We seek a talented Tax Manager with a minimum of 3 years of experience in a public CPA firm to join our team at Hawkinson Muchnick & Associates, PC. As a Tax Manager, you will play a crucial role in providing exceptional tax services to our business and individual clients. This position offers growth opportunities, including the possibility of ownership, and promotes work-life balance.
Responsibilities:
Provide comprehensive tax planning and compliance services for a diverse client base.
Manage and review tax returns, ensuring accuracy and adherence to relevant regulations.
Conduct tax research and stay up-to-date with changing tax laws and regulations.
Develop and maintain strong client relationships, delivering exceptional customer service.
Identify tax planning opportunities and provide strategic advice to clients.
Supervise and mentor junior team members, fostering their professional growth.
Requirements:
Minimum of 3 years of experience in a public CPA firm, specializing in tax services.
Strong knowledge of tax laws, regulations, and compliance.
CPA certification is required
Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced environment.
Hawkinson Muchnick & Associates, PC is a leading CPA firm based in Douglasville, GA. With over 30 years of professional experience and deep roots in the Douglas County area, we are known for our stability, expertise, and commitment to our clients. Our team of seasoned Certified Public Accountants and Enrolled Agent ensures that our clients receive top-notch financial planning services.
More than just a traditional tax and accounting firm, our comprehensive and customized strategic Financial Planning packages set us apart, allowing us to provide personalized solutions tailored to each client’s unique needs. As active members of the community, we actively participate in local organizations and take on leadership roles to make a positive impact.
How to Apply:
If you are a dedicated Tax Manager seeking a rewarding opportunity with growth potential, we would love to hear from you. Please submit your resume and a cover letter detailing your relevant experience and why you would be a great fit for our team preferably via LInkedIn Job Post or via this website via the contact form. Let’s start a conversation about your future with Hawkinson Muchnick & Associates!
Note: All applications will be treated confidentially. Only qualified candidates will be contacted for further steps in the hiring process.
About Us: https://hma-cpa.com
Location: Douglasville, GA
Employment Type: Full-time
Salary: Competitive, based on experience
We look forward to reviewing your application and exploring the possibility of welcoming you to our team at Hawkinson Muchnick & Associates, PC.
As 2024 winds down, here are some ideas to help you prepare your business for filing your upcoming tax return:
Informational returns. Identify all vendors who require a 1099-MISC and a 1099-NEC. Obtain tax identification numbers (TINs) for each of these vendors if you have not already done so.
Shifting income and expenses. Consider accelerating income, or deferring earnings, based on profit projections.
Be prepared to receive a Form 1099-K. You may receive a Form 1099-K from each payment processor from whom you’ve received a payment. In addition to credit card companies and banks, payment processors can include Amazon, Etsy, PayPal, Venmo and Apple Pay. You’ll need to include the 1099-K on your tax return.
Categorize income and expenses. Organize your records by major categories of income, expenses and fixed asset purchases. If your accounting records are accurate, then any tax form should be easy to tie out to your books.
Separation of expenses. Review business accounts to ensure personal expenses are not present. Reimburse the business for any expenses discovered during this review.
Create expense reports. Having expense reports with supporting invoices and business credit card statements with corresponding invoices will help substantiate your deductions in the event of an audit.
Fixed asset planning. Section 179 or bonus depreciation expensing versus traditional depreciation is a great planning tool. If using Section 179, the qualified assets must be placed in service prior to year-end.
Leveraging business meals. Business meals with clients or customers are 50% deductible. Retain the necessary receipts and documentation that note when the meal took place, who attended and the business purpose on each receipt.
Charitable opportunities. Consider any last-minute deductible charitable giving including long-term capital gain stocks.
Cell phone record review. Review your telephone records for qualified business use. While expensing a single landline out of a home office can be difficult to deduct, cell phone use can be documented and deducted for business purposes.
Inventory review. Review your inventory for proper counts and remove obsolete or worthless products. Keep track of the obsolete and worthless amounts for a potential deduction.
Review your receivables. Focus on collection activities and review your uncollectible accounts for possible write-offs.
Review your estimated tax payments. Recap your year-to-date estimated tax payments and compare them to your forecast of full year earnings. Then make your 2024 4th quarter estimated tax payment by January 15, 2025.
Saving money doesn’t have to be a chore. In fact, with a little creativity, it can be both fun and rewarding. Here are some interesting ways to boost your savings without feeling like you’re missing out.
Embrace the 30-Day Rule. If you find yourself wanting to make an impulse purchase, give yourself 30 days to think it over. This rule allows time for the initial excitement to wear off, helping you decide if you truly need or want the item. If you still want it after 30 days, then go for it! If not, you’ve saved yourself from a purchase you may later regret.
Try a No-Spend Challenge. Challenge yourself to a no-spend day, week, or even a month. This means avoiding unnecessary purchases and focusing only on essentials, such as groceries, rent, and utilities. Not only does it help you save, but it also makes you more aware of your spending patterns and helps reset your budget habits.
Have a use-it-up month. Designate a month to use up everything you already have before buying more. This can apply to pantry items, food in the freezer, cleaning supplies, and even beauty products. You’ll be amazed at how much you can save by simply using what you already own instead of restocking.
Create a Fun Jar. Use a clear jar as a visual savings tool. For example, set a goal to fill the jar with loose change or a specific dollar bill, like $5 or $10. This works especially well if you want to save for something fun, like a weekend getaway or a special purchase. Watching the jar fill up can be surprisingly motivating.
Make gifts instead of buying them. Homemade gifts are often more thoughtful and can save you a lot of money compared to store-bought options. You could bake cookies, create a photo album, or craft something unique. DIY gifts don’t just save money, they also add a personal touch that recipients appreciate.
Use a cash envelope system. Using cash instead of debit or credit cards can help control spending. Create envelopes for each budget category (groceries, entertainment, dining out) and place your allotted amount of cash in each. When the cash is gone, you know you’ve hit your limit for that category, which can curb overspending.
NEVER carry a credit card balance. Speaking of credit cards, carrying a balance from one month to another means wasting money on interest expense. Pay yourself – and not your bank! – by paying your credit card off in full every month.
With a little creativity, you can make saving money both fun and rewarding.
Whether you’re a sole proprietor ready to hire your first employee, or you already have employees and think you’re ready to hire your next team member, here’s a two-step process to help make your hiring process a success!
Step #1: Define your needs
Long before you start interviewing, think carefully about why you need an employee and how you’re going to work with the new hire. Do you need someone to bring new skills that the business is lacking? Filling a vacated position? Or are you looking for someone to share your workload and free up your time?
If you’re looking for specific skills, perhaps a fractional hire or a consultant can fill your need.
Remember that hiring an employee will also create new challenges to take up your time – payroll, employment regulations, tax reporting, benefits, and so on.
Other questions to consider:
Will your new employee be part-time or full-time?
Will he or she work under your direct supervision, or will you delegate responsibility to your new hire?
Are you prepared for the challenge of giving up hands-on control over part of your business?
Think hard about these issues until you have a very clear idea of what you want from your new employee.
Step #2: Find the right person
Once you’ve defined the role you want your next employee to fill, the second step in your hiring process is to find the right person.
You and your new employee will be working closely together, so good personal chemistry is essential. Think about possible candidates whose work you know, perhaps employees of your suppliers or other businesses you deal with. Interview thoroughly, check references, and above all, trust your intuition.
Hiring employees is always fraught with uncertainty and challenges. But you can increase your chances for success by defining what you need from this employee, then looking for the right person.
Tax credits are some of the most valuable tools around to help cut your tax bill. But figuring out how to use these credits on your tax return can get complicated very quickly. Here’s what you need to know.
Understanding the difference
To help illustrate the difference between a credit and a deduction, here’s an example of a single taxpayer making $50,000 in 2024.
Tax Deduction Example: Savi Lesse earns $50,000 and owes $5,000 in taxes. If you add a $1,000 tax deduction, she’ll decrease her $50,000 income to $49,000, and owe about $4,800 in taxes.
Result: A $1,000 tax deduction decreases Savi’s tax bill by $200, from $5,000 to $4,800.
Tax Credit Example: Now let’s assume Ima Smart has a $1,000 tax credit instead of a $1,000 tax deduction. Ms. Smart’s tax bill decreases from $5,000 to $4,000, while her $50,000 income stays the same.
Result: A $1,000 tax credit decreases Ms. Smart’s tax bill from $5,000 to $4,000.
In this example, your tax credit is five times as valuable as a tax deduction.
What you need to know
Credits are generally worth much more than deductions. There are several hurdles you have to clear, though, before being able to take advantage of a credit. To illustrate these hurdles, consider the popular child tax credit.
Hurdle #1: Meet basic qualifications. You can claim a $2,000 tax credit for each qualifying child you have on your 2024 tax return. The good news is that the IRS’s definition of a qualifying child is fairly broad, but there are enough nuances to the definition that Hurdle #1 could get complicated.
Hurdle #2: Meet income qualifications. If you make too much money, you can’t claim the credit.
Hurdle #3: Meet income tax qualifications. To claim the entire $2,000 child tax credit in 2024, you must owe at least $2,000 of income tax.
Take the tax credit…but get help!
The bottom line is that tax credits are usually more valuable than tax deductions. But tax credits also come with many rules that can be confusing. It’s always best to get help.
If you are concerned about protecting your valuables, here are several suggestions to consider for protecting them from would-be thieves:
Rent a safe deposit box. It may make sense to keep seldom worn jewelry, coins and other important documents in a traditional safe deposit box at your local bank. But beware if you go this route, as it’s often inconvenient to retrieve your valuables, as well as easy to forget what is in the box and who has the key. Plus it’s important to fully understand your rights under the contract terms.
Install a home safe. There are several types of in-home safes you can choose from, including wall, floor, free standing, fire and gun safes. There are also diversion safes for small items that are designed to look like everyday household objects that can blend in with its surroundings.
Secure your house. In addition to installing a state-of-the-art home security system, there are several other ways to physically secure your home. Consider updating your locks every several years, and remember to actually use them! Many burglars are looking for easy targets, and unlocked doors and windows provide easy access. Also consider reinforcing your doors and windows, and installing motion-sensing lights both inside and outside.
Be prepared if a theft does occur
Thieves can still unfortunately steal your valuables despite multiple layers of protection. Here are some suggestions to prepare you if any of your valuables go missing:
Be familiar with your insurance policy. Read your insurance policy to know what items are covered. Review your policy once a year or whenever you acquire another valuable asset.
Get an appraisal. It may be difficult to know how much insurance you need without a proper valuation of your assets. Some assets may be worth much more than you think, while other assets may be difficult to pinpoint a value without professional assistance.
Keep a home inventory. Create a list of all your valuables that includes photographs and purchase receipts. If an asset is stolen, having an up-to-date inventory list and documentation can help quickly jump-start filing an insurance claim.
Negotiating to decrease or zero out a credit card bill or other loan balance can help relieve a tough financial situation, but it can also give way to an unexpected tax bill. Here’s a quick review of various debt cancellation situations and how they impact you and your taxes.
Consumer debt. If you have a credit card balance or loan forgiven, be prepared to receive IRS Form 1099-C representing the amount of debt cancelled. The IRS considers that amount taxable income to you, and they expect to see it reported on your tax return. However, if you’ve filed for bankruptcy or have liabilities that exceed your assets, then you may not need to report a cancelled debt as taxable income.
Primary home. If your home is short sold or foreclosed and the lender receives less than the total amount of the outstanding loan, expect that amount of debt cancellation to be reported to you and the IRS. But special rules allow you to exclude up to $2 million in cancellation income in many circumstances. You’ll need to fill out paperwork to report this special homeowner exclusion to the IRS, but the end result can be a generous tax break for you and your family.
Student loans. While this topic has generated plenty of recent headlines, the basics of student loan forgiveness have remained essentially the same. If your school closes while enrolled or soon after you withdraw, you may be eligible to discharge your federal student loan and not include the forgiven amount as taxable income. And if you are able to take advantage of the recent student loan forgiveness provision under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, your cancellation may be exempt from federal tax. The challenge, though, is that recent forgiveness programs are still being challenged in court AND your state may still wish to tax the loan forgiveness.
Second home, rental property, investment property, & business property. The rules for debt cancellation on second homes, rental property, and investment or business property can be extremely complicated. Given your cost of these properties, your financial condition, and the amount of debt cancelled, it’s still possible to have this debt cancellation taxed at a preferred capital gains rate, or even considered not taxable at all.
Each of these themes have one thing in common – the tax laws can be complicated and you will probably need help navigating your situation.
Small payments can save you big money when paying off your mortgage.
With 30-year fixed rates reaching levels not seen in 25 years, adding even just a little extra to your monthly payment can significantly cut down on the interest you pay over the life of your mortgage.
Here are several different scenarios to illustrate how much interest you can save by slightly increasing each monthly payment.
Base scenario and assumptions
Here’s the assumptions used for this base scenario:
Average U.S. home price ($420,800) and mortgage rate (7.50%) for early 3rd quarter of 2024
Average U.S. downpayment of 10%
House financed using a 30-year fixed rate mortgage
Monthly payment includes principal and interest payments only; it does not include other expenses typically bundled with monthly payments, such as property taxes, homeowners insurance, and mortgage insurance premiums
With no additional money tacked on to your monthly payment, you would pay $574,583 in interest over the course of your 30 year mortgage in this base scenario.
To buy this house for $420,800, you would end up paying just shy of $1 million after adding $574,583 of interest charges!
None of us wants to pay $1 million for a $420,000 house. So let’s take a look at the following scenarios to find out how much interest expense you can save by increasing your monthly payments by a small amount.
Here’s a summary of the base scenario’s assumptions compared with how much interest you can save, and how much faster you’ll pay off your mortgage, in each of the following examples.
Example #1: An Extra $100 Per Month
Adding an extra $100 to your monthly mortgage payment would save you $81,902 in interest expense and cut down on the time to pay off your mortgage by 3½ years.
Example #2: An Extra Lump-Sum at Years 5, 15 & 25
In this example, let’s assume you make an additional lump-sum payment of $5,000 in years 5, 15, and 25 of your mortgage.
While you wouldn’t save that much extra time paying off your mortgage in this scenario, you’ll still end up pocketing nearly $37,000 just by making three lump-sum payments over the course of your mortgage.
Example #3: An Extra $200 Per Month
If you can afford an extra $100 per month to put towards your mortgage, why not try for $200 a month? This is where the math starts to get fun. Adding $200 a month helps pay off your mortgage 6 years sooner and saves you $140,000 in interest expense.
Every little bit helps
Even adding an extra $10 per month can save you nearly $10,000 over the course of your mortgage. That’s a lot of money that goes into your bank account instead of your bank’s bank account!
Paying off your mortgage early and cutting down how much interest you pay over the course of your mortgage doesn’t require a lot of money. Whether it’s $100 or $10 a month, every little bit can help on your quest towards a better financial future for you and your family.
It’s easy to feel secure about the money you deposit with a bank you’ve come to trust. After all, most banks and credit unions offer certain levels of protection against fraudulent transactions.
Banks, however, won’t protect you against all types of fraud.
Here’s a look at the protections that banks and credit unions usually provide to their customers – and which situations where you’ll likely be on your own.
When a Bank Usually Protects You
For credit cards, banks usually provide zero liability on any unauthorized charges.
Debit cards also provide protection against fraudulent purchases, but there may be limitations depending on which financial institution issued your card. According to federal law, here is the maximum amount of fraudulent transactions you’ll be responsible for depending on when you notify your bank that your card is lost or stolen:
Immediately notify your bank before any unauthorized charges are made: Zero liability
Within two business days: Up to $50
After two business days but within 60 days: Up to $500
Fail to notify within 60 days: Unlimited
When a Bank Usually WON’T Protect You
Unfortunately, there are many types of scams that banks won’t reimburse you for if someone steals your money. Here are some of the more common scams:
You are scammed into moving money out of your account and into another person’s account.
A hacker uses lies to convince you to make a bank transfer into a cryptocurrency wallet.
You liquidate your retirement funds and send the money to someone else for any reason, even if you were conned into it.
You make a person-to-person transfer to another individual using an online payment app, and that transfer doesn’t come with any type of purchase protection.
How to Protect Yourself from Common Banking Scams
Here’s how to protect yourself from getting scammed:
Don’t communicate about your accounts unless you initiate the conversation. If someone calls about your bank account, hang up and call the financial institution directly using your normal means of contact.
Never share your information. Don’t share account details or personal information online or over the phone, especially if you were asked to share these details in a phone call you didn’t initiate or via email.
Tell someone. Scammers try to isolate you from family members and friends. If you’re unsure about a banking transaction you plan to make, or you wonder if you’re being victimized, tell someone you trust about the situation.
Ask your bank for help. Bank tellers are trained to spot the early signs of fraudulent transactions. If you’re making a bank transfer and feel unsure about the situation, explain it to a teller or bank representative and ask for their help.
Report the incident. Whether you unfortunately got scammed or you spotted the attempted scam before withdrawing any money, submit a report of the situation by visiting ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Meetings, phone calls, emails, text messages, and water cooler conversations with your employees constantly bombard you as a business owner. Freeing up 15 minutes a day could dramatically improve both your workflow and peace of mind.
Here are some ideas for getting back 15 minutes every day:
Use your phone. Whenever possible, use your phone instead of email. Oftentimes talking with someone directly is more efficient than spending the time to compose an email. Plus, email chains can fill your inbox and require precious minutes to read and decipher. Using the phone can also help avoid potential misunderstandings, as a person’s tone of voice conveys information that may be lost or misinterpreted when shared via a written message.
Be brief with emails. Many tech entrepreneurs are known for their brief emails that consist of only several words. In situations where you do use email, consider crafting a response that is only several words in length. And remember the golden rule of emails: send fewer emails to receive fewer emails.
Plan your meetings. Face-to-face time with colleagues, vendors, and customers is often productive and essential for growing a business. On the other hand, meetings can be a huge waste of time if not properly planned. Establish clear goals for a meeting in advance so your team can focus on priorities and get back to work.
Minimize distractions. Business owners enjoy developing a rapport with their employees. These personal conversations, however, need to have boundaries so that both you and your employees can stay on task. Tell your team if there’s a day you don’t have time for small talk. Consider putting an old-fashioned Do Not Disturb sign on your door when you need to get things done.
Delegate when possible. If you’re a small business owner who built a company from scratch, you may be reluctant to relinquish control over day-to-day operations. But failure to delegate can sap time from more important tasks like planning, building relationships with key vendors, and growing your customer base. So develop a plan to train your employees to assume more responsibility over time.
Fifteen minutes may not seem like much, but a busy business owner can work wonders with just a little more time every day.
IRAs can be a powerful tool to lower your taxes while helping you save for retirement. Here are 5 little-known opportunities about IRAs that can help you and other family members save even more when contributing your IRAs.
A nonworking spouse can have an IRA. If your spouse doesn’t work, you may still be able to open and contribute to an IRA for your spouse, assuming that you work and file a joint tax return. This can be a great way to help reduce your taxable income each year.
Even children can have IRAs. If your child has earned income, you can open and contribute to an IRA. Just make sure you can document the earnings. While your child can contribute their own earnings, many parents will help keep track of things like babysitting money, then match those earnings in either a traditional or Roth IRA. Often the Roth IRA is preferred, because the future earnings could be tax free! Your child’s IRA is managed by an adult until the child is old enough for the account to be transferred into their name.
You may still contribute to an IRA if you have a 401(k) or similar program at work. As long as you do not exceed the income limits, you can have both an IRA as well as other types of retirement savings plans.
Non-deductible contributions may be made. If you exceed certain income levels, contributions to your IRA won’t be able to reduce your taxable income for the year. But you may still want to make after-tax contributions to a non-deductible IRA, as the earnings can still grow tax-deferred.
It’s not just for retirement. With traditional IRAs, if you withdraw funds before the age of 59 1/2 you may be subject to income tax AND an early withdrawal penalty. But there are exceptions to this rule, including withdrawals for a first time home purchase, major medical bills, college costs, birth and adoption expenses, and others. However, it is important to know the rules BEFORE you withdraw the funds.
Tax rules surrounding IRAs are vast and complex. But within the rules are numerous situations that if you know they exist, can help you plan for a more tax-efficient future.
