Walter | Haverfield Tax Partner Updates Tax Book for Family Businesses

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Gary Zwick

First published in 1999, an updated and re-published version of “Tax and Financial Planning for the Closely Held Family Business” is now available for preorder. Gary Zwick, a partner and CPA with Walter | Haverfield’s Tax and Wealth Management group, wrote and updated the book with James John Jurinski. Jurinski is an attorney and CPA as well as professor of accounting and law at the University of Portland’s Pamplin School of Business.

“Tax and Financial Planning for the Closely Held Family Business,” published by Edward Elgar Publishing, offers non-traditional techniques to help business advisors craft strategies for their clients. It also offers solutions to family businesses and their owners.

“This type of work requires the ability to nimbly apply not only legal, business and tax law principles, but also requires the advisor to be able to understand nuances of how families work in the context of the family business,” said Ronald Levitt, an Alabama-based attorney who focuses on business and tax planning issues for closely held businesses. “Zwick and Jurinski have found a way to pull all of those issues and nuances together in a book that clearly lays out the issues and problems that advisors face in representing family businesses.”

In the book, Zwick and Jurinski rely on their extensive experience in guiding family businesses through a maze of organizational, tax, financial, governance, estate planning and personal family issues.

Zwick and Jurinski also co-authored the book, “Transferring Interests in the Closely Held Family Business,” published in 2002 by ALI-ABA. This book is in the process of being updated and re-published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

Additionally, Zwick has written more than a dozen feature articles for major tax publications. He also wrote the chapter titled, “Property Received in Exchange for Services – Section 83” for the Lexis Nexis Online Encyclopedia. For many years, Zwick was the Tax Clinic editor of the August rotation in the Tax Adviser, the AICPA’s national tax publication. He is also a contributor to the ALI-ABA Practice Checklist Manual on Advising Business Clients II and the book, “Golden Opportunities,” by Amy and Armond Budish.

Zwick is a frequent speaker, both locally and nationally, to tax professionals on a variety of related topics. He is board certified in federal tax by the Ohio State Bar Association and former Chair of the Federal Tax Specialty Board of the Ohio State Bar Association. He continues to serve on the Federal Tax Specialty Board of the Ohio Bar Association. He was an adjunct professor of Wealth Transfer Tax and Estate Planning at Case Western Reserve School of Law and an adjunct professor of Tax Law and Wealth Transfer Tax at Cleveland State University College of Law.

To preorder “Tax and Financial Planning for the Closely Held Family Business,” click here.

Medical Providers Receive Pandemic-Related Federal Stimulus Payments

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April 17, 2020

As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began distributing $30 billion on Friday, April 10, 2020 to U.S. medical providers who received Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursements in 2019. The funds, which are not loans and do not need to be paid back, are being directly deposited into providers’ accounts.

Providers are receiving about 1/16th of his/her Medicare FFS reimbursements in 2019 in the form of a stimulus payment. If a provider did not bill Medicare in 2019 for FFS, the provider will not receive money from this distribution.

The funds are meant to be used to cover health care-related expenses or lost revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic. Examples of expenses identified in the CARES Act include building or construction of temporary structures, leasing of properties, buying medical supplies, personal protective equipment and testing supplies, increasing one’s workforce and holding trainings, and retrofitting facilities. However, providers can essentially use the funds as they see fit, as long as they do not use them to reimburse expenses or losses that have been reimbursed from other sources, or that other sources are obligated to reimburse.

Providers are required to document how the stimulus payment is used. They will also be required to submit reports to ensure compliance with the payment. But details of what those reports will entail have not been made available yet.

Additionally, those who receive stimulus payments from HHS are not exempted from receiving other forms of relief.

The $30 billion distribution is part of $100 billion relief fund appropriated in the CARES Act to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund (PHSSEF), also called the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund. HHS intends to distribute more relief funds in the future, particularly to providers hit hard by the pandemic as well as those who serve rural areas, the Medicaid population and the uninsured, and those with lower shares of Medicare FFS reimbursement.

If you have further questions, please reach out to us here. We are happy to help.

Lacie O’Daire is chair of the Tax and Wealth Management Group at Walter | Haverfield. She can be reached at lodaire@walterhav.com and at 216-928-2901.

 

 

Federal and Ohio Tax Filing Deadline Moved to July 15

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Updated March 30, 2020

In response to Covid-19 (coronavirus), the Secretary of Treasury released guidance on March 20, 2020 providing for an extension to file tax returns for 90 days aligning the due date with the previously extended due date for tax payments. In addition, the IRS and Treasury expanded the earlier guidance permitting unlimited tax deferral, interest and penalty free, for individuals and business for the 90-day extended period.

On Friday, March 27, 2020, Tax Commissioner, Jeff McClain, announced that Ohio will be following the federal government guidance in extending from April 15 to July 15 the deadline to file and pay Ohio state tax. No interest and penalties will be charged against any tax-due payments during the extended period. This delay will apply to the Ohio individual income tax, the school district income tax, the pass-through entity tax and some municipal net profits tax.

The announcement did not include information regarding any other taxes such as sales and use taxes, commercial activity taxes, withholding taxes.

We will continue to monitor the development and will keep you posted.

Sebastian Pascu is an associate at Walter | Haverfield who focuses his practice on Tax & Wealth Management. He can be reached at spascu@walterhav.com or at 216-619-7870. 

Walter | Haverfield Offers Online Notary Services

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Updated May 312, 2020 

If you are a Walter | Haverfield client who needs documents notarized, we are here to help. We are certified through the Ohio Secretary of State to notarize documents online for individuals in and outside the State of Ohio. No in-person meeting is necessary. Details on what is needed in order to participate in an online notary service as well as a description of the process are below.

Participant Requirements:

  • Access to the following: a computer, internet and webcam
  • Driver’s license or passport
  • Digital version of documents that need to be notarized
  • Must be a Walter | Haverfield client

E-Notary Process (takes about five minutes):

  • A link to join the e-notary process is sent to the participant
  • Once a participant clicks on the link, the e-notary software is launched online and a credential analysis begins
  • During the credential analysis process, the participant uploads his/her driver’s license or passport
  • The software analyzes the license/passport and asks a series of questions to verify one’s identity
  • An e-signature is adopted, and the Walter | Haverfield notary digitally applies the seal and signature to the document(s)
  • An email is then sent to the participant with a copy of the notarized documents

Ohio is one of 36 states that allows documents to be e-notarized. In Cuyahoga County, there are about two dozen e-notaries.

Please note that online notary services are not available for depositions.

We look forward to maintaining our strong working relationship with you during this time and keeping in close contact via phone, email or video conference. If you are a Walter | Haverfield client in need of our online notary service or have questions, please email us here. Individuals who are not Walter | Haverfield clients may visit sites like notarize.com.