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The many different Types of self employment jobs have quite a range. There are dog walkers and accountants, landscapers and delivery drivers. There are self-employed jobs that are so much fun, they don’t feel like work. Often that happens when a hobby becomes a career. Regardless of the type of work performed, all self-employed individuals share a common obligation: they must pay taxes. This includes both income tax and self-employment tax. As a self-employed person, you can file self-employment income taxes yourself. You can get the paperwork needed from the internet and do it yourself, or you can use tax software for small business owners. Or you can hire a tax professional. Remember, this is federal income tax. You’ll also owe state income tax. What’s the Difference Between Income Tax and Self Employment Tax? Income taxes are the taxes you pay based on your net earnings. Self-employment taxes are additional taxes paid by self-employed individuals. What are Self Employment Taxes? Self-employed individuals pay social security and medicare taxes in addition to income tax. Employers take those taxes out when they do payroll. Since you don’t have an employer, you are responsible for paying self-employment taxes. How Much are Self-Employment Taxes? The self employment tax for social security and medicare is 15.3%. Of that, 12.4% goes to social security tax and the medicare tax is 2.9%. That’s the total for social security and medicare taxes if you’re single and make a net income below a certain threshold. If you’re single and exceed that threshold (congratulations, by the way), the medicare tax will be an additional 9% (3.8% total). There are various calculations based on your marital status and earnings from self-employment. Your taxable income is your net earnings, not the total of your business income. Additional Medicare Taxes for Self-Employed Professionals Although the social security tax remains standard, the medicare tax can vary according to your marital status and amount of net earnings from self-employment. When do You Have to Pay Self Employment Tax? Self employment taxes and income taxes should be made by quarterly estimated tax payments. For making quarterly estimated payments, you should use IRS Form 1040-ES, which is the Estimated Tax for Individuals. This form includes blank vouchers that you can print out. Alternatively, you can file electronically through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. Self-employed people will still file annual taxes. That’s when you’ll use IRS Form 1040 paired with IRS Schedule C, where you’ll fill in the information used to calculate your profit or loss. Your tax liability may be more or less, depending on whether you’ve over or underestimated your quarterly estimated taxes. The deadline for filing annually for a self-employed individual is the same as everybody else’s federal income tax return deadline, except for a deferral allowed by the CARES Act (see below). Self Employment Tax Deferral Through the CARES Act, workers could defer self employment taxes that were due during a specific period. Half of the self employment taxes due at that time were to be paid by the end of the following tax year, with the remaining half paid by the end of the subsequent tax year. How to File Your Self-Employment Taxes As an independent contractor/self employment individual, you have to keep good records to aid in tax preparation. Even more importantly, for ease in completing your tax return, you have to know where they are. Before beginning your federal income tax return, collect all the necessary documentation to substantiate your business expenses and gross income. These items are essential for calculating your net earnings from self-employment. Additionally, ensure you have the records of your quarterly estimated taxes paid, which were based on your projections for gross income and expenses for your estimated income tax payments. Filling Out Your Self-Employment Tax Form Since your self-employment tax is based on your net earnings from self-employment, the first thing you need to do is fill out your Schedule C. Schedule C: Profit and Loss Statement for Self-Employed This is the form where you record your business expenses, such as what you spent for travel, education and certifications, office equipment and supplies, materials and similar. Your expenses will be specific to the type of work you do as an independent contractor/self-employed person. You’ll add up your total income and the total of your expenses. The different between the two is either profit or loss applied to your tax bill. It’s important to keep the standard deduction in mind as you add up deductions. The standard deduction is $12,550. If your deductions will be less than that amount, you’ll just use the standard deduction. 1040 Self Employed This form includes your general information, such as your address and social security number. People who receive a W2 use the straight 1040. You’ll use the 1040 SE, which has a place for you to record the bottom line from your Schedule C. Once you’ve completed those forms for your tax return, you’ll have the number for your net earnings from self employment. You’ll use that number to calculate your self-employment tax, including social security and Medicare taxes. When you pay estimated taxes, you’ll also include that information. Self Employed W2 Sometimes self employed people receive a W2 from an employer who didn’t withhold payroll taxes. In that case on your tax return you must pay the income tax due, as well as the self employment tax for social security and medicare. Self Employment Tax Deductions If you run your own business, you’ll quickly get savvy about what you can use for a qualified business income deduction. Your self-employment earnings number will be reduced by any income tax deduction, such as: Purchase of computer, laptop, printer, and software for the business Office Supplies Travel such as airfare and vehicle mileage (keep records) Advertising costs Depreciation of equipment Education and certifications What about the home office deduction? Tax professionals often advise against using this deduction. It’s often stated that using the home office deduction makes it more likely that you’ll be audited by the IRS. Is that true? What matters is that as long as you have accurate, provable records, the home office deduction may work for you. For example, you have a dedicated office room, separate business and internet phone line, etc. Before you use this deduction, you may want to get tax advice from a tax preparation professional. Also, making itemized deductions doesn’t always make sense. The annual standard deduction for a single filer was raised to $12,550. If your deductions won’t be higher than that amount, just use the standard deduction. The standard deduction may even get you a higher tax refund. Self Employed Health Insurance Deduction You can deduct the cost of your health insurance premiums as tax deductions as you’re calculating your net earnings. Read More: best tax software for self-employed Tax Write-Offs for Self-Employed The best tax write-off for a self-employed individual is a retirement plan. Money contributed to a retirement plan is deducted from your gross earnings – then called adjusted gross income. Your level of income affects your tax rate, and your tax rate impacts how much you pay as a self employed business owner. For example, if you earn $32,000 gross from self-employment and contribute $6,000 (the annual limit, although you can contribute $7,000 the first year) to an IRA, your adjusted gross income is $26,000. That will change how much you pay to Social Security and Medicare and may help you get a tax refund. Such contributions are also one way to offset capital gains. Remember, if money isn’t taxed when it goes in, it will be taxed when it is withdrawn. You have two main choices: IRA (Individual Retirement Account) – An IRA can either be a traditional IRA, where taxes are not deducted from contributions, or a Roth IRA, where contributions are taxed beforehand. It may be beneficial to seek professional tax advice to figure out which type is most suitable for your situation. 401K – Monies contributed are pre-taxed. You can set up a 401K for your business and even do so for employees if you have them. A tax professional can help with those decisions. How to Pay Self-Employment Tax Calculate your total self-employment tax based on your net earnings. Once you have the annual total of what you owe according to social security and medicare taxes withheld when you made quarterly payments, figure the difference. Then, based on net profit and previous quarterly payments, calculate your self-employment taxes owed. If you owe, you’ll be able to print a payment voucher from Schedule 1040 SE and send a check. Or you can pay electronically. How to Report Self-Employment Income Without a 1099 Many independent contractors don’t receive a 1099. Instead, their clients pay them by check, payment App or other method. During the year, you should record and tally payments made to you. As independent wage earners, you should have a business bank account. Using deposit records made to the business account, it should be easy to feed the deposit information (as income) into your tax preparation software or tax paperwork. You will always need documentation to support the numbers you use on your tax return. Having a record of deposits makes that easier. You should also have a dedicated credit card for your business. If you use the credit card for all or for the bulk of your purchases and expenses, tax time could be a breeze. Depending on the card you select, you could be earning points, rewards, or cash back on your spending in the meantime. Do I need to pay self-employment taxes? Yes, without a doubt. What happens if you don’t pay self-employment tax on time? If you don’t pay on time, the IRS will charge you a penalty. The penalty will be 2.66% on the amount owed. That percentage will be applied monthly to the growing total. What Is the Federal Self Employment Tax Rate? The self-employment tax rate is 15.3% (12.4 for SS and 2.9 for Medicare). With traditional employment taxes, the employer pays half of that (7.65%), and the employee is charged half (taken out of the paycheck). Since you don’t have an employer, the 7.65% amount can be used as a tax deduction. Is Disability Insurance for Self Employment Tax Deductible? No, the amount you pay for disability insurance is NOT tax deductible. That doesn’t mean you should go without it. In fact, disability insurance is relatively inexpensive, especially in comparison to the difference it will make for you should you become injured in some way and unable to work. However, you should be able to deduct dental, vision, and medical expenses if you spend more than your adjusted gross income. For instance, suppose you earned a gross income of $40,000 last year. After contributing $6,000 to an IRA, your adjusted income would be $34,000. You may have affordable health insurance but a high deductible that you paid out of pocket. Or you may not have vision or dental insurance. What if you needed two root canals, and paid more than $5,000 total for both? In the example, that’s more than 7.5% ($4,533) of the AGI. You may be able to deduct those costs. Of course, you’ll need documentation, including bills and records of your payments. If you have multiple medical expenses, it may be time to use a tax professional or tax software that includes professional assistance. What is the difference between self-employment tax and income tax? Let’s review. As you now know, the two are related – and you can’t have one without the other. In short, if you’re self-employed, use Schedule C to calculate deductions (if you have more than $12,500). If not, use the standard deduction. Make quarterly payments for the se tax, based on your best estimates. When you do the annual filing, use your net income earnings to see how much se tax you owe based on that figure. Using the totals from your quarterly payments, subtract what you’ve already paid. Make a payment for the remainder. Image: Depositphotos This article, "How to File Self Employment Taxes" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

A push to ban sugary drinks, candy, and more from the U.S. program that helps low-income families pay for nutritious food has been tried before—but it may soon get a boost from new Trump administration officials. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly confirmed health and human services secretary, and Brooke Rollins, the new agriculture secretary, have both signaled that they favor stripping such treats from SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Kennedy has been most vocal, calling for the government to stop allowing the nearly $113 billion program that serves about 42 million Americans to use benefits to pay for “soda or processed foods.” “The one place that I would say that we need to really change policy is the SNAP program and food stamps and in school lunches,” Kennedy told Fox News host Laura Ingraham last week. “There, the federal government in many cases is paying for it. And we shouldn’t be subsidizing people to eat poison.” In one of her first interviews after being confirmed, Rollins said she looked forward to working with Kennedy on the issue. “When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they okay with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?” Rollins said. “These are all massive questions we’re going to be asking and working on in the coming months and years.” But removing certain foods from SNAP—known for years as food stamps—isn’t as simple as it sounds. The program is run by the USDA, not HHS, and is administered through individual states. It is authorized by the federal Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, which says SNAP benefits can be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption,” except alcohol, tobacco, and hot foods, including those prepared for immediate consumption. Excluding any foods would require Congress to change the law—or for states to get waivers that would let them restrict purchases, said Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group. Over the past 20 years, lawmakers in several states have proposed stopping SNAP from paying for bottled water, soda, chips, ice cream, decorated cakes, and “luxury meats” like steak. “None of those requests have ever been approved under either Republican or Democratic presidents,” Bergh said. In the past, Agriculture Department officials rejected the waivers, saying in a 2007 paper that no clear standards exist to define foods “as good or bad, or healthy or not healthy.” In addition, the agency said restrictions would be difficult to implement, complicated, and costly. And they might not change recipients’ food purchases or reduce conditions such as obesity. Anti-hunger advocates point to research that shows SNAP recipients are no more likely than other low-income Americans to buy sugary drinks or snack foods. And they say that limiting food choices undermines the autonomy and dignity of people who receive, on average, about $187 per month—or about $6.16 per day, according to the latest figures. “This is just another way to cut benefits,” said Gina Plata-Nino, a deputy director at the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit advocacy group. “It’s like, how do we restrict people more? How do we stigmatize them more?” Bills are pending in Congress and in several states to restrict SNAP benefits from paying for soda, candy, and other items. Representative Josh Breechan, an Oklahoma Republican, sponsored the Healthy SNAP Act. “If someone wants to buy junk food on their own dime, that’s up to them,” he said. “But what we’re saying is, don’t ask the taxpayer to pay for it and then also expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the resulting health consequences.” One SNAP recipient said she uses her monthly $291 benefit to buy necessities such as meat, oil, milk, and coffee. Martina Santos, 66, of New York City, supplements those foods with fresh vegetables and fruits from a pantry run by the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, where she’s also a volunteer. Because she has diabetes and other health conditions, she said she understands the importance of using the benefits only for nutritious options. “For me, SNAP is to be used toward healthy food to get people to avoid all the disease they’re having around right now: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure,” Santos said. In Kansas and elsewhere, bills that would ban soft drinks and candy highlight some of the challenges of such changes. Several pending bills seek to keep SNAP from paying for soft drinks, but they would continue to allow drinks containing milk, milk alternatives like soy or almond milk, or drinks with more than 50% vegetable or fruit juice. Candy is characterized as any unrefrigerated, flourless preparation of “sugar, honey, or other natural or artificial sweeteners in combination with chocolate, fruits, nuts, or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops, or pieces.” By that definition, Kit Kat and Twix bars, which contain flour, wouldn’t be banned. And juices that contain high amounts of sugar but are more than half fruit juice by volume would be allowed. Such conundrums have stymied changes to the SNAP program for decades. But this moment could be different, said Dr. Anand Parekh, chief medical officer of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. The momentum behind Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement could spur a new focus on solutions to poor diets that account for leading risk factors for early disease and death. “When we talk about the SNAP program, we have to remind people that the N stands for nutrition,” Parekh said. “It’s about time that both parties can come together and see what are the innovations here to improve diet quality and nutrition.” —By Jonel Aleccia, AP health writer Associated Press video journalist Mary Conlon contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. View the full article

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Frustration is a common emotion. It’s a close cousin to anger, because both deal with your reaction to an obstacle that is preventing you from achieving your goals. Where they differ is that anger is (usually) directed outward at an external obstacle. The energy and rage that anger generates may be useful for trying to influence that external obstacle physically. Frustration is often directed at an internal or systemic obstacle that you can’t do much about. You may be frustrated because you don’t have the capability or time to do something, or may feel like some aspect of your company (or society) prevents you from accomplishing a goal. But frustration is often unproductive, because it gets you energized around something you can’t really fix. You may actually think less clearly if you get too energized and that might make it harder to move forward. Here are a few things you can do to handle frustration effectively, especially when it comes up in the workplace: Take a step back Research going back almost 120 years shows that there is a sweet spot for the amount of mental energy you need to operate effectively. When you have a low level of energy, you don’t think effectively, because you’re simply not engaged with the situation. As you get more energized, you get more effective in your thinking up to a point. However, additional energy will actually create too much arousal. At that point, you have a hard time staying focused. A little frustration can be helpful, because it may actually get you to pay attention to something that might otherwise escape your notice. However, when a situation creates more extreme frustration, you’re going to have trouble addressing it effectively. You need to develop strategies to dissipate that energy. Ideally, you would take a little time to disengage from the situation. Some physical activity can help. Taking a brisk walk or doing a workout can leave you calmer afterward. Techniques for calming yourself can also be valuable. Deep breathing exercises, yoga, and mindfulness meditations are options. Some of these techniques (particularly deep breathing) are also helpful when you can’t completely disengage with the situation. Understand the root of your workplace frustration When you’re feeling workplace frustration, it may not always be obvious what’s causing that emotion. That is, you may have the overwhelming feeling that you’re stuck without knowing why. It is valuable to think more about the nature of the obstacle and what would be required to overcome it. In what ways do you feel unprepared to take on the task you’re doing? If you need assistance from someone else or an opportunity build your skills, then develop a proposal you can bring to a supervisor to be more effective in the future. To what extent are there organizational structures that are getting in your way? Perhaps there is someone else making it difficult to complete your work. Perhaps you need permission from someone to move forward and can’t get the go-ahead. A conversation with your supervisor can be helpful here, as well. If you’re not sure where the barrier is coming from, they may be able to help. If you do know the cause of the problem, they may also be able to clear it away. Bringing these sources of organizational frustration to the attention of a supervisor is also valuable, because if you’re having a problem, chances are there are other colleagues who are as well. Get help Occasional frustration is part of everyone’s personal and professional life. Developing strategies to deal with excess energy that I mentioned earlier help a lot. But, if you find yourself frustrated at work frequently, consider seeing a therapist or career coach. It’s natural to think that the workplace frustration you experience signals a problem with the organization you’re working for. You might think the organization is poorly run, that your manager is a problem, or that you are just a bad fit for your current role. And, it’s entirely possible these are a big source of the problem. A good therapist or coach can help you to identify the source of the significant frustration you’re feeling. An important reason to work with someone else, though, is that it is also possible that you are helping to make that sense of frustration worse through your own reactions to things happening at work. Perhaps you interpret other people’s actions in a way that makes them feel like obstacles when they are not intended that way. Perhaps you are overestimating your own abilities, and that puts you in situations that are ultimately overwhelming. You might want to please others and so you take on more work than you can handle. A therapist or coach may help you to see the ways that you are contributing to your feelings of frustration. That is important, because you might think that changing jobs will alleviate your workplace frustration. But, if your actions or reactions are contributing to your sense of frustration, those won’t go away just by moving from one job to another. View the full article

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This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go… 1. I hate my new job — can I go back to my old one? I worked at a company for over three years. Internally they have their issues and I had my share of frustrations, but it is basically a well oiled machine. As far as growth, there is not much, but I was paid well and had flexibility with my hours, although absolutely no work from home and an hour commute each way. Three months ago, a colleague who worked with me at this company and left two years prior, asked me to send my resume to her so she could pass it along to her boss. She only had good things to say about her new company so I thought it was a no-brainer when I interviewed and got the job with a 10% increase in pay and a hybrid schedule. I started the new job three weeks ago, and I am absolutely miserable. I miss my old job, my work, even the colleagues and the frustrations. I am mourning my old life and I want it back. I am also upset with this colleague who presented this new position to me because there are a ton of red flags and it is not a happy place like she said. I really did not plan to be in a position to now be searching for work, but here I am. Do you think it’s worth reaching out to my old manager and seeing if they will accept me back in my old role? As far as I know, they still have not filled the position. I was a good employee there but had a couple minor complaints about personal stuff — too much socializing with another employee, bad attitude during times of stress, but never any issues with my work or work ethic. I am depressed and having trouble sleeping and eating, completely consumed with how to get back to my old job. Please help! How much of this is about missing the old job and/or the discomfort of change, and how much is about truly not liking the new job? It might be 100% the latter, but I can’t completely tell from your letter — so I want to make sure you’ve thought that through, because sometimes it can be the change itself and/or missing what’s familiar and comfortable that’s more of the issue. If that’s the case, the solution is to give it more time so that this job starts feeling more comfortable to you, too. But if you’re confident the problem is the new job and it’s not right for you … you can certainly contact your old manager and ask about the possibility of your coming back. Sometimes people do that! They might or might not be open to it (too much socializing and bad attitude during times of stress could be pretty minor or they could be pretty big), but there’s nothing wrong with asking. Keep in mind that they’ll probably want some assurance that you’ll stay for a while and not immediately be looking again. There’s also a third option, of staying where you are while looking for a new job (not going back to the old one), which would give you some time to see if you get more used to the new company while you’re actively working on other options. Right now you’re so focused on missing the old job in comparison to the new one that there’s a risk you’re not thinking critically about the frustrations you had there. It might also be interesting to talk to the colleague who recruited you about what your experience has been at the company so far. It’s possible she’ll have some insight that will change your perspective, or at least help you sort through why you’re having such a different experience there than she’s had. Related: I just started my new job and I miss my old one — did I make a mistake? how to ask for your old job back 2. Instructor said, “Just lie back and think of England” I am a woman in a mostly male field, if it matters. Recently I was taking an online course to pursue a certification (which I got! Woo), and the instructor made a comment about ignoring something. Specifically he said, “Just lie back and think of England.” I thought that was a horribly sexist/gross thing to say! Especially as an instructor! (For the record, I think “open kimono” is equally appalling.) I sent him an email that afternoon remarking about my thoughts and advising him to look up that particular phrase and how it could be offensive. I never got a reply, and then felt awkward completing the class for the next few days. Was I out of line? No, that’s a gross and inappropriate phrase for an instructor to use. For anyone who’s unaware of its origins, it comes from a suggestion that a woman should submit to sexual activity from her spouse even if she’d prefer not to, because of her duties as a wife (and patriot!). You were not out of line to point that out, and he should have replied to thank you (or at a minimum to say he didn’t mean to make anyone uncomfortable and would be more aware of his language in the future, or so forth). His silence says something about him, not you, and you don’t need to feel awkward. 3. Is expecting an interview on very short notice a bad sign? Yesterday, at 4:45 pm, I received an email requesting an interview for today between 9 am and 11 am or at 2 pm. I also received a phone call around 10 minutes later. I responded to the email around 5:05 pm, stating I’d be available at 9:15 am today for an interview. I did not receive a reply until this morning at 8:45. The person scheduling the interview said they were sorry they didn’t see my email earlier and asked if I could do 2:30. I can’t so I emailed back saying no and gave other days/times I could. She responded saying that the program director is going on vacation tonight, so they’d like to schedule something today and asked if I could be available at 9:30 or 10 today. While I understand a vacation making things difficult to schedule, I am getting a bad taste of this organization and the job. What say you? Is it a bad sign for this kind of rush job? Nah, not really. It’s annoying — and if they’re going to email you at the end of the workday proposing an interview for the start of the following day, they really need a plan for checking email that evening to see if you chose that time — but it doesn’t necessarily carry any larger message about the company. It could be a disorganized scheduler and nothing else, or just a rush for legitimate reasons to see if they can get some of the interviews done before the director leaves. It’s not necessarily anything bigger than that. If you can’t be available on their short notice, you can’t. But I wouldn’t read much into it. If you advance in the process and continue to see signs of disorganization or of “my emergency needs to be your emergency,” that would be different. 4. Two employees share an office and don’t get along I am a new supervisor and have recently had three employees move under my supervision. At the same time as this transition, two employees moved into a shared office space. (This was a decision made by upper management and it makes sense based on their job duties.) The problem is these two employees do not get along whatsoever and frankly never have. “Sharon” is extremely passive-aggressive when given advice on dealing with situations and is running around the whole company complaining about everything from the shared office to flat-out saying rude things about “Lisa.” It’s extremely unprofessional and needs to stop. I plan to have a sit-down meeting with Sharon to talk about these issues. I want her to understand I will not tolerate this behavior. I suspect she will put blame on Lisa. She’s mentioned Lisa saying things like “you didn’t give me condolences when my mother-in-law passed away” or “I don’t believe my plants were the cause of your so called allergies.” These comments very well could have happened, so I also plan to sit down with Lisa. I just don’t know the appropriate way to respond when that’s brought up, because while that’s an issue that needs to be addressed, it doesn’t excuse the negativity that she’s spreading around the company. You should hear her out about Lisa in case there’s something truly egregious that you need to know about and address. But then you should say, “I will be talking with Lisa separately, but this meeting is about my expectations for your behavior and I’m asking you to focus on that right now.” 5. How honest can I be that I need more WFH days if I’m going to stay? I currently work from home one day a week. Due to a lack of affordability in our area and the space we need, my family have decided to move out of the town where my office is based, a 1.5-hour commute away. I would like to request an extra day working from home. My bosses have been very lukewarm-to-negative about remote work, but on the other hand there are other people in the office working more remote days than I would be requesting, albeit in a different department. So I’m going to request the extra day, but how honest should be about what the impact of the decision would have on me staying with the company? They are entitled to say no to to the request, but the reality would be that I would start looking at new jobs. How honest should I be about that? It depends 100% on how valued you are and how much capital you have. The more they’d be upset to lose you, the more up-front you can be — and even then I’d frame it as “this is something that would let me happily stay with the company long-term,” not as “I’ll need to start job-searching if you say no,” particularly since you can’t control how long that search will take. A decent manager will read between those lines without you having to spell it out more explicitly than that. View the full article

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The FT investigates the rise in cases of Russian soldiers executing Ukrainian prisoners of warView the full article

Ignition has introduced AutoPricing, a first-to-market suite of pricing automation tools designed to help professional services businesses streamline price increases at scale. The new capabilities allow businesses to automate bulk price adjustments, providing greater control over revenue growth while improving long-term cash flow and profitability. The latest AutoPricing feature enables businesses to increase prices across multiple clients simultaneously, eliminating the manual burden of individual price updates. The tool integrates directly into proposal editing and renewals, giving businesses an immediate view of additional revenue generated from price adjustments. “Too many businesses hesitate to raise prices because the process is cumbersome and the conversations are awkward—ultimately leaving revenue on the table,” said Greg Strickland, CEO of Ignition. “At Ignition, we believe pricing should be a strategic growth driver, not a source of stress. With AutoPricing, we’re empowering businesses to easily adjust their fees to improve profitability and confidently charge what they’re worth. This allows them to focus on smarter pricing, rather than cutting costs or chasing client volume.” A recent Ignition pricing benchmark found that over half of U.S. accounting firms plan to increase fees by 5 to 10 percent in 2025, primarily in response to rising costs. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are expected to follow suit, often turning to accountants for pricing and cash flow guidance. Despite this trend, many service-based businesses lack the tools to adjust pricing effectively and consistently. Ignition’s AutoPricing suite automates client renewals, helping businesses implement pricing changes seamlessly within a single platform. Key Features of AutoPricing The AutoPricing update includes: Bulk price adjustments across multiple client contracts, simplifying renewals and ensuring pricing consistency. Automated percentage-based increases applied across all clients or specific segments. Customizable price adjustments for select clients using an interactive pricing wizard. Pre-built email templates to notify clients of price changes, eliminating difficult pricing conversations. The new AutoPricing capabilities expand on Ignition’s existing automated pricing tools, which have already helped businesses increase prices by an average of eight percent, generating $8.7 million in additional revenue. Future Developments Ignition plans to further invest in smart AutoPricing capabilities, including AI-driven pricing intelligence and real-time insights, to help service-based businesses price confidently and competitively. The new AutoPricing feature is now available to Ignition customers. This article, "Ignition Launches AutoPricing to Automate Price Increases for Service-Based Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Ignition has introduced AutoPricing, a first-to-market suite of pricing automation tools designed to help professional services businesses streamline price increases at scale. The new capabilities allow businesses to automate bulk price adjustments, providing greater control over revenue growth while improving long-term cash flow and profitability. The latest AutoPricing feature enables businesses to increase prices across multiple clients simultaneously, eliminating the manual burden of individual price updates. The tool integrates directly into proposal editing and renewals, giving businesses an immediate view of additional revenue generated from price adjustments. “Too many businesses hesitate to raise prices because the process is cumbersome and the conversations are awkward—ultimately leaving revenue on the table,” said Greg Strickland, CEO of Ignition. “At Ignition, we believe pricing should be a strategic growth driver, not a source of stress. With AutoPricing, we’re empowering businesses to easily adjust their fees to improve profitability and confidently charge what they’re worth. This allows them to focus on smarter pricing, rather than cutting costs or chasing client volume.” A recent Ignition pricing benchmark found that over half of U.S. accounting firms plan to increase fees by 5 to 10 percent in 2025, primarily in response to rising costs. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are expected to follow suit, often turning to accountants for pricing and cash flow guidance. Despite this trend, many service-based businesses lack the tools to adjust pricing effectively and consistently. Ignition’s AutoPricing suite automates client renewals, helping businesses implement pricing changes seamlessly within a single platform. Key Features of AutoPricing The AutoPricing update includes: Bulk price adjustments across multiple client contracts, simplifying renewals and ensuring pricing consistency. Automated percentage-based increases applied across all clients or specific segments. Customizable price adjustments for select clients using an interactive pricing wizard. Pre-built email templates to notify clients of price changes, eliminating difficult pricing conversations. The new AutoPricing capabilities expand on Ignition’s existing automated pricing tools, which have already helped businesses increase prices by an average of eight percent, generating $8.7 million in additional revenue. Future Developments Ignition plans to further invest in smart AutoPricing capabilities, including AI-driven pricing intelligence and real-time insights, to help service-based businesses price confidently and competitively. The new AutoPricing feature is now available to Ignition customers. This article, "Ignition Launches AutoPricing to Automate Price Increases for Service-Based Businesses" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Learn the ins and outs of using sitemaps to improve content discovery and indexing. The post How To Use XML Sitemaps To Boost SEO appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to confirm former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler as the next administrator of the Small Business Administration. Loeffler had been tapped by President Donald Trump for the position during the transition to his second term in the White House. “A huge honor to be at the Capitol today as my former Senate colleagues voted to confirm me as the 28th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration,” Loeffler wrote on X Wednesday. “Profoundly grateful to @POTUS for the trust he’s placed in me to help advance his America First agenda – and unleash a new era of growth, innovation, and prosperity for small business and all Americans.” The Senate vote on her confirmation was 52-46. Loeffler takes over at SBA from Isabel Guzman, who served in that role for much of the Joe Biden administration. She takes over during a time of a little bit of upheaval at the SBA. Recently, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) sent a letter to interim Administrator Everett Woodel “demanding answers” on why the SBA allegedly allowed the Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to the agency’s information. “Allowing Elon Musk’s minions access to the sensitive information in the SBA’s systems raises privacy, data security, and other serious concerns,” Markey wrote. Image: Kelly Loeffler/X This article, "Loeffler Confirmed as Next SBA Administrator" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to confirm former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler as the next administrator of the Small Business Administration. Loeffler had been tapped by President Donald Trump for the position during the transition to his second term in the White House. “A huge honor to be at the Capitol today as my former Senate colleagues voted to confirm me as the 28th Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration,” Loeffler wrote on X Wednesday. “Profoundly grateful to @POTUS for the trust he’s placed in me to help advance his America First agenda – and unleash a new era of growth, innovation, and prosperity for small business and all Americans.” The Senate vote on her confirmation was 52-46. Loeffler takes over at SBA from Isabel Guzman, who served in that role for much of the Joe Biden administration. She takes over during a time of a little bit of upheaval at the SBA. Recently, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) sent a letter to interim Administrator Everett Woodel “demanding answers” on why the SBA allegedly allowed the Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to the agency’s information. “Allowing Elon Musk’s minions access to the sensitive information in the SBA’s systems raises privacy, data security, and other serious concerns,” Markey wrote. Image: Kelly Loeffler/X This article, "Loeffler Confirmed as Next SBA Administrator" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Virgin lithium mining is a focal point for the U.S. and is necessary for the nation’s growth in the critical minerals market. Yet, there is another primary source to secure key battery materials (lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese), and that is recycling end-of-life and scrap batteries. Domestic sourcing is crucial to expanding our manufacturing efforts, and it’s imperative that recycling and mining complement one another if we want to succeed in our supply chain stabilization efforts. Currently, the U.S. produces black mass (the output recycling lithium-ion batteries metals that can be put back into the supply chain). We will have a large supply of this material in the next few years that will be readily available to the domestic market. What’s also important is that we’ll have increased refining capacity to extract critical materials contained in the domestically available black mass to enable cathode producers to manufacture cathode powder for cell manufacturers. The global critical minerals industry is on a growth trajectory, and there is a tremendous opportunity to recover these metals within our borders and reuse them to produce new materials including energy storage systems, technological advancements, consumer products, and defense applications. Now is the time to strengthen the U.S.’s critical materials strategy and global competitiveness with a focus on key factors: Accelerating access to domestically sourced critical minerals Becoming a leading critical minerals producer Committing to increased raw battery material manufacturing in the U.S. Global impact Battery recycling refinement industry challenges are similar to other growth industries, with a lot of new entrants not fully understanding the investments needed for market success. The key is experience and understanding this complex web of interconnectedness that streamlines the workflow to offer useable domestic material. Other factors such as inflated material acquisition costs will need to be reset much lower for the industry to succeed. And with today’s metal prices on the London Metal Exchange, expectations should focus on a return on invested capital to produce these critical minerals. Enabling domestic sourcing that prioritizes onshore capabilities in the critical materials space, with a specific focus on refinement, is the path to stability. Once these materials are within our border, we need to keep them here. We can achieve this through a closed-loop system. When consumers and original equipment manufacturers have a battery at end-of-life or scrap, they should coordinate with a certified recycler to safely transport, sort, disassemble, process, and extract critical materials into battery-grade salts to be put back into domestic supply chains. By activating this proven model at a larger scale, we can increase access and capacity domestically, however it has to be profitable. Becoming a critical minerals production leader would enhance the new administration’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing, national security, global competitiveness, and strengthening our supply chains. Onshore manufacturing To ensure there is sustainable investment throughout the critical minerals supply chain, the entire supply chain needs a profitable business model that can deliver a return on the required investment. Also, the U.S. can be a leading critical minerals producer and powerhouse by onshoring manufacturing to further the national defense stockpile sources, reducing the nation’s mineral reliance on foreign entities of concern and supporting the priority of accelerated access to domestically sourced critical minerals. By recycling and recovering these materials, we can start to enhance our supply chains in the short term, ultimately working towards ensuring that the U.S. secures critical materials for long-term viability. David Klanecky is CEO and president of Cirba Solutions. View the full article

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. The future of AI is bright, yet its continuous evolution and an uncertain regulatory environment cloud its reality for many businesses. The new year has begun with a more relaxed stance on AI policy and DeepSeek’s supposed “better mousetrap,” giving CIOs pause on which direction to go. But these are good reminders for organizations to proactively establish best practices for AI implementation. Doing so will ensure future compliance while effectively leveraging AI for transformation and growth. How regulation may impact innovation In the U.S., California legislation has taken a first stab at defining guardrails domestically, following the footsteps of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. However, these early regulation attempts will take time to enact and be vetted for successes, failures, and inevitable adjustments. We expect AI to be governed differently according to three broad categories: AI creators: OpenAI and hyperscalers creating AI models from scratch. These entities face unique regulatory challenges related to responsible and demonstrable data sourcing. AI adapters: Fine-tuners of the creators’ models that embed them along with retrieval-augmented generation and similar technologies, adapting them for specific business application development. Enterprises must ensure they are sourcing models that can be attested to on intellectual property (IP) infringement or have some sort of protection against IP infringement. AI consumers: Most businesses taking advantage of the adapters’ AI applications in their day-to-day operations. These organizations must ensure their data sets are cleansed and compliant with regulations. The perils of AI missteps We’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm from CIOs trying hundreds of different uses for generative AI. But two years in, they’re still largely lost on how to scale and monetize it. Enterprises need to get back to the basics, treating AI initiatives like traditional IT application development rather than uncharted territory. Narrowing the scope to two or three projects can make innovation more manageable and bring demonstrable value. That means asking fundamental questions like: How do we vet the use case? How will we validate it? How will we support it once it’s built? Start with a clear understanding of the business problem, create requirements, and ensure the solution will generate a measurable advantage, such as increased productivity or cost savings. It’s also crucial to follow a structured development lifecycle that includes cost controls, security measures, and governance. Build from where you already have good utilization metrics. For example, you might run a call center and know that your customer service representatives handle 10 calls per hour. If you deploy a tool that allows them to handle 15 calls, that’s easily measurable. The key is to find opportunities within your organization that you can optimize and deliver a smarter process. 6 practical steps to AI There are several ways in which your organization can establish a solid AI standard: First look inward: Focus on internal applications to optimize workflows, automate processes, and reduce risks. They are easier to identify—and safer because you’re not exposing yourself to external vulnerabilities. Starting here also allows organizations the grace to learn and adapt before expanding to applications that impact more stakeholders, including customers. You can scale outward once you understand a solution’s full implications like security concerns, legal ramifications of how the models were trained, how they’re really licensed, and your operating costs. Ensure data integrity and compliance: Data integrity and compliance are critical for all three AI use case categories. For creators, ensuring responsible sourcing of data is essential. Adapters need to cleanse and comply with data sets, while consumers must vet software-as-a-service providers and confirm proper data management. Follow the lead: Learning from state-level regulations, such as California’s, can offer insights about future federal frameworks. Businesses should learn from how others adapt accordingly. Adopt ethical AI: Implementing responsible practices is imperative to navigate the regulatory landscape. Business leaders and technologists should prioritize transparency, data privacy, compliance, and continuous learning in their AI programs, along with flexibility to adapt to new or changing regulations and technologies. Surround yourself with knowledgeable teams: Leaders should surround themselves with knowledgeable teams to navigate AI’s complexities and understand their business’s true needs. AI projects’ success rely on a cooperative effort from cross-functional teams, including business functional areas addressing specific challenges, development, data science, IT, and FinOps. Establishing an AI center of excellence unites them. Avoid past mistakes: The current rush to adopt AI mirrors past technology adoption cycles, such as the rush to adopt cloud services without proper planning. Avoid being swayed by the allure of new technology without assessing its implications. Instead, methodically approach AI as you would any other enterprise tool. Our industry is at a leaping point from abstraction and conceptual thinking to tangible AI implementation. The goal is to find the real value in the challenges it can solve for your business. For AI to generate new revenue streams and streamlined operations, prioritize practical solutions over grand innovations. Focus first on the unsexy work that frees your employees from the mundane tasks that no one loves. Moving beyond merely trying AI to doing AI requires starting with sound processes and practical applications that not only will insulate your organization from future uncertainties, but drive it forward. Returning to IT fundamentals is the key to making AI a reality. Juan Orlandini is CTO, North America of Insight Enterprises. View the full article

Plans raise ‘significant’ security concerns for financial services industry, says WashingtonView the full article

Social Security has been considered among the most efficient, cleanest government programs in the country. For instance, a study by the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration, published in July, found that from 2015-2022, the government had made $25 billion in Social Security overpayments—typically payments that went out after someone had already died. But a good chunk of those payments was recouped, so the total amount lost to improper Social Security payments over those eight years was around $2 billion a year, a minuscule sum relative to the Social Security Administration (SSA)’s budget (which is now well over a trillion dollars). Yet, to hear Elon Musk and President Trump tell it, Social Security may well be the site of what Musk called “the biggest fraud in history.” While Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was rummaging around in the SSA’s various databases, it found one in which more than 19 million people who are 100 years old or older had no official death date recorded. In other words, as far as the database was concerned, they were still alive. Musk posted a table of the “living” centenarians, broken up by age, and then suggested that these people might be getting Social Security payments, joking, “Maybe Twilight is real, and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.” Over the next couple of days, the Trump administration amplified this idea. First, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a TV appearance that Musk and DOGE “suspect there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments.” Then, last night, Trump himself said that “we have millions and millions of people over 100 years old” in Social Security, and that if we took them all off the payment rolls, “all of a sudden we have a very powerful Social Security.” If these claims were true, they would, of course, be an absolutely staggering revelation. And fixing them would, as Trump suggested, put Social Security’s finances back on a healthy trajectory. However, the claims are false and are, in fact, absurd. Social Security is not sending out checks to tens of millions, or hundreds of thousands, of dead people, and there was never any reason to suspect that this was the case. What happened here was pretty simple: Elon Musk didn’t understand what the table he was looking at represented, and apparently, rather than ask someone who might know (or even just google the subject), he leapt to the conclusion that he and DOGE might have uncovered the biggest fraud in history. Ghosts in the machine What Musk was looking at was data from what’s called the Numident database, or “Numerical Identification System,” which is a database of every Social Security number issued. And it’s true: There are millions of people in that database who are dead, and not receiving fraudulent checks, but for whom the SSA has no official death date. In most cases, that’s because these people died before the SSA had systematized the collection of death dates (which is trickier than you might think since death certificates are recorded on the state level, not the federal). In other cases, it’s because the death date was entered in the payment-records database (which is separate), but not in Numident. The important point, though, is that the Numident database is not the database of people who are getting Social Security checks—as Musk and now Trump erroneously seem to think. That’s a separate database, and all those “millions and millions of people over 100 years old” that Trump referred to are not on the active database of people receiving Social Security checks. We know this because we can check the correct database of how many people ages 99 and older received their regular Social Security checks in December (the last month for which data is available): 89,106 people ages 99+ collected Social Security benefits. That’s a long way from tens of millions, and it’s also fewer than the estimated number of centenarians in the U.S. In other words, there is no evidence of fraud at all. Even beyond the question of the very elderly, there’s no reason to think Social Security fraud is a meaningful problem. Some 51.8 million people over the age of 61 collected retired-worker Social Security benefits (what we think of as traditional Social Security) in December—out of a population of well over 60 million people ages 62 and older. If the SSA were paying loads of dead people, the number of old people collecting benefits would not be smaller than the number of old people overall. One other part of the story that’s worth noting: The issue of having a database with all these dead people without recorded official death dates is one that the SSA has, obviously, been aware of for a long time. In 2023, in fact, the Inspector General did a report on the subject, recommending that the SSA take steps to fix it as much as possible. The challenge is that would take millions of dollars and lots of work hours to track down death dates from all over the country, most of them from between 50 and 80 years ago. The question is whether it’s worth doing, given that the actual costs of not having the death-date info are trivial, since these people are not getting checks. The point, in any case: This is not a new issue that DOGE has uncovered, but one that’s been discussed for many years. More important, the way Musk’s misunderstanding of a table of numbers quickly turned into the president of the United States making baseless insinuations of fraud about the Social Security Administration is no way to run a government, or any kind of business, for that matter. But now having that erroneous information and baseless claims of fraud out there, courtesy of the misinformed Musk and Trump, can understandably erode people’s confidence in this valuable and most reliable federal program, creating a climate of unnecessary anxiety and distrust—for no factual reason. Musk and DOGE have been given a tremendous amount of power in this administration. They need to use that power responsibly. View the full article

The Fast Company Impact Council is a private membership community of influential leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual membership dues for access to peer learning and thought leadership opportunities, events and more. Healthcare navigation was supposed to be the ultimate guide—a GPS for the healthcare maze. Instead it’s more like an old paper map with half the roads missing. What was meant to simplify care has become just another layer of complexity, dressed up as concierge support but too often steering people based on cost, not quality. At a time when AI, telehealth, and integrated care models are merging and transforming how people experience healthcare, navigation as we know it is becoming obsolete. The rise—and fall—of Navigation 1.0 Navigation started with a clear, patient-first mission: Remove barriers to care. The concept was pioneered by doctors to improve cancer outcomes for underserved patients who struggled with delays in diagnosis and treatment. The original vision was simple: Get people to high-quality care, faster. But then the industry lost the plot. As digital health took off, the market became flooded with big vision “front doors”—slick apps that promised convenience but ultimately led nowhere. These platforms were entryways without hallways—flashy introductions to healthcare that failed to connect people to integrated clinical expertise or personalized support. Instead of providing a pathway to better health, they left people stranded. Then insurers stepped in. They highjacked “navigation,” repackaging it as a cost-control tool rather than an independent, patient-first service. The incentives—and the experience—were not the same. Instead of guiding people to the best possible care, insurer-led navigation steered them toward lower-cost providers with little regard for quality or fit. What should have been an unbiased clinical advocate became just another mechanism for network steering. The result? People aren’t just underserved; some are actively led away from quality care, facing more barriers, more frustration, and worse outcomes. Navigation was supposed to help people get to and through the system, but instead, it became a roadblock. Let’s not forget, we’ve seen this before. Like with the first wave of telehealth, Navigation 1.0 has become an add-on to a fragmented system rather than a real solution. And just like Telehealth 1.0, too many navigation services are now commodity, or more specifically low-value check-the-box offerings—utilization management in disguise. What comes next: A more integrated, person-centric model If Navigation 1.0 is dying, what replaces it? A smarter, all-in-one healthcare model—one that doesn’t just point people in a direction, but actually gets them the right care at the right time—proactively, ongoing, and when called upon. Navigation was always meant to simplify healthcare, but that only happens when clinical expertise, advocacy, and technology work together and are deeply integrated to eliminate friction, improve access, and drive better health outcomes. Here’s what that looks like: Advocacy, not just guidance People don’t need another app—they need someone in their corner. True advocacy means: Fighting billing errors and helping people understand and resolve insurance denials. Connecting people with high-quality doctors, not just network-preferred ones. Helping people navigate treatment decisions and medication costs. It’s not about pointing people in the right direction; it’s about walking beside them. AI + EQ: Smarter, more empathetic care AI assistants and guides are hot topics, but technology alone isn’t enough. What people want is AI + EQ = the efficiency of AI-driven experiences combined with real human expertise and empathy. In healthcare, AI should either free up humans to focus on tasks that only humans can accomplish, or provide guidance to humans to help them perform uniquely human roles more effectively. If a system isn’t human-centered, it’s just another version of the problem. At this point in the game, integration can’t be vision Navigation without deep clinical expertise, system-wide connectivity, and personalized visibility into an individual’s benefits, history, and preferences is about as useful as a tour guide who’s never been to the city—helpful on the surface, but not when you drill down for trusted, known, and proven guidance. For navigation to be effective, it must provide direct access to clinical expertise as part of an integrated team—not just for finding a doctor. It should go even further to holistically support people across mental and physical health, administrative, financial, and social needs. It must include addressing the unexpected too, such as medication support, in-home care, and a broad range of social determinants of health issues. Smarter, cost-conscious care (not just the latest trend) The GLP-1 drug boom (Ozempic, Wegovy) is a case study in why smarter healthcare decision making matters. These drugs are breakthrough treatments for diabetes and weight loss—but they’re also so expensive that if prescribed indiscriminately, they could bankrupt the system and individuals too. That’s why Navigation 2.0 must be evidence-based, guiding people toward treatments that work, are clinically appropriate, and are informed by a person’s benefits and based on what a person can afford short term and ongoing. Better healthcare isn’t just about access; it’s about making smart, data-driven decisions with and for people. The future: Personalized all-in-one healthcare Navigation 1.0 was about helping people wayfind. The next era is about creating a fully connected, advocacy-driven experience that actually improves health, lowers costs, and removes complexity. At Included Health, we call this personalized, all-in-one healthcare. It’s not just a replacement for navigation—it’s a new category altogether, one that finally delivers on the original promise of making healthcare simpler, better, and more human. Healthcare navigation, as it exists today, is dying. RIP. Owen Tripp is cofounder and CEO of Included Health. View the full article