With an ever-growing practice of outsourcing functions across the entertainment industry and an overall increase in reliance on third-party contractors to perform what in-house employees had traditionally done in the past, a key question comes to mind: What should entertainment companies do to monitor such functions from a cost control, compliance and/or risk manageme [...]

The changes to the meals and entertainment (“M&E”) and employee fringe benefits has been one of the most confusing and misunderstood areas under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”). As more information becomes available about the TCJA, there appears to be some consensus as to what M&E and employee fringe benefit expenses will qualify for a deductio [...]

In December 2017, new tax laws (called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) were enacted and became the biggest tax reform since 1986. These new tax laws heavily impact many individual taxpayers and businesses, including those in the entertainment industry. Two elements of the new tax act that especially affect entertainment and media companies are the deductions for loan-out c [...]

Bonus Depreciation Bonus depreciation is a method of accelerated depreciation, which allows a business to make an additional first-year deduction of the cost of qualifying property in the year it is placed in service. Qualified property must either: Have a regular depreciation life of 20 years or less Be computer software Be water utility property Be q [...]

On March 13, 2018, the IRS announced that the 2014 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) is set to close on Sept. 28, 2018. It gives the U.S. taxpayers who did not disclose their foreign financial assets only six months to come forward. Background U.S. taxpayers who have ownership in and/or signature authority over certain foreign financial assets (e.g [...]

Hollywood filmmakers are continually searching for ways to promote their films to an international audience. A big focus is on China, the world’s second largest theatrical market. However, the Chinese film market seems to be particularly challenging to understand. One of the latest examples is Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which made only $42 million dollars in China box [...]

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has introduced section 199A, which generally provides special tax deductions to taxpayers doing business as pass-through entities. While an in-depth analysis of section 199A is beyond the scope of this article, section 199A generally allows a special deduction on 20% of qualified business income subject to various limitations. One of the [...]

Excerpt from the 2017 Food and Beverage Whitepaper: The Future of Food: Meeting Consumer Demands with Sustainable Resources There is no doubt that smaller food and beverage companies are leading the way. Larger companies must make huge investments in developing a national product. Because of this economy of scale issue, larger companies have lagged, but are being push [...]

Change management is one of the toughest jobs a leader will encounter. To implement successful and sustainable change requires having a plan, effectively engaging your audience and measuring impact. But before any of that occurs, you need a business case. A business needs to answer questions, like: Why are we embarking on this initiative? What is the ROI? And what i [...]

Originally published in Notations on Non-Profits Without fundraising, most nonprofits would cease to exist. However, BoardSource’s 2017 Leading with Intent report once again had fundraising performance as one of the top three most important areas needing improved Board performance. There is no doubt that fundraising is outside of the comfort zone for most Board mem [...]