Personal Finances: Focusing on What You Can Control + Financial Market Update + 3.31.2020
Like many of us, you may feel a bit disoriented, fearful, and anxious. Not only has your life been dramatically altered in the past few weeks…
Personal Finances: Focusing on What You Can Control
Like many of us, you may feel a bit disoriented, fearful, and anxious. Not only has your life been dramatically altered in the past few weeks…
Updates to July 15 Tax Filing Deadline
Governor Ricketts has followed the lead of the IRS and extended the Nebraska income tax filing and payment deadline to July 15, 2020…
Controlling What You Can + Financial Market Update + 3.24.2020
A critical concept investors must understand is that markets are forward looking. This means prices reflect the aggregate of all future…
U.S. Tax Filing Deadline Extended to July 15th
Acting on President Donald Trump’s direction, Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that the April 15th tax filing deadline…
Update + Relief for Nebraska’s Small Businesses
Recently, the Disaster Center and Small Business Association (SBA) met to discuss whether the state of Nebraska will be declared a disaster area…
Families First Coronavirus Response Act
Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, on March 18th, 2020, President Trump passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act…
Large One-Day Market Declines + Financial Market Update + 3.17.2020
Over the course of the last week the market has experienced extreme volatility. The last three days alone have seen the largest one-day drop since 1987, the largest one-day gain since October 2008…
Planning For College Pragmatically
Many parents have a goal of encouraging their kids to go to college. The dream of higher education is often a large driver in most parental decisions for their children…
How to Work From Home Efficiently Amid Coronavirus Times
A growing number of people are working remotely as the coronavirus continues to spread all over the world. However, many who are used to the office life…
March Retirement Plan Newsletter 2020
This month’s retirement plan newsletter contains insights on Traditional Safe Harbor retirement plans, preventing uncashed retirement checks, secrets for retirement success, and more…
Lutz Named a 2020 Top 100 Firm and Regional Leader by Accounting Today
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, has been named a 2020 Top 100 Firm by Accounting Today. Last year, Lutz made its first debut on the Top 100 list coming in at number 97…
Perspective on a Large One-Day Market Decline + Financial Market Update + 3.10.2020
To say the stock market had a rough start to the week would be an understatement. Newsflow related to the coronavirus continued to deteriorate over the weekend, and Saudi Arabia’s recent decision…
An Update on Lease Accounting Standards
New nationwide accounting standards for leases are being phased in. Such standards are regulated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which initially…
Lutz adds Emily Koontz as Training & Compliance Assistant
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, welcomes Emily Koontz to its Omaha office. Emily joins Lutz’s firm administrative department as a Training…
Microsoft Office 365 + Optimizing Business Processes
When owning a business, there are many things to master in a small window of time. From figuring out your finances to managing your employees, juggling everything can be a difficult task to accomplish…
Understand This About Volatility + Financial Market Update + 3.3.2020
After a string of seven consecutive down days, patient investors finally found some relief yesterday (3/2/20). The S&P 500 gained 4.6%, the largest single day rally since the volatile fourth quarter of 2018, recouping…
Remaining Calm When Uncertainty Surrounds Us
First off, I am not a doctor so I am not going to try and discuss viral transmission rates, virology, mortality rates, or try to put COVID-19 into any analogy to make us feel better or worse. Perhaps it’s also true…
Quarter Four Middle Market M&A Report 2019
LUTZ BUSINESS INSIGHTS quarter four middle market m&a report 20192019 Proves To Be Another Strong Year For Sellers US deal volume trended upwards during the fourth quarter 2019, with volume rising 1.8% compared to the third quarter 2019. Overall, M&A volume...
Stocks are Down, is it Time to Worry? + Financial Market Update + 2.25.2020
The S&P 500 has recently declined roughly 4.7% since registering an all-time high last week (Wednesday). The majority of this fall came yesterday (Monday) with the index falling 3.35%…
Should I Sign a “Recruiter Right to Represent” Contract?
As a job candidate, you’re always seeking new leads that may steer you to a new and exciting career. If a recruiter contacts you with the possibility of your dream job, you’re likely to jump at the opportunity…
Family Businesses + How to Operate Like the Pros
Family businesses are the backbone of our economy, being the single biggest job creator and accounting for over half of the U.S. gross domestic product. While there are many benefits…
Selling Your Business? The Financial Information Buyers Want to See
All buyers and bankers require accurate and timely financial information when working on an acquisition. This is obvious. However, many times the target businesses do not produce the required financial…
Being Too Conservative Can Be a Risky Strategy
It is generally accepted that when it comes to investing, there is a relationship between risk and returns. When done intelligently, increasing portfolio risk provides a corresponding increase to expected return…
The Dollar is Rising. Is That Good or Bad? + Financial Market Update + 2.18.2020
The U.S. dollar has been appreciating relative to other currencies, and it is nearing the highest levels since 2017. Currency movements have both direct and indirect impacts on investors…
Is Your Business Making These 4 Major Accounting Mistakes?
Business owners often feel rushed. There’s never enough time to get things done; even the priority tasks are a struggle to complete. Sometimes, all that rushing results in mistakes…
Supporting Medical Necessity: Is Your Healthcare Organization Compliant?
Submission of complete and accurate medical records is a top priority for all healthcare organizations. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)…
Cost Reporting
Eligible Medicare bad debts can be claimed for reimbursement through the Medicare cost report. For Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) the reimbursement percentage…
Assignment of E/M Levels Emergency Room
The hospital must assign Emergency Room Evaluation and Management codes (E/M) codes for all ER visits. The E/M code is billed in Revenue Code 450…
February Retirement Plan Newsletter 2020
This month’s newsletter contains insights on investment options, target date funds, your company’s retirement plan matching program, and more…
Lutz adds Adam Pfeiffer and Rachel Wald
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, welcomes Adam Pfeiffer and Rachel Wald to its Omaha office…
Lutz adds Scott Sutton to Grand Island Office
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, welcomes Scott Sutton to its Grand Island office. Scott Sutton joins Lutz’s tech division as an…
Oil Enters a Bear Market + Financial Market Update + 2.11.2020
It has been a rough start to the year for oil, which has entered a bear market after falling over 20% from its early January peak. The market narrative explaining this weakness…
Anatomy of Stock Market Returns + Financial Market Update + 2.4.2020
2019 was an excellent year for the stock market with many major indices reaching all-time highs. Whether investors can expect such strong performance to persist depends on why returns were so strong…
Password Management
Few things are as irritating as having to think up new passwords. And just about every app and website you go these days require registering, which means creating a new password…
Growth Leads to Lutz Lincoln Office Move
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, has officially relocated its Lincoln office to 115 Canopy Street, Suite 200 in the historic Haymarket…
Personal and Business Tax Updates for 2019
There aren’t many changes coming for your 2019 Federal income taxes. The sweeping changes that were implemented with your 2018 taxes signaled a seismic shift…
The SECURE Act + Planning Considerations for Individual Investors/Taxpayers
As often happens in Washington, speculation is just that and Congress acts on its own timeline. The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act…
Can My Business Run Without Me?
One of the main issues that we see in a business sale transaction is a lack of management depth. Meaning, without the business owner, the company couldn’t run properly…
Eyes Wide Open + Mitigating Risk
Do you ever feel like you want to “bury your head in the sand” to protect yourself from predators, both physical and virtual ones? I don’t blame you…
Have Stocks Caught the Coronavirus? + Financial Market Update + 1.28.2020
Coverage of the Coronavirus outbreak has been dominating headlines over the last few days, and the market seems to have taken notice. For the past several months the S&P 500 has steadily…
Tax Credits Increase for Companies Establishing a Retirement Plan in 2020!
On December 20th, 2019, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act was signed into law. One of the major enhancements included in the bill…
2020 Form W-4 and Form W-4N
The 2020 Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate, is very different from previous versions. A copy of the new form can be downloaded here…
Cash can be Risky + Financial Market Update + 1.21.2020
By all accounts, 2019 was an excellent year for investors. Unless you hid your cash in your mattress, you likely earned a positive return on investment. Even if you hid your cash, you still didn’t lose money…
5 Tax Tips for Manufacturers
The manufacturing industry creates millions of jobs for the citizens and pays billions of dollars in taxes to the government. In return, the IRS rewards manufacturers with numerous tax benefits…
Interviewing 101
Interviews are a necessary part of the job application process, but they can often feel like a lot of pressure. Even many experienced interviewees still struggle with this portion. The interview is often the first time you’ll meet…
Lutz Gives Back + 12 Days of Lutzmas 2019
The “12 Days of Lutzmas” is a unique tradition that is designed to provide our employees with 12 different opportunities to give back during the holiday season…
January Retirement Plan Newsletter 2020
This month’s newsletter contains insights on financial wellness and productivity, improving your retirement plan, keeping beneficiary information updated, and more…
The Building Blocks for a Start-Up Business
There are so many exciting things to do when starting a business – picking a name, designing a logo, creating a website, etc. Who wants to think about taxes or a business structure?..
What is a Financial Audit? Does Your Company Need One?
The word “audit” is scary. Many people associate it with the IRS’ close inspection of their tax returns. But should your company consider a different kind of audit?..
2019 Nebraska State of Owner Readiness Report
Most business owners have 80 to 90% of their financial wealth locked in their business. Given the significance of this asset, a business owner’s ability to monetize this wealth in the future will…
Top 5 Cybersecurity Trends for 2020
The cybersecurity landscape is changing every day. With hackers devising new ways to target businesses, cybersecurity professionals are constantly finding new strategies to protect your enterprises…
Sales Tax and Reporting Requirement Updates
Until 2018, the laws on sales tax stipulated that it was only applicable to companies with a physical presence inside the particular state. Simply put, companies were only required to collect taxes…
Financial Fitness for the New Year
It’s no surprise the most popular New Year’s resolution is to exercise more. After all, the holidays are a time when maintaining a fitness routine is about as easy as navigating the mall parking lot…
Finding the True Value of Your Business
In a recent survey of business owners, 56% of those surveyed thought they knew what their business was worth, yet only 18% had a valuation analysis prepared…
QuickBooks Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All: Making It Yours
QuickBooks was designed to appeal to millions of small businesses – different as they are. To make that possible, the software was also designed to be as customizable as possible, while still following…
It’s Time to Review Your Personal Umbrella Policy
Don’t just think, “that will never happen to me.” That’s how one of my new clients recently responded when I asked the amount of her personal umbrella coverage. She sighed and then proceeded to tell me…
Lutz Named a 2020 Top Recommended Tax and Accounting Firm by Forbes
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, has been named a 2020 Top Recommended Tax and Accounting Firm in America by Forbes. The list identifies 227 firms across the U.S. who are most recommended…
Lutz adds Coleman and Underberg
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, recently added Emily Coleman and Maddison Underberg to its Lincoln and Omaha offices…
How To: Following Up After the Job Application or Interview
Following up after submitting a job application or interview is an essential step in the job search process, if you are serious about landing that dream job you’ve been searching for…
A Beginner’s Guide to Purchasing a Workstation
In a world where we have technology in the palm of our hands, we can do most things without getting up. Even with this convenience, sometimes things are better or easier to do on a computer…
December Retirement Plan Newsletter 2019
This month’s newsletter includes insights on matching retirement contributions, automatic enrollment, fiduciary responsibilities and more…
Quarter Three Middle Market M&A Report 2019
U.S. deal volume was strong during the third quarter 2019, with volume rising 1.6% compared to the second quarter 2019. Overall, M&A volume is up year-to-date from both 2018 and 2017…
2019 Year-End Tax Review for the Ag Industry
Curtis Thompson, Lutz Tax Director, was recently featured in the Nebraska Cattleman Magazine, December 2019, Volume 75, Issue 10 on page 42, for an article about 2019 year-end tax reviews relating to the agriculture industry…
Direct vs. Indirect Costs in the Construction Industry
A new project manager at your construction company is consistently seeing margins deteriorate at the end of their construction projects. The key question when confronting this situation is to determine if project…
How Does the Business Sale Process Work?
The sale of a business is usually a long journey. Most business owners have never bought or sold a business and have no reference or understanding of what the sale process entails. For reference, The Exit Planning Institute…
What’s New With Wayfair? + Sales and Use Tax Update
With 7,500 different tax jurisdictions in the United States alone, it’s easy to understand why our sales & use tax laws are considered among the most complicated in the world. In this presentation…
Decoding Tech Talk: 10 Technology Terms You Should Know
Even if you don’t work in an IT department, you interact with technology daily. You don’t need to understand all the nuances of the various concepts and applications, but, at the very least…
4 Ways You Save Money When Working With an Accountant
Profitability is one of your primary business objectives. It not only gives your company a lifeline but also helps it to multiply. You might be doing all you can to cut down on your expenses, including maintaining…
New IRS Indexed Limits for 2020
The Internal Revenue Service today announced that employees in 401(k) plans will be able to contribute up to $19,500 next year. The IRS announced this and other changes in Notice 2019-59 (PDF)…
November Retirement Plan Newsletter 2019
This month’s retirement plan newsletter contains insights on IRS tips for plan sponsors, reasons to outsource fiduciary services, financial wellness programs, and more…
Lutz adds 14 Staff Accountants
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, recently added 14 staff accountants to its Omaha and Lincoln offices…
4 Reasons Why You Didn’t Get the Job
Finding a job is a tough process. It can be frustrating to apply for jobs and get rejected, or worse, to never hear anything back at all. There are many reasons why you may not have landed a job…
Spotting IT Risks Before They Become a Problem
With technology being as vital as it is to business, staying ahead of your IT troubles is an essential step to keeping your doors open. Being proactive with your IT goes a long way to preventing breaches…
2019 OPPS + ASC Proposed Federal Registers
These highlights are by no means a comprehensive listing of all provisions within the OPPS Proposed Rule, but provide a listing of significant items applicable to multiple facilities…
Rural Health Funding Opportunities
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have announced new grant opportunities available to rural hospitals. The grants listed below…
Telehealth and Telemedicine: What You Need to Know
Telehealth and telemedicine have made it so providers and patients have a new way to communicate. Telehealth is defined as the provision of healthcare remotely by means of telecommunications technology…
Virtual Currency + Cryptocurrency
The 2019 tax filing season is just around the corner and with that brings potential changes to tax compliance forms. It is anticipated that the IRS will be adding the following question to this year’s forms…
External Financial Statement Audit and Medicare Cost Report Best Practices
The few months after a facilities fiscal year end are always challenging. From closing the books, to preparing for the external audit process, to providing information for and completing the Medicare cost report…
Understanding the Tax Implications of a Business Sale
Most business sale transactions are structured as ‘asset sales.’ This is where the buyer sets up a new entity that acquires the assets of the selling business. How a business is structured can have significant…
4 Ways an Accountant Can Make Your Business Successful
Professional accounting involves more than just basic bookkeeping. It might be what your business needs to get to the next phase. However, it may also be one of the things that you keep putting off…
Are We Headed for a Recession?
Each morning I craft a Market Update email that I share with our advisors. This email provides commentary on what is happening in the markets and the economy. It includes data related to asset class…
Lutz adds Hesselgesser, Hinrichs and Masek to Central Nebraska Offices
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, welcomes Kelli Hesselgesser to its Grand Island office, and Brooke Hinrichs and Leslie Masek to its Hastings office…
Lutz adds Howes, McLane, Schriner, and Shafer
Lutz, a Nebraska-based business solutions firm, welcomes Jessica Howes, Andy McLane, Dakota Schriner, and Jeffrey Shafer…
October Retirement Plan Newsletter 2019
This month’s newsletter contains insights on fiduciary services, auto-enrollment into retirement plans, ways to increase employee retirement contribution participation, and more…
Connecting Talent to the Right Opportunity
The labor market is fragmented so much that most of us tend to settle for what comes our way. Often, when talent meets opportunity, it is bliss for both the job seeker and the employer. McKinsey Report shows that…
Cybersecurity Awareness Month + 8 Tips to Keep You Protected
Cybersecurity is an ever-prominent, continuously evolving topic in the business world today. With new technological advancements daily, it can be challenging to stay on top of the latest “trends” in cybersecurity…
Family Philanthropy + Creating a Shared Legacy
There’s no denying it: you feel good when you do good. The brain stimulation that occurs from being charitable is credited for a variety of benefits, including reducing stress, feeling happier…
How Automating Payroll Will Change Your Life
You didn’t start a business to learn about compliance with federal and state employee compensation rules. Yet here you are, wearing out your calculator twice a month as you try to stay current with tax tables…
Quarter Two Middle Market M&A Report 2019
Despite growing concerns over a potential economic slowdown, middle-market companies fared generally well in the second quarter. During the quarter there were 3,095 announced M&A transactions…
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