#compliance
Compliance
Navigate regulatory compliance and maintain audit-ready financial records
The Long-Term Part-Time Employee Rule: Why Your 401(k) Eligibility Tracking Needs an Update Right Now
Under SECURE 2.0, any employee who works 500+ hours in two consecutive 12-month periods and is 21 or older must be allowed to defer into your 401(k) — even if your plan requires 1,000 hours. Here's what the IRS's final LTPT regulations require, who qualifies, and the rolling two-year hours-tracking system small businesses need to avoid missed-deferral corrections.
Singapore's GST InvoiceNow Mandate: What Voluntary Registrants Must Do Starting April 2026
From April 1, 2026, IRAS can reject voluntary GST registration applications in Singapore that don't include InvoiceNow adoption. Here's the phased rollout timeline through 2031, the four-step Peppol setup process, available grants of up to S$1,000 per SME, and how transaction-level reporting changes the case for clean books.
Talent and Modeling Agency Bookkeeping: Why "What We Kept" Is Not the Same as "What We Earned"
Talent and modeling agencies must record the full booking amount as gross revenue — not just the 10–20% commission they keep — hold client funds in a separate trust account (a legal requirement under California's Talent Agencies Act), and reconcile commission splits against contracts monthly. Five bookkeeping rules that prevent IRS 1099 mismatches, commingling violations, and talent payout disputes.
AI-Generated Marketing Content and Copyright Risk: What Small Businesses Owe After the 2026 Rulings
Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement and Thomson Reuters' fair-use win over Ross Intelligence shifted AI copyright liability onto the businesses publishing AI content. Statutory damages can reach $150,000 per work — here are four steps small businesses can take, from prompt hygiene to vendor indemnification and dated content logs.
No More Pennies: A Small-Business Guide to 2026's State Cash-Rounding Laws
The U.S. minted its last penny on November 12, 2025, and 19 states have enacted cash-rounding laws in 2026 with no federal standard yet in force. Most states let retailers round cash totals to the nearest nickel at their discretion, Arizona mandates Canadian-style rounding, and Indiana treats rounding gains and losses as income adjustments. Here is how the rules differ, why sales tax is always calculated on the pre-rounding price, and how to book rounding variances so they stay auditable.
Egypt's Small Business Tax Rate Just Dropped to 0.4%. Here's How the New Law Actually Works.
Egypt's Law No. 6 of 2025 lets SMEs with annual turnover up to EGP 20 million pay 0.4%–1.5% tax on revenue instead of 22.5% on profit, with stamp duty and dividend withholding exemptions but a five-year lock-in — while Resolution 281 of 2025 halves the mandatory e-invoicing threshold to EGP 250,000.
California's SB 642 Just Redefined "Wages": What the 2026 Pay Equity Law Means for Your Payroll Records
Effective January 1, 2026, California's SB 642 expands the Equal Pay Act's definition of wages to cover bonuses, stock options, allowances, hotel accommodations, and travel reimbursements — and lets each paycheck restart the three-year claim clock, with back pay recoverable up to six years. Here is what changed and a practical compliance checklist for small employers.
Guam's Business Privilege Tax Drops to 4% on October 1, 2026: What the Rollback Means for Your Books
Guam's Business Privilege Tax returns to 4% on October 1, 2026, ending a "temporary" 5% rate that lasted eight years after the 2018 hike. The rollback passed 8–7, costs the territory an estimated $38–80 million a year, and doesn't touch the 3% small-business tier — here's how to plan monthly BPT filings through the two-step transition.
India's GST 2.0: Simpler Slabs, Stricter ITC Matching, and What Small Businesses Must Do in 2026
India's GST 2.0, effective September 22, 2025, collapsed four slabs into 5% and 18% (plus 0% and a 40% sin-goods bracket) — but ITC is now claimable only when it appears in GSTR-2B, supplier invoices must be paid within 180 days, and GSTR-1/3B mismatches over ~5% auto-trigger DRC-01B notices. Here's the 2026 compliance routine for small businesses.
OMB's Uniform Guidance Overhaul: What the 2 CFR 200 Rewrite Means for Nonprofits on Federal Grants
OMB's proposed Uniform Grants Regulation would replace 2 CFR Part 200 by October 1, 2026 — making the rules binding regulation, eliminating most fixed-amount awards in favor of cost-reimbursement, and adding termination-for-convenience authority. Here's what nonprofit finance teams should do about the 30–60 day reimbursement lag, indirect cost documentation, and new allowability limits before the final rule lands.
SBA's 2026 Citizenship Rule: What Non-Citizen Business Owners Can Do Now
As of March 1, 2026, SBA 7(a), 504, Microloan, and Surety Bond programs require 100% U.S. citizen or national ownership (with a 5% carve-out), ending green card holder eligibility. Here's who is affected and the financing alternatives — conventional loans, CDFIs, ITIN lending, and revenue-based funding.
California's DFAL Is Now in Force: Does Your Small Business Need a Crypto License?
California's Digital Financial Assets Law (DFAL) took full effect July 1, 2026, with penalties up to $100,000 per day for unlicensed crypto activity. Who needs a DFPI license, who qualifies for the merchant and $50,000 de minimis exemptions, and what the NMLS application requires.