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Covid-19 has disrupted tax and retirement plans for small business owners, especially those who have focused on saving their businesses from the aftermath of the pandemic earlier this year. However, with a little hard work, there will still be time to get back on track by December 31st.

Here is a good example. After his business replenished this spring, one of my clients didn’t take a paycheck for six weeks. To save money, he also lowered his withholding tax at the federal and state levels and stopped contributing to his company pension scheme. Fortunately, his business has largely recovered in the past few months. To his own surprise, sales for 2020 will be higher than forecast at the beginning of the year.

Now that he’s cashless, he’ll need to make some proactive adjustments, starting with his tax withholding and pension plan contributions. And because his profit sharing contribution is linked to his compensation, we also adjust his wages and make his salary retrospectively to the level before the pandemic so that he can get the maximum benefit.

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Many small business owners across the country are facing the same scenario. If you’ve taken similar steps this spring, there are some steps you need to take by the end of the year.

First, increase your compensation, tax deduction and pension plan contributions. Similar to my client, start bringing your wages and tax withholding back to pre-pandemic levels. And work on evaluating your retirement savings.

If your business has recovered, there will still be time to contribute before the end of the year. For 2020, the maximum contribution for deferral of 401 (k) plan salaries is $ 19,500, or $ 26,000 for those aged 50 and over.

In my client’s case, he’ll have to contribute an additional $ 3,250 by the end of the year to make up for the months he’s stopped his deferrals. We just took his remaining six pay periods and split it into $ 3,250 to catch up with him.

If you make additional employer contributions, review the amounts you’ve contributed to your Safe Harbor, Profit Sharing, and Cash Balance since the start of the year against your original 2020 funding strategy. While Qualifying Employer Contributions won’t be due until 2021, I recommend now act so as not to fall further behind. If not, you could run into a cash flow crisis in early 2021 when both taxes and retirement contributions are due.

It’s time to get back on the market too. Many small business owners held on to a large portion of their money and stopped investing their “after-tax” income that spring and summer, fearful that every dollar would be needed to keep their businesses going. Unfortunately, late spring stock markets rebounded quickly and faltered – and these investors missed out on significant gains.

Now is the time to reevaluate your liquidity needs. Start by setting aside a decent amount of money or opening a line of home equity. These measures provide you with a safety net without jeopardizing the long-term benefits of compound returns from future investments.

Once you are comfortable with the amount, I recommend resuming the after-tax savings with a dollar cost averaging strategy. This will reduce the excess cash by making regular purchases over time and reducing the impact of daily market volatility.

Make some wise donations to charity. Despite the difficulty of running a business, many owners tried to donate money to nonprofits in their communities to help the less fortunate weather of the Covid-19 storm. One way to achieve this goal is to give away valued stocks. Instead of selling the stock and capturing capital gains, a security may be donated to deduct fair value including profits.

For example, one of my clients wanted to support a local community organization that provides rental and utility assistance to those in need. He had an oversized position in a well-functioning stock that he wanted to reduce. Instead of giving money to the nonprofit, he donated the stock and was able to reduce his exposure while saving capital gains.

Several goals were achieved with this strategy: The client supported a local non-profit organization in times of crisis, saved future capital gains and was able to take and reinvest the money he would otherwise have given away to diversify his portfolio by buying a new security.

As we continue to wait for a Covid-19 vaccine, millions of small business owners know that this winter will bring some challenges. By keeping a close eye on income and cash flow on a daily basis, they can keep going business while funding their tax obligations and retirement plans. Now is the time to implement these plans.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that data from Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine trials are in line with the agency’s recommendations for emergency use approval. The vaccine is highly effective and has not raised any particular safety concerns.

In documents released ahead of a Thursday consultation to review Pfizer’s vaccine, FDA officials also said the data submitted showed the vaccine was 82% effective after the first dose. Pfizer’s vaccine recommends two doses about three weeks apart. The agency added that two doses of the vaccine are “highly effective” in preventing confirmed cases of Covid-19 at least seven days after the second dose.

The FDA has announced that it will approve a vaccine that is safe and at least 50% effective. In comparison, the flu vaccine generally reduces the risk of developing influenza by 40% to 60% compared to people who were not vaccinated, according to the CDC.

“As a result, the FDA has determined that the sponsor has provided adequate information to ensure the quality and consistency of the vaccine for approval of the product under an EEA,” the agency said on its website.

The FDA is expected to decide within a few days whether Pfizer’s vaccine should be approved. The UK began mass immunization with the vaccine on Tuesday based on approval of emergency use.

The documents released on Tuesday provide a glimpse into the FDA’s view of the vaccine. The agency is expected to hold a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, a group of outside medical experts, on Thursday to review Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine with German drug maker BioNTech for an emergency.

Approval for emergency use means that the FDA will allow some people to receive the vaccine as the agency continues to evaluate data. This is not the same as a full approval, which can typically take months. The FDA granted emergency approval for Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir in May before granting full approval in late October.

If Thursday’s meeting goes well and the advisory panel officially recommends the vaccine, the FDA could announce its approval “in a matter of days,” Alex Azar, secretary of health and human services, told ABC News This Week on Sunday. “But it will be the FDA gold standard process and I will make sure it does,” he added.

The FDA does not have to follow the advisory board’s recommendation, but the agency often does. Furthermore, the FDA’s positive evaluation of the vaccine doesn’t mean the committee will take the same stance at its meeting on Thursday.

Pfizer submitted its Covid vaccine data to the FDA on November 20. A final analysis of its Phase 3 clinical trial of more than 43,000 participants found the vaccine to be 95% effective against Covid, safe, and appeared to fight off serious illness. The vaccine uses messenger RNA or mRNA technology. It’s a new approach to vaccines that uses genetic material to trigger an immune response.

Approval of the vaccine would be a pivotal moment in the pandemic as health officials say the US is likely to face the worst public health crisis in history this winter. Hospitals in the U.S. already have higher numbers of Covid patients than ever before, and the country’s outbreak is poised to break even worse records this week.

US officials say they will distribute the vaccine within 24 hours of approval. Starting doses of the vaccine will be limited as production begins. Leading U.S. health officials predict it will take months to vaccinate anyone who wants to be vaccinated against Covid in the U.S. The vaccine will likely be distributed in phases with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which prioritize healthcare workers and nursing homes.

There is currently insufficient data to draw any conclusions about the safety of the vaccine in children under 16, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems, the FDA said Tuesday.

The agency also wrote that patients with Covid-19 may still be at risk of re-infection and could benefit from the vaccine.

Amy Abad-Sosa

Amy Abad-Sosa

What started as a fun home activity for Amy Abad-Sosa has grown into a source of income for small businesses.

The 29-year-old mother of two and accountant from Bogota, New Jersey, started her new project “Adventure Bins” this fall – homemade activity boxes for toddlers and preschoolers.

“We’re not throwing thousands of dollars into this, but it’s not a bad idea to have extra money,” she said.

While the pandemic has put pressure on numerous small businesses and weighed millions on household incomes, the pandemic has spurred people to find new ways to make money – be it through creating and selling activity boxes, delivering groceries, or looking for other forms of freelance work.

Internet influencers also monetize content, from makeup to manicure tutorials.

OnlyFans, a subscription service that acts as a video platform for influencers, saw new registrations grow by 75% month on month between March and April – right at the start of the pandemic.

For these new entrepreneurs, however, a surprise is just around the corner.

They need to settle the money they have earned and report it on their 2020 income tax return.

“The main problem with starting a new business or side business is not understanding the tax environment,” said Mackey McNeill, CPA and consumer finance lawyer with the American Institute of CPAs.

“You bring your box of supplies to your CPA and they say,” You owe the government $ 5,000, “she said.” That first year you are behind schedule and you are owed to the government. “

Here’s how you can avoid these tax mishaps in the first year.

Know your obligations

Regardless of whether you have just started your new side business or have been in business for years, you must state the income in your tax return for 2020.

Some online services, including Uber, OnlyFans, DoorDash, and Etsy, will issue you a Form 1099 in January listing the money you made the previous year. A copy of this form will also be sent to the IRS.

Here’s the catch: not all services will give you this information. For example, to receive a Form 1099-K, merchants on Etsy must have sales of $ 20,000 or more through Etsy and have received at least 200 payments in that year.

Even if you don’t get a 1099, you need to closely track and report income.

“For people who do things from home – making and selling crafts, for example – if you don’t go through a marketplace like Etsy or Shopify, track it yourself,” said Paula Small, a small business accountant and owner of Small Stepping stone in Manassas, Virginia.

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“Services like GrubHub and DoorDash have some reports that you can log into, but they won’t issue a Form-1099 until January,” she said. “By then you will have forgotten everything you did the year before.”

Keep a table of your income and keep track of your expenses. Consider keeping a separate commercial bank account for a better view of inbound and outbound spending.

Abad-Sosa currently uses Google Sheets – free spreadsheet software – to keep track of their income and expenses, including the cost of crafts and shipping.

“Accounting is my baby,” she said. “If you’re starting a small business, keep an excel spreadsheet about what you’re paying and what you’re buying.”

Put cash aside for taxes

Small business owners pay estimated taxes on a quarterly basis. The due dates are January 15th, April 15th, June 15th and September 15th.

This can surprise new entrepreneurs who are used to having income taxes withheld from every paycheck as employees.

Here’s another tax hour: while employees share wage tax with their employer – 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare – self-employed pay the entire amount themselves. It’s part of their quarterly payment to the tax officer.

Talk to a tax advisor about how much you will need for each quarterly payment to the IRS. In general, a good rule of thumb, according to Small and McNeill, is to set aside 25% to 35% of your income.

Monitor your expenses

When it comes to expense deductibility, the IRS has a number of rules that determine whether a business is a business or a hobby.

All earnings must be reported, but if you are into a hobby, you cannot deduct the cost you paid to participate.

Still, keep track of your expenses and have them ready when it’s time to file your taxes.

“Gather all of your expenses so you can get the deductions you’re entitled to and lower your net income,” said Lisa Greene-Lewis, CPA and TurboTax Specialist.

These breaks can include the home office deduction, the mileage deduction, as well as the cost of purchasing the materials and equipment needed for your business.

Hire a professional

Invest in yourself. Hire an expert to walk you through year-end tax planning and put you on a solid footing for 2021.

This tax year could prove to be a complicated one as taxpayers could weigh one Form W-2 from their regular job as well as several 1099’s due to unemployment and various sources of income.

“Good advice is a healthy return on investment,” said McNeill. “Now is the time to think about what 2020 will be like for you and whether you will be happy or sad when April comes.”