#small-business
Small Business
Financial management strategies and tools for small business owners
Accounting for Vendor Rebates and Trade Spend Under ASC 606
Under ASC 606, cash rebates, slotting fees, and co-op advertising payments to a customer almost always reduce revenue rather than count as a marketing expense, unless the payment buys a distinct good or service at fair value.
Virginia 2026 Employment Law Changes: A Small Business Guide
Virginia's 2026 employment law changes require salary ranges in job postings, extend Human Rights Act coverage to employers with five or more employees, void non-competes lacking a severance clause, and lower the RetirePath Virginia auto-IRA threshold to five employees, with penalties reaching $10,000 per violation.
2026 HSA Contribution Limits: What Small Business Owners Need to Know
The IRS raised 2026 HSA limits to $4,400 self-only and $8,750 family (Revenue Procedure 2025-19). A small business owner's guide to the S-corp more-than-2% shareholder rules, the 35% comparability excise tax, cafeteria plan workarounds, and how to avoid excess-contribution penalties.
Are AI Coding Subscriptions Tax Deductible? Section 162 vs. Section 174
Claude, GitHub Copilot, and Cursor subscriptions are fully deductible under IRC Section 162 as ordinary business expenses, while Section 174 R&D amortization only applies to labor and compute tied to genuine new product development — and the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act restored immediate deduction for domestic R&E costs.
Audited by an Algorithm: What the IRS's New AI Governance Policy Means for Your Small Business
The IRS's February 2026 policy, IRM 10.24.1, formalizes how AI models — now running 126 active projects across six annual cycles — flag small business and self-employed returns for audit, requiring mandatory human review before any AI referral becomes an examination.
Bill.com vs. Melio vs. Ramp: Which AP Tool Fits Your Business?
A side-by-side comparison of Bill.com, Melio, and Ramp for accounts-payable automation — pricing, ERP integrations, AI invoice coding, and which tool fits businesses by invoice volume and approval complexity.
Brazil's MEI Revenue Ceiling: The Frozen R$81,000 Cap and the 2026 Push to Raise It
Brazil's MEI revenue cap of R$81,000 a year has been frozen since 2018. A bill sent to Congress in June 2026 would raise it to R$110,000 in 2027 and R$140,000 in 2028, and let microentrepreneurs hire two employees instead of one — a case study in how frozen tax thresholds quietly penalize small business growth.
Business Valuation in Divorce: How Much Is a Spouse's Company Worth?
Business valuation in divorce hinges on separating enterprise goodwill from personal goodwill and active from passive appreciation, using ASA/ABV/CVA-credentialed methods like income, market, and asset approaches.
The DOL Wants to Rewrite Independent Contractor Rules Again: A 2026 Rule-Change Guide for Businesses That Hire Freelancers
The DOL's February 2026 proposed rule would rescind the 2024 six-factor independent contractor test and replace it with a two-core-factor economic reality test resembling the 2021 rule — here's what changes, what stays the same, and what businesses that hire freelancers should document now.
Private Equity Roll-Ups in HVAC and Plumbing: What Your Business Is Actually Worth
Small HVAC and plumbing shops sell for 2.0x–3.5x SDE while assembled PE platforms exit at 17x–20x EBITDA — that multiple arbitrage powers the roll-up wave. Here's what determines your number, why $200K of rejected add-backs can cost $1.3M at closing, and how clean books protect your price.
Income Share Agreement Accounting: How Bootcamps Should Recognize ISA Revenue
Income share agreements break ASC 606's fixed-price assumption, and the Department of Education ruled in March 2022 that ISAs are private education loans. Here is how bootcamps and trade schools should book ISA revenue — variable consideration with the constraint, loan-receivable treatment under ASC 310/326, and cohort-level non-payment reserves.
Independent Bookstore Bookkeeping: How to Protect a 2-10% Net Margin
Independent bookstores net just 2-10% per the ABA's ABACUS survey, even with 40-50% gross margins. A practical bookkeeping guide to the transaction types that erode that margin — sale-or-return vendor credits, expiring co-op advertising funds, consignment and trade-credit liabilities — plus the 4-6x inventory turnover benchmark that predicts trouble early.