by Boris Benic | Sep 29, 2026 | Blog
If you run a business in New York City, you probably know what the City expects from you: permits, filings, inspections and fees. What gets less attention is what you can ask the City to help with.
NYC offers programs that can help businesses finance growth, lower certain operating costs, train employees, recruit people, deal with leases and work through regulatory problems. I pulled together several that business owners may want to know about, especially if you are planning to hire, invest or expand.
Looking for capital? Start with the NYC Future Fund
The NYC Future Fund offers revenue-based loans from $25,000 to $500,000 at a 7.5% annual interest rate. Principal payments are designed to adjust based on revenue. Funds can be used for working capital, inventory, marketing, hiring, materials, small equipment and refinancing.
It is not free money. There is a 3% origination fee, owners of 20% or more must provide personal guarantees, and other requirements apply. Compare the full cost with your other financing options. If this fund is not a fit, NYC Funds Finder connects businesses with other loan and grant resources.
Expanding or buying equipment? Check the incentives first
NYC Small Business Services offers free consultations to help businesses identify city, state and federal incentive programs. Depending on the business and project, programs can be triggered by expansion, equipment purchases, property improvements, relocation, hiring or employee training.
There is also an online Incentives Estimator that asks about your business and generates a customized list of incentives and tax credits that may apply.
If you are considering a major investment, ask about incentives while you are still planning it, not after the money has been spent.
Training your team? You may not have to pay the whole bill
The Customized Training Grant Program can reimburse eligible businesses for up to 60% of training costs, with grants from $10,000 to $400,000. Training can include recently purchased equipment or software, new products or services, moving employees into hard-to-fill positions, or updating skills. The next published pre-application deadline is October 30, 2026.
If a software rollout or equipment purchase already includes a sizable training budget, I would check this before approving the full spend.
Hiring? Let the City send you candidates
SBS offers free hiring assistance. It can source candidates, screen them against your requirements and schedule interviews. The City says its candidate pool includes more than 100,000 people.
It may not replace every recruiter or hiring platform. But if you are already looking for people, see what they can send you first.
Signing a lease? Free legal help may be available
Eligible NYC small businesses can receive free commercial lease assistance with signing, renewing, amending or terminating a commercial lease.
SBS also provides access to free legal clinics and one-on-one consultations through participating providers on topics including contracts, employment law, business structure, intellectual property and certain tax matters.
A complicated transaction may still call for your own attorney. Before you handle a lease issue yourself, check whether you qualify for the free program.
Stuck on permits, inspections or violations? Try NYC BEST
The NYC Business Express Service Team, or NYC BEST helps storefront businesses understand licenses and permits, prepare for inspections, address violations and work with city and state regulatory agencies. The service is free.
Before paying someone to figure out which City agency to call, see whether NYC BEST can help.
Make the business decision first
I tell clients not to let the tax tail wag the business dog. I would not let a city program do it either. Do not hire someone, buy equipment or borrow money because a government program exists.
If the investment already makes business sense, check what help is available before you pay the entire cost yourself. And if you are planning a major hire, expansion, equipment purchase or financing decision, bring your accountant into the conversation before you sign the agreement or spend the money. There may be tax consequences, incentives or financing options that belong in the calculation.
by Boris Benic | Sep 8, 2026 | Blog
You live in New Jersey. You work in Manhattan. To make the commute easier, you keep an apartment in the City year-round. You also spend enough time in New York that the City treats you as a resident for income-tax purposes.
Then you get a notice saying that same apartment may be considered a non-primary residence and subject to New York City’s new pied-à-terre tax.
Strange as that sounds, both can be true.
How Both Can Be True
New York City uses one set of rules to decide whether you are a resident for income-tax purposes. If your permanent home is outside NYC, but you keep a year-round place to live in the City and spend 184 days or more there, New York can generally treat you as a NYC resident for income tax.
The pied-à-terre tax asks a different question: Is this particular apartment your primary residence?
So when a client says, “But New York already treats me as a resident,” I would not stop there. I would want to know how the apartment is actually being used.
The $1 Million Threshold Condo Owners Should Know
The name “pied-à-terre tax” may make you picture a very expensive Manhattan second home. But for the first two property tax years under the new law, the threshold for condos and co-ops is lower than many people may expect.
For the 2026-27 and 2027-28 property tax years, a condo or co-op with a Department of Finance market value of $1 million or more may be subject to the surcharge if it is not used as a primary residence. One-, two-, and three-family homes generally have a threshold above $5 million.
So if you heard “$5 million” and assumed your condo was outside the rule, check the property type before moving on.
A Notice Does Not Automatically Mean You Owe the Tax
The Department of Finance says the surcharge generally will not apply if the property is used as a primary residence by the owner, a tenant or immediate family member, or certain individuals connected to an entity that owns the property.
I would start with the apartment itself: Who owns it? Who actually lives there? Is there a lease? What address appears on tax returns and other records?
If you are claiming the apartment is someone’s primary residence, your records should back that up.
If you received a Department of Finance notice, do not ignore it, but do not assume you owe the surcharge either. Owners who believe the property qualifies for an exemption can submit supporting documentation. The current 2026 exemption application deadline is October 6, 2026.
Before you answer the notice, make sure you can show who actually uses the apartment and why it qualifies for an exemption.
What I Would Do Next
If your primary home is outside New York City but you own a condo or co-op in the City, especially if New York already treats you as a resident for income-tax purposes, I would have your CPA review the property separately.
Start with the notice, ownership documents and a clear explanation of who uses the apartment and how. That gives your CPA what they need to determine whether the property qualifies for an exemption and what, if anything, needs to be filed.
by Boris Benic | Aug 31, 2026 | Blog
If you run payroll, manage more than one entity, or review benefits every year, here are three IRS changes from this summer you should know about. They deal with an occasional missed deadline, routine IRS document retrieval and a new employer contribution option for Trump Accounts.
A good compliance history can help when one thing goes wrong
The IRS is rolling out Automatic Exemption from Penalty, or AEP, for eligible taxpayers with a history of timely compliance. Beginning with eligible 2025 tax-year returns and 2026 quarterly returns, certain failure-to-file, failure-to-pay and failure-to-deposit penalties can be prevented from being assessed automatically. No separate request is required.
Generally, eligibility depends on timely compliance for the prior three years, or 12 consecutive quarters for quarterly filers, along with the other AEP requirements. It doesn’t cover every return or every penalty, and any tax and interest due still have to be paid.
For a business with payroll, multiple entities and a lot of filing dates, one isolated miss can happen. Years of doing things right can now help when one thing goes wrong.
I still wouldn’t treat AEP as a cushion you plan to use. Its value is that an otherwise-compliant business may avoid a separate penalty-relief process over one mistake.
Your Business Tax Account is becoming much more useful
Before asking someone to track down an IRS document for you, check your Business Tax Account.
Depending on the business type and the user’s role, eligible users can handle payments, including scheduling them up to a year ahead, download certain transcripts and digital notices, retrieve EIN verification, request a tax compliance check and give eligible employees account access.
For a family business where several people touch payroll, banking or tax records, the expanded account can cut down on back-and-forth inside the business and with outside advisors.
Trump Accounts belong in the employee-benefits conversation
Trump Accounts are a new type of traditional IRA for eligible children. Employers can contribute, too.
Beginning July 4, 2026, employers may contribute up to $2,500 per year to the Trump Account of an employee or an employee’s dependent. When the contribution is made through a qualifying Trump Account contribution program, it can be excluded from the employee’s gross income. Employer contributions count toward the account’s general $5,000 annual contribution limit.
The employer contribution program requires a separate written plan. An employer who wants to offer it needs to treat it as part of the benefits plan, with the paperwork that goes with it.
I wouldn’t add a benefit simply because Congress created one. A growing company reviewing compensation and benefits should compare Trump Account contributions with the benefits employees already use and value.
No business owner should be spending August reading IRS fact sheets for fun. If you’re starting year-end planning, ask us which 2026 changes apply to your business and whether any of them call for action now.
by Boris Benic | Aug 27, 2026 | Blog
When can a business report its best sales quarter, hire several employees, add dozens of customers, yet finish the period with tighter cash and thinner margins?
When its owner makes a few simple mistakes interpreting financial reports.
Nothing in the reports may be technically incorrect. The owner may simply be giving some headline numbers more credit than they deserve.
In the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index for Q2 2026, 66% of small-business owners said they expect revenue to increase over the next year and 35% expect to add staff, while only 16% said they are very comfortable with cash flow. Inflation remains the top concern for 57% of owners in the same survey.
So, before the next quarterly meeting, put these five KPIs in context.
Revenue Is More Useful Alongside Margin
Revenue is usually the first number on the agenda, making it easy to celebrate before asking what the additional sales produced.
Suppose sales increased 12%. That’s a great result. But it’s important to evaluate it critically. Was the work priced properly? Did the company need overtime, outside contractors or expedited shipping? Did one division grow while a more profitable division lost ground?
Bank of America reported that small-business profitability improved in June, but revenue growth was still not enough to fully offset persistent cost pressure.
Look at revenue beside gross profit and operating profit. If sales rose considerably faster than either, understand the gap before using the quarter’s performance to plan another major expense.
A Larger Company Is Not Always a More Productive Company
A new employee may create capacity, improve service or free the owner from work that should have been delegated. Hiring can also become an expensive workaround for poor scheduling, unclear responsibilities or a process nobody has fixed.
After a hiring push, I would want to know whether turnaround times improved, whether the company completed more profitable work and what happened to revenue or gross profit per employee.
I would look at customer count the same way. Ten reliable customers who buy profitable services and pay within 30 days may contribute more than 25 accounts that require exceptions, negotiate every bill and routinely pay late.
When the team is busy but margins are disappointing, customer mix deserves as much attention as customer count.
Give the Pipeline a Probability and a Timeline
A $2 million pipeline sounds reassuring. But how much of it is attached to a signed agreement?
Owners sometimes combine early inquiries, active proposals, verbal commitments and contracted work into one total. Those opportunities do not have the same probability or timing.
Use your own closing history to weight the pipeline. A proposal type that closes 25% of the time should not appear in the forecast at full value. A project expected to begin next year should not support a hiring decision that affects payroll next month.
A pipeline is most useful when its probabilities and timing are realistic.
Profit and Cash May Arrive at Different Times
A profitable income statement does not guarantee that cash is available.
The profit may be sitting in overdue receivables or inventory. Cash may have gone toward equipment, loan principal, tax payments or owner distributions. The business can look healthy on paper and still have difficulty covering Friday’s payroll.
Review operating cash flow, receivable days and working-capital needs alongside profit. For a growing company, timing affects how comfortably the business can handle a strong quarter.
Use Each KPI for What It Can Tell You
Revenue measures sales, headcount reflects team size, customer count shows volume, pipeline points to future potential, and profit captures economic performance.
No single one explains the whole quarter.
Your quarterly scorecard should show whether growth improved margins, generated usable cash and made the company easier to operate. Most companies need better context around the headline figures, not a longer list of KPIs.
Before approving the next hire, expansion or major purchase, make sure the numbers supporting the decision are measuring what you think they are. If your company is reporting growth but the financial benefit is harder to see, we should take a closer look at the scorecard.
by Boris Benic | Aug 5, 2026 | Blog
When a parent overseas helps with a down payment on a real estate purchase, nobody writes “Form 3520” in the housewarming card.
The transfer may not come up until a client mentions the wire during tax preparation. That is when I ask who sent it, how much was received and which account it came from. The answers can point to a separate U.S. filing requirement even when the money itself is not taxable income.
A foreign gift or inheritance may require Form 3520 even when no income tax is due. Missing it can produce a five-figure penalty.
The Cost of a Missed Form
On a $150,000 transfer:
- Direct foreign gift: The penalty is $7,500 for each month it remains unreported ($150,000 × 5%), up to $37,500 ($150,000 × 25%), unless reasonable cause applies.
- Foreign trust distribution: The initial penalty is generally the greater of $10,000 or 35% of the gross distribution. In this example, that is $52,500 ($150,000 × 35%).
What to Tell Your Accountant
Your accountant will start with three facts:
- Who sent the money: Include the sender’s legal name, citizenship and tax residency. A U.S. citizen living overseas is generally still a U.S. person.
- How much you received: Add up every transfer received during the year, including transfers from related family members. A $75,000 wire plus a $40,000 wire totals $115,000 ($75,000 + $40,000).
- Where the money came from: Tell your accountant whether it came from a personal account, foreign estate, family company or trust.
In a family business, a parent may use the company account simply because that is where the cash is. That choice can change the reporting.
Form 3520 is filed separately from the income tax return. For a calendar-year individual, it is generally due April 15. A properly requested income tax extension generally moves the deadline to October 15.
Because the transfer may not appear as income on Form 1040, your accountant may have no reason to know about it unless you bring it up.
If you received money from a relative, estate, company or trust outside the United States and have not discussed it with your accountant, call us. We can review the transfer, determine whether Form 3520 was required and help you address the filing if something was missed.
Start with the wire record and any documents connected to the sender, estate, company or trust. We can take it from there.
by Boris Benic | Jul 31, 2026 | Blog
A client once asked a simple year-end question: “We paid someone overseas. Do they need a 1099?”
It was a fair question, but by January, the better question is often what should have been collected when the vendor was first set up.
More businesses are using contractors outside the United States for web development, design, marketing, bookkeeping support, consulting, software work, and project help. The arrangement can make perfect business sense. Good talent is not limited by geography, and many owners are comfortable working with people they may never meet in person.
The accounting record needs to match how the vendor relationship actually works.
When the vendor is outside the United States, I would want the file to answer a few questions before payment starts:
- Is the contractor a U.S. person or a foreign person?
- Is the payee an individual or an entity?
- Which form belongs in the file: W-9, W-8BEN, or W-8BEN-E?
- Where will the services actually be performed?
- Will any part of the work happen inside the United States?
- Is the payment only for services, or does it include software access, licensing, royalties, support, or something else?
A form is only one part of that record.
For a U.S. contractor, a W-9 is usually part of the routine. A foreign individual may provide Form W-8BEN. A foreign entity may provide Form W-8BEN-E. Those W-8 forms generally stay with the payer or withholding agent rather than being sent to the IRS, and they help support how the business treated the payee.
Location is also notable. For personal services, the IRS generally looks at where the work actually happens. Whether the payment is treated as U.S.-source income and whether reporting or withholding applies can depend on where the services are physically performed, even if a U.S.-based company approves the work, uses the finished product here, and pays from a U.S. account.
For example, a developer working entirely from Brazil is not the same situation as a consultant who spends part of the project in the United States. A foreign vendor sending one invoice for services, software access, support, and licensing may need closer review because not every payment category follows the same reporting analysis. Invoices might be clear enough to pay, but not clear enough for the tax file.
A simple intake step at the beginning is usually enough to fix this.
Before payment, collect or confirm:
- the payee’s legal name
- the business name, if different
- whether the payee is an individual or entity
- the country involved
- where the work will be performed
- whether any work will happen in the United States
- what the invoice covers
- which tax form supports the payee’s status
- where the documentation is saved internally
Payment platforms can make the process feel cleaner than it is. A wire, credit card receipt, PayPal record, or freelancer platform report may prove that money moved. It may not show where the work happened, what was purchased, or whether the right certification was collected.
These facts are easier to collect while the contractor is active and the scope of work is fresh. By year-end, the person who approved the project may not remember the details, and the accounting team may be stuck working from whatever landed in the inbox.
Overseas contractors may be a normal part of how the business gets work done. Just make sure the vendor file can answer the tax questions later.
If your company is paying contractors outside the United States, involve your CPA when the vendor is being set up, not after the payment history is already long. A short review of the contractor, the scope of work, the work location, and the documentation can make the year-end question much easier to answer.
