Shopify Capital MCA, Loan Origination Growth Appears to Slow Down
May 9, 2024Shopify Capital, the funding arm of Shopify that provides merchant cash advances and loans to merchants on its platform, experienced no increase in these related receivables in Q1 compared to Q4 2023. The company typically records significant growth in this figure each quarter. Shopify used to broadcast its origination figures far and wide in each quarterly earnings report and call but has since gotten shy about this segment of its business and no longer discloses originations. Instead, its balance sheet line item for “Loans and merchant cash advances” is virtually all there is to go by now and they were listed at $815M in Q1 vs $816M the prior quarter. This, of course, only reflects anything they’ve kept on balance sheet and could be a misleading indicator if those receivables are being sold off or taken on by a third party.
Shopify’s major rival, Amazon, never disclosed origination figures for its Amazon lending program, and in March announced that it was discontinuing its in-house lending program altogether after a 12-year run.
Shopify is still among the largest online small business lenders in the US.
How Everybody Suddenly Became a Direct Funder
May 8, 2024
It’s hard to distinguish a broker from a funder these days especially in an environment where seemingly reliable evidence might not indicate what you think it does. For instance, I recently made an off-the-cuff post about “white label funding” on social media that opened up a lot of eyeballs to a practice that’s been happening behind the scenes for years that could totally change what you think you know about the business, and help explain why deals might be spreading further beyond what a broker intended. For instance, the catchphrase “of course we’re direct, just check our lawsuits out in the courts,” cannot be relied upon to indicate one is direct at all. Say what!
Here’s how white labeling came about, what it means (roughly speaking), and how it works. Please note there are certainly many iterations and variations to it:
More than ten years ago, the MCA arms race to recruit ISOs became ultra competitive and everyone began looking for an edge. Some tried high commissions or faster approvals or higher risk funding or customer service and so on and so forth. Others got more creative, turn the ISOs themselves into funders and leverage their incredible abilities to sell themselves! If a broker was called Cool Funding Co, then the funder might organize an LLC or register a DBA with an extremely close spelling, like Cool Funding Capital, LLC or Cool Funds Co, Inc, something that otherwise wouldn’t raise any eyebrows if one was dealing with Cool Funding Co. The real Cool Funding Co, white label entity in hand from a funder, could now market itself as “direct” and take to the interwebs and telephones to solicit deals from fellow brokers. When Cool Funding Co would get the deal, they would direct it to the real funder, who then prepares a contract with the white labeled name that looks very much like Cool Funding Co. Cool Funding Co gets a cut of every deal funded and also the honorary and distinguished advantage of being a funder in a market full of brokers! They can even syndicate on them which perhaps makes it look and feel even more direct!
Thus kicked off an extraordinary boom of white labeling, which carries through from beginning to end. If a deal defaults under the Cool Funding Capital, LLC contract, then that’s the name that will appear as a plaintiff in the court system. Hence, court records can be misleading to an outside observer who aren’t aware of this practice. You might be dealing with Cool Funding Co, but Cool Funding Capital is actually another funder entirely who actually did the deal behind the scenes.
Not content to let just one funder dominate this market, dozens of funders followed by offering white label services to brokers to front as a funder. This would allow brokers to shop a deal around to all those they have a white label relationship with and create the appearance that whomever approved it was actually them in the end. For a time, not offering white labeling was considered a major disadvantage because then brokers would have to reveal some other company’s name on the contract, risking the possibility that whichever broker they had solicited would cut them out of the process in the future and go truly direct.
The only tell would be that suddenly Cool Funding Co sure seemed to have a lot of legal names, like Cool Funding Capital, Cool Funding Two, Cool Merchant Funding, Cool Cap, and more, both on their contracts and in the court system, all indications but not necessarily definitive proof of white labeling. And not to say that any of this is deceptive or bad or immoral. White labeling exists in many industries and at the end of the day it allowed really good sales people to capitalize on the relationships with people who already liked them. It was smart, genius even. And if the deals get funded and everyone is happy, who cares?
Even some funders got in on it too, shopping out their declines to other funders only to put out a contract in front of their broker with a white label, leaving them to have no idea that someone else is actually doing the deal. Again, this isn’t necessarily deceptive, and can easily be marketed as a benefit. Instead of a broker having to waste time submitting a deal to five funders, they can submit to just one that they really like and the funder will get it done whether on their own balance sheet, through syndication, or through a white label somewhere else. The broker will only have to deal with that one relationship. The deals get done. Everybody wins.
The ironic thing is that white labeling became such a common feature that few people even talk about it anymore. White labeling can even be done in-house in which a funder today can just be a composite of several different syndication funds all while being white labeled under one marketable brand name. The point is that determining who is direct is not easily determined, and especially not from “looking someone up in the courts.” If there is one solid takeaway from this information its to be informed about what is possible and to help you ask better questions with potential relationship partners.
Ask questions things like these:
- Do you rely on white labeled contracts?
- Do you rely on syndication? If so, from who, where?
- How many of your own underwriters do you have? Can I speak to them?
- How much of your own money do you put in the deal?
- If I look up the legal entity on your funding contract, who will show as the owner?
Red flags for a possible white label or broker:
- Says they can fund any and every type of deal
- Multiple commission structures
- Relies entirely on statements like “look me up in the courts” for authenticity
And there you have it. Be careful out there. A great way to cut through the nonsense is to get to know your relationships in person! There are also plenty of funders who don’t white label at all because they don’t want to deal with any of the risk or complexities that come with it.
The Long Running Mysterious Fraud in the Small Business Finance Industry and How to Defend Yourself
May 1, 2024The submitted deals are real. The merchants are real. Everything checks out until suddenly it doesn’t. The merchants block the payments and find out they’ve been scammed.The funders find out they’ve also been scammed. But it’s too late because the money is gone and the fraudsters disappear without a trace.
deBanked reviewed hundreds of court documents, emails, and websites in preparation for this story and spoke with multiple people familiar with the matter, though only one would agree to go on record. Here’s the story of how the scam works and what you need to know to defend yourself.
It was a textbook merchant interview call. The business owner answered the questions succinctly and convincingly. He knew his stuff and sounded confident, like somebody who wanted to just finish the process and get the underwriter to issue a final approval on his funding application. His accent said little about where he was from. It sounded like it could be Mid-Atlantic or perhaps lower New England, just a regular business owner on Main Street USA.
“It sounded a little nasal, right?” said Alex Shvarts, CEO of FundKite, after playing the recording for me to judge.
The tone of the voice did actually sound unusual after thinking about it. Something was off about the call and that was the only tell. For the person on the other end of the phone wasn’t who they claimed to be. It would later be debated if they had used voice changing technology, one of many layers of obfuscation that had been put in place to cover up what is quickly becoming the scheme of the decade.
FundKite had signed up a new broker and promptly received two deals from them. On this particular one the paperwork attached to the application was real. This was a real business and these were their real documents. But the real owner of the business had no idea that any of it had been used to apply for funding with FundKite.
In a typical identity theft scenario, a scammer gets a lender to send the loan proceeds to a bank account that is controlled by the scammer, keeping the victim completely in the dark that their identity is being used for the fraud until much later when a default occurs. But in this case the scammer intended to have a funding company send money to the victim’s actual bank account. It’s a twist that understandably makes it very difficult for the funding company to later believe that the merchant’s identity had been stolen since they were the ones receiving the proceeds. But once the business has been funded, the scammer executes the next step in the scheme, convincing the business owner to send the money to them. If that sounds like a whole lot more work to make this heist successful, then you have no idea how many layers of deceit are in play and the scale at which it’s operating.
It started sometime around 2019 (maybe even earlier) and is still happening to this day across the industry. The scammer uses stolen identities to incorporate businesses, followed by using those entities to open up bank accounts for them. One account is used to impersonate being a lender and another to impersonate being a broker. They first get to work by being the fake lender and register a domain name that closely resembles and could be mistaken for a real lender they’re trying to impersonate. According to records obtained by deBanked, domain names challenged via UDRP and seized as part of an ongoing investigation into the fraud reveal that the scammers also use stolen identities to register the domains, making the real buyers untraceable.
The objective of having these fake domains in the first place is to contact existing real borrowers of the real lender and to pass themselves off as the real lender. It’s a classic phishing scheme.
There’s various theories as to how this is done, but there’s a possibility that public records are sufficient for the scammer to accomplish this step. A reverse UCC search can reveal the names of a lender’s customers and the time in which they received a loan. From there, big data or cursory internet searches are enough to obtain the contact info of those borrowers. This type of list building is nothing new and fairly common in the data business.
The scammers then email the borrowers from the fake domain, purporting to work for their real lender, and give them the great news that positive repayment history has afforded them the reward of being able to refinance their loan at a lower rate.
It is generally good practice to check the domain name of a sender, even though that itself is not foolproof, but an incorrect one, especially one that resolves to a “404 Error Not Found” page, should be a sufficient indicator that these emails are coming from an impostor, yet business owners still fall for it, perhaps because they recognize the name and find the offer consistent with their expectations.
In one case that deBanked reviewed, the opportunity was presented to refinance a double digit APR loan down to as low as 4% with the same lender. When the victim was asked during a deposition if that number had struck him as suspiciously low, he said it did not, especially considering his belief that he had “excellent payment history” and that he felt like it made sense to get a break after all the stresses of covid.
The scammers generally communicate with perfect English over email but will also do phone calls. They use Google voice numbers in the area code that match up with the real lender. deBanked called an older one that had been used and nobody picked up. They might use the name of a real employee at the lender or create a fake one, going so far as to generate a paper trail online that shows the name of that person working for the lender.
Once on the hook, they ask the victim to submit lengthy documentation over email so that the refinance can be reviewed. These are typically documents like tax returns, bank statements, a copy of a driver’s license, A/R and/or A/P schedules, etc. After that the scammer moves on to the next phase, using the phished documents to apply for loans or merchant cash advances. This is where the scammer’s fake broker entity comes in.
These fake brokers tend to pass a background check because they rely on stolen identities that are clean, the business entities they’ve created under them are real and match up, there’s a tax ID, there’s a bank account in their name, and there’s no sketchy stuff about them on the internet. They even have a website, again registered with the fake identity, that often looks like or is an outright exact copy of another broker’s website. Even a diligent funding company can be duped despite a background check. Once the fake broker is signed up with a funder, the phished merchant data is submitted but with the scammer’s phone number and email address. Oftentimes the deal amounts are large. deBanked reviewed several cases related to this scheme that ranged in size from $200,000 to $600,000.
Since all the merchant information is legit, the merchants tend to get approved. The scammers are also adept at pretending to be the merchants in an interview phone call with an underwriter, like the one I listened to previously. They can even guide the merchant through a funder-mandated bank verification under the illusion that it’s all related to their current lender for the refinance. If any questions arise about the mention of another financial company name, it’s explained away as an affiliate partner or related vendor that they use.
Once the scammer is confident the funds are coming, they tell the merchant the refinance has been approved and that there is a narrow window to complete the final steps. As part of this they send a lengthy legalese-filled digital contract with an e-sign for the fake refinance that looks exactly like their real lender’s, again reinforcing how legitimate the whole thing feels.
Once complete, they’re told that a large wire will be arriving in their account, which will actually be from the funding company they don’t know about. In a normal refinance, a lender might withhold a portion of the new loan to apply to the outstanding balance, but in these cases the victims are told that they have to receive the full amount of the funds from their lender first and then wire the outstanding balance of the loan straight back to the lender. The merchant nets the difference if there is any left over. This round-trip transaction is communicated as being their way of managing their accounting, an excuse that again seems to come across as plausible to those that think they’re dealing with their trusted lender the whole time.
In the earlier iterations of the scheme, the name on file for the bank account to wire the funds to would look almost identical to their lender’s name. When the victim sends the wire to pay off their outstanding loan, they are completely unaware that they have just wired funds to a scammer and that the entire thing had been a very elaborate ruse. It’s not until days later when their account starts getting debited by a funding company they have never heard of as part of an agreement they had never entered into do they become alerted that something is amiss. By then it’s too late. Doubly too late if the funder has also wired the fake broker a commission for putting the whole deal together in the first place.
Although the scheme can yield several hundred thousand dollars at a time, it ultimately results in the loss of their fraudulently opened bank accounts as the funders respond with an investigation that can include litigation and/or a report to law enforcement. That means the scammers have to open new accounts under new stolen identities. That’s easier said than done, which is perhaps why last year they apparently improvised on this step. They don’t need to open bank accounts for the fake lenders anymore.
Instead, according to at least three examples reviewed by deBanked, they’re more recently asking the victims to wire the funds to the general deposit account of a cryptocurrency exchange. If this sounds like it would be too obvious, consider that it has worked. The wire forms, which look identical to the earlier versions, are only different in that they contain a different account name to send the funds to. The lender’s logo can still be found on the top.
In one case, deBanked was able to obtain records that allowed for the funds to be traced. The scammer had the exchange convert the wired funds into Ether, to which the Ether apparently moved between three crypto exchanges before disappearing into a generic holding address of an offshore exchange with millions of transactions. Another dead end.
deBanked emailed one of the two exchanges it reviewed related to this scheme to ask about their customer KYC procedures but received no response. The other was not contacted to avoid tipping them off to a possible active investigation. The exchanges both have deposit accounts at US banks, both of which are known for their fintech relationships. Typically, crypto exchanges that take on US customers do rely on some level of KYC. It appears based on limited evidence so far that the crypto accounts opened up by the scammers are done under the stolen identities of the merchants so that everything matches when a wire comes in. This is where it gets murky because the scammers may ask the merchants to take selfies of themselves, ones that could include holding up their ID in their hand or holding a piece of paper with a specific written message on it as proof that it’s them. That a merchant might jump through these hoops on the belief that it’s all to secure a purported refinance with their existing lender requires some suspension of disbelief, though many online finance companies these days are requiring varying levels of customer identity verification.
The outcome, in any case, is that millions of dollars have been purportedly stolen over the course of several years. The scam has been directed at all sorts of funders, from the A paper players to the Z paper players. The merchants, as the original dupes that make this possible because they fall for a basic phishing scheme, are also left to pick up the pieces. The scammers may have even scammed another high profile scammer, at least according to documents reviewed by deBanked. There’s a brazen fearlessness to it all.
A main connecting link has been funders that will do large deals, hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single transaction. But that might be changing. Industry chatter more so than hard evidence suggests the web of intended targets might be growing and that thanks to innovations with AI and crypto, the scammers may attempt to use artificial identities for the brokers rather than real ones. A lot of the steps involving bank accounts and stolen identities are no longer as necessary, which means if you’re a funding or lending company and you’re reading this, you may be vulnerable.
Sources familiar with the matter say that it’s good practice to remind your customers about possible phishing risks and to keep them informed about what methods of communication you will use throughout the life of the relationship. This includes whether or not you might employ phone calls, emails, texts, or snail mail communications, and the precise sender information they should expect. This might limit the likelihood of your own customers from getting phished but there’s tactics you can use to prevent becoming the victim funding company as well.
According to Alex Shvarts, a good start is only conducting a merchant interview on phone numbers assigned to the business. “If it’s a cell phone we have to have a cell phone bill that verifies the owner’s information,” he says. Also, if the customer has a website, avoid communicating with them over a free email address like Outlook or Gmail or Proton Mail and instead direct all communications to an address on their company domain name, one you’ve confirmed is really theirs and not a boilerplate setup by the scammers to deceive you again. Other possible steps are to use live ID verification or a common tool like CLEAR, he suggests. Shvarts wouldn’t disclose some of the proprietary methods they’ve come up with so as not to tip off a scammer reading this.
When it comes to the broker, do proper due diligence. It’s been said that a fake broker may test the waters with a small deal first before submitting the large fraudulent one to generate a level of confidence that everything is on the up and up.
According to documents reviewed by deBanked, the scammers typically rely on a relatively bare bones website for their fake broker shop, a collection of borrowed templates and verbiage from other companies out there. It’s a rabbit hole that can lead one down many wrong directions, especially in an era when similar bare bone lead gen sites litter the internet by the thousands. Consider doing a FaceTime or Zoom call with the broker so that you can see if their face matches the identity that’s been provided!
The scammers have used different domain name registrars and hosting services. They may push for a weekly or monthly payment option so as to create lead time between when the victim wires the funds to them and when the first debit hits from the funder they’ve targeted for it. They seem to prey on merchants that have an outstanding business loan rather than an MCA because it makes the low in-house interest rate refinance all the more plausible. So if you see debits in an applicant’s bank account from any one of the more commonly known online business lenders, you should be thinking about this story and ways to make sure you are speaking with the actual business owner. Do they know who you are? Have they been offered a refinance? Do they even know who their broker is?
“When you first identify the fraud, notify law enforcement including the FBI,” one source familiar with the matter said.
Backdooring Deals? You’re a Loser
April 24, 2024
“Backdooring is just for losers,” says Thomas Chillemi, founder and CEO of Harvest Lending, a small business finance brokerage. “Like I think anybody who participates in it is just a loser.”
Backdooring, as colorfully referenced by Chillemi, is a colloquial term used widely across the industry to describe how leads, apps, or entire deals are stolen from brokers. The deal gets submitted through the front door and then leaks out the back door to an unauthorized third party. Chillemi sums it up as such: “backdooring is ‘I secured a lead, I secured a file in some way, shape or form. And that merchant is being contacted through my efforts somehow that I didn’t give permission to.'”
It’s a scenario that’s been top of mind at brokerages across the country for years, and it’s a problem that’s getting worse, according to sources that deBanked has spoken with.
“I would say backdooring is the worst of the worst right now,” says Josh Feinberg, CEO of Everlasting Capital, another small business finance brokerage. “I think as far as rogue employees go at direct funders, it’s the worst it’s ever been.”
Feinberg’s reference to “rogue employees” is just one such way that backdooring can occur. It can be an employee of a lender, management of a lender, an employee of the broker, a broker pretending to be a lender, and possibly in a worst case scenario even a cyber intruder like a hacker. Sometimes it’s a clandestine operation structured in a way to make it difficult for the broker to detect that their client’s file has been intercepted while other times backdooring is such a normalized function of one’s business that accepting a submission from a broker and then shopping it elsewhere to circumvent them is practically firm policy and done on an automated basis.
Some of the more seasoned brokers who are used to being on guard with what a lender intends to do with their file advise that their peers approach any proposed ISO agreement with a fine-tooth comb to establish what is or isn’t allowed. After all, if the agreement grants the lender the contractual right to backdoor the broker, is it really backdooring?
Others say the contract’s language can only carry the relationship so far.
“I only try to board up with people that seem to be good actors, but then you never know what an employee might do, right?” says Chillemi.
Whether it’s a jaded underwriter, a slick admin, or Bob in accounting who never says a peep, it only takes one individual to set eyes on an application to be in a position to transfer the information elsewhere for personal gain. deBanked examined this subject in years past and learned the lengths that rogue employees go through to extract deal data. For example, when one funding company blocked the ability to transfer data outside of the company’s network, an employee took photos of their screen with their phone. When the employer banned cell phones in the office in response, one employee wrote down deal data on scrap paper, threw it in the garbage, and then returned to the office building after hours to try and fish it out of the dumpster.
The absurdity of that visual alone implies there must be big bucks in the backdoor business. Indeed, according to screenshots forwarded to deBanked of what appears to be an underground Whatsapp group, backdoored deals are currently being marketed for sale with bank statements, social security numbers, and all. A single fresh backdoored file can go for $20 – $35 or buyers can purchase them in bulk, up to 600 at a time, for a discounted price.
“Fresh Packs” apparently fetch more because the applicants may not have signed a funding contract with anyone yet and are theoretically more warm to doing a deal even if they’re not quite sure how the company approaching them got all of their information. And it’s this speed and efficiency of the backdooring happening that’s making things extra difficult for brokers. For Chillemi, he says the backdooring in earlier years would reveal itself when someone would try to call his customer a month or two after the fact. “Like even if it happened after two or three days that felt really fast,” he says. “But now, you’re talking hours, like these people have it within hours and I just don’t even know how anybody could really compete with that.”
Brokers, ready for this, developed a tactic that is still used today as a front-line defense mechanism. They replace the applicant’s email address and phone number on the application with ones they control, so that when an attempted backdooring occurs, the caller is unsuspectingly contacting the very broker they are trying to steal the deal from. The result? They’re caught red-handed.
“I got a text from somebody claiming that they worked at Fidelity,” says Chillemi. “They texted me a picture of my own application. They’re so brazen that they’re just texting the merchant… they thought they were texting the merchant.”
Not only was the Fidelity component a deception, but the mistake of texting the broker who was just waiting to catch them is causing the backdoor shops to evolve. New backdoor callers know the application contact info might be booby-trapped so they’re now skip-tracing the applicants on an automated basis and getting their real contact info and using that instead.
For Feinberg at Everlasting, he says the method of substituting out an applicant’s contact info is not something they do, though he’s aware that it’s done by others in the working capital space. He says that it’s not something that would really be tolerated in the equipment finance side of the industry which operates much cleaner with no backdooring, at least in his experience. The lenders there hate it and everyone involved needs to be able to communicate with the customer. It’s just the working capital deals where all these problems happen.
“It’s defeating, and it’s a very very difficult thing to diagnose,” Feinberg says. He adds that the feeling is worse when realizing that it has happened even when submitting to top tier A players. There’s no delay either. He says that the customer can be called literally within the same hour of submitting it, which puts them in an awkward position.
“They lose complete trust in our company,” Feinberg says. “And it makes it very difficult to be able to work with these clients.”
According to Chillemi of Harvest, “Most of the time what happens is the merchant calls us and says, ‘Now I’m getting all these phone calls people saying they’re working with you,’ and it’s just kind of like an embarrassment of where I’ve got to explain to this person that somebody at these companies leaked their information that wasn’t supposed to. And it just makes me look bad, right?”
Another owner of a large broker shop, who did not authorize his name to be used in connection with this story, says that while everyone’s mind immediately goes to the lending companies, the most common source of backdoored deals is actually from rogue employees inside the brokerages themselves. Whether it’s the rep backdooring their own deals to circumvent splitting commissions with their employer or someone else in the chain that has access to the data, his advice was that brokerage owners first need to look extremely inwards before pointing fingers outwards. Investing in proper security is critical, he says.
But assuming that base is covered, Feinberg says that brokers should do a background check on the lenders and interview them like a lender would interview a merchant for funding.
“We absolutely look into the agreements that we sign but a lot of due diligence happens just on the first phone call,” Feinberg says. “Just on the first phone call we can judge whether this is going to be a real lender…”
A key question to ask, he says, is how compensation works. And that’s because an individual lender will have a defined fixed system whereas a backdoor broker pretending to be a lender is subject to the different compensation structures they have at all their different lending relationships and would not be able to guarantee any fixed commission pricing to the broker they are trying to trick into submitting, that is if they are intending to pay them out a percentage of the deals they backdoor them on in the first place.
“Trust is the number one thing with us,” Feinberg says. “And if trust gets broken, then it’s over. So we really try to work with people that we know personally. And the way that we’ve met people personally is through trade shows, specifically deBanked events.”
Chillemi argues that someone who tries to make their living off of backdoored deals are not salespeople at all, but as he reiterates, losers.
“[the backdoor broker] knows he’s a liar,” says Chillemi, “He’s calling these people saying he’s an underwriter… he’s not strong, he’s not learning. They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re putting the lenders at risk.”
After Tax Day: A Guide for MCA Companies
April 23, 2024David Roitblat is the founder and CEO of Better Accounting Solutions, an accounting firm based in New York City, and a leading authority in specialized accounting for merchant cash advance companies. To connect with David or schedule a call about working with Better Accounting Solutions, email david@betteraccountingsolutions.com.
Congratulations- you’ve survived Tax Day!
About 130 million tax returns were filed by Monday’s April 15 deadline, and business owners, employees and accountants will all breathe a sigh of relief and wait for the refunds to roll in.
Let’s explore what the next few months look like for those that successfully lodged their documents in time with the IRS, and those that didn’t.
I Am Amazing Because I Filed My Taxes On Time
Yes, you are incredible. Good job!
Having successfully sorted through your finances and organized it for the IRS, now is the best time to set yourself up to have an easier time filing in 2025.
Here’s a quick checklist of things you can fix now to make your life easier:
- Did you give yourself enough time to send W-2’s and 1099 documents to your employees and contractors?
- Did you make sure your employees and contractors have gave you a filled out W-4 or W9 on time?
- Were all your deals categorized and classified correctly by your bookkeeping company,or did your accountant have to constantly follow up with you to ensure he understood what deal was doing what?
- Was every deal conducted in different states accounted for tax purposes?
- Did you have all your documentation available and in order?
- Is your industry tailored CRM getting you all the information you need?
- Did your accountant prepare you for any taxes or surprise liabilities you may have incurred?
Knowing the answers to these questions can help you understand whether you had a great experience during this year’s tax season, or if you should begin to explore and implement new processes to shore up your team, books and reporting structure going forward.
I Have Not Filed Taxes Yet For Many Good Reasons
Yes, you are incredible too, and we can’t judge you for having very good reasons to miss the deadline. Here’s some information you need to know:
What happens if I miss the tax deadline but expect a refund?
If you’re sure you are due a refund from your 2023 tax return, you won’t face any penalties for an individual return late. You have up to three years to file and still get your refund, which might take four to six weeks to receive after you file. But for business and partnership filings, most states on your partnerships and business returns for filing late even if you don’t owe anything.
What are the consequences of missing the deadline when I owe taxes?
If you miss the deadline and owe money without filing an extension, you will face penalties for both late filing and late payment, plus interest on the owed amount until it’s fully paid. The state you are in will determine how severe the penalties will be.
What are the specific penalties for late tax filings?
The IRS imposes a failure-to-file penalty, typically 5% of the unpaid taxes each month, capped at 25%, and a minimum penalty if over 60 days late. There’s also a failure-to-pay penalty, about 0.5% of unpaid taxes per month, also capped at 25%.
Can I still file for an extension if the deadline is near?
Yes, you can file for an extension by the tax deadline, which gives you six more months to file your tax return. However, you need to estimate and pay any taxes owed by the original deadline to avoid penalties, and some states won’t even accept the extension unless the estimated taxes are paid.
What if I can’t pay the full amount I owe right away?
You can arrange a payment plan with the IRS if you can’t pay immediately. Short-term plans for up to 180 days are available at no cost, though interest and penalties still apply. For longer needs, long-term payment plans are available with varying fees.
Working with an experienced tax accountant specializing in your industry, in this case merchant cash advance accounting, can ensure you’re always on top of your finances and handle the specific challenges of your field effectively. This specialized knowledge helps in correctly filing tax returns, spotting potential tax reductions, maximizing returns and customizing strategies specially tailored for your business. If you’ve got any questions on your 2023 taxes or how to plan ahead for 2024, your friends at Better Accounting Solutions are always here to help.
Stop the Debt Settlement People, Funders Come Up With Merchant-Friendly Alternative
April 3, 2024
Are debt settlement “advisors” interfering with your contracts and putting your merchants in a bad spot? The industry is now taking the reins on a solution. It’s called GreenLedger, a platform for funders to work together on resolving a merchant’s situation with no debt settlement middlemen encouraging an intentional default, taking fees, and making false promises.
Founded by Elevate Funding CEO Heather Francis, who aims to eventually make it a non-profit, merchants would go to this industry-collaborative platform, indicate who they have open contracts with, and the platform would notify the funders directly.
“From there, the primary points of contact at each funder can get together to come up with a more specific and comprehensive payment plan that works with the merchant’s needs,” said Francis. “GreenLedger’s mission is to work directly with our small business clients to stabilize their revenue-based financing arrangements and avoid breaching their agreements, eliminating the need for potentially predatory middlemen.”
The platform has already been generating interest.
“As an attorney deeply committed to the financial empowerment of small and medium-sized businesses, I am thrilled to endorse Elevate Funding’s creation of GreenLedger,” said industry attorney Patrick Siegfried. “This initiative represents a pivotal step in our ongoing battle against the increasing prevalence of unscrupulous entities in the commercial finance debt settlement industry. Far too often, these bad actors employ deceptive sales tactics and bind clients with unfair contracts, leading not to the promised debt relief but to further financial strain for small businesses. GreenLedger, with its dedication to transparency and integrity, stands as a true avenue for business owners seeking legitimate and effective financial solutions. Its mission to root out malpractices and safeguard the interests of small businesses is not just commendable but essential in today’s challenging economic landscape.”
To learn how you can participate and cut the debt settlement people out of the picture, attend this webinar on April 16th.
How Merchant Cash Advance Companies Can Avoid Problems This Tax Season
April 2, 2024David Roitblat is the founder and CEO of Better Accounting Solutions, an accounting firm based in New York City, and a leading authority in specialized accounting for merchant cash advance companies. To connect with David or schedule a call about working with Better Accounting Solutions, email david@betteraccountingsolutions.com.
In the fast-paced and ever changing world of cash advance, tax season can often present a labyrinth of compliance and reporting challenges. These challenges are not just bureaucratic hurdles that must be overcome; they also serve as crucial tests of a company’s financial health and operational integrity. Given the intense scrutiny the cash advance industry faces from regulatory bodies, particularly in light of recent industry shaking events, alongside the unique nature of how its financial transactions can be structured, ensuring tax compliance is not just advisable—it’s essential. Let’s discuss frequent speed bumps cash advance companies encounter during tax season, and some solutions for these problems.
Misclassification of Income and Advances
One of the most significant stumbling blocks for cash advance businesses lies in the misclassification of the funds they advance to customers. This misstep can lead to serious tax implications, distorting the financial understanding of a company in the eyes of the law. A robust accounting system that accurately differentiates loans, advances, and income is not just a recommendation; it’s a necessity. Each category must be meticulously reported for tax purposes, a task that underscores the importance of seeking guidance from a tax professional well-versed in the nuances and implications of these classifications.
Misreporting Income
A common oversight among cash advance companies is the inaccurate reporting of income. Whether it’s underreporting or misclassifying earnings, the repercussions can be severe, and include the possibility of triggering an audit or incurring a severe financial penalty. The remedy? An accounting software tailored for the funding industry (such as Orgmeter, MCA-Track, OnyxIQ, Centrex, or LendSaas), capable of automating the calculation and reporting all necessary metrics and income. This ensures not only compliance but also a transparent overview of a company’s financial health that benefits you as well.
State-Specific Tax Obligations
Just over 5 years ago, Wayfair was successfully sued by South Dakota for failing to tax online sales even though they had no physical presence in the state, beginning a new era of legal understanding of state tax obligations in the internet and cross-state trade era.The complexity of tax compliance is magnified for cash advance companies operating across state lines, each with its unique tax laws and regulations. This multi-state maze can easily lead to oversight or misunderstanding, risking non-compliance. The solution is twofold: developing a comprehensive compliance checklist for each state and consulting with tax professionals who specialize in navigating these multi-state operations. Together, these strategies form a bulwark against the many possible blind spots of state-specific tax obligations.
Documentation for Audits
Not having the correct documentation and record-keeping on hand can transform a routine tax audit into a nightmare scenario, and cause businesses to be slapped with heavy penalties and fines. To counter this risk, cash advance companies need to maintain meticulous records of all transactions. Experts often recommend businesses conduct regular audits, whether internal or external, to ensure these records are both accurate and will back you up when they are needed.
Planning for Tax Liabilities
Perhaps one of the easiest mistakes to avoid is not adequately planning for surprise tax liabilities. Without planning in advance and setting aside sufficient funds to cover these obligations, companies can find themselves in a precarious cash flow situation when taxes are due. A proactive strategy to counter that involves specifically marking off a portion of income in a dedicated account for unforeseen expenditures (tax liabilities included), calculated with an estimated effective tax rate. This approach, developed with the assistance of a tax professional, can prevent the unwelcome surprise of a hefty tax bill when you’re not ready for it.
At the end of the day, tax compliance, while definitely not fun, should not be viewed (just) as a regulatory pain-in-the-butt, but as a way to ensure a cash advance business’s success and longevity. By embracing proactive tax planning and compliance, companies can not only successfully navigate the complexities of tax season but also reinforce the integrity and sustainability of their business and ensure their success and viability for years to come, free from any stress or government microscope.
On Long Island? You Might See Signs
March 26, 2024
Billboards for Broker Fair 2024 have gone up across several Long Island towns this past week, including locations in Glen Cove, Syosset, Westbury, Bay Shore, and Valley Stream. The conference, built specifically around a broad range of commercial finance brokers, will take place on May 20 in New York City. Long Island is among the largest geographical employers of brokers in the United States.
Broker Fair attendees can expect to learn from industry pro Peter Ribeiro, meet a wide range of funders/lenders & vendors, pitch their deals, and find out what they need to be doing to remain compliant and become successful.
Broker Fair 2024 will take place at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. Brokers pay the lowest price for entry. There is also a pre-show party the night before on May 19th at a Lounge called Somewhere Nowhere NYC (yes that’s really the name!).
If you’re a broker, Broker Fair 2024 is an event you cannot miss!
