My name is Wyatt Kent and I am a rising senior accounting major. I attend Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where I have lived my entire life. I have two previous busy seasons in tax and am very excited to have my first experience in audit this summer. Outside of the office, I enjoy hiking, biking, kayaking, running, and the guitar.

Why BiggsKofford

I chose BiggsKofford because I wanted to be a part of a firm that felt like home despite being across the country from my own. I could tell from my first interactions with my interviewers that everyone here has a lighthearted and friendly attitude, and this affirmed my decision to come so far for a job opportunity. In addition to that, I am drawn to the more finance-related aspects of accounting, which BiggsKofford deals heavily in.

First Day

My first day consisted of meeting a majority of the team members, training in a few concepts, and filing a lot of paperwork to HR. I did not expect to have the opportunity to sit and talk with the head of the firm That meant a lot to me, as this is not a typical meeting on your first day as an intern at any given company. The next day, the interns were immediately placed at client sites to start shadowing and observing as associates and partners conducted audits and spoke with controllers. I know that at BiggsKofford, I am being given the opportunity to see a broad range of aspects in auditing that I wouldn’t otherwise be afforded. I am very much looking forward to seeing and learning as much as I can about this profession, this city, and this local economy. I feel very confident and secure in my decision to move to Colorado Springs and work for BiggsKofford and am excited to see what the rest of the summer holds.

The Colorado Secure Savings Program, set to begin in 2023, requires any company with five or more employees that does not already offer a retirement program, to enroll. Employees can opt-out or reduce their contributions.

The state’s goal is to provide retirement coverage to more than 40% of privately employed individuals who do not have retirement savings. If employers chose the Colorado Secure Savings Program over a private retirement plan, the program would coordinate with existing organizations to increase financial education and awareness in the state.

Proponents of the savings program highlighted benefits: 

Workers will have an easy and accessible way to save for their future

• Workers are automatically enrolled via their employer and may opt out if they choose

• Program Board will set contribution rate for payroll deduction

• Workers will have investment options within their IRAs

Accountability for employers and employees: 

• Professionally managed, with oversight by Board chaired by the State Treasurer

• Board is bound by fiduciary duty

• All matters impacting the Program are debated in public with ample opportunity for stakeholder input

The Program will provide a high-quality, competitive option for workers. 

• Low fees for plan administration

• Easy to use platform

• Low obligation for workers

Self-employed and 1099 individuals have the option to participate as well.

What if I already offer my employees a retirement plan?

• Great!  No action needed on your part

What if I do not wish to participate?

• If you have at least five employees and you do not want to participate in this plan then your company should establish a separate retirement plan option outside of the State program.  Companies’ legal liabilities are limited to refusing to participate in the plan when they don’t already offer another, and that carries fines.  These fines have not yet been defined.

Upcoming Dates

July 2022: Rules are finalized

October 2022: Pilot program launches

2023: Enrollment begins

Please contact your BiggsKofford professional for more information

Who I am:

I am Michael Walter Matthews, I graduated from STEM School Highlands Ranch, and I am currently a senior at Western Colorado University. I have no professional or internship experience, so I am very excited to be starting this up. I snowboard during the winter, and I do whatever gets me outside during spring/summer. I am also a part of the e-sports organization at WCU (competitive video games) and I lift to balance that out. I am originally from Millersville, Maryland but I moved out to Colorado in 2009 and have lived here ever since.

Why I chose BiggsKofford:

I chose BiggsKofford for several reasons, the first of many being that there was a meet and greet that WCU was invited to in the fall of 2021, and it seemed like a very nontraditional CPA firm from the start. Once I learned of the core values of the firm, such as interdependence, I knew this was my top choice for an internship even though I lived an hour away. This firm seemed extraordinarily hardworking and honest, along with having a great team. Rather than assisting only one partner for the duration of the internship, I can work with the entire firm and that’s what makes BiggsKofford great.

Details on what my first two days were like:

On the first day, Wyatt and I were introduced to what a typical Monday would look like for the audit team. We sat in on the audit department meeting, which was a very laid-back experience, while also very helpful. After, we were able to attend 3 hours of CPE and were able to get essentially a confirmation on how friendly and hardworking everybody is. We were then able to meet with Chris, discuss the core values of the firm, and then got set up with our “buddies,” Bridgett and Connor.

On the second day, I went to a client site for an audit which was a brand-new experience for me. Members of the team were able to give me offline work along with letting me shadow them to learn how an actual audit is performed. Despite the issues of me not being able to access the shared the documents, it was overall a great learning experience, and it was great to meet audit team members in a working environment.

Description of what I think my culminating internship week will be like:

I believe that my culminating internship week will be more learning how to be a productive member of an audit team. Hopefully I will be able to get my VPN set up and be able to help at client sites in the future.

Overall, I am extremely excited to have a professional experience and I hope that I can make this into a career into the future.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado–June 6, 2022 – Chris Blees, President and CEO of BiggsKofford, Certified Public Accountant, a leading Colorado accounting and professional advisory firm with offices in Colorado Springs and Denver, today announced that longtime firm Partner Greg Papineau will officially retire on June 7, 2022.  After a professional career that has spanned over 43 years, the last 23 with BiggsKofford, of providing his passion for accounting and his expertise in the profession to many clients and industries and mentoring numerous firm associates, Papineau’s next role in life will be expanding his role as a Permanent Deacon for the Diocese of Colorado Springs.  In addition, Greg plans on traveling, playing more golf, hiking, and cycling, and spending time with his family and three granddaughters.

Papineau began his career with a large West Coast CPA firm before moving to Colorado Springs and joining BiggsKofford in 1999.  After joining BiggsKofford, Papineau brought his expertise in serving nonprofit organizations and developed that niche into one of the leading nonprofit CPA firms in Colorado Springs.  In addition, Papineau began serving physicians and today the Firm’s physician practice is one of the largest practice segments within BiggsKofford.

Blees, President and CEO of BiggsKofford, praises Papineau by remarking the he is “a good CPA, a good partner, and a good friend.  But he is so much more.  He’s also been one of the most recognizable ‘faces’ of BiggsKofford in the community.  His passion and service extends well beyond our firm and even our clients.”

As one of our Firm’s Partners, Papineau’s signature practices include his passion in serving his clients and his entrepreneurial approach to accounting, tax and management expertise and making a significant contribution when steering the Firm’s directional course.  BiggsKofford supports many community programs, and Papineau made sure to be a leading figure in all efforts over more than two decades.

“Greg has participated in many community-wide events and has worked with countless nonprofit boards throughout our community.  Greg epitomizes what it truly means to be a Servant Leader, “ adds Blees.

Outside of the accounting world, Papineau has kept his schedule full over the years.  Currently, Greg serves on the Mount St. Francis Nursing Center Board as its Chairman and is the Treasure of the Penrose St. Francis Health Foundation.  Prior community and Board involvement include working as Scoring Chairman for USGA events held at the Broadmoor, Discover Goodwill of Southern and Western Colorado, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, St. Mary’s High School, and the Pikes Peak Council of Boy Scouts, to name just a few volunteer efforts.

A life-long calling for Papineau has been through service to the Catholic Church.  Greg was ordained a Permanent Deacon in the Diocese of Colorado Springs in 2011 and is currently assigned to St. Paul Parish.  As a Permanent Deacon, Greg will serve the Church in many of its various ministries.  “Serving the people of Colorado Springs as a Deacon has been one of the most fulfilling and at the same time one of the most challenging endeavors I have done in my life.  I am excited to see what God has in store for me.” Papineau stated.  But his biggest passion is his family and three beautiful granddaughters.  “There is nothing better than being a grandparent,” Papineau said.

There will be a formal reception in honor of Greg Papineau at The Sky Club at Weidner Field on June 7th, 2022. Those who would like to send notes of support or congratulations may have them delivered to the BiggsKofford Colorado Springs office at 630 Southpointe Court, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80906.

Founded in 1982, BiggsKofford is a full-service Colorado Springs CPA firm serving individuals and business owners. BiggsKofford’s CPAs are innovative, strategic thinkers who go beyond traditional accounting to provide complete business solutions. Services offered include a variety of financial services, including outsourced accounting, IRS problem resolution, tax services, auditing services, and estate planning. BiggsKofford has expanded services to meet the needs of over 500 business owners and entrepreneurs across Colorado’s Front Range.

One of the key components of a successful middle-market business is the maintenance of accurate financial records. Accounting is much more than a chore that must be attended to in order to file annual tax returns—if done correctly, it can provide information useful for evaluating performance and for making decisions that have day-to-day and long-term implications.

Although this article focuses on Intuit’s Quickbooks software, many of our clients use other products.  Most accounting products share similar feature sets, and so the information in this article can be easily applied to those products as well.

Some organizations find the class system in Quickbooks to be very helpful.  In a professional services business, the class system can be used to segregate revenues and expenses between partners.  This is done by setting up a class code for each partner and then assigning a code to each revenue and expense transaction.  You can then run a special Profit and Loss By Class report with columns that show the revenues and expenses that pertain to each provider. Other accounting solutions also provide a similar feature that might have a different name like “Categories” but work in the same way.  If your business has multiple locations or divisions, the class system can be used to separate the activity for each one.

Being able to compare your expectations for the performance of your business versus what actually happened is also essential.  Quickbooks has the ability for you to enter budget amounts for the accounts you have set up and then provides various reports that allow you to compare actual results against your budget.  This feature can be useful as a basis for determining rewards in employee incentive programs and for defining spending limits for administrative staff.

One of the most important things you can do to make sure you are capturing all transactions correctly is to make use of the Bank Reconciliation feature for each bank account active in the software.  Using the Bank Reconciliation feature is similar to balancing your personal checkbook in that it assists you with verifying that the transactions you have input into the bank accounts match the bank statements you receive. Performing monthly bank reconciliations will help ensure that the bank balances shown in the software are an accurate representation of the available cash on hand for operation of the practice.

If you find it burdensome to record each individual transaction, most accounting packages will allow you to download bank account and credit card activity from many financial institutions directly into the software.  However, if you choose to do this, it will still be necessary to classify the nature of each transaction that is downloaded.  For example, if you link your business bank account to your software and then download a debit card transaction in which you purchased office supplies, you will probably want to tell your software that the purchase was for “Office Supplies” expense.  In addition, you will be able to match transactions you have entered manually if they duplicate a transaction downloaded from the bank.

One of the primary reasons that business owners keep accounting records is to be able to produce the necessary information for the annual filing of tax returns.  Many of BiggsKofford’s clients submit a Quickbooks file or allow us to access their Quickbooks Online account so that we have the information we need to prepare the return.  Prior to providing this information to us, there are a number of things you can do that will help reduce the amount of time and fees for tax return preparation.  First, run the report that shows your Balance Sheet on the final day of the tax period (usually Dec. 31).  Examine the balances of each account.  Do the balances seem reasonable?  Do you see anything that is clearly wrong or that your CPA would question?  If so, take a look at the activity in the account for that year and correct any errors that you encounter.  Do the same for the Profit and Loss report for the period the tax return will cover.

Even though most consumer accounting products such as Quickbooks are designed for users without an accounting background, they can still seem overwhelming if you are not familiar with them.  Even experienced users often encounter situations in which they are not sure how to proceed. BiggsKofford’s goal is to effectively support our clients in the use of their accounting software so they have the financial information they need for their business to be successful.

Dedicated CPA Awarded Elite Title at Colorado Springs and Denver Certified Public Accountants Firm

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado–May 25, 2022 – Chris Blees, President and CEO of BiggsKofford, P.C., today announced that Tyler Atkins, CPA, has been promoted to Senior Manager. Atkins joined the firm in 2014 as an intern and has been a valued member of BiggsKofford since that time. He began formal employment as an Audit Associate and quickly moved up through three accounting levels in the firm, acquiring his current position in January 2022. 

“Tyler has demonstrated his dedication and hard work from his first day as an intern, and at every title he has held in the past eight years with our firm. We are pleased to recognize his contributions to the team and his clients by awarding him this elite title,” said Blees, President and CEO.

Atkins graduated from Castleton University in 2012, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with an accounting concentration. At BiggsKofford, Atkins has served clients across a variety of industries and spends the majority of his time working with local nonprofit organizations in the audit and tax fields. Atkins enjoys participating in BiggsKofford events, including volunteer days, and also enjoys golfing and snowboarding, as well as a variety of other sports.  

Founded in 1982, BiggsKofford is a full-service Colorado Springs CPA firm serving individuals and business owners. BiggsKofford’s CPAs are innovative, strategic thinkers who go beyond traditional accounting to provide complete business solutions. BiggsKofford offers a variety of financial services, including outsourced accounting, IRS problem resolution, tax services, auditing services, and estate planning. BiggsKofford has expanded services to meet the needs of over 500 business owners and entrepreneurs across Colorado’s Front Range.

Austin Buckett, Director and CFO at BiggsKofford, explains why it’s never too late to put together a good financial model that can promote your company to investors and guide your business decisions:

Building out a financial model is one of the most critical steps in launching a new business, but it is also one of the most commonly overlooked steps along the path from idea to income-generating operation.

Whether you are just starting the process of launching a new business or deep in the entrepreneurial game, it’s never too late to put together a good financial model that can promote your company to investors and guide your business decisions.

What is Financial Modeling?
Financial modeling is the foundation that supports any solid business plan.
Before you can understand how a business will run, you must first have a rough idea of where the revenue and profit will come from, which explains why having a robust financial model is a critical component of any good startup pitch.
Most startup investors have a long list of business plans that they could consider funding. The financial model is often the difference maker that gets those investors to dig in and read one business plan out of the stack of options on their desk.
When reviewing a financial model, you must keep in mind that all of the numbers involved are strictly theoretical. If the experience from actually running your business proves your model wrong, you will need to make adjustments.

How to Build Your Financial Model
Even the best financial models are built on several assumptions, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to have the very best possible guesses feeding the model you create.
The first step in building a solid financial model is calculating the size of the market your business is targeting. This will give investors a ballpark idea of the ultimate potential of the company.

The next step in building a financial model is to break down the unit economics of whatever your startup will be producing, including the estimated selling price of a unit and what you expect the production costs to be.
Once you have estimates for your market size and unit economics, it’s time to define and estimate your fixed costs to calculate your overhead. After that, you will also want to project the number of sales you are expecting and how you believe those sales will grow over time.

The best financial models will also include an analysis of a customer’s lifetime value, which will involve some assumptions on how frequently you can expect them to purchase your products.

Tips for Keeping your Financial Model Focused
Building out a financial model for a new business can become a massive undertaking if you aren’t careful, so the most important tip for keeping your model focused is to dig deep into the details without overcomplicating the secondary information.
It can also help to define the Key Performance Indicators that you will utilize to evaluate your business. This will give you an understanding of what you will need to do to improve your business once the live sales information starts to come through.
Another way to help keep your financial model focused is to stress test it with a wide range of hypothetical scenarios and evaluate which areas could be made simpler or more robust depending on how it performs.

Common Financial Modeling Mistakes
Like any business practice, there are many mistakes that you will want to watch out for when developing your financial model.
One of the most common mistakes is using numbers that aren’t realistic. To avoid this problem, make sure that you consistently base your input numbers on comparable businesses in your industry.

Another common mistake that people tend to make when building financial models is forgetting to factor in potential problems that could invalidate the numbers that feed into their model. Make sure that you aren’t looking at your business with rose-colored glasses when forecasting its potential.

Failing to define inflection points where cash will be injected is another common mistake you will want to avoid. It is essential to be as transparent as possible with investors regarding future funding rounds.

How do you measure how robust your business is? One of the key ways is by looking at financial ratios, which can be grouped into four categories.

Liquidity — Your business’s ability to remain liquid so you can meet your short-term liabilities. How much of a cash cushion do you have each accounting period? How much of your operating cash flow is funneled into your spending projects? Here are some ratios to help with liquidity measurements

:

• Current ratio, which measures your ability to meet obligations due in less than one year.
• Defensive interval ratio, which compares assets to daily cash expenditures.
• Operating cash flow, which evaluates your ability to pay off short-term liabilities using cash flow from operations.

Operational risk — How much inherent risk there is in your capital structure and operating model. Operational risk will tell you about your creditworthiness and ability to meet periodic liabilities. This is useful in evaluating leverage. Here are some ratios to measure operational risk:

• Asset coverage ratio, which measures your ability to cover debt obligations with assets.
• Cash coverage ratio, which measures your ability to cover debt obligations with cash.
• Debt service coverage ratio, which evaluates your ability to use operating income to repay debt obligations, including interest.

Profitability — How much profit you can wring from your assets or equity, and how well you have used funds to develop a profitable operational model. Some profitability ratios include:

• Gross margin ratio, which is the revenue left over after the cost of goods sold is deducted.
• Net profit margin, which is the percentage of revenue left over after all expenses and taxes.
• Operating margin, which is the percentage of revenue left over after all expenses.

Efficiency — The capacity and turnover of your operations. Efficiency measurements identify areas for improvement. They include:

• Accounts payable turnover ratio, which expresses credit purchases as a multiple of accounts payable.
• Contribution margin ratio, which shows the percentage of earnings retained after variable costs.
• Employee turnover, which shows the percentage of employees who have left the company, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Other essential numbers

Also consider these key calculations:

• Return on assets quantifies how much profit the business has generated relative to its available assets.
• Return on equity quantifies how much profit is generated relative to available equity financing.
• Return on investment is a general return figure that investors use to quantify investment performance.
• Earnings per share measures net income earned on each share of stock.
• Price-earnings ratio reflects investors’ assessments of future earnings.
• Debt-equity ratio is calculated by adding outstanding long- and short-term debt and dividing it by the book value of shareholders’ equity.

With these ratios, financial performance can be ranked against time-series data, competitor ratios and performance targets. You can draw insights from how computed ratios have evolved over time, and you can benchmark your management against targets you set up for your company.

Financial ratios help you in deciphering the overall health of your business. Applying formulas helps you understand your own business and choose the best stocks for your portfolio. When combined, these ratios are used to get a complete picture of a company’s prospects.

Deborah Helton, Director at BiggsKofford, discusses why physicians need to be aware of frequently overlooked barriers their practices face when considering revenue compression and inflationary supply chain price increases:

Medical practices face ever-evolving business climate changes.  Physicians may not be aware of the frequently overlooked barriers their practices face considering revenue compression and inflationary supply chain price increases.  To analyze both productivity and costs physicians depend on accurate and timely information. Continual ‘checkups’ are required to maintain useful financial information.

Most successful practices include physician review of weekly financial cashflow updates and continual monitoring of overhead costs.  Some signs of unattended financials include a lack of documented billing procedures and reconciliations between EMR and banking activity on the revenue side and missing internal controls such as vouching for shipping invoices to actual invoices on the expense side.  Financial reporting should allow owners to monitor patient visits, and procedure types and count trending and trending in large cost items such as medical supplies and personnel expenses.

Inefficient processes, inaccurate reporting, and a lack of key performance indicators can put a strain on medical practices that isn’t necessary and negatively impacts financial results. By fine tuning the specifics of these systems, physician practices can save time and money which will help their business achieve success.

With the volume and options available for evaluating your practice, it is understandable most physicians and practice managers do not have a high degree of trust in their existing accounting systems. Being provided accurate information, paired with confidence in accounting systems, is a necessity in today’s fast paced business environment. Conducting a detailed and unbiased evaluation of your current accounting system and its key players will unveil whether your accounting functions are overly simplistic, outdated, or if team training is needed. An accounting system evaluation can also uncover manual processes that should be automated, overstaffing issues, and cost saving opportunities.

There are several solutions to the above challenges; identifying training opportunities for your accounting team to ensure success, updating accounting software to an integrative and automated platform, and consulting with an experienced outsourced CFO that can provide insights on medical practice performance and best practices.  An optimal solution can be found by customizing a blend of the above based on your needs.

Balancing how to provide patients with the best care possible while successfully managing your financial performance is a constantly evolving process. Evaluating your accounting function against the ever-changing environment of medical practices means continually ‘checking up’ on your systems and team. This is big ask of physician group business owners whose main priority is patient care. The inclusion of an outsourced CFO can lessen the burden placed on owners and free up time for them to focus on what they do best!

It’s no secret that nonprofits have had to weather challenging circumstances in the past two years. Building strategies and tactics that remain flexible are basic guiding tenants for any organization, especially for nonprofit groups. Incorporating a higher level of agility into operations and finances help prepare nonprofit groups to face unknown hurdles yet to come. Creating a tailored plan based on appropriate preventive and detective controls helps guard against future issues such as fraud.

The past two years saw an increase in reported cases of fraud for nonprofit organizations. Learning lessons from these unfortunate events is important, but applying those lessons is even more critical. Fraud risk grew as people sensed increased threats to their health and finances, and even if those insecurities improve in the coming months and years, there are still considerations regarding security to make. Issues such as altered internal controls and segregation of duties are still impacted by staff absences and reductions. The natural tendency of nonprofit organizations s to be more trusting of employees and volunteers has historically been a factor, and added strain from the pandemic means that background checks and security checkpoints may be limited. Additionally, many organizations are subject to more extreme budget constraints and efforts to maximize resources to the detriment of critical administrative support, accounting, and technology.

These factors, along with limited administrative, accounting, and finance functions, may hinder internal controls and increase fraud risk. Implementing and customizing best practices such as these below can greatly reduce the risk of fraud.

Consider the following examples that you can do to reduce the risk of fraud:
Implement a more dedicated method of segregating duties and monitoring. This is a good time to see if there are gaps in the ways that you are currently structuring tasks and roles, as well as examine if your current system of monitoring daily functions is up-to-date. Reviewing account actions daily is a best practice as is checking payroll and bank statements. Additional actions include sending automated emails from your bank offsite to the CEO, CFO, or other trusted leader for review prior to reconciliation. Banks can also send an email to someone outside of the payables and accounting process after each electronic payment showing the amount and recipient.

Safeguard assets. Make sure that you’ve provided your bank with a list of vendors that are authorized to withdraw funds electronically and dedicate a set time to review those transactions. Other suggestions include physically securing assets such as inventory and equipment as well as keeping any banking supplies under lock and key. You can bond all employees who handle cash and checks and consider increasing the frequency and level of background checks. Make sure you use bank lockbox services and shredding services–two actions that are relatively low-cost and offer security that your information is not being copied or stolen.

Update policies and procedures. Implement a vetting and approval process for new contractors and vendors, and maintain consistency regardless of previous relationships. Prohibit the use of acronyms when writing checks or endorsements, and don’t allow anyone to write checks to “cash.” Similarly, encourage donors and supporters to write out your full name instead of using acronyms. And one of the most important actions is to make sure you assess technology and data security needs frequently and even consider an outside cyber-security contractor that has been vetted and proven as an extra safeguard.

A commitment to methods of avoiding fraud doesn’t mean that nonprofit organizations have to lose their faith in the good they do. In fact, employees, volunteers, and donors will appreciate the efforts you make to ensure their hard work and selfless support are well protected.

BiggsKofford, P.C. Hires New Team Memebers

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado–April 2022 – Chris Blees, President and CEO of BiggsKofford, P.C., a leading Colorado accounting firm with offices in Colorado Springs and Denver, today announced that four new employees have joined the organization. BiggsKofford is a thriving and growing CPA firm established in 1982, with strong forward movement in the addition of new clients, leading to the successful recruitment of talented new team members. 

James Griffin, CPA, joins the firm as a Senior Audit Associate with more than ten years of experience in accounting. Griffin earned his MBA from Keller Graduate School and has worked across multiple industries, providing him with the expertise that allows him to manage the intricacies of each client. In his spare time, Griffin enjoys road trips with his family and balancing active and relaxing pursuits.

Javier Frias recently joined the team at BiggsKofford as a Virtual Outsourced Accounting Specialist. He has over fifteen years of experience working in public accounting with an emphasis on independently owned businesses across a broad spectrum of industries. Frias is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and, in his spare time, enjoys traveling, motorsports, and outdoor activities.

Lucy Linse is a recent graduate of Western Governors University with a degree in Business Administration and also graduated from Belgorod University of Cooperation in Belgorod, Russia, with an Associate Degree in Economics and Law. Linse joins BiggsKofford as an Audit Associate, currently working primarily with not-for-profit organizations. As her role expands, Linse will acquire a diverse set of clients. In her free time, Linse is an artist, an avid book reader, and enjoys spending time with her family.

Kirsten Texler joined BiggsKofford as Director of Marketing and Communications. Texler brings more than two decades of communications, marketing, and public relations experience to her new position. Texler’s role with BiggsKofford also includes talent acquisition, public relations, and as an “investor in fun” for her internal team. Texler spends as much time as possible enjoying what her home state of Colorado offers, including skiing, back-country mountaineering, and doing anything with her teenage son.

“We are grateful to have such great additions to our team at BiggsKofford,” stated Chris Blees, President and Chief Executive Officer. Bless continued, “They have made themselves a valued part of our organization in their short time here and are positive and quick to learn the standards and practices that keep BiggsKofford a leader in the industry.”

Founded in 1982, BiggsKofford is a full-service Colorado Springs CPA firm serving individuals and business owners. BiggsKofford’s CPAs are innovative, strategic thinkers who go beyond traditional accounting to provide complete business solutions. Services offered include a variety of financial services, including outsourced accounting, IRS problem resolution, tax services, auditing services, and estate planning. BiggsKofford has expanded services to meet the needs of over 500 business owners and entrepreneurs across Colorado’s Front Range.

Colorado State Tax Updates 2022

Colorado had implemented changes to Tax Laws that could impact you in 2022.  Entities have a new way to pay your state taxes in some instances while individuals will see changes to various deductions.

Entity Tax Changes: Partnerships and S corporations may now make ‘PTE’ or elective pass-through entity level tax.

Prior to 2017, individuals were able to itemize and deduct your State taxes paid; this deduction category was subsequently limited to $10,000 (category comprised of state income tax, real property tax and personal property tax).  This dramatically increased tax liability for high income earners who had large State tax payments.  States started creating ‘workarounds’ to get around this and Colorado has implemented such a ‘work around’ for 2022 for high earning business owners.

Starting this year companies that earn more than $112,000 of Net Income or $5,000 in State tax liability (2022 rate of 4.5%) can pay Colorado tax at the entity level and deduct Federally on the entity tax return.   The result is similar to the historical ability to deduct these payments at the personal level.  At this time, Colorado has not created a payment mechanism.  The State will not be assessing underpayment penalty in 2022, at this time we don’t have a firm date to anticipate vouchers.

Individual Tax Changes:  H.B. 21-1311 also enacted several changes to the individual income tax computation.

Cap on College Savings (529) Deduction:  Previously unlimited, Colorado has capped at $20,000 per year per beneficiary for single taxpayers and $30,000 for joint returns. This will be adjusted annually starting in 2023 and beyond.

Limits on Qualified Business Income Deduction: The existing income limit for allowance of the QBI or Sec 199A deduction has been extended through tax year 2025.  For tax years beginning in 2022 and beginning before 2026, taxpayers with FAGI of at lease $400,000 will be required to addback Colorado taxable income itemized deductions over a capped amount ($30,000 for single and $60,000 for married filing joint taxpayers)

State Earned Income Credit Increased and the State Child Tax Credit has been expanded for years 2022 and thereafter.

We are proud to announce that two of our team members have been awarded scholarships from Colorado Society of CPAs Education Foundation.

Congratulations to Bridget Kalicki & Tram Ha!

HHS Reporting: Final Guidance on PRF Funding

HHS has finalized reporting guidance for recipients of funding from the Provider Relief Fund (PRF). The HHS PRF reporting portal has been open since July 1, 2021. Recipients of PRF funding are required to report the use of these funds via the reporting portal based on the timeframe these funds were received in. It is imperative to report on the use of PRF funding in order to remain compliant with the terms and conditions that were attested to when funding was received. If reporting becomes non-compliant you will be required to pay back these funds.

HHS requires recipients of PRF funding to report when one or more payments received exceeds $10,000 in the aggregate in the following “Payment Received Period”. The following “Deadline to Use Funds” is the date you have to use PRF funds for eligible expenses and lost revenues attributable to coronavirus. The “Reporting Time Period” is the timeframe in which you have to report on the use of PRF funding.

Reporting on the use of funds contains 2 parts: eligible expense reporting and lost revenue reporting. Fund usage will first be reported on using eligible expenses. These expenses are broken into 2 categories: General & Administrative expenses (rent, mortgage, lease, utilities, etc.) and Healthcare Related Expenses (supplies, computer & IT, cleaning, etc.). These eligible expenses must have been paid using funds outside of PPP funds or other government assistance programs.

Once eligible expenses have been reported on, then we move into the Lost Revenues category. HHS requires revenues be categorized based on quarter and payer. The 2019 year is used as a baseline for revenues lost in 2020 and the first 2 quarters of 2021. The payer categories are: Medicare A&B, Medicare C, Medicaid/CHIP, Commercial Insurance, Self-Pay (No Insurance), and Other.

Lastly, HHS has required certain metrics be reported on, split into 3 categories: Personnel Metrics, Patient Metrics, and Facility Metrics:

Personnel Metrics:

• Clinical & Non-Clinical Personnel by Labor Category
  • Full-Time
  • Part-Time
  • Contract
  • Furloughed
  • Separated
  • Hired

Patient Metrics:

• Inpatient Admissions
• Outpatient Visits (In-person & Virtual)
• Emergency Department Visits
• Facility Stays (LT & ST Residential Facilities)

Facility Metrics:

• Total # of Staffed Beds for:
  • Medical/Surgical
  • Critical Care
  • Other

A few other notes of importance for reporting include:

1. Expenses spent from January 1, 2020 are eligible for reporting.
2. Each patient is considered a coronavirus patient for purposes of this reporting guidance.

The HHS Team here at BiggsKofford is here to assist you in any questions you may have regarding this very important reporting process. The reporting is robust and detailed but is required in order to maintain compliance with the terms and conditions attested to when funds were received.

Click HERE to read more information that may pertain to your practice.

Be on the Lookout for Third Quarter 2021 Estimated Tax Payment Voucher!

As many of our clients are aware, we are now utilizing the cloud-based tax return delivery platform, SafeSend Returns. One great feature of this system is that it automatically delivers estimated tax payment vouchers at the appropriate times throughout the year.

Our tax accountants and CPA tax preparation services in Colorado Springs take the burden out of tax management so you can focus on running your business and servicing your clients.

You should have already received, or will receive soon, the 3rd Quarter voucher for the 2021 tax season. These payments are due by September 15, 2021.

If you do not receive an email from SafeSend, check your spam or junk folder.

If you have any questions, don’t receive a voucher you were expecting, or need any clarification, don’t hesitate to reach out to your BiggsKofford team member!

You can find more information on our website HERE or contact us HERE!

PPP Forgiveness Update

On November 5^th, BiggsKofford wrote an article providing an update on the PPP Loan Forgiveness rules. That article can be found HERE. In that article we recommended deferring your forgiveness application until 2021, thereby possibly allowing the deduction of qualified expenses or at least buying time for Congress or the IRS to clarify the issue.

Well… The IRS has weighed-in on that concept.

The IRS just released Revenue Ruling 2020-27 which essentially eliminates the possibility of deducting those expenses. Instead, this Ruling indicates taxpayers must reduce their deductions in 2020 even if they are still planning to obtain forgiveness in 2021. Anyone that claims those deductions and later obtains forgiveness would need to amend their 2020 tax return to remove those deductions.

Absent any intervention by Congress or the Tax Court, taxpayers will now be required to file their returns following this Ruling, as taking a contrary position would not be compliant. That said, this subject is being argued by many taxpayer advocacy organizations who will continue to lobby Congress and/or take this issue through the Courts to test the IRS’ legal grounds.  We will keep a close eye on those efforts and inform you of any changes.

In the meantime, BiggsKofford recommends considering both “with and without” scenarios related to the deduction of these expenses as you calculate your 2020 tax plan. We believe taxpayers should be prepared for the worst – while we can hope for the best.