Dashboard: Gene Marks Is Not a Fan of Mandated PTO

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard brought to you by our sponsor the great game of business I'm Lauren felin I'm here with Gene marks to talk about the things we think business owners should be following this week welcome Jean hey Lauren you know what's great what's great I'm going to tell you what's great the great game of business is great I got a call about you last week they appreciate you're doing this by the way they're a great organization and we thank them very much for sponsoring this segment they are freaking great all right let's talk that's why they call them the a great game of business Jean you're always writing and talking about stuff that matters to business owners last week when we taped um we didn't really have time to get into it but you indicated you were really eager to talk about the new legislation the new law in Illinois that mandates paid leave for all workers regardless of the size of the business I assume that's because you're really happy that employees are finally getting what they deserve is that right first of all can I also point out you just we didn't tape anything like last week Lauren this isn't 1985 we're recing this digitally anyway you I got a tape recorder running here you you don't realize surpris me um yeah so Illinois became one of three states uh you know a couple weeks ago to pass legislation um that now mandates employers to pay time off which you would think like oh okay it's sick time which in Philly you know employers are mandated to pay for sick time but no no no it's not just sick time it's anytime off if anybody in Illinois any employee wants to take time off they're they they acrew I think it's like one hour for every 40 that they work with a maximum of 40 so five days yeah it's a week's vacation for for for paid time off yeah of any kind whether it's SI leave or vacation of any kind it's you know and and I just like man what the hell is going on I you know I just I I I just have an issue with governments mandating employers what you know compensation and it's it's just this continuing encroachment over what you do if I want to provide one week or five weeks paid time off that's up to me as the employer if an employee thinks that I don't provide enough paid time off they can go somewhere else there's a billion un unfilled jobs out there well I mean that's not always the easiest thing and you know we've been told for a long time we're heading into a recession and you know people might like a job uh otherwise is it a too excessive a burden it's it's five days I think doesn't sound like a lot tell me why that sounds like a lot to you because I think five days is five days it's it's it's it's somebody that's not being in the office because you're they're require you're required to provide to this but you know people are going to use this if they have sick kids if they're sick themselves if somebody's sick you don't want them coming into the office yeah sick is a different thing but that's not that's not the issue here like I well that that's what people are going to use this for I mean this is for people who henceforth probably haven't gotten paid if they didn't come in they took a day and work no Lauren Lauren Lauren Lauren if people want to go to Jamaica for the week and take that time off the employers are mandated to give them that time off you're right they they they can use it as vacation time but that doesn't mean that's that's how it's all going to be used well it won't all be used that way I'm sure but at the same time you know you a good part of it will be used that way and I think that's a benefit that is an employee benefit you know it was the the Biden Administration in one of the bills and it got cut off I think it was the inflation reduction act where wanted to propose um you know uh paid time off for family leave and the government was going to like compensate employees for doing that to a certain amount and although I'm not a big fan of like you know okay there's more entitlements that the government going to at least the government was paying for it and not the businesses and it it gave a bit of a more of a Level Playing Field for small businesses like I could support something I could I'd be more inclined to support something like that but this is just basically saying and it's for all businesses in Illinois like regardless of size like hey man uh sorry but your your employees they're they're it's legal for them to take a week off and you got to pay them okay screw you guys just do you know just you have to follow the law but that's an extreme example and yes it can happen for sure but don't you think it's much more likely that employees are going to reserve that time in case they need it because they're sick a kid sick or something like that I don't know I I I don't know what employees are going to do with your time what I think would be just much better off is that employ if employers had the ability to offer the compensation package that they can afford um and that they they they feel makes them competitive and then let the market decide whether or not they can attract enough employees or the right people for their business does it make a difference to you I I I hear what you're saying it's very similar to uh a minimum wage law same kind of principle does it make a difference to you that this affects everybody so it's not a competitive Advantage I don't support minimum wage either I mean I I okay there we go we've gotten to the nub of it yeah I I I don't support that either I mean I just I I feel like I mean I don't have a single client that pays anywhere near the minimum wage the minimum wage in Pennsylvania is still like $725 an hour um which is ridiculous and because it's so ridiculous nobody even pays any attention to it it's the same thing with this vacation role I mean you know you can mandate that you take a week off you know employers trust them trust me trust other business owners to have the wherewithal to figure out what makes sense to to provide to their employees in form of compensation whether it's vacation or health benefits or or you know or or or just compensation so I just the the more that the government is telling what these businesses should be doing um the more encroachment it is it's just it's more Regulatory and therefore um you know businesses themselves are going to have to uh you know you and by the way Illinois is like kind of net loss of residents and businesses over the past couple of years you've got States like Texas and Florida that are attracting businesses because they don't have [ __ ] like this I mean you know the market will decide and this is one of those things I just just it just drives me nuts with its stupidity do you have any employees who don't get any paid time off no my employees I mean we we get three weeks paid time off and frankly we don't even track paytime off I mean you could you could make the argument that my company has an unlimited paytime off policy because I trust them to to do but I are good people that's that's exactly my point I I it surprises me that this one pisses you off so much given that it sounds to me like it's the same situation that you just described with the minimum wage laws it's I'm in the tech industry and and you know that's common and I you know the people that work for me and with me um they're good people and they're good adults and they're they you they do good jobs and you know we're all adults here when we come up with our own compensation and we have our own compensation plans and it's like a it's it's like an unset unlimited paytime off type of plan although we have in writing that it's three weeks U but that's for me to decide between my employees I don't have the state of Pennsylvania involved in how much vacation I'm giving to my people it's just it's it's just I don't know it to me it's like insulting you have put your finger on what's different about this law I think there are a bunch buch of States I think maybe 14 or 15 that have similar laws but it's only for sick leave and this is this is vacation as well are you aware of any movement do you think it's going in this direction or too early to say I you know listen I mean I know um mandated paid time off without explanation is not something that is on uh the National Horizon I know there's a lot of talk at the national level about uh paytime off for uh you know dependent care or sick time um and so I can see you know I can see that happening more so than just hey everybody just take vacation time and have a good time and your employeers are going to pay for it all right I think we've uh killed that topic uh next one if you have any thoughts of selling a business you wrote a piece with a bunch of suggestions for things that business owners should do even if you know they're not sure and it's not that close correct six things I've got this article right in front of me okay revisit your Buell agreement pay for evaluation now do a document check bring in a technology expert visit Home Depot and assemble your team visit Home Dep just gonna say let's let's talk about Home Dep stop Panero on the way what what what's this about the uh the visit Home Depot analogy is is basically to get your get your your place of business together you know I mean you know people come to visit your your company at some point because they want to evaluate the conditions of your business and uh you know I mean I have clients as well it's like you could I don't know if you have the same problem you know you know in Jersey you know but here in Philly potholes you know like you like your entire car gets submerged I see like parking lots for my clients that are Like Mine Fields or you know gutters falling down or unpainted walls and these are clients are looking to sell their business I'm like well dude don't give the impression that you're giving up on this business just because you're you know that's not a good look even if you're not trying to sell the business yeah I mean that's the whole thing like you know and by the way and I I concluded with this is that everything in my entrepreneur article these six things you should be doing to prepare your business to sell you should be doing this like all the time you know like visiting home your place of business should be a nice looking place that you feel proud to to go to it shouldn't be a [ __ ] hole and particularly if you're looking to um attract employees or if customers of it says a lot about you it really does you should see my apartment Lauren it is PR there is we are clean our beds are made it is my kitchen we I don't leave any dirty PL oh my gosh it is absolutely pristine so anybody come and visit us that tells you a little bit something this guy is an anal retentive [ __ ] that keeps very true clean apartment but it does say a lot about your business too so tell me about the appraisal do you think people should get a an appraisal routinely yeah you know I I I am am a big fan of valuing your business um I do believe that you should if you're thinking of selling your business I just had this conversation with a client this week they are at the age now where they're thinking like they might bring in some you know some those private Equity firms to like maybe buy them out they don't know yet and I'm like you know before you do that bring in you know a certified appraiser you know like an accredited appraiser um to come in and take a look at your business it's going to cost you five or 10 grand I get it but you know that's what they're trained to do and they will give you a good idea as to what your business is worth and where value is and um it it'll be eye openening I promise because you know we we're all walking around thinking that you know we're like oh man I'm gonna retire on this thing and you know my business is worth so much and you know you know you're going to get a surprise when you have an outsider take a look if you wait until you're it's time to sell and you get a surprise it's kind of too late to do anything about it 100% 100 I mean this all the whole point is to look ahead so if an appraiser comes in and they're they're undervaluing your business because you're you know you know your your inventory is not as much as you think or your you know your market share is whatever reasons and they will give you reasons um you've got some time to fix it and and that's why you want to do that now rather than later I I want to ask you about one other uh item on your list which is to bring in an outside technology firm that's the kind of work you do isn't it Jean yeah what a coincidence isn't that something Lord how about that what a jerk you are as if you're you're saying I'm so let me let me have like did you just call me a jerk yeah okay full disclosure here okay that's not what we do Lauren how long have you and I know each other we sell CRM software we're not an IT firm it's been let me read it I have this thing I have this a to do this you'll need to bring in an outside technology to evaluate your network your Hardware your security software and databases I bet you could do that no we do not we do not do that I can evaluate your CRM system but that's that's not your network or your servers your wiring or whatever so you know [ __ ] you Lauren that is not what I do want you to know that now this was not some self- selling you know whatever now full disclosure some of my Forbes columns on CRM yeah they might lean a little bit to like kind of hire me to help you out but that's this is a completely different thing but you you disclose that you're in that business it's a completely different thing yeah that's right and by the way when I was at Forbes I hired you write that column so thank you I think we're on the same page here I think we are all right last topic you wrote another piece I think also for entrepreneur yeah in which you said there are 10 tax numbers not you know not categories but numbers every owner should know so I want to see how well you know these numbers I'm going to throw them at you you tell me what's important about each of these numbers okay and our our listeners can can play along at home first one 16,200 that is the amount of money I paid for first year college tuition for one of my kids or at least that's what it seemed that I well that's cuz you said three kids to college in the same year if I recall correctly right yeah that's that's actually true um no 16,200 is the maximum amount of wages that can now be taxed for Social Security at that 6.2% so if you are making anything above $160,000 200 this year um that will not be taxed for Social Security however the 1.45% Medicare tax still applies all right next number $7,500 $7,500 is the amount of retirement savings that I have accumulated uh from all the writing that I've done for you over the years no it's just kidding it's twice that but the $7,500 um it's a catchup contribution you can make to your 401k if you're over the age of 50 and more than half business owners are um you can make catch-ups uh to your 401k account um in the amount of $7,500 that you that's more money you can put away for retirement 66,000 $66,000 is the total amount that an employee and an employer can contribute to their 401K this year so that is uh both assuming that they meet certain income limitations and uh pass certain discrimination tests uh if you're you know if you're good with all that I mean if you're running a business and you're contributing and all of your employees are contributing a lot to your 401k and you're you know encouraging them to do that which you really should um you know if the pieces fall into place you could be putting away as much as 66 Grand into your 401k in one year this year 150,000 that is the amount of I'm trying to come up with something funny and I just can't you've done well so far yeah yeah it just it's the amount of compensation that is considered to be a highly compensated individual that is the number where um if you have those individuals that are highly compensated in your 401k plan and they make more than $150,000 um you better hope you've got a lot of contributions from people making under $150,000 so that they are um so that you can contribute the amount that you want to because your highly compensated people cannot be contributing as much um unless you're lower compensated people are contributing the idea being that you don't want this plan to just exist for highly compensated people it should be helping all employees exactly who choose to participate that is exactly right 300 by the way I noticed that you skipped you know I posted this on my medium account and some of the numbers didn't come in you know what I I was saving that for the end I was going to point out to you they don't if you go to Gan marks. medium.com you can read this whole column and you'll notice one interesting thing the head line is 10 tax numbers every owner should know but there only eight in the article listen I'm an accountant I didn't say I'm a good accountant know please take what I say with a grain of salt what was the number was $300 right is that what you said that was the money paid that I paid for one single ticket to see Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden and that was just for me I mean w he used to do those concerts for free didn't he yeah well it ain't happening anymore but we're excited to go and see him so there that is the amount that you can pay your employees for Community expenses and get a deduction and they won't be taxed that's a really good benefit I mean if you if you're in an area where people need to commute in um they need to pay for parking or maybe uh uh you know the mileage that they're incurring or out- of pocket expenses you can reimburse your employees for up to $300 a month and um they won't get taxed and you can get a tax deduction for that 1,100,000 that is the maximum amount uh of money wait I read it wrong I'm sorry it's 1,160 yeah that's exactly right um it that that applies to the depreciation deduction that employe that your know businesses can take this year uh maximum on all the capital additions that you buy during the year uh like equipment and furniture and fixtures and things like that you can deduct right off the Box $1,160 th000 just make sure you put that those assets in the service during the year so that you um you so they're up and running but you can take a full depreciation um for that 12,9 120,000 that would be a number that Lauren you and I will never have to worry about let's move on to the next no no no that is the that is the right now the tax exemption for estate taxes so whatever assets that are um exceed $1,920 th000 is uh is exempt under is exempt from the 40% uh estate tax rates um and then you know it's if you're married um and happily married Lauren you and your wife you can you can uh shelter 25 million of your assets before you have to pay estate tax so I know that comes as a big relief well I'm GNA have to start charging those great game folks a lot more money I know that 21 ad has been crushing it this year so this could be a concern of yours talk to your estate planning expert last one jean 177,000 this is the amount of money that you can give to me Lauren without being taxed it is the gift tax it doesn't even have to be to family members it could be to anybody that you want so Jean I thought this podcast was enough of a gift to you just talking to you as a gift Lauren so okay that you can gift to anybody in the world $177,000 a piece they won't pay any taxes on it although that will reduce uh overall your life lifetime estate uh but at the same time it is H it is a non- taxable contribution you can make to any individual you want all right that is eight of the 10 important tax numbers that Gan marks promised us if you if you go to entrepreneur you can read the other two and that's why I always say like it's eight out of 10 which is close enough because I'm always the reason why I don't do taxes Lauren is because for me you know if it's close enough it's good enough that's I'm not the guy you want toing your taxes that's all I'm going to leave it at that okay what do you working on Jean anything we should look for this week yeah I'm going to write uh for the inquire I'm up in the air I think I'm going to revisit the state small business credit initiative and see how that's doing you know we've talked about that quite a few times and it does I I I don't see a lot about it and I I'm just it seemed like a lot of money and I'm not aware that people are taking advantage it of it or it just seems like it's too quiet I don't know yeah it's it's quiet because it's going to the states and the states are Distributing into these non profits and it's just not getting a lot of news so I'm going I'm revisiting it um either that or a piece on on mental health benefits which which you could definitely use um and then I have um so I I'm up in the air on that and then for the guardian I'm gonna my editor at the guardian who I absolutely love Dominic um he loves like sort of workplace issues so he jumped all over there's a new study that came out you're you and Dominic Lauren would love each other a new study came out that found that raising the minimum wage does not cause more unemployment right so try and guess my my take on that one so he asked if I would write about that so I'm gonna write about that this week as well I have a feeling we're gonna talk about that at some point that could come up Gene marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times the Chicago Daily Herald Forbes an entrepreneur you can also hear him on ABC radio's eye on the world with John Bachelor Jean host two small small business podcasts with paychecks Corporation and the Hartford this episode was brought to you by the great game of business which helps businesses use an open book management system to help build healthier companies you can learn more at Great game.com Jean thank you as always Lauren awesome to talk with you it's a lot of fun we'll talk to you next week always a pleasure have a great week everyone