http://www.isnare.com/?s=author&a=Stephen+Nelson Business Management Stephen Nelson Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=124168&ca=Business+Management Every year about this time, I see too many accounting systems that don’t work… QuickBooks and PeachTree and Microsoft Small Business Accounting programs that don’t do what their small business users want or need. Sometimes, people know their accounting systems don’t work. And they don’t care. But, s... Business Management Stephen Nelson Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=117777&ca=Business+Management Procrastinating about setting up a pension for your small business? Don't. Some easy options let you cheaply prepare for your retirement...and let you help employees, too. Easy Option #1: Don't Forget About A Regular Old IRA Here's the first thing to consider--even though it sounds like a wimp-out:... Finances Stephen Nelson Sun, 03 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=72642&ca=Finances Ever thought about paying off your credit card balances? Maybe you would like to be debt free just to reduce your stress. Or perhaps you need to be debt free to retire. If you have Microsoft Excel running on your computer at home or work, you can use Excel’s NPER function to calculate how quickly yo... Finances Stephen Nelson Sun, 03 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=72474&ca=Finances If you’ve got Microsoft Excel (or just about any other popular spreadsheet program) running on your computer, you can use its FV function to forecast the future value of your 403(b) account. The FV function calculates the future value of an investment given its interest rate, the number of payments,... Finances Stephen Nelson Sun, 03 Sep 2006 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=73559&ca=Finances Investing in real estate? Thinking about buying new equipment for your business? The depreciation you take on your tax return can turn into a significant tax benefit. But you need to make some complex calculations. Fortunately, Microsoft Excel can help. Excel’s VDB function calculates declining bala... Business Stephen Nelson Mon, 07 Aug 2006 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=68353&ca=Business As a general rule, you can incorporate your business with no tax cost as long as you contribute all of your business’s assets and liabilities to a corporation you control. A sole proprietor who incorporates his or her business, therefore, should be able to incorporate tax-free. So should a partnersh... Business Stephen Nelson Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=63007&ca=Business Don’t get me wrong. I think LLCs, or limited liability companies, are great. At modest cost, they often let you minimize your legal liability. LLCs also give you tremendous tax flexibility, because with an LLC you can choose to be treated as a corporation, an S corporation, a partnership (if there a... Finances Stephen Nelson Wed, 05 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=56818&ca=Finances My multimillionaire client Bill called me the other day. He wanted to talk about congress recently loosening the rules about who can convert regular IRA accounts to Roth-IRA accounts. In the past, because of his income, Bill hasn’t been able to use a Roth-IRA. Starting in 2010, however, even high ne... Finances Stephen Nelson Sun, 04 Jun 2006 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=51977&ca=Finances You’ve seen the advertisements and news articles. IRA funds can be used to make real estate investments. But before you jump on this bandwagon, make sure you understand some of the tax planning angles related to this opportunity. Passive Loss Deductions Almost always, an important component of your... Real Estate Stephen Nelson Sat, 27 May 2006 00:00:00 +0800 http://www.isnare.com/?aid=48998&ca=Real+Estate Perhaps one shouldn’t be surprised that new real estate investors fall into the same tax traps again and again. Real estate burdens investors—especially new investors—with some tricky tax accounting. But just because some other newbie makes these mistakes, that doesn’t mean you need to. You just nee...