business that can REPAY the loan
Loan forgiveness “Paycheck protection loan” – may be passed by Congress today
Keep tight records of:
• Payroll costs (burdened)
• Rents and mortgage interest
• Utility payments
• Essential costs to maintain business operational
Comparing 8-week period from loan proceeds vs. previous year
How can accountants with multiple clients help?
• Make inventory of all your clients’ excess capacity (laid off workers, kept workers (and their skillsets), information about hours they work or are available, list of tools/infrastructure with excess capacity, unique knowledge/knowhow how team members)
• Make a database public within your client base (use Google Sheets or Airtable)
• Help them do business with each other or barter
Companies/Industries growing and hiring – if you need a job NOW…
• US Census
https://2020census.gov/en/jobs.html
• Monster.com’s top 100 Companies Hiring:
https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/companies-hiring-now
• Amazon is hiring 100,000 new associates:
https://blog.aboutamazon.com/operations/amazon-opening-100000-new- roles
• Telecommunication software companies (Slack and Zoom)
https://jobs.lever.co/zoom
https://slack.com/careers#openings
• Grocery Stores, Pharmacies, Walmart, etc.
• Logistics and delivery companies
• Restaurants that do delivery
• 50,000+ Work from home Jobs:
https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=work+from+home&l=Miami%2C+FL
&from=homepage_relatedQuery
• 200,000+ transportation Jobs:
https://www.indeed.com/q-Transportation-jobs.html
If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. This allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.
