LGT's Profit Sense

As a business owner, you understand the importance of continuous investment in your manufacturing business. But, as the manufacturing landscape becomes increasingly competitive and globally inclusive, you may ask yourself: “Where can I find the extra capital I need to drive my business forward?” One relatively straightforward way to do this is to utilize the research and development (R&D) tax credit, a dollar-for-dollar tax credit that may be applied against taxes for the generating business.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) made permanent and temporary changes to the tax rates for all entities and individuals. Among the permanent changes was the shift in the C corporation tax rate to a flat 21% beginning in 2018. For manufacturing entities that operate as a “pass-through” (i.e., sole proprietorship, partnership, and S corporations) their income is still passed down to the individual business owners. This means that the “tax-cut” did not cut the tax rate of pass-through entities directly. To help balance the scale, TCJA created a “qualified business income” (QBI) deduction through 2025. There are many hurdles to clear to enable you to take advantage of the QBI deduction, but if you meet all of the qualifications, you could take the full 20% deduction.

I am Lee Ann Collins, Managing Partner at Lane Gorman Trubitt, and recently I found myself awake instead of peacefully sleeping. The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France was burning, and I watched the news feeds while praying with the rest of the world. The amazing emergency service teams in Paris were able to put out the fire, saving many lives and the rose window. It had me thinking about how buildings and monuments like the cathedral are a mark of those that came before us. They take a community of people to build and maintain.  Long after the architect, builder, and owner are gone, the testament to their vision and dedication remains.

The more people come to your site, the more likely they are to become clients or customers. Continuing to drive people to your site is beneficial for your overall business. In this last installment of the search engine optimization (“SEO”) series, we’ll be covering a few more tips that will help bring traffic to your site again and again.

For the second year, the Leading Edge Alliance (“LEA”), has conducted a Manufacturing Outlook and Insights survey with participants across the country. This year there was a 75% increase in participation. Overall, the survey resulted in a positive outlook for individual businesses, the industry as a whole, and the economy. There were several factors that contributed to the positivity: some of the factors were intrinsic, while others were from outside sources, such as the growing U.S. economy. Let’s take a look inside some of the survey results and dig deeper into the future of the manufacturing industry.

Welcome to the next blog post in a series of best practices for search engine optimization (“SEO”) and your organization’s website. We’ll discuss user experience (“UX”): what it is, what it means, and what you can do to help potential clients gain a better understanding while visiting your website. We’ll also go over user interface design (“UI”) and how it relates to UX.

In a series of SEO, we’ll discuss different tasks you can do in order to help maximize traffic on your site.

Let’s start from the beginning. What is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimization. What does that mean? Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo all use algorithms that decide how to rank sites on their pages, and SEO is the process that helps your site rank closer to the top of the page.

Like many industries, the manufacturing industry has fallen to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) and the updated Department of Labor overtime regulations. Many companies are struggling to maintain their overhead, comply with regulations, and pay for the ever-increasing health care costs, all the while attracting and retaining skilled workers. If you have felt the heat, you are not alone. According to the 2016 Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey, a lot of companies are dealing with these same concerns.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) states, in short, that companies must have their annual benefit plan report (Form 5500) audited if you have 100 or more participants in your plan (Companies within the range of 80 to 120 employees have additional criteria to consider). It is the responsibility of the plan administrator to hire independent, qualified public accountants to perform the audit. Manufacturing companies may look to keep costs down by hiring a less experienced accountant. But you’ll want to pay now to save yourself later.

Imagine, someone in sales closing a massive deal. It’s a new customer with a huge, custom order. Great! The production team works under the tight deadline. The new client is pleased that everything is shipped on time and comes back looking spectacular. But wait, did you get paid?