Starting and Operating a Business in Arizona

Book Synopsis: Starting and Operating a Business in Arizona (November 2023 Edition) thoroughly covers federal tax and business laws as well as Arizona laws and taxes that are generally applicable to new and small businesses and is a comprehensive tax and legal guidebook for any Arizona small business. The author, a retired tax attorney and CPA and a Harvard Law graduate, provides a detailed but easy to read explanation of the "ground rules" a small business owner needs to know to navigate successfully through the complex maze of federal and Arizona tax and business laws and regulations.

FEDERAL LAWS AND TAXES: Federal tax laws that apply to small businesses are analyzed and explained, showing how you can benefit from recent beneficial changes (and avoid the new pitfalls), in order to structure your small business and operate it so as to best reduce taxes and also comply with numerous non-tax regulations. Federal taxes and laws are updated to 2023 in this edition, including 2023 federal tax rates and brackets, 2023 retirement plan limitations, and other 2023 inflation-indexed items of the tax law. Federal tax and legal coverage includes individual and corporate income, self-employment, estate, gift, and excise taxes, payroll taxes, withholding taxes; the important new Corporate Transparency Act that will apply ONLY to small businesses; the Americans with Disabilities Act; environmental laws; minimum wage/overtime and child labor laws; anti-discrimination and health care reform laws that apply to employers; immigration laws affecting hiring; OSHA job safety compliance; ERISA (employee benefits) compliance; the Family and Medical Leave Act rules (and how to earn the family leave tax credit); mail order sales and telemarketing regulations; Internet taxation and regulation; and much more.

ARIZONA LAWS AND TAXES: Updated fully for recent Arizona business law and tax changes, including new Arizona flat tax that goes into effect in 2023, new (2023) increased threshold for estimated sales tax prepayments (up from $3.1 million 2022 threshold), 2023 increase in the state minimum wage and increased personal property tax exemption, and the new "remote sellers" sales tax law. Arizona tax and legal coverage includes the Arizona state income tax, state corporate income tax, Arizona sales and use, property, and unemployment taxes, withholding of employee taxes, and other state and local business taxes; state fair employment laws, which may differ from federal; the Arizona minimum wage, overtime, and child labor laws, with new material added on the broad range of prohibited employments under Arizona's child labor laws; mandatory workers' compensation insurance and new hires reporting; wage payment requirements; when/if registration of fictitious business names (trade names) is required; penalties for hiring illegal aliens; other state labor laws; and much more.

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND ADVICE: In addition to extensive, up-to-date coverage of federal and Arizona business laws and taxes, you will also find a gold mine of other useful information and advice for running your business. An entire chapter, with diagrams, is devoted to site selection for your business; also covered is how to choose accounting methods and tax year-end; do's and don'ts when buying an existing business, acquiring a franchise, or signing a lease; pros and cons of corporations, LLCs, LLPs, and other business entities. Other chapters deal with subjects such as how to protect your assets from creditors; incorporation in a state other than Arizona; when to classify workers as either employees or independent contractors; advice about joining a multilevel marketing program; exporting tips; cash flow management and fraud detection; and estate planning, to name some of the covered topics.