Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | August 25, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 43 By Scott Cashman Scott Cashman is an attorney and the tax manager for Worcester- based law firm Bowditch & Dewey's estate, financial, and tax planning practice area. 10) Individual tax rates. OBBBA makes permanent the income tax rates for individ- uals, estates, and trusts set to expire at the end of 2025. 9) State and local tax deduction cap (SALT). OBBBA increases the limitation on the deduction for state and local taxes from $10,000 to $40,000 for 2025 and $40,400 for 2026. 8) Deduction for tip income. OBBBA creates a new deduction of up to $25,000 for qualified tip income for individuals. The deduction is limited to those in customarily tipped industries and begins to phase out for taxpayers with adjusted gross income over $150,000 ($300,000 for joint filers). 7) Deduction for overtime pay. OBBBA creates a new deduction for qualified overtime compensation of up to $12,500 for individuals or $25,000 for joint filers. The new deduction applies to tax years begin- ning after December 2024. A caveat is the deduction only applies to qualified overtime compensation such as time-and-a half. 6) Mortgage interest. OBBBA permanently disallows the mortgage interest deduction for debt more than $750,000. 5) Charitable contribution deduction for non-itemizers. OBBBA reinstates a partial charitable contribution deduction for individual taxpayers who do not itemize of up to $1,000 ($2,000 for couples) beginning in tax years after 2025. 4) Estate tax exemption. OBBBA perma- nently increases the federal estate and gift tax exemption to $15 million, indexed an- nually for inflation, for estates of decedent's dying after 2025. 3) Qualified business income deduction. OBBBA makes permanent the 20% de- duction for qualified business income and increases the phase-in income limitations beginning for tax years after 2025. 2) Form 1099 reporting. OBBBA increases the threshold for filing forms 1099-NEC, 1099-Misc. from $600 to $2,000 (indexed for inflation) beginning with payments made in tax years after 2025. 1) Bonus depreciation. OBBBA perma- nently extends the ability of businesses to fully expense qualifying capital assets. This new rule applies to property first placed in service after Jan. 19, 2025. Small business websites and data protection: What you need to know BY SLOANE M. PERRON Special to WBJ F inancial strategies and disci- plined budgeting are essential for navigating the ebb and flow of the economy. Amid inflation, supply chain disruptions, and rising operating expenses, targeted cost-cutting measures can help companies weather the storm. A new approach to budgeting. Bud- geting should not be a one-time action that is responsive to the economy, in- stead there needs to be a holistic strategy that consistently analyzes costs, even when times are good. Having a cost-sav- ing mindset now, can help a company be more prepared to navigate economic ob- stacles in the future. "Budgets are a real test of how your company thinks about costs. If yours tend to get adjusted incre- Cutting costs when times are tight Julia Becker Collins is the chief operating officer of Northborough-based Vision Advertising, a full-service marketing agency celebrating 25 years in business. BY JULIA BECKER COLLINS Special to WBJ T wenty years ago, having a website was the gold standard of a successful business. Today, it's the price of entry. Whether you've had a website for years or just started, many business owners have the same blind spot when it comes to their website: not keeping up with regulations, protections, and trends. One of the big ones today is consumer data, and I've seen clients with dated websites that are being penalized or even blacklisted due to simple website changes they've failed to introduce. From tracking cookies to filled-out forms, your website collects customer data. You might be ignorant of what your website's pages, plugins, apps, and forms collect, but that doesn't make you immune to regulations. You've seen the trends on other websites: pop-ups about tracking cookies, opt-ins on email signups, and additional data-related agreements on forms. You need to have them on your website as well. While Massachusetts has some spe- cific laws concerning standards for data security and announcing data breach- es, Europe's General Data Protection Regulations and California's Consumer Privacy Act have significantly stronger protections for data. If your business collects data from EU or California residents – even if you're based in Mas- sachusetts – you need to comply. at means clear privacy policies, consent for data collection, and an easy way for consumers to opt out. Under the above laws, customers can ask for a copy of the data you store or even for it to be deleted. Businesses that share customer data must offer an opt- out, and under CCPA, minors require explicit opt-in before their data can be shared. Failure to comply with consumer data requests or official GDPR & CCPA notices within 30 to 45 days can lead to steep penalties, starting at $2,500 per violation all the way up to percentages of annual business income. What you do with this data is also important: selling data comes with its own issues, including the need to ask consumers to do so and provide opt- outs explicitly, and if you collect emails and then use them for email marketing, you'll need to follow CAN-SPAM Act regulations to avoid the possibility of penalties when you hit send. Old websites haven't kept up with the risks posed here. Do you use tracking cookies without explicit consent? Allow form submissions without a privacy disclaimer? Do you have a privacy police on your site? Do you know if any of the plugins or apps on your website do? If you've answered no to any of these questions (or don't know), you're at risk, even if you're a small business. ese are common issues I see when consulting with potential clients about the short- comings of their current website. Good data protection is also good marketing. Making sure your custom- er's data is sent and secured isn't just important for regulations, it's also for search engine optimization. Google and many browsers restrict or even black- list websites without HTTPS. As these practices become the norm, having these is a green flag to people who want to do business with you, especially when it comes to providing private informa- tion. It's an easy way to build trust with consumers. 10 THINGS I know about ... ... Business impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act mentally through function-by-function agendas, you're probably not actively – or strategically – managing them," Vinay Couto, Paul Leinwand, and Sundar Subramanian, write in an article for the Harvard Business Review. Embrace remote work. Originally adopted out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, remote and hybrid work models have since prov- en their value for businesses. ese approaches reduce expenses on physical office space and utilities, enabling com- panies to save more money on brick- and-mortar locations and instead invest in overall operations. In addition to the cost savings, remote and hybrid models have been proven to boost employee productivity. In fact, a study found that employees were 24% more productive aer transitioning from in-office to fully remote work, according to financial so- ware company Brex. Leverage AI services. e potential of AI is vast, with applications spanning business operations and budgeting. Implementing AI can reduce the need for human labor, but more importantly its ability to analyze and predict can be beneficial for constructing a com- prehensive budget. Instead of manual forecasting, AI can help economic pre- dictions, take on mundane tasks like in- voicing, and streamline documentation associated with HR onboarding. "ere are significant cost savings that can be delivered from leveraging technology spending. Consider the multitude of offerings that can automate previous- ly labor-intensive processes using AI tools," Lee Shapiro, manager partner of 7WireVentures, writes in Forbes. W W W

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