Energy efficiency in commercial buildings has long been rewarded with favorable tax treatment. Some of those tax advantages became permanent last year. Now — included in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act — is an expansion of the energy-efficient commercial buildings deduction, making it available to more designers and building owners, and raising the amounts. This article explains the basics of the so-called Section 179D deduction.

To avoid costly litigation, business owners know they must keep their premises free of hazards, such as slippery floors and broken stairs. However, they may not be aware of the potential liability for criminal acts committed in their parking lots, including robberies and carjackings. In some cases, courts have held businesses responsible for crimes committed on their premises because they provided inadequate security.

As a business owner, you’re no doubt regularly urged to think carefully before signing on the dotted line.This is indeed good advice but, if you co-own a company, you shouldn’t hesitate to sign off on a buy-sell agreement — assuming its mutually agreeable to you and your fellow owners. This article describes how buy-sell agreements work and why they’re so important.

Get involved! Take a lesson from the business plan of fast-food giant McDonald’s. You don’t have to be a micromanager, but it’s good for business when owners roll up their sleeves and fully understand the details of the operation rather than leaving the “day to day” to someone else. Here’s why paying attention to everyday operational matters can help boost the bottom line, as well as to see how a profit audit might turn up “hidden” revenue-building opportunities.