By Ronald J. Nessim (guest blogger from Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim,Drooks, Lincenberg & Rhow) Historically, disputes between talent and the major studios were litigated in a public courtroom where the judge and jury had no inherent biases for or against talent or the studio. Increasingly, however, the major studios have increasingly required talent – as [...]

By Margaret Karren On April 22 the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued an exposure draft which would significantly change the existing not-for-profit financial reporting model. Comments are due by August 20, 2015. I decided to try making a comment to see how the process worked. I went on to the FASB.org website; it took a couple of tries to get to the [...]

On Friday, July 31, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 (ACT) was signed into law. The Act, which was mainly intended as a temporary extension of the Highway Trust Fund, includes many important tax provisions. This Tax Alert provides some of the main highlights of the tax aspects of the Act. This [...]

And By: Andrew Bird (Marketing and Communications Consultant) (Excerpt from their book, Putting the Profit in Nonprofit! 5 Power Success Strategies for Nonprofits) Donors can’t give you money if they don’t understand who you are and who you help. They also can’t give you money if YOU can’t effectively explain who you are and who you help! Why does your organization e [...]

By: Helen Han (guest blogger from R&D Incentives Group) Another guest blogger, Kevin Zolriasatain from KBKG, recently wrote aboutR&D credits for the food and beverage industryfor this blog. Expanding on the topic, this post dives deeper into the R&D credits specifically for the wine industry. People familiar with the workings of wineries and vineyards kn [...]

Over the past 10 years it has been well publicized that state tax incentives have been increasingly beneficial and lucrative for entertainment companies, often in the form of state film credits. We recently wrote about California’s credit changes in their attempt to remain competitive in attracting and retaining media-production activity. But what has sometimes been o [...]

By Margaret Karren The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued an exposure draft for the presentation of financial statements of not-for-profit entities. The comment period ends on August 20, 2015, public roundtables will occur in September and October 2015, and the FASB board re-deliberations would start in October 2015. The FASB states that this is p [...]

A term you may have heard recently in the food and beverage industry is “sustainable sourcing.” According to the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), stainable sourcing “ensures that, to the best of the food supply chain’s ability, products or goods purchased have no, or limited, negative impact on the communities and ecosystems they are sourced from.” As awarene [...]

When an artist, writer or musician receives royalty payments in exchange for the use of intellectual property, there are specific tax implications that should be considered. What are some of the implications and potential impacts for royalty recipients? Topics such as self-employment income, net investment income tax and advance royalties need to be considered. S [...]

INTERVIEW WITH: Patrick Sweeney, Esq., (guest blogger from IE Law Group) Patrick Sweeney is one of the leading attorneys in the video game industry, having served both as in-house and external counsel to a variety of companies in his career. In the Q&A below, Patrick shares with our readers his thoughts on current game industry trends and their implications. He a [...]