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To ease the administrative burden on new employers, the Colorado Department of Revenue, Department of Labor and Employment, Secretary of State, Statewide Internet Portal Authority and Colorado.gov have created Colorado Business Express.  This means that employers can apply for sales tax and wage withholding licenses and identification numbers online and avoid applying on paper.  Additionally, an employer can apply for a state unemployment identification number and rate through the same portal.  This portal eliminates the need for paper forms CR-100 and UITL-100 application forms.

 CBE reduces business registration processing time from hours or days to just minutes. In one transaction, this service consolidates business registration information required by multiple government departments and automatically updates state regulatory systems for the business filer.  This is great news for business start-ups.

Check it out:

https://www.colorado.gov/apps/jboss/cbe/

For tax years 2010-2013, the Affordable Health Care Act allows for a health care tax credit of 35% of group health coverage premiums paid by the employer, provided it contributes at least 50% of the total premium or an IRS set amount.  The full credit is available for employers with ten or fewer full-time equivalents (FTEs) and average annual wages of less than $25,000 per employee.  Partial credits are available on a sliding scale to businesses with fewer than 25 FTEs and average annual wages of less than $50,000.  For the small employers this is a difficult credit for which to qualify as providing the benefit is expensive in the first place and the credit may not provide enough of a relief to justify the additional expense.

In Chief Counsel Advice (CCA), the IRS has determined that mobile billboards are tangible personal property and thus qualify for the Code Sec. 199 domestic production activities deduction. For 2012, the domestic producer deduction is 9% of the lesser of the business's qualified production activities income or taxable income, and the domestic producer deduction cannot exceed 50% of the wages paid and reported on form W-2s by the business for the year. 

The following are examples of activities that qualify for the domestic producer deduction: Manufacture, production, growth or extraction of tangible personal property (e.g. goods, food, agricultural products), computer software, production of electricity, natural gas, construction or substantial renovation of residential and commercial buildings and infrastructure by taxpayer engaged in the construction business.

Back to billboards: Traditional and modern billboards are real property and hence not qualified for the deduction.

The sale of a principal residence is typically not reported on a taxpayer’s return because the taxpayer can exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 if married) of gain from the sale of the personal residence.  In short, if the individual(s) have owned and used the residence for at least two of the five years prior to the sale, the gain ($250,000 if single or $500,000 if married) is excluded.  If married, either or both of the spouses must have owned the principal residence for at least two of the last five years prior to the sale.

Similarly or maybe because the gain is not taxable, a loss is not deductible.  However, there are exceptions.  For example, in the case where part of your home is rented or used exclusively for your business.