​ If you provide bonuses, awards, gifts or prizes to employees or customers, it’s important to understand the tax consequences. It’s particularly important if the recipient is going to have to pay a tax – you’ll want them to understand this fact from the start, so they don’t get an unpleasant surprise later. In general, any gifts made by a company to an employee are considered wages. They’re subject to both employment tax and income tax, and must be reported on an employee’s

Many businesses have a buyout agreement that says that if one owner retires or resigns, the others can buy out his or her interest at a certain price. These agreements are a smart idea for retaining control of a company. But you should keep in mind that they can sometimes be used in ways you wouldn’t expect. For instance, Irvin Gordon was a member of a professional firm in New Hampshire. His agreement said that if he died or resigned, the other owners would buy out his intere

Employees are discovering that cloud storage services are a great way to access work-related data at home and on the road, and to collaborate with co-workers, especially those who work remotely. Unfortunately, they’re also a great way to make your confidential data insecure – which is why you may need a thoughtful policy covering their use. Cloud services allow a user to log into an account, upload documents or files, and then access or download them from any device, anywhere

Given the rapid increase in data breaches – affecting not only Fortune 500 companies but smaller businesses as well – it’s worth checking whether your current insurance policy covers cyber losses. That’s especially true now that almost every state requires companies to notify customers if their data has been compromised. A growing number of insurers are now offering cyber-liability policies. These typically cover the costs of investigating a data breach and notifying customer