News & Tech Tips

Funding your business: What small business owners need to know about financing

Running a small business often requires periodic cash infusions, and knowing how to secure the right funding can determine whether your business succeeds or struggles. Let’s explore the three primary types of funding available to small businesses: debt, equity, and hybrid financing.

Debt: Borrowing to grow

Debt financing involves borrowing money and repaying it with interest over time. This category includes traditional bank loans, such as term loans, lines of credit, and Small Business Administration loans.

One key advantage of debt financing is that you maintain ownership of your business. However, loan payments can strain cash flow, and lenders often require collateral. If you fail to make payments, creditors can claim ownership of the collateral and, in some cases, sue your business or the owner(s) personally for repayment.

Debt financing works best for businesses with steady revenue streams to ensure timely payments. By retaining ownership, you preserve control over decision-making, but it’s critical to evaluate whether your cash flow can sustain regular loan payments.

Equity: Trading ownership for capital

Equity financing involves selling part of your business to investors in exchange for funding. Common sources include:

Unlike debt, equity financing doesn’t require repayment. But you relinquish some ownership and possibly a portion of future profits.

This approach may benefit start-ups or high-growth companies that can’t qualify for traditional loans due to a lack of profitability or solid credit history. While equity investors can provide valuable expertise and connections, you’ll need to weigh the trade-off of shared decision-making and reduced control over your business.

Hybrid financing: Combining debt and equity

Hybrid financing blends elements of debt and equity. Examples include convertible notes (debt that can convert into equity under specific conditions) and revenue-based financing (where repayment is tied to a percentage of your future revenue). These options are often more flexible, aligning payment terms with business performance.

Hybrid financing is ideal for business owners seeking customized funding solutions. It allows you to leverage the benefits of debt and equity. However, the terms can be complex and require careful negotiation.

Financial statements matter

Accurate financial statements are essential to securing funding. Lenders and investors will require a detailed financial package that includes the following three reports:

  • Income statements to highlight revenue, costs, and profits,
  • Balance sheets to summarize assets and liabilities and
  • Statements of cash flows to show how money moves through your business.

In addition, lenders or investors may ask for supporting reports, such as accounts receivable aging, breakdowns of major expense categories, and information about owners and key employees. These documents provide insight into your business’s financial health and operations, helping potential funders assess the risks and potential rewards of their investment.

Most lenders and investors require at least two to three years of historical financial data and projections for the next two to three years. These reports should tell a clear, compelling story about your business’s financial stability and growth potential.

What’s right for your business?

Selecting the right financing option depends on your business model, growth stage, long-term goals, and risk tolerance. As your business’s needs evolve, it may use a combination of debt, equity, and hybrid financing. We can help you maintain accurate financial records and understand the pros and cons of each option. Contact us to help you make informed decisions to fund your business’s growth.

The standard business mileage rate increased in 2025

The nationwide price of gas is slightly higher than it was a year ago, and the 2025 optional standard mileage rate used to calculate the deductible cost of operating an automobile for business has also gone up. The IRS recently announced that the 2025 cents-per-mile rate for the business use of a car, van, pickup,

or panel truck is 70 cents. In 2024, the business cents-per-mile rate was 67 cents per mile. This rate applies to gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles as well as electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.

The process of calculating rates

The 3-cent increase from the 2024 rate goes along with the recent price of gas. On January 17, 2025, the national average price of a gallon of regular gas was $3.11, compared with $3.08 a year earlier, according to AAA Fuel Prices. However, the standard mileage rate is calculated based on all the costs involved in driving a vehicle — not just the price of gas.

The business cents-per-mile rate is adjusted annually. It’s based on an annual study commissioned by the IRS about the fixed and variable costs of operating a vehicle, including gas, maintenance, repairs, and depreciation. Occasionally, if there’s a substantial change in average gas prices, the IRS will change the cents-per-mile rate midyear.

Standard rate or real expenses

Businesses can generally deduct the actual expenses attributable to business use of a vehicle. These include gas, oil, tires, insurance, repairs, licenses, and vehicle registration fees. In addition, you can claim a depreciation allowance for the vehicle. However, in many cases, certain limits apply to depreciation write-offs on vehicles that don’t apply to other types of business assets.

The cents-per-mile rate is beneficial if you don’t want to keep track of actual vehicle-related expenses. With this method, you don’t have to account for all your actual expenses. However, you still must record certain information, such as the mileage for each business trip, the date, and the destination.

Using the cents-per-mile rate is also popular with businesses that reimburse employees for business use of their personal vehicles. These reimbursements can help attract and retain employees who drive their personal vehicles a great deal for business purposes. Why? Under current law, employees can’t deduct unreimbursed employee business expenses, such as business mileage, on their own income tax returns.

If you do use the cents-per-mile rate, keep in mind that you must comply with various rules. If you don’t comply, the reimbursements could be considered taxable wages to the employees.

When you can’t use the standard rate

There are some cases when you can’t use the cents-per-mile rate. It partly depends on how you’ve claimed deductions for the same vehicle in the past. In other situations, it depends on whether the vehicle is new to your business this year or whether you want to take advantage of certain first-year depreciation tax breaks on it.

As you can see, there are many factors to consider when deciding whether to use the standard mileage rate to deduct vehicle expenses. We can help if you have questions about tracking and claiming such expenses in 2025 — or claiming 2024 expenses on your 2024 income tax return.

Do you have questions about taking IRA withdrawals? We’ve got answers

Once you reach age 73, tax law requires you to begin taking withdrawals — called Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) — from your traditional IRA, SIMPLE IRA and SEP IRA. Since funds can’t stay in these accounts indefinitely, it’s important to understand the rules behind RMDs, which can be pretty complex. Below, we address some common questions to help you navigate this process.

What are the tax implications if I want to withdraw money before retirement? 

If you need to take money out of a traditional IRA before age 59½, distributions are taxable, and you may be subject to a 10% penalty tax. However, there are several ways that you can avoid the 10% penalty tax (but not the regular income tax). They include using the money to pay:

  • Qualified higher education expenses,
  • Up to $10,000 of expenses if you’re a first-time homebuyer,
  • Expenses after you become totally and permanently disabled,
  • Expenses of up to $5,000 per child for qualified birth or adoption expenses, and
  • Health insurance premiums while unemployed.

These are only some of the exceptions to the 10% tax allowed before age 59½. The IRS lists them all in this chart.

When am I required to take my first RMD?

For an IRA, you must take your first RMD by April 1 of the year following the year in which you turn 73, regardless of whether you’re still employed. The RMD age used to be 72 but the Secure 2.0 Act raised it to 73 starting in 2023.

How do I calculate my RMD?

The RMD for any year is the account balance as of the end of the immediately preceding calendar year divided by a distribution period from the IRS’s “Uniform Lifetime Table.” A separate table is used if the sole beneficiary is the owner’s spouse who’s 10 or more years younger than the owner.

How should I take my RMDs if I have multiple accounts?

If you have more than one IRA, you must calculate the RMD for each IRA separately each year. However, you may aggregate your RMD amounts for all of your IRAs and withdraw the total from one IRA or a portion from each of your IRAs. You don’t have to take a separate RMD from each IRA.

Can I withdraw more than the RMD?

Yes, you can always withdraw more than the RMD. But you can’t apply excess withdrawals toward future years’ RMDs.

In planning for RMDs, you should weigh your income needs against the ability to keep the tax shelter of the IRA going for as long as possible.

Can I take more than one withdrawal in a year to meet my RMD?

You may withdraw your annual RMD in any number of distributions throughout the year, as long as you withdraw the yearly total minimum amount by December 31 (or April 1 if it is for your first RMD).

What happens if I don’t take an RMD?

If the distributions to you in any year are less than the RMD for that year, you’ll be subject to an additional tax equal to 50% of the amount that should have been paid but wasn’t.

Plan carefully

Contact us to review your traditional IRAs and analyze other retirement planning aspects. We can also discuss who you should name as beneficiaries and whether you could benefit from a Roth IRA. Roth IRAs are retirement savings vehicles that operate under a different set of rules than traditional IRAs. Contributions aren’t deductible, but qualified distributions are generally tax-free.

Maximize your 401(k) plan in 2025: Smart strategies for a secure retirement 

Saving for retirement is a crucial financial goal, and a 401(k) plan is one of the most effective tools for achieving it. If your employer offers a 401(k) or Roth 401(k), contributing as much as possible to the plan in 2025 is a smart way to build a considerable nest egg.

If you’re not already contributing the maximum allowed, consider increasing your contribution in 2025. Because of tax-deferred compounding (tax-free in the case of Roth accounts), boosting contributions can have a significant impact on the amount of money you’ll have in retirement.

With a 401(k), an employee elects to have a certain amount of pay deferred and contributed to the plan by an employer on his or her behalf. The amounts are indexed for inflation each year, and they increase by a modest amount. The contribution limit in 2025 is $23,500 (up from $23,000 in 2024). Employees age 50 or older by year-end are also generally permitted to make additional “catch-up” contributions of $7,500 in 2025 (unchanged from 2024). This means those 50 or older can generally save up to $31,000 in 2025 (up from $30,500 in 2024).

However, under a law change that becomes effective in 2025, 401(k) plan participants of certain ages can save more. The catch-up contribution amount for those who are age 60, 61, 62, or 63 in 2025 is $11,250.

Note: The contribution amounts for 401(k)s also apply to 403(b)s and 457 plans.

Traditional 401(k)s

A traditional 401(k) offers many benefits, including:

  • Pretax contributions, which reduce your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) and can help you reduce or avoid exposure to the 3.8% net investment income tax.
  • Plan assets that can grow tax-deferred — meaning you pay no income tax until you take distributions.
  • The option for your employer to match some or all of your contributions pretax.

If you already have a 401(k) plan, look at your contributions. In 2025, try to increase your contribution rate to get as close to the $23,500 limit (with any extra eligible catch-up amount) as you can afford. Of course, the taxes on your paycheck will be reduced because the contributions are pretax.

Roth 401(k)s

Your employer may also offer a Roth option in its 401(k) plans. If so, you can designate some or all of your contributions as Roth contributions. While such amounts don’t reduce your current MAGI, qualified distributions will be tax-free.

Roth 401(k) contributions may be especially beneficial for higher-income earners because they can’t contribute to a Roth IRA. That’s because the ability to make a Roth IRA contribution is reduced or eliminated if adjusted gross income (AGI) exceeds specific amounts.

Planning for the future

Contact us if you have questions about how much to contribute or the best mix between traditional and Roth 401(k) contributions. We can also discuss other tax and retirement-saving strategies for your situation.

Fraud risk assessment: Audit fieldwork. What auditors watch for

Auditing standards require auditors to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement due to fraud and to determine overall and specific responses to those risks. Here are some answers to questions about what auditors assess when interviewing company personnel to evaluate potential fraud risks.

What’s on your auditor’s radar?

When planning audit fieldwork, your audit team meets to brainstorm potential company- and industry-specific risks and outline specific areas of inquiry and high-risk accounts. This sets the stage for inquiries during audit fieldwork. Entities being audited sometimes feel fraud-related questions are probing and invasive, but interviews must be conducted for every audit. Auditors can’t just assume that fraud risks are the same as those that existed in the previous accounting period.

Specific areas of inquiry under Clarified Statement on Auditing Standards Section 240, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit, include:

  • Whether management has knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud,
  • Management’s process for identifying, responding to, and monitoring the fraud risks in the entity,
  • The nature, extent, and frequency of management’s assessment of fraud risks and the results of those assessments,
  • Any specific fraud risks that management has identified or that have been brought to its attention,
  • The classes of transactions, account balances, or disclosures for which a fraud risk is likely to exist, and
  • Management’s communications, if any, to those charged with governance about its process for identifying and responding to fraud risks, and to employees on its views on appropriate business practices and ethical behavior.

Fraud-related inquiries may also be made of those charged with governance, internal auditors, and others within the entity. Examples of other people that an auditor might ask about fraud risks include the chief ethics officer, in-house legal counsel, and employees involved in processing complex or unusual transactions.

Why are face-to-face meetings essential?

Whenever possible, auditors meet in person with managers and others to discuss fraud risks. That’s because a large part of uncovering fraud involves picking up on nonverbal clues.

Nuances such as an interviewee’s tone and inflection, speed of response, and body language provide important context to the spoken words. An auditor is also trained to notice signs of stress when an interviewee responds to questions, including long pauses before answering or starting answers over.

In addition, in-person interviews provide an opportunity for immediate follow-up questions. When a face-to-face interview isn’t possible, a videoconference or phone call is the next best option because it provides many of the same advantages as meeting in person.

How can you help the process?

While an external audit doesn’t provide an absolute guarantee against fraud, it’s a popular — and effective — antifraud control. You can facilitate the fraud risk assessment by anticipating the types of questions we’ll ask and the types of audit evidence we’ll need. Forthcoming, prompt responses help keep your audit on schedule and minimize unnecessary delays. Contact us for more information before audit fieldwork begins.