sonny-dev/inters-qdu huggingface dataset:
Query: How to deposit a cheque issued to an associate in my business into my business account?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Have the check reissued to the proper payee.

 <=SEP=> Just have the associate sign the back and then deposit it.  It's called a third party cheque and is perfectly legal.  I wouldn't be surprised if it has a longer hold period and, as always, you don't get the money if the cheque doesn't clear. Now, you may have problems if it's a large amount or you're not very well known at the bank.  In that case you can have the associate go to the bank and endorse it in front of the teller with some ID.  You don't even technically have to be there.  Anybody can deposit money to your account if they have the account number. He could also just deposit it in his account and write a cheque to the business.
Query: Can I send a money order from USPS as a business?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Sure you can.  You can fill in whatever you want in the From section of a money order, so your business name and address would be fine. The price only includes the money order itself.  You can hand deliver it yourself if you want, but if you want to mail it, you'll have to provide an envelope and a stamp. Note that, since you won't have a bank record of this payment, you'll want to make sure you keep other records, such as the stub of the money order.  You should probably also ask the contractor to give you a receipt.
Query: 1 EIN doing business under multiple business names

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> You're confusing a lot of things here. Company B LLC will have it's sales run under Company A LLC, and cease operating as a separate entity These two are contradicting each other. If B LLC ceases to exist - it is not going to have it's sales run under A LLC, since there will be no sales to run for a non-existent company. What happens is that you merge B LLC into A LLC, and then convert A LLC into S Corp. So you're cancelling the EIN for B LLC, you're cancelling the EIN for A LLC - because both entities cease to exist. You then create a EIN for A Corp, which is the converted A LLC, and you create a DBA where A Corp DBA B Shop. You then go to the bank and open the account for A Corp DBA B Shop with the EIN you just created for A Corp. Get a better accountant. Before you convert to S-Corp.
Query: Applying for and receiving business credit

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> "I'm afraid the great myth of limited liability companies is that all such vehicles have instant access to credit.  Limited liability on a company with few physical assets to underwrite the loan, or with insufficient revenue, will usually mean that the owners (or others) will be asked to stand surety on any credit. However, there is a particular form of ""credit"" available to businesses on terms with their clients.  It is called factoring. Factoring is a financial transaction   whereby a business sells its accounts   receivable (i.e., invoices) to a third   party (called a factor) at a discount   in exchange for immediate money with   which to finance continued business.   Factoring differs from a bank loan in   three main ways. First, the emphasis   is on the value of the receivables   (essentially a financial asset), not   the firm’s credit worthiness.   Secondly, factoring is not a loan – it   is the purchase of a financial asset   (the receivable). Finally, a bank loan   involves two parties whereas factoring   involves three. Recognise that this can be quite expensive.  Most banks catering to small businesses will offer some form of factoring service, or will know of services that offer it.  It isn't that different from cheque encashment services (pay-day services) where you offer a discount on future income for money now. An alternative is simply to ask his clients if they'll pay him faster if he offers a discount (since either of interest payments or factoring would reduce profitability anyway)."

 <=SEP=> Banks will usually look at 2 years worth of tax returns for issuing business credit.  If those aren't available (for instance, for recently formed businesses), they will look at the personal returns of the owners. Unfortunately, it sounds like your friend is in the latter category. Bringing in another partner isn't necessarily going to help, either; with only two partners / owners, the bank would probably look at both owners' personal tax returns and credit histories.  It may be necessary to offer collateral. I'm sorry I can't offer any better solutions, but alternative funding such as personal loans from family & friends could be necessary.  Perhaps making them partners in exchange for capital.
Query: 401k Transfer After Business Closure

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> You should probably consult an attorney. However, if the owner was a corporation/LLC and it has been officially dissolved, you can provide an evidence of that from your State's department of State/Corporations to show that their request is unfeasible. If the owner was a sole-proprietor, then that may be harder as you'll need to track the person down and have him close the plan.
Query: What are the ins/outs of writing equipment purchases off as business expenses in a home based business?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Most items used in business have to be depreciated; you get to deduct a small fraction of the cost each year depending on the lifetime of the item as per IRS rules. That is, you cannot assume a one-year life for an electronic item  even if it will be obsolete in three months.  Some items can be expensed; you get to deduct the entire cost in the first year but then if you don't stay in business, e.g. you get a job paying wages and are no longer self-employed, you have to recapture this and pay taxes on the amount recaptured in the later year.  With respect to consumer-type electronics such as an iPad or laptop, it helps to have a separate  item for personal use that you can show in case of an audit.

 <=SEP=> First of all, Dilip's answer explains well how the business deductions generally work. For most (big) expenses you depreciate it. However, in some cases you need to capitalize it, which is another accounting method. When you capitalize your expense, it becomes part of the basis of the product you're creating. Since you're an engineer, this might be relevant for you. Talk to your tax adviser. How exactly you deduct/depreciate/capitalize things, and what expense goes which way depends greatly on the laws and jurisdictions. Even in the US, different states have different laws, and the IRS and State laws don't have to conform (unfortunately). For example, the limitations on Sec. 179 deduction in 2010-2011 were 20 times higher on Federal level than in the State of California. This could have lead to cases where you fully deducted your expense on your Federal tax return, but need to continue and depreciate it on your State return (or vice versa). Good tax adviser is crucial to avoid or manage these cases.

 <=SEP=> Keep this rather corny acronym in mind. Business expenses must be CORN: As other posters have already pointed out, certain expenses that are capital items (computers, furniture, etc.) must be depreciated over several years, but you have a certain amount of capital items that you can write off in the current tax year.
Query: Intentions of Deductible Amount for Small Business

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> "If your sole proprietorship losses exceed all other sources of taxable income, then you have what's called a Net Operating Loss (NOL). You will have the option to ""carry back"" and amend a return you filed in the last 2 years where you owed tax, or you can ""carry forward"" the losses and decrease your taxes in a future year, up to 20 years in the future. For more information see the IRS links for NOL. Note: it's important to make sure you file the NOL correctly so I'd advise speaking with an accountant. (Especially if the loss is greater than the cost of the accountant...)"
Query: Filing personal with 1099s versus business s-corp?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Depends whom the 1099 was issued to. If it was issued to your corporation - then its your corporation's income, not yours. Why would it go to your tax return? Your corporation and you are two separate legal entities. You will have to file the 1120S, whether you have corporate income or not, it has to be filed each year. So why make a mess of your reporting and not just report the corporation income on its return and your personal income on your own return? If you no longer use the corporation and all the 1099's are issued to you personally, then just dissolve it so that you won't have to file an empty 1120S every year and pay additional fees for maintaining it.
Query: How can I make $250,000.00 from trading/investing/business within 5 years?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Deposit $3,500 each month in a brokerage account and invest that money across a handful of diversified index funds. Rebalance those investments every quarter. The hard part is coming up with $3,500 each month; this is where your budget comes in.

 <=SEP=> "The answer to your question is Forex trading.  You can get to 250K quicker than any other ""investment"" scheme.  You'll just need to start with at least 500K."
Query: Investing/business with other people's money: How does it work?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> "Basically, you either borrow money, or get other people to invest in your business by buying stock or something analogous.  Sometimes you can get people to ""park"" money with you. For example, many people deposit money in a bank checking account. They don't get any interest or other profit from this, they just do it because the bank is a convenient place to store their money. The bank then loans some percentage of this money out and keeps the interest. I don't doubt that people have come up with more clever ways to use other people's money. Borrowing money for an investment or business venture is risky because if you lose money, you may be unable to pay it back. On the other hand, investors expect a share of the profit, not just a fixed interest rate."

 <=SEP=> You can either borrow money... credit card, line of credit, re-finance your home, home equity line of credit, loan, mortgage, etc. Or you have other invest in your company as equity.  They will contribute $X to get Y% of your company and get Z% of the profits.  Note amount of profits does not necessarily have to equate to percentage owned.  This makes sense if they are a passive investor, where they just come up with the money and you do all the work.  Also voting rights in a company does not have to equate to percentage owned either. You can also have a combination of equity and debt.  If you have investors, you would need to figure out whether the investor will personally guarantee the debt of your company - recourse vs non-recourse.  If they have more risk, they will want more of a return. One last way to do it is crowdfunding, similar to what people do on Kickstarter.  Supporters/customers come up with the money, then you deliver the product.  Consulting practices do something similar with the concept of retainers. Best of luck.
Query: What approaches are there for pricing a small business?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> I don't have any experience in this, but this is my academic understanding of business pricing.  The LOWEST amount a seller would accept is the liquidation value. For a B&B, what would the value of the land, the house, the furnishings, accounts payable, etc. be if it had to be sold today, minus any liabilities.  The amount the seller would like to pay for is going to be a multiple of its annual earnings. One example of this is the discounted cash flow analysis. You determine the EBITDA, the earnings a company generated, before interest,  depreciation, taxation and amortization.  Once you have this amount, you can project it out in perpetuity, or you use an industry multiplier.  Perpetuity:  You project this value out in perpituity, discounted by the going interest rate. In other words, if you project the business will earn $100,000/year, the business should grow at a 5% rate, and the going interest rate is 8%. Using a growing perpetuity formula, one value of a business would be: 100,000 / (.08 - .03) = $2,000,000.  This is a very high number, and the seller would love to get it.  It's more common to do a multiple of the EBIDTA. You can do some research into the valuation of the particular industry to figure out the EBIDTA multiplier for the industry. For example, this article suggests that the 2011 EBITDA multiplier for hospitality industries is 13.8. (It's valuing large hotel chains, but it's a start). So the value of this B&B would be around $1,380,000. Here is an online SME valuation tool to help with the EBIDTA multiple based valuation. Also, from my research, it looks like many small business use Seller Discretionary Earnings  (SDE) instead of EBITDA. I don't know much about it, but it seems to serve a similar purpose as EBITDA.  A potential buyer should request the financial statements of the business for the last few years to determine the value of the business, and then can negotiate with the owner a price. You would probably want to enlist a broker to help you with the transaction.
Query: How to account for money earned and spent prior to establishing business bank accounts?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Funds earned and spent before opening a dedicated business account should be classified according to their origination. For example, if your business received income, where did that money go?  If you took the money personally, it would be considered either a 'distribution' or a 'loan' to you.  It is up to you which of the two options you choose. On the flip side, if your business had an expense that you paid personally, that would be considered either a 'contribution of capital' or a 'loan' from you. If you choose to record these transactions as loans, you can offset them together, so you don't need two separate accounts, loan to you and loan from you. When the bank account was opened, the initial deposit came from where?  If it came from your personal funds, then it is either a 'contribution of capital' or a 'loan' from you. From the sound of your question, you deposited what remained after the preceding income/expenses.  This would, in effect, return the 'loan' account back to zero, if choosing that route. The above would also be how to record any expenses you may pay personally for the business (if any) in the future. Because these transactions were not through a dedicated business bank account, you can't record them in Quickbooks as checks and deposits.  Instead, you can use Journal Entries.  For any income received, you would debit your capital/loan account and credit your income account.  For any expenses, you would debit the appropriate expense account and credit your distribution/loan account. Also, if setting up a loan account, you should choose either Current Asset or Current Liability type.  The capital contribution and distribution account should be Equity type. Hope this helps!
Query: Do I need a new EIN since I am hiring employees for my LLC?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> I called the IRS (click here for IRS contact info) and they said I do not need to get a new EIN.  I could have just filed the appropriate employer federal tax return (940/941) and then the filing requirements would have been updated.  But while I was on the phone, they just updated the filing requirements for my LLC so I am all good now (I still need to file the correct form and make the correct payments, etc. but I can use this same EIN going forward). Disclaimer: Don't trust me (or this answer) for tax advice (your situation may be different).  The IRS person on the phone was very helpful so I recommend calling them if you are in a similar situation.  FYI, I have found calling the IRS to always be very helpful.
Query: Privacy preferences on creditworthiness data

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> See the first item in the list: For our everyday business purposes – such as to process your   transactions, maintain your account(s), respond to court orders and   legal investigations, or report to credit bureaus Note that there's no option for you to limit this sharing. Credit reporting is the business need of the bank, not of the bureaus. They rely on them and others reporting it in their main business: lending. While you can limit the sharing with other banks/insurance companies/service providers so that you won't get offers from them based on the data shared by the bank, you cannot limit the credit reports themselves.
Query: Have plenty of cash flow but bad credit

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Set up a meeting with the bank that handles your business checking account. Go there in person and bring your business statements: profit and loss, balance sheet, and a spreadsheet showing your historical cash flow. The goal is to get your banker to understand your business and your needs and also for you to be on a first-name basis with your banker for an ongoing business relationship. Tell them you want to establish credit and you want a credit card account with $x as the limit. Your banker might be able to help push your application through even with your credit history. Even if you can't get the limit you want, you'll be on your way and can meet again with your banker in 6 or 12 months. Once your credit is re-established you'll be able to shop around and apply for other rewards cards. One day you might want a line of credit or a business loan. Establishing a relationship with your banker ahead of time will make that process easier if and when the time comes. Continue to meet with him or her at least annually, and bring updated financial statements each time. If nothing else, this process will help you analyze your business, so the process itself is useful even if nothing comes of it immediately.

 <=SEP=> A) The Credit Rating Agencies only look at the month-end totals that are on your credit card, as this is all they ever get from the issuing bank. So a higher usage frequency as described would not make any direct difference to your credit rating. B) The issuing bank will know if you use the credit with the higher frequency, but it probably has little effect on your limit. Typically, after two to three month, they reevaluate your credit limit, and it could go up considerably if you never overdrew (and at this time, it could indirectly positively affect your credit rating). You could consider calling the issuing bank after two month and try to explain the history a bit and get them to increase the limit, but that only makes sense if your credit score has recovered. Your business paperwork could go a long way to convince someone, if you do so well now. C) If your credit rating is still bad, you need to find out why. It should have normalized to a medium range with the bad historic issues dropped.

 <=SEP=> "Sign up with credit karma.  It will give you two scores for free and will show you credit cards you have a good chance in being approved for.  Plus it will evaluate your score showing you the 6 items that effect your score and give you steps to improve them or tell you how long you have to wait until they roll off. Plus I would look at a credit union and see if they have any ""fresh start"" programs.  You should be well on your way.   the thing that is probably hurting your credit is your utilization.  If you can just use 10% of your available credit."
Query: financial institution wants share member break down for single member LLC

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> "What exactly would the financial institution need to see to make them   comfortable with these regulations The LLC Operating Agreement. The OA should specify the member's allocation of equity, assets, income and loss, and of course - managerial powers and signature authorities. In your case - it should say that the LLC is single-member entity and the single member has all the managerial powers and authorities - what is called ""member-managed"". Every LLC is required to have an operating agreement, although you don't necessarily have to file it with the State or record it. If you don't have your own OA, default rules will apply, depending on your State law. However, the bank will probably not take you as a customer without an explicit OA."
Query: Sole proprietorship or LLC?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> "The primary advantage is protection of your personal assets. If your LLC gets sued, they can't take your house/car/dog/wife. There aren't really any financial incentives to be an LLC; because of the pass-thru taxing structure, you wind up paying the same in taxes either way. ""The cost"" will depend on where you're located, and usually involves a few factors -- Expect to pay $300-500 to start it, depending on your state and who you register with (technically, you can usually register for free at the secretary of state, but wouldn't you rather pay an expert?), and ""State Franchise Tax"", which will can be a minimum of up to $1000/year depending on the state, plus even more if your LLC earns more than $xxx,000. EDIT -- As an aside, I'll mention that I'm based in California, and our state franchise tax starts at $800/yr. I'm all-web-based, so I've been investigating incorporating in Nevada or Delaware instead (no franchise tax, lower filing fees), but from what I've found, it's hardly worth the trouble. In addition to having to pay a Registered Agent (someone to act as my permanent mailing address in that state for ~$100/yr), apparently California likes to search for people just like me, and charge them $800 anyway. You can fight that, of course, and claim that your business really is done in Nevada, but do you really want to?"
Query: What percentage of my company should I have if I only put money?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> There is no universal answer here; it depends on how much risk each person is taking, how you want to define the value of the business now and in the future, how much each person's contribution is essential to creating and sustaining the business, how hard it would be to get those resources elsewhere and what they would cost... What is fair is whatever you folks agree is fair. Just make sure to get it nailed down in writing and signed by all the parties, so you don't risk someone changing their minds later.

 <=SEP=> Question (which you need to ask yourself): How well are your friends paid for their work? What would happen if you just took your money and bought a garage, and hired two car mechanics? How would that be different from what you are doing?  The money that you put into the company, is that paid in capital, or is it a loan to the company that will be repaid?
Query: Where to request ACH Direct DEBIT of funds from MY OWN personal bank account?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Call Wells Fargo or go to a branch.  Tell them what you're trying to accomplish, not the vehicle you think you should use to get there.  Don't tell them you want to ACH DEBIT from YOUR ACCOUNT of YOUR MONEY.  Tell them you apparently need a paperless transaction sent to this and that account at this and that bank.  See if they offer a solution.
Query: Challenged an apparently bogus credit card charge, what happens now?

Relevant passages:
 <=SEP=> Yes.  For $15 it's not worth anyone's time to dig deep just for this specific occurrence. What you should do, however, is keep an eye on your credit card bills and accounts and watch for any other suspicious activity.  It is possible that your number was stolen somehow and someone is using it fraudulently, so you want to be on the lookout in case they try to use it again.  However, your credit card company is going to be much, much better than you at detecting patterns of fraud, which is why you should leave it to them unless and until you actually see more suspicious activity.