Fall Updates! Aptitude Welcomes New Team Members and MORE!

2021…September already? Fall updates!

Where has the year gone? So many new laws, pandemic related programs, shutdowns and restrictions, oh my! Since so many of you have referred new business owners and tax clients to me this year, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and clients. It is with great pleasure that I announce the addition of Amber and Katie to the Aptitude team. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for trusting me to help you and put together a stellar team to serve you.

In addition to new employees, my office has moved once again to SE 20th & Clinton. It’s a beautiful, dog-friendly space with an outdoor patio which might be nice for meetings (if Covid allows us to meet in person this year)! And, I’m very excited to announce that my tax practice will be Aptitude branded this year, although I have nothing but love & respect for my amazing colleague Sheila, with OAS Tax, who let me partner with her for the past several years. She’ll continue to be available to help those of you with partnerships or S Corps.

It has been inspiring to see how so many of you have pivoted in response to the pandemic. Shifting your business model to completely change how your business delivers products & services, many of you braving the unknown to launch businesses this year or expand/open new locations. Not to mention the need to learn tons of new technology solutions! I’m continuing to struggle with Zoom, as many of you have experienced first hand when my laptop camera or microphone failed to work properly. I promise, I’ll be better in 2022, haha. Tech support to the rescue.

I’m looking forward to the fall—cooler temperatures and hopefully time to pause and reflect—before discovering what the new year has in store for all of us.

Aptitude Welcomes Amber and Katie!

Amber(she/her) grew up in the Willamette Valley and is particularly passionate about matters related to food sovereignty and small business success. Amber graduated from Portland State University in 2009 earning a Masters in Public Administration focused in nonprofit development with a goal to help grass-roots efforts maximize impact and build financial stability. Today she works full-time as the Operations Director of Portland Farmers Market where she has spent the past 15 years supporting food producers, building relationships, testing rain gear and nerding out on spreadsheets. Amber and Melissa met in 2010 working farmers markets together, then reconnected professionally in 2015 when Amber became a licensed tax preparer. She will be preparing tax returns this season and assisting with tax questions, too. Outside of work you'll find Amber adventuring with her pups, giggling with her niece and nephews or working on a home project.

Katie grew up in Southern California and moved to Washington in the summer of 2017 with her husband, Jarod. They love exploring Mt. St. Helens, the gorge, and the many parks and trails Washington and Oregon have to offer. Katie received a Bachelor of Arts in European Studies from the University of California, Irvine, in 2009 and had the opportunity to study abroad in Rome, Italy, in 2007 (a life changing experience). Since then, she has worked in a variety of fields, but every job has a few things in common; creating order from chaos, working with lots of detail and providing clients with excellent customer service. Last year, Katie and Jarod expanded their family and Katie is now enjoying remote work so she can be home and play with their one year old son, Beauman. Working with Melissa at Aptitude has given her the opportunity to learn more about bookkeeping and business consulting all while having the ability to stay home with her son. It is the best of both worlds; learning new things and raising a family.

Q3 Estimated Payments / Tax Extension

September 15th is the deadline to get your Q3 estimated payments submitted to the IRS and the state of Oregon (not to mention the City of Portland/Multnomah County, if required). You can make the Federal payments via the www.irs.gov website (fees apply for credit card payments) or mail with a paper check and for Oregon, you can use the Revenue Online website. Create an account with Revenue Online to keep a historical record of your payments!

September 15th is also the extension deadline for partnership or S Corp tax returns. The personal income tax deadline is October 15th. Interest has been accruing since the May 15th filing deadline because an extension to file is never an extension of the time to pay your balance but you really don’t want to miss the extended filing deadline or additional penalties will be assessed. So, if you still need to get your taxes filed for 2020, don’t delay! Book an appointment here.

New 1099 rules for 2022!

In an effort to reduce the tax gap (the amount of money earned but not reported to the IRS), the IRS has announced new rules related to 1099 documents for vendors. The old rules required a business owner to issue a 1099 form to any contractor or service provider they paid $600 or more during the year but only if they paid them by cash, check or ACH—not if they paid with a credit card or a payment processor like PayPal. Credit card companies and payment processors had a $20,000 threshold before they were required to issue 1099s. So, the rules were inconsistent, allowing for many contractors to avoid reporting income. Effective Januay, 2022, all credit card companies/payment processors will use the same $600 threshold to determine when a vendor will receive a 1099 and they’ll may start asking you to load information about your vendor’s EIN or the vendor’s payment may be withheld until they provide a taxpayer ID.

In addition, many business owners have used payment processors in violation of their Terms of Service (making business payments via apps that specifically forbid business payments or choosing the option to ‘send a gift/pay a friend’ to eliminate the processing fee). Now, due to the tightening of these loopholes and crackdowns by the payment processors to comply with the IRS guidelines, contractors are far less likely to be able to avoid reporting their taxable income and you, as the business owner, are going to need to obtain many more W-9s from your vendors or be liable for significant penalties for not following the new rules. NOTE: Each year on your business tax return, you must certify that you have issued all required 1099s.

The best way to get (and remain) compliant with the rules is to use accounting software that properly identifies the vendors that must receive a 1099 and record all of your payments to these vendors for easy reporting. 1099s must be issued by January 31st but fall is a great time of year to determine if you have the information you’ll need to file your forms and begin reaching out to vendors to request W-9s if you don’t already have them.

OregonSaves Retirement Program

Businesses with four or more employees may already be aware of the OregonSaves program. OregonSaves gives employees access to a ROTH IRA account that follows them as they change employers (no cash out/rollover required). Employees are automatically enrolled after 30 days of employment with your company unless they opt out and they begin saving 5% of each paycheck for their retirement. The amount contributed from their paychecks increases each year.

There have been some delays in the rollout of the program to smaller employers but it is expected to be implemented for all companies with at least one employee sometime in 2022. Even before the mandatory implementation date if your company has fewer than four employees, you can begin offering your employees access to the program. Just contact me (or your payroll processor) to get things established. The OregonSaves program costs you, the employer, nothing. It’s funded entirely by the employee’s own payroll deductions.

As the business owner, even if you aren’t paid via payroll, you may still be able to participate with OregonSaves. It may not be a good fit for you if you already have a ROTH IRA established since there are annual contribution limits that vary based on your age and income but if you’d like more details, check out the OregonSaves site at: OregonSaves.

To QBO or not to QBO?

Quickbooks Online is a great tool for many business owners but it’s not for everyone! If you are a microbusiness that doesn’t invoice clients (you might use a website with commerce functionality to track your sales) and/or you don’t have many expenses during the year, you many not need an accounting system (and the monthly fee that comes along with it) to manage your business accounting records. Sometimes a spreadsheet will do, but…

QBO can give you tools to track all of the income/expenses associated with particular clients or projects. QBO now comes with a free mileage tracker so you have near audit-proof records of your business travel. There is now an app that allows you snap photos of your receipts and classify them on the fly, as well as the ability to forward receipts from your email account directly to QBO for processing. And, new features and integrations are being added regularly to streamline your accounting (like importing all of your PayPal activity). Intuit has increased the cost of their subscriptions this year but all of this functionality can save you more money & time than the subscription costs.

If you haven’t yet implemented an accounting system for your business and are considering moving on from spreadsheets, let’s get an appointment set up for you to discuss the process and cost! If you already use Quickbooks but don’t access it often or want to learn more about the latest features, let’s chat about ways it might save you time and/or money (mileage tracking, digital receipt capture). Your financials should tell you a story about your business. Is your story unwritten, badly in need of editing or a masterpiece of intrigue & excitement?

Aptitude’s official mascot….Princess Penelope of Sunnyside. I swear, I didn’t give her that name. To me, she’s just Penny. And for those of you wondering why there is a picture of Amber and one of Katie but not one of me, I HATE PHOTOS (but those are my legs behind Penny). 😂