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End Of Year Planning: A Business Owner's Year-End Checklist

The end of the year marks a time of celebration and festivity. But for business owners, this time means much more than that: year-end planning is here. 

This time of the year when it is necessary to focus on a list of important year-end tasks designed to help you reflect on and learn from the past year, ensure you're well prepared to continue leading your business in the coming year (and keep your business compliant!).

As you hurry to mark off the items on your personal holiday to-do list, be sure you set aside enough professional time to also mark off the action items on your business's year-end checklist.

Small Business Financial Checklist and Year-End Planning in 11 Steps:

1. make sure accounts are reconciled .

Before you can address any other year-end concerns, you must first make sure all of your bookkeeping records and accounts (bank accounts, accounts receivable, and accounts payable) are up-to-date and reconciled.

This should be kept current and reviewed regularly throughout the year– so you always know the state of your business, and so you catch any issues before they snowball since you know your business best.

Do a good review of the accounts, make sure everything looks right. Take account of any unpaid receivables and any payables it still shows that you owe. Make sure you agree with all items that have been accounted for, recorded, purchased, and paid. 

Read More: Your Business Audit Will Cost You, Unless…

2. Review Financial Reports

Now that you're confident the books are clean and the data is accurate, you can dig into your financial and management reports for the end of the year. 

Taking the time to review your financials thoroughly helps you in making data-driven decisions to achieve business success. These basic reports include your income statement (profit and loss statement), balance sheet, and a statement of cash flow.

In addition to basic financial reports, it’s important your finance department provides you with the right management reports to make decisions. (if you still aren’t sure- this article sums up what types of reporting you should be getting! )

Looking at your reports will help you make informed decisions for next year- that maximize revenue, minimize your costs, grow profit margins, and accelerate success. 

3. Analyze Cash Flow Statements

Take a close look at last year’s cash flow statements. 

While you assess these statements, you should be looking for challenges (cash flow shortages) you encountered and trying to determine the reasons why these pitfalls occurred.

You should also try to identify any noticeable patterns that can better inform your cash flow forecasting and strategic planning for the upcoming year . Did your business encounter a seasonal cash flow shortage due to slow demand, supply chain issues, or another problem that could potentially recur in the future? If so, make plans now to prepare for these challenges so that they won't be a problem when they recur in the future.

4. Year-End Tax Planning and Strategy

With a focus on taxes, take a look at where your business stands, income-wise and expense-wise, at the end of the year. Talk to your accounting team or CPA about making some last-minute maneuvers to lower your taxable income and improve your business's tax position before the year ends and your financials are set in stone.

Read More: End of Year Planning – How to Stay Audit and Tax Ready

For example, you could consider splitting income or taking advantage of maximum depreciation claims. You can expedite expenses, making necessary purchases on this financial year, rather than waiting until after January 1st. If you can afford to wait on some of your receivables, consider delaying your invoices and not billing customers until after the end of the fiscal year.

5. Reflect on Your Business and Review Last Year's Goals

Set aside time to reflect on your financials, review your last year's goals, and compare how your year turned out with respect to your budget and actual numbers. Discussing this with your Advisor will help dig deeper and plan more effectively.

Ask yourself:

• How did you stay on track? 
• In what ways were you successful? 
• Where did you go astray and why?

6. Identify Shortcomings and Solutions

What works and what doesn't?

If you identify any pitfalls, failures, or others marks you and your company missed over the previous year, really take the time to figure out what happened and what was wrong. Looking over these types of shortfalls will help you identify limiting factors inside your business (i.e. the things that hold you back) .

Brainstorm about what could be done differently to eliminate the limiting factors inside your business (& yourself). Then focus on solutions that seem most attainable, and make a plan to implement those solutions in the upcoming year.

7. Consider Year-End Incentives and Future Staffing Needs

At the end of the year, you should be able to see a growth rate for your business and set goals for the growth you want to achieve in the upcoming year and several years after that.

With that in mind, take a look at your staff and determine which positions you're going to need to fill and how your staff might need to grow in the near future to help your business grow as well. This can help you predict when you should hire new staff to ensure they're well-trained and ready to take on new challenges just as soon as your business needs them to be

Read More : How To Maximize Profit and ROI From Your People

While your mind is on your people, don't forget to be grateful for them and to express your gratitude with both monetary rewards and public recognition. Now is the time to consider year-end gifts and parties in addition to raises and incentive programs for the upcoming year.

8. Set Goals, Strategize, and Write It All Down

All too often SMB owners get too caught up in the hectic schedules of their daily lives to remember that their visions for their businesses need to extend beyond the current workweek.

With your financials at hand and a thorough understanding of the last year's performance, the end of the year marks the perfect time to focus on setting goals and coming up with specific strategic plans to achieve those goals.

Take the opportunity to imagine the ideal future or five-year plan for your business (long-term goals) and discuss it with your leadership team. Then work backward to identify the short-term goals that will help you achieve the long-term ones , and work with leadership to devise operational plans that will ensure your people and business are all oriented around the same vision and working toward common goals.

Be sure to solidify everything in writing, communicate the plan to your people, set deadlines, and implement a plan for measuring your progress.

9. Create a Budget

You can't future-plan, set goals, and achieve them without budgeting for your business's future. Start by reviewing last year's budget and comparing it to your actual numbers.

Make any necessary adjustments and then think about the goals you want to achieve and the resources you'll need financially to achieve them, adding those to your budget. Plan to revisit your budget and other financial statements each month going forward in the next year so that you can make adjustments as you go along.

"GrowthForce helped me understand how to build a budget and worked to teach me how to read and interpret my new reports. I felt the fog lifting as they helped me be a stronger leader and,  overall, a better business owner.” - GrowthForce Client: Ryan Jennings | President, Sentinel Builders

Read the full story HERE .

10. Evaluate and Improve Leadership

In addition to reflecting on your business's previous year, take some time to reflect on your own leadership, and ask your leadership team to do the same. Think about your performance over the past year. Do your best to evaluate yourself objectively. Where do you think you fall short?

Try to identify things you can improve such as:

• Time management
• Communication
• Workplace culture
• Employee recognition
• Financial savvy
• Business acumen
• Industry knowledge

Next, implement a self-improvement plan for the upcoming year , scheduling time for yourself to continue learning and improving your business leadership skills. Encourage your leadership team to do this for their own growth.

11. Celebrate Successes

At the end of the year, you should also take the time to pat yourself and your employees on the back and congratulate yourselves for surviving (crushing) another year – and an exceptionally challenging one – in the business world.

Take account of all the goals you achieved and the expectations you either met or exceeded and look closely at what worked and how you did it to focus on replicating these successes in the future.

What are you most proud of? What were some of the biggest 'wins' in your business this year?

Does Your Back Office Support Your Business's Operating Framework and Goals?

Most importantly- once you've completed your year-end checklist, take a moment to evaluate how the year-end process went for you. 

Ask yourself whether your back office is supporting your year-end planning, tax planning, business strategy, and operating framework. Was it simple to pull financial reports or did manual processes slow you down or even lead to reporting errors?

If you find that your back office is taking your time, rather than saving you time, then you should add another business goal to your list for the upcoming year, and that is to shore up your back office and automate your manual bookkeeping, accounting, and reporting processes to improve operations while better supporting your overall financial goals and business strategy.

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End the Year Right: Small Business Planning Tips to Wrap Up 2022

With the fourth quarter well underway, it’s time to really hunker down on business planning to wrap up the year.

No matter how the year went, it’s always a good idea to plan ahead and tie up any loose ends before December 31st. Here is your End-of-Year Playbook to help you get a running start as we head into a New (and hopefully better) Year.

1. Get Caught Up on Your Bookkeeping

You can’t make any sound financial or tax planning for the future if you don’t know where things stand—and that means understanding actually how much you’ve taken in and how much you’ve spent year-to-date.

If you are not working with an accountant, there are plenty of apps to help automate most of the work for you. For example, you can take a look at FreshBooks’ expense tracking . By getting caught up on your revenue and expenses now, you will have an easier time come tax season, and you’re in a better position to make sound financial decisions.

The start of a new year is a natural time to bump up your rates.

2. Revisit Your Pricing

Once you understand your business’ financial picture, it’s time to get honest about how things are going. Is your business model sustainable, or do you feel like you’re working as hard as you can but still treading water?

Many freelancers and small business owners make the mistake of undercharging their clients : Is your pricing adequately compensating you for your time, experience, and costs (which include taxes, retirement plans, health insurance, and more)?

The start of a new year is a natural time to bump up your rates. And if you are billing clients by the hour, we also recommend reading FreshBooks’ eBook “ Determine Your Rate & Earn Your Worth ” to better understand the best way to put a fair price tag on your services. Dreading a tough price conversation with your loyal clients? Here are 4 ways to increase prices without the backlash.

3. Do Some End-of-Year Tax Planning

The majority of people think about taxes just once a year. As a result, they lose the chance to make any meaningful changes to help their tax situation.

This tax year is still going to be strange if you received any government loans or assistance to support your business during the pandemic. It’s smart to set up a call with an accountant before the year comes to a close, so you can follow any additional tax advice while it still matters.

4. Change Your Business Structure

If you have been thinking about “upgrading” your business structure from a sole proprietorship to an LLC or corporation, now is the time. That’s because you can simplify your record-keeping and taxes by starting 2023 as the new structure.

For example, in the U.S., you can even have a document filing company complete the paperwork now and then send it to the state office at the start of 2023. Read “ How to Decide What U.S. Business Structure Is Right for You ” to learn more about the various business structures  and their pros and cons.

5. Update Your Website and Social Media Profiles

Throughout the year, you undoubtedly make time to help your clients prosper, but how much time do you dedicate to growing your own business? Is the content on your website and business social media profiles up to date?

Dedicate one day this month to touching up, revamping, or overhauling your digital presence. If you simply can’t spare a full day from billable work, then spend two hours per week for one month. You can even hire someone if needed… just don’t let your own business languish while you help everyone else move ahead.

Related Articles

6. Close an Inactive Business

Maybe you started a dog-walking business before you got serious about your design work. You haven’t walked a dog in ages, but various government agencies may still think said dog-walking business is active (and they’ll be expecting your tax return, annual fee, etc.).

By the end of the year, you should officially close any inactive business. This is particularly true if you incorporated (formed an LLC), filed for a reseller’s license, or any other kind of permit. The last thing you want is to find out that you owe 3 years’ worth of annual fees for a business you assumed was shuttered a long time ago.

7. Plan Your Holiday Schedule

Your clients will expect you to take time off around the end of the year; more than likely, they’ll be quiet around the holiday season, too. However, you should still give all clients ample notice of your plans and set their expectations for your availability. Planning ahead is the best way to ensure a smooth and stress-free vacation.

The post was updated in December 2022.

Written by Lisa Craymer , Senior Content Marketer, FreshBooks

Posted on December 6, 2022

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Top 10 Considerations for Successful Year-End Planning

Key Takeaways

• A holistic year-round approach to year-end can eliminate many common headaches.
• Digital solutions are innovating faster than ever and can help simplify year-end.
• More organizations are turning to outsourcing for improved operations.

Year-end is a busy time of year. Not only are you working to get your financials in order, but you’re also evaluating the numbers, measuring success, and exploring opportunities to grow your business – and it can be overwhelming.

We understand the challenges you face as the year comes to a close. That's why we recommend a holistic approach that starts long before the end of the year and covers much more than just your financial statements. Here are the key areas you should be considering at year-end and all year-long.

1. Tax Planning & Compliance

When it comes to planning and compliance, ask yourself these questions:

• Are you prepared to file your individual and business tax return on time?
• Have you considered how proposed tax legislation could impact your situation?
• Do you have over 50 full-time equivalent employees?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, the next questions to ask yourself are:

• Have you filed the appropriate 1094 and 1095-C forms?
• Have you had a conversation with your tax advisor to ensure you are benefiting from all available tax credits and deductions?

2. Technology

Technology is innovating faster than ever, but many organizations’ systems are stuck in the past, creating challenges and slowing growth.

• Have you recently reviewed your technology needs and whether your current software systems are up to date and giving you the information you need?
• Do you need to explore additional options ?
• Does your technology allow you to operate in a remote or hybrid work environment ?

Dive Deeper: What You Need to Know When Choosing New Technology

3. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a critical component to successful year-end planning.

• Have you adequately protected your systems, data and business reputation?
• Have you adequately identified the cyber threats your business may face ?
• Have you prepared proper training for your staff to prevent a cybersecurity threat?

Dive Deeper: Free Cybersecurity Risk Assessment

4. Data Analytics

Taking a strategic approach to year-end planning can help you simplify the process. When considering data analytics, ask yourself:

• Are you able to use your data to make informed decisions?
• Can your company make sense of its data chaos?
• Do you have the proper access to your data?
• Do you know the source of your current data and the health of that information?
• Have you mastered the art and science of data visualization ?

Dive Deeper: How to Use Operational Analytics to Drive Strategic Growth

5. Human Resources

Take a look at your human resources practices.

• Are you doing a comprehensive review of your employee handbook  to make sure you are in compliance with federal and state employment laws?
• Are you keeping your personnel files  in order?
• Do you follow best recruitment  and retention  practices?
• Are you utilizing HR to prevent fraud  in your organization?

Dive Deeper: Why Human Resources is Important for Your Growing Business

6. Wealth Planning

Some questions to ask about wealth planning:

• How will proposed tax legislation affect your wealth plan?
• Are your tax and investment decisions working together?
• Do you know the tax impact of liquidating one asset versus another?
• Are you consistently reviewing your financial plan?
• Do you have an investment strategy?
• Do you have the right insurance coverage in place?
• Have you thought about the type of legacy you would like to leave?

Dive Deeper: Individual Year-End Planning Checklist

7. Retirement Plans

There are many things to consider depending on the size and anticipated growth of your business.

• Have you reviewed your company’s retirement plan?
• Have you reviewed the proper reporting requirements based on the size of your plan and its participant numbers?

8. Outsourcing Needs

Here are some things to consider when it comes to the  financial and accounting portion  of your business.

• Have you evaluated whether now is the time to outsource your payroll and bookkeeping services?
• Have you considered whether hiring an outsourced CFO consultant could help you grow your business?

Dive Deeper: Behind the Financial Metrics Series

9. Exit Planning

We encourage business owners to consider options at least five years before they intend to sell, if not 10. The more time you have to adequately plan for a sale, the better price you likely will get.

• Have you thought about selling  or acquiring a new business ?
• Have you considered the tax implications of a sale/purchase ?

Dive Deeper: Comprehensive Exit Planning Guide

Ask yourself these questions about fraud:

• Do you have suspicions about potential fraud in your organization?
• Do you have the appropriate checks and balances in place?
• Have you done a review of your internal controls to ensure you’re keeping your business protected?

Dive Deeper: How to Reduce Your Fraud Risk

The Importance of a Proactive Approach to Year-End Planning

We understand the amount of time and effort it takes to close out the year. Not only do you have a massive amount of paperwork in your 1099s  and W-2s , you must consider tax planning and compliance , and the overall health of your business. By taking a more proactive and strategic approach to year-end, you can simplify your process and eliminate many year-end headaches.

Eide Bailly’s experienced advisors can help you review common practices and ask the right questions to help you simplify the year-end planning process and make strategic decisions to position your organization for growth in the coming year.

Here to help simplify year-end planning and compliance.

• Outsourced & Managed Services

Outsourcing core business functions can help streamline processes, eliminate inefficiencies, and improve business operations.

• Manufacturing, Distribution & Logistics
• Agribusiness
• Energy Services
• Higher Education
• Affordable Housing
• Dealerships
• Private Equity
• Construction & Real Estate
• Accounting & Finance
• Year-End Planning & Compliance
• Tax Consulting & Planning

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• 6 steps for operations leaders to build ...

6 steps for operations leaders to build a better annual plan

An effective annual plan is critical to keep your teams, departments, and company together, working toward the same goals. 

As an operations leader, you oversee how your organization runs its business. By reviewing how your company performed in the past year, you and your operations teams can identify which strategies worked—and which fell short—to build an effective annual plan designed to maximize the impact of every department.

Here’s what you need to know about building a successful annual plan.

Connect everyone's work to company-wide goals

87% of workers with individual goals tied to company-wide goals say their business is well-prepared to meet customer expectations. Discover how Asana can transform the way your organization aligns work to goals.

Annual plans drive clarity and accountability 

With an annual plan, departments can start the year off with a strong understanding of the overall vision and how their work contributes to larger business goals. Without an overarching plan, it can be difficult to understand how a specific project or initiative moves the business forward. 

Clear goals establish benchmarks for project progress

Your annual plan shouldn’t be a set-it-and-forget-it goal. Rather, periodically check project progress against your annual plan so you can see how your operations teams are doing. Doing this throughout the year will not only give you a sense of how your teams are tracking towards their overall goals—it can also help you understand if they’re ahead or behind schedule, and adjust accordingly. 

If you notice that a specific initiative is not on track to meet the strategic goals outlined in your company’s annual plan, you can use this data to pivot and double down on—or divest from—specific initiatives. 

Establish concrete goals for a specific time period

The more specific your goal, the more concrete your action plan. Providing detailed and specific goals gives your employees a clear understanding of what work to prioritize and what deliverables they’re responsible for. 

Make sure your goals are measurable, as well. Clear KPIs and OKRs demonstrate how tangible work connects back to larger business goals. 

6 steps for annual business planning

The annual planning process often takes place near the end of the calendar year or at the end of your company’s fiscal year. As you get closer to annual planning time, consider these six steps of the annual planning process. 

1. Reflect on previous strategies—and develop new ones

Before your business can start planning for next year, ask yourself, your stakeholders, and your operations teams: How did we perform against the strategies laid out in last year’s annual plan?

No matter the answer, use these recent data points to steer your decision-making when building your next annual plan. That could mean doubling down on big programs or initiatives born in the last year—or going a different direction entirely. 

A well-built annual plan factors in reflection on what did and didn’t work—and improves off of it.

2. Transform your business’s greatest needs into goals

After reflecting on last year’s performance, hone in on the most significant growth and improvement opportunities. Use this for guidance as you construct company- and department-wide goals.

It helps to have a consistent framework for goals across the business, to accelerate the goal-setting process and ensure greater understanding of goals within all corners of the organization.

The exact goal framework you use will depend on your company, but a few good ones to consider are: 

The Objectives and Key Results (OKR) method , which helps your business set goals using the framework “I will [objective] as measured by [key result].”

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) , which use leading and lagging indicators to track how you’re performing towards your goals. 

The SMART goals framework , which helps ensure the goals your organization sets are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

3. Create an action plan to maximize impact

The next step is to create an action plan for your business to achieve the goals outlined in step three. Your action plan should outline the list of steps your teams need to take to accomplish their goals. Think of an action plan like the map you’ll use to arrive at your final destination. 

From there, delegate the work laid out in the action plan to specific teams and departments. Connecting the work that your operations teams complete to larger company goals makes it easier for each team to understand the impact their work has on the business.

4. Ensure the annual plan is everyone’s plan

Not everyone can be involved in building the annual plan for your company—but every team member should feel like their work is seen and accounted for in the plan. 

As the annual plan comes together, meet with leaders and employees across the business to ensure varying perspectives and priorities are factored into the final product. This step is critical for getting buy-in and generating excitement across the business. 

You don’t want to be in a position where you’re just telling everyone what the annual plan is—you want to bring every department along for the journey and get them excited about what they’re working toward in the coming year. Consider conducting a presentation to not only share the company plan and why this plan matters, but also to outline timelines and how departments will use it to achieve the company’s goals. 

5. Execute your strategy, monitor metrics, and adjust as needed

At this point, your organization’s annual plan is completed, but nothing is ever fully set in stone. As the year progresses, make sure you’re continually monitoring success metrics and KPIs. If the results of your strategies are not behaving as you expected them to, it’s important to adjust so your business will still hit the goals outlined in your annual plan. 

6. Repeat again for next year 

At the end of the year, it’s time to start the process over again. Align with your strategic plan, look back at the past year’s results, and create another plan to achieve those business goals. 

What does a good annual plan include?

Effective annual plans should contain components that are essential for completing the work outlined in the plan itself, and context for why this plan will be effective. Here are a few examples of components you would find in an annual plan:

Reports of the previous year’s performance: Your company’s annual plan for the upcoming year should be based on the data from the previous year’s performance. This provides context for your teams as to what they’re capable of doing within one calendar year.

Budget estimates: A common KPI investors track is return on investment (ROI). Knowing how much money different teams are spending makes it easier for your organization to calculate ROI and adjust strategies. Providing budget estimations also gives departments the context they need for the amount of resources they have at their disposal for the year.

Clear and specific goals: Annual plans should use the SMART goal framework so that your company can easily measure progress and report back on it later. 

Important milestones: Your business can accomplish a lot of work within one year—but to do that, each department needs to know how they're doing. Milestones operate like checkpoints, giving teams and departments a sense of direction and an idea of how they're pacing against annual goals.

Project buffers and contingency plans: Unexpected things happen all the time, and it’s better to be prepared than caught off guard. Develop a contingency plan for how your organization will get back on track in the event of an unexpected roadblock. Also set aside some resource buffers, such as a small portion of your company’s budget, to accommodate for unexpected expenses.

Gear up for next year

After a year of hard work, it’s time to reflect back and plan for more great things in the future. While annual planning takes time, collaboration, and thoughtful strategy, the efforts show in the form of your business success. 

Still have questions? We have answers. 

What is annual planning.

Annual planning is the act of developing a strategy for the upcoming year based on the learnings from the current year’s performance. This provides an opportunity for your operations teams to iterate on strategy from the past year and incorporate those learnings into your upcoming plans. 

In essence, your annual plan should contain: 

The goals your business needs to achieve

A strategy for how your organization will hit those goals

Clear tactics for what each department will work on

Any important milestones that benchmark progress

What’s the difference between annual planning and strategic planning? 

Strategic planning and annual planning are both important business planning methods that help set your team's strategy for the future. However, the scale of these planning strategies are different.

Strategic planning is the long-term strategy for your business. This encompasses a basic roadmap of how business should develop within three to five years. You will use your strategic planning process to inform your annual plan. 

Annual planning represents all of the goals and strategies that you want your business to achieve, similar to a strategic goal. The main difference here is that an annual plan only encompasses one calendar year, instead of a few years. If you think of it like a pie, annual planning is just one slice of the larger strategic plan pie.

When should your operations teams start annual planning?

Begin your annual planning process during Q4, so you can begin day one of Q1 with your plan in hand. If that’s not an option, do your annual planning as close to the start of the new year as possible. 

There are two benefits to planning earlier. First off, you’ll beat the end-of-year crunch, and avoid the stress that traditionally comes with the end of the year. Additionally, if you run an efficient annual planning process with your leadership team, your operations teams will still be free to execute on high-impact projects throughout Q4.

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Small Business End-of-Year Checklist & Planning

The end of the year is often seen as a perfect time to reflect and plan for the year ahead. But the reality for most business owners is that it’s crazy busy and it may feel like all you can do just to make it through.

Though you may not have a lot of time for quiet reflection, do your best to try to carve out some time so you can review where your business has been and where you want it to go in the new year. 

Here we offer an end-of-year checklist focused on financial-related tasks to help your business wrap up your current year with confidence. Use what you learn to set goals and create an action plan for a successful year ahead. 

You don’t have to check every single item off this list; pick the ones that are most important to your business and do what you can. Just keep in mind the tasks you least want to do may be the ones you really need to do first. 

End-of-Year Business Tips

It’s important for small business owners and entrepreneurs to prioritize end-of-year business planning ahead of the holiday and tax seasons. Here are the best steps you can take before the year ends in the following areas of running your business:

Sales that lead to profits are the number one way you’ll build a financially successful business. So start by looking at how you’re generating sales. Remember, though, that revenues won’t equal profits unless your inflows (revenues) are greater than your outflows (expenses). 

• Review your business plan to make sure it is up to date and reflects your focus for the coming year. A business plan should be updated as market conditions change, and if there’s ever a time when conditions have changed, this year is probably it!
• Review your marketing spending for the previous year to evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Not all types of marketing allow you to track specific results, but many do. 
• Consider eliminating marketing expenses that are not providing a positive ROI (return on investment). Of course, there may be other reasons to invest marketing dollars, such as supporting your community, but if you’re spending a lot of money on a particular marketing or sales strategy and not seeing results, it may be time to cut your losses.
• Evaluate your budget to determine how much you can spend to test new marketing strategies and enter new markets. There are more ways than ever to reach an audience, so consider placing small bets to find what works. 
• Investigate exporting. If there is an international market for your goods or services you may benefit from expertise and even financing through SBA programs and resource partners .

Accounting 

As they say, numbers don’t lie. Recognize that accounting isn’t important just for filing a tax return or making sure you pay the IRS or your state as little in taxes as possible. Whether you love working with numbers or hate it, what you learn by delving into the numbers will help you drive important decisions going forward. 

• Most important: make sure your bookkeeping is up to date. If you do it yourself but are constantly behind it may be well worth hiring a bookkeeper to keep your financial records up to date. Each month and at the end of the year you’ll want to be able to “close the books.” 
• Determine if you want to continue using the same accounting software next year. (QuickBooks is very popular but there are many accounting software programs small  business owners can consider.)
• Review financial statements including your income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and profit and loss statement. If the thought of this task makes your eyes glaze over, get help from your accounting pro or business mentor. 
• Run an accounts receivable aging report and determine what actions you may need to take to encourage slow paying customers or clients to catch up on paying you. Discounts for early payments or penalties for slow payments can both be effective. 
• Run an accounts payable report to determine whether your business is paying its obligations on time. Late repayments can hurt your business credit. 
• Set up a consultation with your CPA or tax preparer to review your financial reports, save on income taxes, and to discuss ways to improve your business finances. Don’t wait to have this conversation until tax time when they will be overwhelmed.

Most business owners would rather be doing something else in their business besides financial tasks. Most would probably rather spend time creating new products, selling, or even completing work for customers. But if you don’t pay close attention to your finances you’re probably wasting money. 

• Review the business credit cards you used this last year, and determine whether it’s time to shop around for a better deal.  
• Review your pricing strategy and consider raising prices/rates.
• Critique your business bank statements like a lender would , looking at your average monthly revenues, low balance days, and income sources, all of which may impact your ability to qualify for small business financing . 
• Evaluate your business bank account , including fees and benefits, to determine if it’s still the right fit. If you’re using a personal account for business, set up a business bank account. 
• Review business expenses to identify costs you can eliminate. Remember to ask yourself what kind of ROI you are getting on those expenditures. 
• Line up a line of credit if you don’t have one. Whether a crisis or opportunity comes along, or you decide to expand into another business line, you’ll be glad you have access to this essential type of short-term financing when you need it.
• Review your outstanding business loans to determine whether you can save money by refinancing business debt or through business debt consolidation . 
• Shop for new financing you’ll need in 2023. Shopping for a loan before you desperately need the funds will allow you to make better decisions. 
• Review contacts with vendors and suppliers; consider negotiating increased payment terms to improve cash flow. Or, when possible, take advantage of prompt pay discounts.
• Check your business and personal credit reports. Credit will play a factor in many financing decisions and good credit may help your business save money on insurance or open up other business opportunities. 

Get Personalized Loan Options For Your Business

Let our experts connect you to lenders based on your unique business data.

After living through the crisis of the pandemic, natural disasters across the country, and increased reports of cyber ransom attacks, most business owners are well aware of the need for business insurance . 

• Review your insurance coverage to make sure it still meets your business needs. 
• Consider shopping insurance for cost savings. 
• Discuss coverage with your insurance agent to eliminate coverage gaps. 
• Explore insurance to help your business survive a cyber attack or data breach.

End-of-Year Business Planning

As with any small business planning, try to start early. It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of the holiday season and then the new year, completely forgetting to take stock of what is working and what isn’t. By putting time for end-of-year planning on your calendar, you’ll likely fine-tune your goals and get yourself closer to hitting them in the coming year.

Don’t forget to use the resources available to you. Make sure your business details are up to date in Nav now so you can see accurate personalized business funding options and insights. You’ll also increase your chances of approval — business owners who use Nav are more likely to get approved for funding.

Finally, don’t forget to take time to recognize your accomplishments and those of your team. The fact that your business has survived this tumultuous year is reason enough to celebrate. Savor your successes and get ready for an even better year in 2023.

This article was originally written on November 5, 2021 and updated on February 17, 2023.

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Gerri Detweiler

Education Consultant, Nav

Known as a financing and credit expert, Gerri Detweiler has been interviewed in more than 4000 news stories, and answered over 10,000 credit and lending questions online. Her articles have been widely syndicated on sites such as MSN, Forbes, and MarketWatch. She is the author or coauthor of five books, including Finance Your Own Business: Get on the Financing Fast Track. She has testified before Congress on consumer credit legislation.

Have at it! We'd love to hear from you and encourage a lively discussion among our users. Please help us keep our site clean and protect yourself. Refrain from posting overtly promotional content, and avoid disclosing personal information such as bank account or phone numbers. Reviews Disclosure: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the credit card, financing and service companies that appear on this site. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card, financing and service companies and it is not their responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

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5 responses to “ Small Business End-of-Year Checklist & Planning ”

I can’t even get help to start my business right now but different countries get funded all the time not people that’s from there own country we have to have certain qualification just to get help which that’s not right, because I’m a citizen plus tax payer and I have to go threw rain,sleep, and storm just to receive a dollar from my own country smh.

Another great article from Gerri. It has lots of great information and lots of great links for a small business to check out. Glad that this article was available for my clients. I sent out to over 500 current and former clients to alert them of the article and how it could help them for 2012 and 2022.

Thank you for your kind words and for all you do to help small business owners!

Hello I’ve reviewed some business adv I ce regarding my business credit an income. Very helpful. I’m at the building credit part now an wanted to know. If there’s any other options that won’t effect my process. It will greatly appreciated. Open to make while I’m 2witing

I’m glad you’ve found it helpful. I’m not sure I fully understand your question but I think Nav’s Build Business Credit Checklist should help:

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Small Business Year-End Checklist

Susan Ward wrote about small businesses for The Balance for 18 years. She has run an IT consulting firm and designed and presented courses on how to promote small businesses.

What does the end of the fiscal year bring to your mind? Taxes! That's why for businesses, year-end is the perfect time to do your business planning for the following year. You're already dealing with the books, so why not do some analysis and make some decisions to ensure that your business prospers over the coming year? This year-end checklist for small businesses will help you get your income taxes in order and jump-start your business planning for the year.

1. Get Your Financial Books in Order

The difficulty of getting your books in order will depend on how organized you've been throughout the year. But whether you're one of those solo entrepreneurs with a glovebox full of receipts or an owner with a bookkeeper on payroll, you have to get this step done before you can do anything else. So get the help you need and get on with it. Hire a bookkeeper or an accountant if necessary.

2. Determine Your Position

The next step on your small business year-end checklist is to figure out where your business is now. There are three areas you need to examine:

Examine your financial documents and analyze ratios. First, you need to prepare (or have someone prepare for you) the standard three business financial documents that will be the basis of your decisions.

The balance sheet is a summary of how your business's financial position at any point in time. It shows all your assets, liabilities, and equity.

The income statement (aka the profit and loss statement) itemizes your revenue expenses for a period of time and lets you see at a glance whether your business is profitable.

The cash flow statement reconciles your opening cash with your closing cash for a particular period, showing you where the money has gone. To prepare a simple cash flow statement for a particular time (such as the year just past), list and summarize your business's cash flow inflows and outflows for each of these three areas:

• Cash flow from operating activities, such as revenues and expenses
• Cash flow from investing activities, such as assets purchased and assets sold
• Cash flow from financial activities, such as new loans taken, loan repayments made, and partner or shareholder investments or distributions

This will show you the net increase or decrease in your business's cash over that period and highlight at a glance where the money went.

Once you've examined your balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement, dig a little deeper by checking your business's current ratio, total debt ratio, and profit margin. This will give you a more focused picture of your financial health.

Evaluate your goals from last year. Now that you know where your business is, it's time to take a look at how it got here. Pull out your business plan and any other planning documents, such as last year's action plan, and review last year's goals .

Did your business accomplish what you set out to do? Why or why not? Make some notes about how you did this year. These will be handy when you do your business planning for the current year (step two below).

Evaluate your current tax strategies. There are tax strategies that companies in the U.S. and Canada can take to reduce the amount of income tax they pay, from income splitting to maximizing your business's depreciation claims.

Which of these tax strategies have you used, and how well did they work for you? Investigate different tax strategies that you haven't tried, such as changing your business structure to a corporation. Talk to a professional such as an accountant or tax lawyer to get advice about which tax strategies would be best for your personal and business circumstances.

2. Plan for the Coming Year

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, you're ready to do some business planning. That means that you are going to:

• Set next year's goals.
• Prepare an action plan or plans.
• Start implementing your action plans.

Before you set any goals , make sure you are setting ones that are going to help you accomplish what you want to accomplish. Your targets for the year should line up with your broader, long-term business objectives.

3. Prepare Your Tax Documents

You can turn over the required documents to an accountant or prepare your income tax yourself. There are key records your tax accountant will need to prepare your income tax. Using a cloud-based accounting software will streamline this process by allowing your accountant to directly access your business records online. If you're not aware of what the tax requirements are for small businesses in the U.S. or Canada , your accountant can help you sort it out.

That's It! You’re Done!

You know the cliché: Businesses that fail to plan, plan to fail. We all know how important business planning is, but it's easy to put off amid the press of daily events. This year-end checklist should inspire you to get to work—and make your planning a little easier. You might even feel energized for the next fiscal year.

How to Create a Profitable Annual Business Plan [+Free Template]

Published: February 09, 2023

The beginning of a new quarter is the perfect time to start planning the next year for your business. Start the next year or quarter off on the right foot by creating an annual business plan for your company.

Q4 often brings a flurry of business-related activity. And while all this activity helps fill the pipeline, it can distract you from reflecting on past performance and preparing for the year or quarter ahead.

Fortunately, you can write an annual business plan at any time of the year. Start your plan now to set your team up for success.

What is an annual business plan?

An annual business plan is just that — a plan for you and your employees to help achieve the company’s goals for the year. Think of an annual business plan as the guide to complete all of your company’s overall goals outlined in your initial business plan.

The first business plan you wrote for your business is the blueprint and the annual business plan is the detailed instructions to keep your business running long-term.

Usually, an annual business plan contains a short description of your company, a marketing analysis, and a sales/marketing plan.

Because an annual business plan is for the year, you’ll want to review your business at the end of four consecutive quarters and revise your plan for the next four quarters.

Why is annual business planning important?

Even though the fourth quarter might be a busy time of year, don’t put off creating an annual business plan.

Not only will your annual business plan keep you on track, it will also help you map out a strategy to keep your employees accountable. You can then more easily achieve the overall goals of your business.

Here are some reasons why it’s well worth creating an annual business plan for your company.

You can measure your success.

An annual business plan is the best way to measure your success. And I’m referring to the collective “you” here because it takes the entire company or all of your employees to make new business efforts effective.

An annual plan not only sets expectations for you but also for others within your company who need to contribute to the business’s success.

You can reflect on the past and plan ahead.

Creating an annual business plan allows you to reflect on the past 12 months.

As you reflect on the previous year, you’ll be able to get a good idea of what your business is capable of doing and set accurate, attainable projections based on previous numbers.

You’ll define your business goals.

Your annual business plan will shed some light on what the heck you do at your company. For those who are not routinely involved in new business, it can seem like a black hole of mystery.

Sharing your plan — whether to an executive committee, department heads, or even the entire staff — adds clarity and gives everyone something to aim for.

You can impress your boss.

If you head a department that could benefit from an annual business plan, don’t wait to be asked before you start writing. Get on your CEO’s schedule to review your outline and discuss your intentions for putting this plan together.

Sometimes the hardest part is getting started. You can get the ball rolling with the basic template that follows.

Annual Business Plan Template

Each section of your annual business plan will help tell the story of your company and clearly define your company’s goals for the year.

Let’s take a look at each section of the annual business plan template .

Executive Summary

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Business year-end planning tips

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Written by Intuit Accountants Team

• Modified Oct 17, 2023

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 greatly complicates tax filing and planning in the near future. While most small businesses will still benefit from the usual practices—accelerating and bunching deductions to minimize taxes while deferring income—higher-income businesses that expect increased revenue next year may find these strategies ineffective.

Generally speaking, these businesses can benefit from the opposite strategy: pulling 2023 income to be taxed at lower rates while deferring deductible expenses into 2024. Tax professionals should consider the following procedures:

Cash method accounting

More businesses are now allowed to use cash method accounting, rather than the accrual method, allowing for greater flexibility in accelerating or holding off payments. Any taxpayer can qualify as a small business if they satisfy a gross receipts test; however, for 2023, this requirement is satisfied if average annual gross receipts do not exceed $26 million over a three-year testing period. The benefits of being a cash basis taxpayer is that you only pay taxes on the money that you actually receive as income and actually pay out as expenses.

Accrual method accounting

On an accrual basis, you pay taxes on the money that is owed to you, whether you received it. On a similar note, you are able to get a deduction for amounts you are due to pay out.

There are some businesses that may benefit from the accrual method of accounting. Some circumstances where this could be applicable are businesses that do not have large accounts receivables, but could have large accounts payables. For example, restaurant clients do not have a large amount of accounts receivable because a majority of the income comes from customers who walk in the door on a daily basis. However, these clients will have a lot of bills they can defer to pay after the close of a tax year. They are also able to claim a tax deduction for when the bills are received.

You choose an accounting method when you file the initial tax return. If a change is to be made in the future, you must generally get IRS approval by filing Form 3115 , Application for Change in Accounting Method .

Expenditures and asset purchases

Businesses should consider purchasing certain items before the end of 2023, especially depreciable property that falls under Section 179 business property expensing. This includes computer software, interior renovation (but not enlargement), elevators, escalators, roofs, HVAC, fire protection, alarms, or security systems. Beginning in 2023, the Section 179 expensing limit is $1.16 million and the investment ceiling limit is $2.89 million. In addition, if machinery and equipment were purchased and placed in service this year, businesses can also claim an 80% first-year depreciation deduction.

The de minimis safe harbor election (or book-tax conformity election) can also be used to expense lower­ cost supplies or materials if they are not capitalized under UNICAP regulations . If you have an applicable financial statement (AFS) you may use a safe harbor to deduct amounts paid for tangible property up to $5,000 per invoice or item (as substantiated by invoice). Or if you don’t have an AFS, you may use the safe harbor to deduct amounts up to $2,500 per invoice or item. To claim the de minimis safe harbor election, you must attach a statement titled “Section 1.263(a)-1 (f) de minimis safe harbor election” to the timely filed original federal tax return, including extensions for the taxable year in which the de minimis amounts are paid.

Timing debt cancellation, NOLs, and disposition of passive activity

Depending on the proportion of income and losses between 2023 and 2024, corporations should employ strategic timing. For example, delaying debt-cancellation events until 2024 can reduce 2023 taxable income, while 2024 income can be accelerated to create smaller net income in 2023 in anticipation of a small net operating loss (NOL). This avoids taxation on 100% of increased income the following year.

The disposition of any passive activities and the resulting suspended losses-should also be timed properly. For example, 2023 income can be reduced by disposing of the passive activity before year-end. On the other hand, delaying the same disposition until 2024 can help offset potential top rate increases.

Editor’s note: Check out a similar article focusing on individual year-end planning tips .

Previous Post

Individual year-end planning tips.

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The Intuit® Accountants team provides ProConnect™ Tax, Lacerte® Tax, ProSeries® Tax, and add-on software and services to enable workflow for its customers. Visit us at https://proconnect.intuit.com, or follow us on Twitter @IntuitAccts. More from Intuit Accountants Team

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How To Create an Effective End of Year Business Review

“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.” ~Maya Angelou

With the end of 2019 rapidly approaching, business leaders have likely started to plan for the year ahead. But to know where you’re going, it’s important to look at where you’ve been.

It’s a fair assessment that entrepreneurs are naturally more prone to plan for their futures than to evaluate their pasts. Year-end business reviews allow them to jump-start the new year with solutions to prior issues and strategies for continued growth moving forward.

Think of an effective end of year business review as an executive summary for the entire year. What were the key takeaways? The presentation should include high-level information such as an evaluation of goals, achievements, rates of growth, obstacles and setbacks, future goals and financial data. While it might be easier to simply list all of the year-end parameters in a single, lengthy report, that type of presentation is unlikely to impress audiences — regardless of whether they're clients, employees, management or investors.

It goes without saying that the business review will be created for naught if nobody pays attention to it. Instead, it's important to create a visually appealing presentation to not only grab the audience's attention, but to retain it, too. Beautiful.ai’s PowerPoint alternative makes creating business presentations easy so they're always on-brand and professional. Themes can be customized with specific fonts and color palettes, as well as company logos, so each slide automatically mirrors the others.

Of course, even an impressive and cohesive visual presentation can bore audiences if it doesn't include valuable information. Traditional PowerPoint presentations filled to the brim with numbers, statistics and bullet points can put even interested audiences to sleep. So, avoid death by PowerPoint and make your annual business review “beautiful” by including the following key elements.

Download the free, customizable End of Year Business Review Template here.

Company Overview

A high-quality annual business review should feature an overarching summary reflecting the big picture for the company. The business summary might highlight the brand’s founder, co-founders, business leaders and other decision makers, while also summarizing the company’s product offerings, including any digital editions, intellectual property rights and international business ventures. This is also a good place to talk about the company's mission, values, and overall culture. It sets the stage (literally and figuratively) for the information to come later in the presentation.

2019 Business Goals

Before the year’s goals can be evaluated, audiences need to know what they were. The second portion of the year-end business review should summarize the year’s goals. The list of goals can be obtained from the prior year’s annual review (if that's available), but keep in mind they may have been modified or updated throughout the past 12 months. Explain what each goal was, and why it was chosen (its importance), before you dive in to the results.

Beautiful.ai’s presentation software makes creating a list of goals simple. Just add a common header to a carousel slide, and add each goal to its own sub-section.

Accomplishment of Goals

It's important to celebrate a company’s successes. Once you've mapped out what the year's goals were, you can talk about if and how you accomplished them. No annual business review could possibly be complete without featuring the year’s highlight reel. What goals were accomplished, and what were the missed opportunities, in the previous 12 months? What can be learned from the company’s successes?

Likewise, what challenges did the company face, and what can be learned from missed opportunities? To keep audiences engaged , we animated the bulleted lists, so the items automatically appear in succession.

We recommend trying our animated bullet points, or the timeline or diagram templates to tell your story. Simply enter your content and our Smart Slides will do the rest.

Key Performance Indicators and Results

Numbers tell a big part of a company’s story, and they are a vital piece of the annual business review puzzle. After all, how can anyone ascertain a company’s performance without analyzing some type of data? This is where key performance indicators (KPIs) and results come in to play.

Here you will present data on the company’s performance in the form of financial statements, rates of growth and retention, customer satisfaction metrics and any other data that supports the business' story over the past year. KPIs are an easy way to assess performance throughout the year, so you should know exactly where you stand when it comes time for the end of year review.

Creating infographics using Beautiful.ai’s templates makes data visualization simple. Just add your data into our Smart Slides and watch it automatically align into timelines, bar graphs, pie charts and much more. Not only will audiences stay more engaged, but the data will be more digestible.

Opportunities for Next Year

Once your annual business review has covered the company’s performance over the course of 2019, it’s time to start paving a pathway through 2020. A round-up of upcoming company goals is a key element to any actionable year-end review. Objectives from the prior year might remain in place, if they weren't met, or you may shift your goals based on accomplishments, failures, or changing market conditions.

By sharing your new objectives, you're holding your team accountable to work towards them. To that end, once you've defined your goals for the upcoming year, it's time to explain how you and your team plan to achieve them. Put your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

2020 Execution

It’s not enough to simply create a list of goals for the upcoming year. You must also share how those goals will be met. An effective end-of-year business review should include a plan of execution for the upcoming year. What processes will be put in place to meet next year’s goals? What budget will be allocated to implement these plans, what team members or resources are required, and what's the estimated timeline?

Of course, even the best-laid plans do tend to go awry. Part of planning the execution of goals is anticipating what obstacles might be encountered along the way, and planning how to overcome those hurdles should they occur. 

When using Beautiful.ai’s presentation software, there’s no reason a company’s business review should ever become just another cookie-cutter report. The end presentation will always be clean, concise and attractive to audiences regardless of your design skills.

Samantha Pratt Lile

Samantha is an independent journalist, editor, blogger and content manager. Examples of her published work can be found at sites including the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, and Buzzfeed.

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Year End Business Planning

 with year-end approaching, it is time to start thinking about moves that may help lower your business’s taxes for this year and next..

This year’s planning is more challenging than usual due to recent changes made by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the potential change in congressional balance of power resulting from the midterm elections.

 Whether or not tax increases become effective next year, the standard year-end approach of deferring income and accelerating deductions to minimize taxes will continue to produce the best results for most small businesses, as will the bunching of deductible expenses into this year or next to maximize their tax value.

 If proposed tax increases do pass, however, the highest income businesses and owners may find that the opposite strategies produce better results: Pulling income into 2022 to be taxed at currently lower rates, and deferring deductible expenses until 2023, when they can be taken to offset what would be higher-taxed income. This will require careful evaluation of all relevant factors.

 We have compiled a list of actions based on current tax rules that may help you save tax dollars if you act before year-end. Not all of them will apply to you or your business, but you may benefit from many of them. We can narrow down specific actions when we meet to tailor a particular plan for your business, In the meantime, please review the following list and contact us at your earliest convenience so that we can advise you on which tax-saving moves might be beneficial:

1.      Pass-Through Entity (PTE) Tax Elections: The TCJA introduced the state and local tax (SALT) cap, which restricted the amount of state and local taxes deductible by individuals to $10,000. Many states have begun adopting legislation that allows a PTE (S Corporations and Partnerships) to elect to pay state-level taxes at the company level and claim a federal deduction at the entity level rather than passing the tax liabilities to the pass-through owners. Depending on each state’s legislation, pass-through owners also may claim a credit against their resident state income taxes for their share of PTE tax paid by the business or exclude income that is subject to the PTE tax. Business owners should reach out to us to evaluate if they can benefit from the entity-level state tax elections.

2.      Taxpayers other than corporations may be entitled to a deduction of up to 20% of their qualified business income. For 2022, if taxable income exceeds $340,100 for a married couple filing jointly, (about half that for others), the deduction may be limited based on whether the taxpayer is engaged in a service-type trade or business (such as law, accounting, health, or consulting), the amount of W-2 wages paid by the business, and/or the unadjusted basis of qualified property (such as machinery and equipment) held by the business. The limitations are phased in; for example, the phase-in applies to joint filers with taxable income up to $100,000 above the threshold, and to other filers with taxable income up to $50,000 above their threshold.

3.      Taxpayers may be able to salvage some or all of this deduction, by deferring income or accelerating deductions to keep income under the dollar thresholds (or be subject to a smaller deduction phaseout) for 2022. Depending on their business model, taxpayers also may be able increase the deduction by increasing W-2 wages before year-end. The rules are quite complex, so don't make a move in this area without consulting us.

4.      More small businesses are able to use the cash (as opposed to accrual) method of accounting than were allowed to do so in earlier years. To qualify as a small business a taxpayer must, among other things, satisfy a gross receipts test, which is satisfied for 2022 if, during a three-year testing period, average annual gross receipts don't exceed $27 million (next year this dollar amount is estimated to increase to $29 million). Not that many years ago it was $1 million. Cash method taxpayers may find it a lot easier to shift income, for example by holding off billings till next year or by accelerating expenses, for example, paying bills early or by making certain prepayments.

5.      Businesses should consider making expenditures that qualify for the liberalized business property expensing option. For tax years beginning in 2022, the expensing limit is $1,080,000, and the investment ceiling limit is $2,700,000. Expensing is generally available for most depreciable property (other than buildings) and off-the-shelf computer software. It is also available for interior improvements to a building (but not for its enlargement), elevators or escalators, or the internal structural framework), for roofs, and for HVAC, fire protection, alarm, and security systems.

6.      The generous dollar ceilings mean that many small and medium sized businesses that make timely purchases will be able to currently deduct most if not all their outlays for machinery and equipment. What's more, the expensing deduction is not prorated for the time that the asset is in service during the year. So expensing eligible items acquired and placed in service in the last days of 2022, rather than at the beginning of 2023, can result in a full expensing deduction for 2022.

7.      Through 2022, a 100% bonus first year depreciation deduction is allowed for machinery and equipment bought used (with some exceptions) or new if purchased and placed in service this year, and for qualified improvement property, described above as related to the expensing deduction. The 100% write-off is permitted without any proration based on the length of time that an asset is in service during the tax year. As a result, the 100% bonus first-year write-off is available even if qualifying assets are in service for only a few days in 2022. Starting in 2023 this bonus depreciation decreases to 80%.

8.      Businesses may be able to take advantage of the de minimis safe harbor election (also known as the book-tax conformity election) to expense the costs of lower-cost assets and materials and supplies, assuming the costs aren’t required to be capitalized under the UNICAP rules. To qualify for the election, the cost of a unit of property can't exceed $5,000 if the taxpayer has an applicable financial statement (AFS, e.g., a certified audited financial statement along with an independent CPA's report). If there's no AFS, the cost of a unit of property can't exceed $2,500. Where the UNICAP rules aren't an issue, and where potentially increasing tax rates for 2023 aren’t a concern, consider purchasing qualifying items before the end of 2022.

9.      A corporation (other than a large corporation) that anticipates a small net operating loss (NOL) for 2022 (and substantial net income in 2023) may find it worthwhile to accelerate just enough of its 2023 income (or to defer just enough of its 2022 deductions) to create a small amount of net income for 2022. This allows the corporation to base its 2023 estimated tax installments on the relatively small amount of income shown on its 2022 return, rather than having to pay estimated taxes based on 100% of its much larger 2023 taxable income.

10.  Year-end bonuses can be timed for maximum tax effect by both cash- and accrual-basis employers. Cash-basis employers deduct bonuses in the year paid, so they can time the payment for maximum tax effect. Accrual-basis employers deduct bonuses in the accrual year, when all events related to them are established with reasonable certainty. However, the bonus must be paid within 2½ months after the end of the employer’s tax year for the deduction to be allowed in the earlier accrual year. Accrual employers looking to defer deductions to a higher-taxed future year should consider changing their bonus plans before year-end to set the payment date later than the 2.5-month window or change the bonus plan’s terms to make the bonus amount not determinable at year end.

11.  Employee retention credit (ERC) –– The ERC encouraged businesses to keep employees on their payroll during the pandemic. Although these credits relate to tax years 2020 and 2021, applying for these credits is still available. The IRS warned employers to be cautious of third parties taking improper positions related to ERC eligibility, as claiming the credit inaccurately can result in severe consequences. We can help you appropriately navigate the ERC.

12.  Losses and shareholder or partnership basis: A shareholder can deduct its pro rata share of S corporation losses only to the extent of the total of its basis in the S corporation stock and debt. This determination is made as of the end of the S corporation tax year in which the loss occurs. Any loss or deduction that can't be used on account of this limitation can be carried forward indefinitely. If a shareholder wants to claim a 2022 S corporation loss on its own 2022 return, but the loss exceeds the basis for its S corporation stock and debt, it can still claim the loss in full by lending the S corporation more money or by making a capital contribution by the end of the S corporation's tax year (in the case of a calendar year corporation, by December 31. Similarly, a partner's share of partnership losses is deductible only to the extent of their partnership basis as of the end of the partnership year in which the loss occurs. Basis can be increased by a capital contribution, or in some cases by the partnership itself borrowing money or by the partner taking on a larger share of the partnership's liabilities before the end of the partnership's tax year.

13.  The impact of the passive activity loss limitation rules must also be considered. Limited partners always have passive activity interests except to the extent IRS regs say otherwise. If an individual who is a limited partner meets the material participation test under the 500-hours-of-participation rule, the five-of-ten-years-of-material-participation rule, or the any-three-prior-year-material-participation rule for a personal service activity, the partner is treated as materially participating in any activity of the limited partnership. This will affect the application of the passive activity rules to their share of any income, gain, loss, deduction, or credit attributable to the limited partnership interest and to any gain or loss from the activity recognized on the sale or exchange of the interest.

These are just some of the year-end steps that can be taken to save taxes. Every business is different, however, and planning more specifically for the year-end is almost always worth the financial cost of doing so. Again, by contacting us, we can tailor a particular plan that will work best for you. 

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Help Your Business Finish Strong with These 10 Year-End Tasks

Dec 1, 2023.

As we plan for the new year, it’s an ideal time for business owners to focus on wrapping up the year effectively. While the charm of holiday festivities – from savoring turkey dinners to enjoying cozy fireside gatherings – is undeniable, focusing on year-end business tasks is crucial for ensuring a seamless and successful transition into the new year.

By strategically tackling these ten key year-end activities, you’re positioning your business for growth in the coming year and proactively safeguarding against potential challenges that may arise in the future:

• Review financial reports. Where does your business stand today relative to the goals you set at the beginning of the year? Did revenue and profit grow beyond what you’ve seen in previous years? Review your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement so you can compare real numbers to your perceptions of how things went.
• Assess cash flow trends and patterns. Look for trends, paying particular attention to those you didn’t anticipate. Can you increase cash flow by minimizing unnecessary expenditures, or should you consider shifting the timing of certain necessary expenses?
• Evaluate the company’s performance and set goals. How well did the business meet its objectives for the year? In addition to overall growth, revenue, and profitability, consider individual achievements. Award bonuses and raises as appropriate, then set goals for next year. Do the numbers support additional business investments or new hires?
• Reconcile accounts receivable and collect on past-due accounts. Try to collect on outstanding receivables before the end of the year, especially those in arrears. Identify any past-due amounts that may be uncollectable and decide how to proceed.
• Gather tax documents now. Begin collecting records now that you’ll need when filing this year’s tax return. Find receipts for deductible expenses, taxes paid, and other relevant documentation.
• Gauge tax liabilities and consider optional year-end deductible expenditures. A preliminary look at the company’s tax picture for the year can be invaluable to help you make short-term financial decisions. Should you make purchases now or wait a few months to claim the deduction next year? Is it better to delay revenue where you can?
• Do a December data cleanup. Check backups for corrupt data, review records for missing information, and verify that file naming conventions are consistent. Tidy up paper and digital files to keep them well organized.
• Update payroll and benefits records as well as vendor data. While you’re spiffing up your data, remember to correct any staff and vendor contact information that has changed during the year. Ensure records of payments to employees, contractors, and vendors are complete and accurate, so your year-end reporting delivers the right information to the right people and places.
• Align inventory records and replenish supplies. Check inventory against your records and update, finding explanations for any discrepancies you uncover. Then take a look at office supplies and other products the company uses. Stop storing (and ordering!) any unneeded items. (Extra toner for the printer that was replaced last January, anyone?)
• Give your company’s website and communication tools a checkup. Make sure you’re starting the year with the right information on all types of communication tools: website, social media profiles, business cards, even the recorded messages on phones and autogenerated email responses. Fix any broken links you find and update names, titles, addresses, phone numbers, and responses as needed to make everything current.

Collaborate for Business Success

If you’ve been keeping up with the business “housekeeping” throughout the year, then checking off everything on this list probably won’t feel too burdensome. If it proves more of a hassle than you had hoped, however, that may be a sign you need a different approach.

Consider options like outsourced accounting and IT services to optimize business processes and gain access to reliable, real-time data. You’ll also free up additional time for leaders to work on high-level tasks rather than spending hours on routine chores that don’t yield great results.

Contact your CRI business advisors to learn more ways to build value in your business and supercharge your efficiency next year.

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Year-End Business Planning: Now is the Time

In the recent article, Plan Year-End Business Tax Strategies Now , I described a few year-end tax-planning strategies that could help you save money on your 2017 tax bill when you file your return next spring. But tax planning isn’t the only kind of planning you should be doing now.

This is also a good time to conduct overall year-end business and strategic planning exercises. Your goal should be to tie a bow on 2017 and make sure you finish the year strong while laying a solid foundation for a profitable and successful 2018.

Take a Look Back

Start by looking back at this year. What were your main priorities and goals for 2017 back in January? (You did set some business goals for the year, didn’t you?) Did you accomplish them? If so, recognize and celebrate your accomplishments with your managers and staff. If you didn’t, try to determine why you fell short and what you can do next year to overcome these roadblocks and limitations.

Also look for opportunities to finish this year with a strong closing kick. For example, can you close a new deal or two before the end of the year to boost year-end revenue or provide a jumpstart for next year? Or can you invest in some new technology or equipment that will give you a leg up on the competition? As I discussed in my last article, your business can expense and deduct up to $500,000 in qualifying fixed assets and equipment that are purchased and placed in service before December 31, 2017.

If you had a successful year in 2017, how will you reward your hard-working employees who helped make it happen? Consider creating a bonus or profit-sharing plan to share the wealth, or perhaps making an additional contribution to your employees’ retirement accounts. In addition to rewarding employees for a job will done, these moves could also help your business save taxes.

Manage Your Risk

Events in 2017 reiterated the importance of risk management for mid-sized businesses. Countless businesses suffered severe and sometimes catastrophic damage due to the rash of natural disasters that struck the U.S. this year — from the wildfires that ravaged large portions of our state to the multiple Category 4 hurricanes that swamped the Gulf Coast and East Coast states.

Plan to meet with your insurance broker to review your existing coverage and determine whether or not it’s adequate for the unique risks that your business faces. These may include not only natural disasters, but also risks like cybercrime and the theft of sensitive customer information. Once again, data breaches at some of the largest corporations in America dominated the headlines in 2017 — with none bigger than the massive breach at Equifax. Consider adding cybersecurity protection to your business insurance policy, along with business interruption coverage for any downtime you might experience due to a natural or manmade disaster.

Readdress Your Business Plan

Now is a great time to give your business plan a critical look and see if it needs to be updated to reflect changes in your business and your industry since it was first drafted. A business plan should be a living, breathing document — not something that’s stored on a shelf and forgotten about. For example, has your business plan been updated to reflect:

§   Your new goals and objectives?

§   Any new competitors that have entered the market?

§   New products and services your company now offers?

§   Your expanded workforce?

§   New technologies that have impacted your industry?

Make it a practice to reexamine and update as necessary your business plan on a regular basis going forward. Depending on how dynamic and fluid your business and industry are, this might need to happen as often as every few months, or maybe just once a year. Discuss this with your management team and decide what’s best for your organization.

Update Your Forecasts & Budget

This is one of the most important year-end tasks for any business, since sales and profit forecasts form the backbone of your financial plan. If you still rely on traditional annual forecasting and budgeting, consider switching to rolling quarterly forecasts instead. This method of forecasting provides much more flexibility than rigid annual forecasting, enabling your to change your forecasts each quarter based on what’s actually happening in your business and industry.

Concluding Thoughts

In addition to year-end tax planning, you should also make time now for overall year-end business and strategic planning. Your goal should be to tie a bow on 2017 and make sure you finish the year strong while laying a solid foundation for a profitable and successful 2018. A CFO services professional can help you conduct year-end business planning exercises for your business.

© 2011-2024 CFO Edge, LLC - This article is only for general information and should not be used in lieu of professional advice.

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Japan's Nippon Steel sticks to plan to close U.S. Steel deal by year-end

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Social Security projected to cut benefits in 2035 barring a fix

By Aimee Picchi

Edited By Alain Sherter

Updated on: May 7, 2024 / 11:28 AM EDT / CBS News

The timeline to replenish Social Security is being extended. The federal retirement program said Monday it may not need to cut benefits until 2035, one year later than previously forecast, because of stronger performance by the U.S. 

The new projection, from the Social Security Board of Trustees' annual report,  amounts to "good news" for the program's 70 million beneficiaries, said Martin O'Malley, Commissioner of Social Security, in a statement. Even so, he urged Congress to take steps to shore up the program to ensure it can pay full benefits "into the foreseeable future."

Social Security relies on its trust funds to provide monthly checks to beneficiaries, with the funds primarily financed through the payroll taxes that workers and businesses provide with each paycheck. But the funds' reserves are drawing down because spending is outpacing income, partly due to the wave of baby boomer retirements and an aging U.S. population. 

Experts underscore that if the trust funds are depleted, benefits won't suddenly disappear. Instead, Social Security beneficiaries will face a cut to their monthly checks, with the agency on Monday projecting that recipients would lose 17% of their current benefits.

That would be painful for millions of retired and disabled Americans, but it represents a modest improvement from last year, when the Social Security Administration projected that benefits could be slashed by 23% if the trust funds reached the point of depletion.

Advocates for older Americans praised the improved outlook, while pressing Congress to take action on shoring up the program. 

"Congress owes it to the American people to reach a bipartisan solution, ensuring people's hard-earned Social Security benefits will be there in full for the decades ahead," AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins said in a statement. "The stakes are simply too high to do nothing."

Lawmakers have yet to take action despite being aware of the looming funding crisis, noted Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank that focuses on the federal fiscal policies, in a statement.

"Every year we get closer to the deadline, we seem to get further away from the solutions," she said. Without a fix, "Social Security's retirement trust fund will be insolvent when today's 58-year-olds reach the normal retirement age and today's youngest retirees turn 71."

Economic boost

O'Malley attributed the improved Social Security forecast to the stronger economy, pointing to what he called "impressive wage growth, historic job creation, and a steady, low unemployment rate." In other words, a healthy job market is resulting in more Social Security taxes going into the funds' coffers.

The report comes as Social Security's financial outlook has become a political lightning rod, with Republicans proposing that the retirement age be raised — effectively cutting benefits for millions of current workers — and former President Donald Trump indicating he would be open to cuts to Social Security and Medicare. 

Democrats argue that there are other ways to fix the program without cutting benefits, such as raising the cap on payroll taxes. Currently, individual income over $168,600 is exempt from the Social Security payroll tax. 

Medicare's "go broke" date

Meanwhile, Medicare's go-broke date for its hospital insurance trust fund was pushed back five years to 2036 in the latest report, thanks in part to higher payroll tax income and lower-than-projected expenses. Medicare is the federal government's health insurance program that covers people age 65 and older and those with severe disabilities or illnesses. It covered more than 66 million people last year, with most being 65 and older.

Once the fund's reserves become depleted, Medicare would be able to cover only 89% of costs for patients' hospital visits, hospice care and nursing home stays or home health care that follow hospital visits.

In a statement on Monday, President Joe Biden credited his administration's economic policies for Social Security and Medicare's stronger outlook. 

"Since I took office, my economic plan and strong recovery from the pandemic have helped extend Medicare solvency by a decade, with today's report showing a full five years of additional solvency," he said. "I am committed to extending Social Security solvency by asking the highest-income Americans to pay their fair share without cutting benefits or privatizing Social Security."

—With reporting by the Associated Press.

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Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.

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4 Key Takeaways From Disney's Earnings Call

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UPDATE—May 7, 2024: This article has been updated to reflect additional information about Disney's outlook and more recent share price values.

After Disney ( DIS ) reported a net loss for its fiscal second quarter despite returning a surprise profit in its direct-to-consumer entertainment segment and gave weak guidance for the third quarter, CEO Bob Iger and other executives joined the company's earnings call to discuss its streaming segment, expectations around ESPN+, the company's plans around Iger's succession, and Disney's parks strength as well as cruise business opportunities.

Disney+ and Hulu Return Surprise Profit, With Combined Streaming Businesses To Be Profitable by Fiscal Year End

Iger highlighted in the call that the entertainment portion of the company's streaming business "achieved an important milestone" of profitability in the quarter.

Disney reported an operating profit of $47 million in its direct-to-consumer entertainment segment, which consists of Disney+ and Hulu, compared to a $587 million loss in the year-ago period. As a whole, its streaming businesses including the ESPN+ Sports segment returned an $18 million loss, narrowing significantly from the $659 loss recorded in the same period a year prior.

However, Iger noted that the company is "anticipating a softer third quarter, due in large part to the seasonality of our Indian sports offerings." Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said that Disney doesn't expect to see core Disney+ subscriber growth in the third quarter, but anticipates subscriber growth will return in the fourth quarter.

Iger reiterated that the combined streaming businesses are still on track to return a profit by the end of the 2024 fiscal year.

Iger Says He's 'Very Bullish' on ESPN Integration

When asked about Disney's sports push, with Disney set to add some live games and studio shows from ESPN to Disney+ by the end of 2024, Iger said he feels "very bullish about it."

Iger said the company has "locked up long-term deals with significant sports organizations that includes college football championships, all the NCAA championships, and the NFL." He also said he's optimistic that Disney is "going to end up with an NBA deal that will be long term."

"There's really nothing like ESPN in the sports world and their hand is solid for the next decade," he said.

Disney Taking Steps To Plan for Iger's Succession

When asked about the company's plans to appoint a successor for Iger, he said that "the board is heavily engaged in the process and has appointed a succession planning committee that is meeting on a regular basis to not just discuss but also to manage the process."

"I'm confident that they will choose the right person at the right time and that to the extent that I can [I] will participate in the smooth transition," Iger said.

Iger, who is 73 years old, was reappointed to serve as CEO in 2022 after previously holding the role from 2005 to 2020. Disney's leadership has faced recent challenges from activist investors, but managed to stave them off so far, resolving its  latest proxy battle at its most recent shareholder meeting .

Parks Strength Drives Earnings, With a Focus on Cruise Business

Iger reported that Disney's second-quarter results were driven in large part by its experiences segment as well as the streaming business.

Johnston said operating income for Disney's parks and experiences increased by 13% year-over-year, with strong international parks growth driven by the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, while Walt Disney World and the cruise business both contributed to domestic growth at Disneyland.

He noted that the company is "seeing some evidence of a global moderation from peak post-Covid travel" and pressure from wages, though he added that "there are lots of opportunities to continue to grow attendance, both domestically and internationally," specifically in the cruise business.

The cruise business "has an enormous number of opportunities" the CFO said, adding that "that is why [the company is] leaning more heavily into that business" and "expect[s] to get excellent returns."

Disney shares closed 9.5% lower at $105.39 Tuesday. However, even with Tuesday's losses, shares have gained over 16% since the start of the year.

The Walt Disney Company. " Disney’s Q2 FY24 Earnings Results Webcast ."

The Walt Disney Company. " THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY REPORTS SECOND QUARTER AND SIX MONTHS EARNINGS FOR FISCAL 2024 ."

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Money latest: Sainsbury's running Nectar points scheme; chocolate is a superfood - if you buy these bars

Our cost of living specialist is back with a money-saving tip for using the internet abroad. Read all today's personal finance and consumer news - and listen to the latest Ian King Business podcast below.

Friday 10 May 2024 16:04, UK

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Rishi Sunak has told Sky News that the UK exiting recession shows the economy has "turned a corner". 

He told our economics editor Ed Conway : "I am pleased that while there's more work to do, today's figures show that the economy now has real momentum, and I'm confident that with time, people will start to feel the benefits of that.

"We've had multiple months now where wages are rising, energy bills have fallen, mortgage rates are down and taxes are being cut... I'm pleased with the progress that we're making."

Mr Sunak added: "I am confident the economy is getting healthier every week."

Lidl will increase staff wages for the third time in 12 months, the supermarket has announced. 

Shop workers in London will get £13.65, up from £13.55, while staff elsewhere will get a rise from a minimum £12 to £12.40 - at a cost of £2.5m to Lidl.

The supermarket invested £37m in pay increases in March, on top of £8m in September - a total of more than £50m in the past 12 months. 

The increase comes into effect from 1 June. 

Lidl GB chief executive Ryan McDonnell said: "As we continue to expand, we are welcoming more customers and attracting more colleagues into the business every day.

"It's absolutely right, therefore, that we continue to offer industry-leading pay."

Tech giant Apple has apologised after an advert for its new iPad model prompted outrage.  

The ad promoting the thinnest-ever iPad shows creative tools including cameras, books, paint cans and musical instruments being crushed in an industrial press.

But many, including celebrities like Hugh Grant, decried the crushing of artistic objects.

In a statement released to Ad Age, Tor Myhren, Apple's vice president of marketing communications, said: "Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it's incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world.

"Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry."

By Daniel Binns, business reporter

The FTSE 100 has been propelled to another record high this morning after official figures showed that the UK is now out of recession.

The index, of the London Stock Exchange's 100 most valuable companies, is up more than 0.5% and hit an intraday (during the day) high of 8,433 points earlier.

The score is based on a calculation of the total value of the shares on the index.

It comes after officials revealed that gross domestic product (GDP) in the UK grew by a better-than-expected 0.6% during the first three months of the year. 

However, commentators said investors had been buoyed more by the rising cost of metals, along with suggestions from the Bank of England yesterday that interest rates could be cut soon . 

Russ Mould, from investment platform AJ Bell, said: "Given its international horizons, this has little to do with the UK's better-than-expected GDP growth and is largely being driven by strength in the resources space where higher metals prices and the promise of M&A [mergers and acquisitions] are helping to stoke share prices.

"The next key test of the index's new-found vim and vigour will likely come next week in the form of US inflation figures. Investors have broadly accepted rate cuts won't be as deep or come as soon as would have been anticipated at the start of the year. However, any signs inflation is proving much more stubborn than predicted would still represent a shock to the system for financial markets."

Among the movers on Friday is UK-based mining firm Anglo American. 

Its shares are up almost 2% after reports that industry giant Rio Tinto has been considering a multibillion-pound takeover of the firm. It comes after Anglo American rejected a bid from rival BHP.  

Meanwhile, shares in Vodafone are up more than 2% after the government conditionally approved its plans to merge with fellow mobile operator Three. However, an investigation into the deal by the UK's competition watchdog is still ongoing, meaning it’s not a done deal yet. 

On the flip side, property listings website Rightmove is down nearly 6% this morning. It comes after the company cut its advertising revenue growth estimates in a trading update.

Rightmove said higher mortgage rates and lengthier completion times for sales were likely to weigh on buyer sentiment in the coming months, but it also forecast a better year for the UK residential market as a whole.

On the currency markets, £1 buys $1.25 US or €1.16.

Sainsbury's is running a scheme that allows some shoppers to earn easy Nectar card points. 

To earn extra points, shoppers just need to spend £1 across multiple transactions at Sainsbury's this month. 

The supermarket says the scheme is available to "millions" of customers, though all it would say about the eligibility criteria is that it's "based on a range of factors".

Check if you're eligible

Log into your nectar card app and check to see if you have this message...   

Make sure you opt in once you see the message. 

From there, you simply need to spend £1 or more five times - earning extra points each time. 

The number of bonus points on offer varies for each customer.

The offer runs until 4 June. 

Britain is not just out of recession. 

It is out of recession with a bang.

The economic growth reported this morning by the Office for National Statistics is not just faster than most economists expected, it's also the fastest growth we've seen since the tailend of the pandemic, when the UK was bouncing back from lockdown.

But, more than that, there are three other facts that the prime minister and chancellor will be gleeful about (and you can expect them to be talking about this number for a long time).

First, it's not just that the economy is now growing again after two quarters of contraction - that was the recession. 

An economic growth rate of 0.6% is near enough to what economists used to call "trend growth", back before the crisis - in other words, it's the kind of number that signifies the economy growing at more or less "normal" rates. 

And normality is precisely the thing the government wants us to believe we've returned to.

Second, that 0.6% means the UK is, alongside Canada, the fastest-growing economy in the G7 (we've yet to hear from Japan, but economists expect its economy to contract in the first quarter).

Third, it's not just gross domestic product that's up. So too is gross domestic product per head - the number you get when you divide our national income by every person in the country. After seven years without any growth, GDP per head rose by 0.4% in the first quarter. 

And since GDP per head is a better yardstick for the "feelgood factor", perhaps this means people will finally start to feel better off.

But this is where the problems come in. 

Because while this latest set of GDP figures is undoubtedly positive, the numbers that came before are undoubtedly grim.

GDP per head is still considerably lower, in real terms, than it was in 2022, before Liz Truss's disastrous mini-budget, or for that matter lower than in early 2019.

Raising another question: when people think about the state of the economy ahead of the election (and obviously these new figures are likely to increase the speculation about the date of the election), do they put more weight on the years of economic disappointment or the bounce back after them?

Do they focus on the fact that we're now growing at decent whack or on the fact that their income per head is, in real terms, no higher today than it was five years ago?

These are the questions we will all be mulling in the coming months - as the next election approaches. One thing is for sure: this won't be the last time you hear about these GDP numbers.

The chancellor is speaking to Sky News after the welcome news that the UK has exited a recession. 

"It's encouraging that the UK economy is growing faster over the last quarter, not just than France, Germany or Italy, but actually faster than the United States," Jeremy Hunt says.

"But I think what's more encouraging is the longer-term data that we are now seeing about the economy."

He praises the government's handling of the economy. 

"I think that for families who've been having a really tough time, this is an indication that difficult decisions that we've taken over recent years are beginning to pay off and we need to stick with them."

He nods to the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey's comments yesterday that inflation is expected to fall to 2% in the coming months: "So we're seeing that inflation is falling faster and I think people recognise it's been a very, very challenging period."

He's then asked whether the UK can compete with the US's economy in the coming years. 

Mr Hunt says he wants the UK to become "the new Silicon Valley" as a route into the tech sector. 

"Tech is the sector that is growing the fastest and will continue to grow the fastest," he says. 

Finally, he's asked when national insurance will be abolished - a recent Tory pledge. 

"We haven't set a date... we'll only do it when it's affordable and when we can do so without impacting on public services."

Our economics editor Ed Conway   is giving his first reaction to the ONS statistics that show the UK is no longer in recession. 

"These are great numbers," he says. 

"Certainly in the context of things, they are close to what we would normally historically call trend growth - a good rate of growth - and that's going back a long time. 

"They're better than expected... this is definitely some good news."

The UK economy is no longer in recession, according to official figures.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics said.

A recession, which is defined as two consecutive three-month periods where the economy contracts, was declared in February.

The previous set of figures showed that GDP, a major measure of economic growth, shrank 0.3% between October and December. It followed a contraction of 0.1% in the three months from July to September.

The slump was blamed on reduced consumer spending power as inflation and energy bills stayed high. Months of wet weather also contributed to keeping shoppers at home, commentators said.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, was buoyant about the figures: "It has been a difficult few years, but today's growth figures are proof that the economy is returning to full health for the first time since the pandemic." 

By Megan Harwood-Baynes , cost of living specialist

When my plane touched down on the runway of Manila airport, I was welcomed to the country with a text. Coming from Sky Mobile, the message informed me that using my phone abroad would incur hefty charges - including £2.16 for every megabyte (MB) of data I used.

One MB is equivalent to a short WhatsApp voice note message, and given my average monthly data allowance is 20GB (20,000MB), I would be quickly bankrupted if I continued to use my phone as normal. And while I love switching off from work while I am away, for me, the internet is as much a holiday essential as toothpaste and a hairbrush. 

From the ability to check Google Maps when out and about, or do a quick search to check I am not being scammed, it is now something I always factor into my holiday budget.

Welcome to the world of eSims

An eSim is an industry-standard digital SIM card that allows you to activate a mobile plan on your phone without the need to install a physical SIM into your phone.

TLDR - it means you can activate a short, temporary internet plan while on holiday for a fraction of the price it would cost you through your network provider.

I used an app called Global Yo (other providers are available, but this is the one I used), which has 24-hour plans from as little as 99c (71p) for 1GB. 

Once downloaded from the App Store, you can scroll through the list of countries to select your destination. Select the plan you want - while in the Philippines, I paid around £7 for a weekly plan that would give me 5GB of data. It is cheaper to do it day by day, but that also means you have to remember to top up each morning.

Once purchased, you are sent a QR code to scan - this will help you install the eSIM. The process varies by phone, but once installed, you go into the SIM manager settings on your phone. You can then toggle the settings so your calls and texts come via SIM 1 (your primary phone number), but mobile data uses the eSIM. This means you won't miss any vital text messages that come through to your phone number while on holiday.

The downsides

Not every network, or mobile phone, supports eSIMS, so check with your network provider before you shell out, and make sure your phone is unlocked. My sister, who lives in Hong Kong, wasn't able to install the eSIM on her phone but only realised this after paying £7.99 for a week's worth of data. 

We also had some difficulty installing it on my mum's iPhone, but that could be because we are all Android users.

You also have to be connected to WiFi /the internet to install the eSIM in the first place, so make sure you do it while at your hotel in the morning. A few times while I was paying each day I would forget this, head out and be without internet for the day. 

This wasn't exactly a hardship, but did mean I couldn't share with my Instagram followers what a great time I was having.

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Japan’s Nippon Steel sticking to plan to close U.S. Steel deal by year-end

Japan’s top steel maker, Nippon Steel, is sticking to its plan to close a deal by year-end to buy U.S. Steel, which it expects to boost output and profits, the company said on Thursday, despite resistance to the transaction in the U.S.

In December, Nippon Steel offered nearly $15-billion to take over iconic U.S. Steel, drawing resistance from both President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, his likely challenger in the Nov. 5 election, as well as the United Steelworkers (USW) union.

“U.S. Steel products will remain mined, melted and made in America and will continue supplying further sophisticated steel products to American industry,” Nippon Steel said.

It reiterated its latest guidance to close the deal by year-end, pending U.S. approvals.

This month, Nippon Steel moved the deadline from end-September after the U.S. Department of Justice sought more details and materials in an antitrust review. The European Commission has already approved the deal .

The takeover should bring Nippon Steel’s global crude steel capacity to 86 million tons per year, close to its goal of 100 million, and to boost underlying business profit to 1 trillion yen after March 2025 from 935 billion yen last year.

To win support from the USW, Nippon Steel has pledged to move its U.S. headquarters to Pittsburgh, where U.S. Steel is based, offering specific commitments on job security and additional investments if the deal goes through.

Takahiro Mori, Nippon Steel’s vice chairman and key negotiator on the takeover, told a briefing that thanks to the deal, the U.S. company will grow, adding jobs and profits.

“Nothing has changed in our strong determination to close the deal at the earliest possible,” Mori said, adding that ‘politics is apparently affecting’ delay in the USW’s approval.

U.S. Steel is based in the swing state of Pennsylvania, key for both candidates. “It has already become a political issue and will not become a political issue any further,” Mori said.

As U.S. Steel shareholders have already approved the deal, other contenders cannot buy the company, he added.

Last year, U.S. Steel rejected a $7.3-billion offer from rival steel maker Cleveland-Cliffs, whose chief executive Lourenco Goncalves continued to criticize the deal.

Nippon Steel beat estimates on Thursday, but posted a decline of 20.8 per cent in net profit of 549.4 billion yen ($3.53-billion) for the year ended in March, because of losses on inactive facilities at home.

Nippon Steel had been expected to post a net profit of 464.6 billion yen, an LSEG poll of analysts showed.

Excluding the U.S. Steel deal, Nippon Steel forecasts a net profit of 300 billion yen for the year ending in March 2025, amid continuing losses on inactive facilities, while it expects domestic and overseas steel demand to stay low.

To redeem subordinated bonds issued in September 2019 and strengthen its financial position amid the proposed takeover, Nippon Steel plans to raise up to 250 billion yen via subordinated syndicated loans and public subordinated bonds.

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India's industrial output up 4.9% year-on-year in March

Economists had expected industrial output to rise 5.1%

India’s industrial output in March rose a weaker than expected 4.9 per cent year-on-year amid slower growth in mining activity, government data showed on Friday (May 10).

Economists polled by Reuters had expected industrial output to rise 5.1 per cent. Industrial output rose 1.9 per cent in the same month a year ago.

Industrial output growth for February was revised down to 5.6 per cent from 5.7 per cent.

Manufacturing output in March rose 5.2 per cent year-on-year, faster than 1.5 per cent in the same month the previous year.

Mining activity increased 1.2 per cent, compared with a 6.8 per cent rise in the same month a year earlier, the data showed.

Electricity generation in March was up 8.6 per cent, against a fall of 1.6 per cent in the corresponding month a year earlier.

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Industrial output in the fiscal year that ended March was up 5.8 per cent, against a 5.2 per cent rise in the same period a year earlier.

Output of consumer durables, such as automobiles, fridges and washing machines, increased 9.5 per cent year-on-year in March against an 8 per cent fall in March 2023.

Consumer non-durables increased 4.9 per cent year on year, against a decline of 1.9 per cent in the same month last year.

Growth in consumer durables and non-durables should be sustained as the winter sown crop is expected to be good “and along with the wedding season should fuel spending in April and May,” said Madan Sabnavis, an economist at Bank of Baroda.

Production of infrastructure goods rose 6.9 per cent year-on-year against 7.2 per cent growth in the same month last year. Capital goods expanded at 6.1 per cent versus an 10 per cent increase a year ago. REUTERS

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A Plan to Remake the Middle East

While talks for a cease-fire between israel and hamas continue, another set of negotiations is happening behind the scenes..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

[MUSIC CONTINUES]

Today, if and when Israel and Hamas reach a deal for a ceasefire fire, the United States will immediately turn to a different set of negotiations over a grand diplomatic bargain that it believes could rebuild Gaza and remake the Middle East. My colleague Michael Crowley has been reporting on that plan and explains why those involved in it believe they have so little time left to get it done.

It’s Wednesday, May 8.

Michael, I want to start with what feels like a pretty dizzying set of developments in this conflict over the past few days. Just walk us through them?

Well, over the weekend, there was an intense round of negotiations in an effort, backed by the United States, to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

The latest ceasefire proposal would reportedly see as many as 33 Israeli hostages released in exchange for potentially hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

US officials were very eager to get this deal.

Pressure for a ceasefire has been building ahead of a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah.

Because Israel has been threatening a military offensive in the Southern Palestinian city of Rafah, where a huge number of people are crowded.

Fleeing the violence to the North. And now they’re packed into Rafah. Exposed and vulnerable, they need to be protected.

And the US says it would be a humanitarian catastrophe on top of the emergency that’s already underway.

Breaking news this hour — very important breaking news. An official Hamas source has told The BBC that it does accept a proposal for a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

And for a few hours on Monday, it looked like there might have been a major breakthrough when Hamas put out a statement saying that it had accepted a negotiating proposal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the ceasefire proposal does not meet his country’s requirements. But Netanyahu says he will send a delegation of mediators to continue those talks. Now, the terms —

But those hopes were dashed pretty quickly when the Israelis took a look at what Hamas was saying and said that it was not a proposal that they had agreed to. It had been modified.

And overnight —

Israeli troops stormed into Rafah. Video showing tanks crashing over a sign at the entrance of the city.

— the Israelis launched a partial invasion of Rafah.

It says Hamas used the area to launch a deadly attack on Israeli troops over the weekend.

And they have now secured a border crossing at the Southern end of Gaza and are conducting targeted strikes. This is not yet the full scale invasion that President Biden has adamantly warned Israel against undertaking, but it is an escalation by Israel.

So while all that drama might suggest that these talks are in big trouble, these talks are very much still alive and ongoing and there is still a possibility of a ceasefire deal.

And the reason that’s so important is not just to stop the fighting in Gaza and relieve the suffering there, but a ceasefire also opens the door to a grand diplomatic bargain, one that involves Israel and its Arab neighbors and the Palestinians, and would have very far-reaching implications.

And what is that grand bargain. Describe what you’re talking about?

Well, it’s incredibly ambitious. It would reshape Israel’s relationship with its Arab neighbors, principally Saudi Arabia. But it’s important to understand that this is a vision that has actually been around since well before October 7. This was a diplomatic project that President Biden had been investing in and negotiating actually in a very real and tangible way long before the Hamas attacks and the Gaza war.

And President Biden was looking to build on something that President Trump had done, which was a series of agreements that the Trump administration struck in which Israel and some of its Arab neighbors agreed to have normal diplomatic relations for the first time.

Right, they’re called the Abraham Accords.

That’s right. And, you know, Biden doesn’t like a lot of things, most things that Trump did. But he actually likes this, because the idea is that they contribute to stability and economic integration in the Middle East, the US likes Israel having friends and likes having a tight-knit alliance against Iran.

President Biden agrees with the Saudis and with the Israelis, that Iran is really the top threat to everybody here. So, how can you build on this? How can you expand it? Well, the next and biggest step would be normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

And the Saudis have made clear that they want to do this and that they’re ready to do this. They weren’t ready to do it in the Trump years. But Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, has made clear he wants to do it now.

So this kind of triangular deal began to take shape before October 7, in which the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia would enter this three way agreement in which everyone would get something that they wanted.

And just walk through what each side gets in this pre-October 7th version of these negotiations?

So for Israel, you get normalized ties with its most important Arab neighbor and really the country that sets the tone for the whole Muslim world, which is Saudi Arabia of course. It makes Israel feel safer and more secure. Again, it helps to build this alliance against Iran, which Israel considers its greatest threat, and it comes with benefits like economic ties and travel and tourism. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been very open, at least before October 7th, that this was his highest diplomatic and foreign policy priority.

For the Saudis, the rationale is similar when it comes to Israel. They think that it will bring stability. They like having a more explicitly close ally against Iran. There are economic and cultural benefits. Saudi Arabia is opening itself up in general, encouraging more tourism.

But I think that what’s most important to the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is what he can get from the United States. And what he has been asking for are a couple of essential things. One is a security agreement whose details have always been a little bit vague, but I think essentially come down to reliable arms supplies from the United States that are not going to be cut off or paused on a whim, as he felt happened when President Biden stopped arms deliveries in 2021 because of how Saudi was conducting its war in Yemen. The Saudis were furious about that.

Saudi Arabia also wants to start a domestic nuclear power program. They are planning for a very long-term future, possibly a post-oil future. And they need help getting a nuclear program off the ground.

And they want that from the US?

And they want that from the US.

Now, those are big asks from the us. But from the perspective of President Biden, there are some really enticing things about this possible agreement. One is that it will hopefully produce more stability in the region. Again, the US likes having a tight-knit alliance against Iran.

The US also wants to have a strong relationship with Saudi Arabia. You know, despite the anger at Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, the Biden administration recognizes that given the Saudis control over global oil production and their strategic importance in the Middle East, they need to have a good relationship with them. And the administration has been worried about the influence of China in the region and with the Saudis in particular.

So this is an opportunity for the US to draw the Saudis closer. Whatever our moral qualms might be about bin Salman and the Saudi government, this is an opportunity to bring the Saudis closer, which is something the Biden administration sees as a strategic benefit.

All three of these countries — big, disparate countries that normally don’t see eye-to-eye, this was a win-win-win on a military, economic, and strategic front.

That’s right. But there was one important actor in the region that did not see itself as winning, and that was the Palestinians.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

First, it’s important to understand that the Palestinians have always expected that the Arab countries in the Middle East would insist that Israel recognize a Palestinian state before those countries were willing to essentially make total peace and have normal relations with Israel.

So when the Abraham Accords happened in the Trump administration, the Palestinians felt like they’d been thrown under the bus because the Abraham Accords gave them virtually nothing. But the Palestinians did still hold out hope that Saudi Arabia would be their savior. And for years, Saudi Arabia has said that Israel must give the Palestinians a state if there’s going to be a normal relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Now the Palestinians see the Saudis in discussions with the US and Israel about a normalization agreement, and there appears to be very little on offer for the Palestinians. And they are feeling like they’re going to be left out in the cold here.

Right. And in the minds of the Palestinians, having already been essentially sold out by all their other Arab neighbors, the prospect that Saudi Arabia, of all countries, the most important Muslim Arab country in the region, would sell them out, had to be extremely painful.

It was a nightmare scenario for them. And in the minds of many analysts and US officials, this was a factor, one of many, in Hamas’s decision to stage the October 7th attacks.

Hamas, like other Palestinian leaders, was seeing the prospect that the Middle East was moving on and essentially, in their view, giving up on the Palestinian cause, and that Israel would be able to have friendly, normal relations with Arab countries around the region, and that it could continue with hardline policies toward the Palestinians and a refusal, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said publicly, to accept a Palestinian state.

Right. So Michael, once Hamas carries out the October 7th attacks in an effort to destroy a status quo that it thinks is leaving them less and less relevant, more and more hopeless, including potentially this prospect that Saudi Arabia is going to normalize relations with Israel, what happens to these pre-October 7th negotiations between the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel?

Well, I think there was a snap assumption that these talks were dead and buried. That they couldn’t possibly survive a cataclysm like this.

But then something surprising happened. It became clear that all the parties were still determined to pull-off the normalization.

And most surprisingly of all, perhaps, was the continued eagerness of Saudi Arabia, which publicly was professing outrage over the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks, but privately was still very much engaged in these conversations and trying to move them forward.

And in fact, what has happened is that the scope of this effort has grown substantially. October 7th didn’t kill these talks. It actually made them bigger, more complicated, and some people would argue, more important than ever.

We’ll be right back.

Michael, walk us through what exactly happens to these three-way negotiations after October 7th that ends up making them, as you just said, more complicated and more important than ever?

Well, it’s more important than ever because of the incredible need in Gaza. And it’s going to take a deal like this and the approval of Saudi Arabia to unlock the kind of massive reconstruction project required to essentially rebuild Gaza from the rubble. Saudi Arabia and its Arab friends are also going to be instrumental in figuring out how Gaza is governed, and they might even provide troops to help secure it. None of those things are going to happen without a deal like this.

Fascinating.

But this is all much more complicated now because the price for a deal like this has gone up.

And by price, you mean?

What Israel would have to give up. [MUSIC PLAYING]

From Saudi Arabia’s perspective, you have an Arab population that is furious at Israel. It now feels like a really hard time to do a normalization deal with the Israelis. It was never going to be easy, but this is about as bad a time to do it as there has been in a generation at least. And I think that President Biden and the people around him understand that the status quo between Israel and the Palestinians is intolerable and it is going to lead to chaos and violence indefinitely.

So now you have two of the three parties to this agreement, the Saudis and the Americans, basically asking a new price after October 7th, and saying to the Israelis, if we’re going to do this deal, it has to not only do something for the Palestinians, it has to do something really big. You have to commit to the creation of a Palestinian state. Now, I’ll be specific and say that what you hear the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, say is that the agreement has to include an irreversible time-bound path to a Palestinian state.

We don’t know exactly what that looks like, but it’s some kind of a firm commitment, the likes of which the world and certainly the Israelis have not made before.

Something that was very much not present in the pre-October 7th vision of this negotiation. So much so that, as we just talked about, the Palestinians were left feeling completely out in the cold and furious at it.

That’s right. There was no sign that people were thinking that ambitiously about the Palestinians in this deal before October 7th. And the Palestinians certainly felt like they weren’t going to get much out of it. And that has completely changed now.

So, Michael, once this big new dimension after October 7th, which is the insistence by Saudi Arabia and the US that there be a Palestinian state or a path to a Palestinian state, what is the reaction specifically from Israel, which is, of course, the third major party to this entire conversation?

Well, Israel, or at least its political leadership, hates it. You know, this is just an extremely tough sell in Israel. It would have been a tough sell before October 7th. It’s even harder now.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is completely unrepentantly open in saying that there’s not going to be a Palestinian state on his watch. He won’t accept it. He says that it’s a strategic risk to his country. He says that it would, in effect, reward Hamas.

His argument is that terrorism has forced a conversation about statehood onto the table that wasn’t there before October 7th. Sure, it’s always in the background. It’s a perennial issue in global affairs, but it was not something certainly that the US and Israel’s Arab neighbors were actively pushing. Netanyahu also has — you know, he governs with the support of very right-wing members of a political coalition that he has cobbled together. And that coalition is quite likely to fall apart if he does embrace a Palestinian state or a path to a Palestinian state.

Now, he might be able to cobble together some sort of alternative, but it creates a political crisis for him.

And finally, you know, I think in any conversation about Israel, it’s worth bearing in mind something you hear from senior US officials these days, which is that although there is often finger pointing at Netanyahu and a desire to blame Netanyahu as this obstructionist who won’t agree to deals, what they say is Netanyahu is largely reflecting his population and the political establishment of his country, not just the right-wingers in his coalition who are clearly extremist.

But actually the prevailing views of the Israeli public. And the Israeli public and their political leaders across the spectrum right now with few exceptions, are not interested in talking about a Palestinian state when there are still dozens and dozens of Israeli hostages in tunnels beneath Gaza.

So it very much looks like this giant agreement that once seemed doable before October 7th might be more important to everyone involved than ever, given that it’s a plan for rebuilding Gaza and potentially preventing future October 7th’s from happening, but because of this higher price that Israel would have to pay, which is the acceptance of a Palestinian state, it seems from everything you’re saying, that this is more and more out of reach than ever before and hard to imagine happening in the immediate future. So if the people negotiating it are being honest, Michael, are they ready to acknowledge that it doesn’t look like this is going to happen?

Well, not quite yet. As time goes by, they certainly say it’s getting harder and harder, but they’re still trying, and they still think there’s a chance. But both the Saudis and the Biden administration understand that there’s very little time left to do this.

Well, what do you mean there’s very little time left? It would seem like time might benefit this negotiation in that it might give Israel distance from October 7th to think potentially differently about a Palestinian state?

Potentially. But Saudi Arabia wants to get this deal done in the Biden administration because Mohammed bin Salman has concluded this has to be done under a Democratic president.

Because Democrats in Congress are going to be very reluctant to approve a security agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

It’s important to understand that if there is a security agreement, that’s something Congress is going to have to approve. And you’re just not going to get enough Democrats in Congress to support a deal with Saudi Arabia, who a lot of Democrats don’t like to begin with, because they see them as human rights abusers.

But if a Democratic president is asking them to do it, they’re much more likely to go along.

Right. So Saudi Arabia fears that if Biden loses and Trump is president, that those same Democrats would balk at this deal in a way that they wouldn’t if it were being negotiated under President Biden?

Exactly. Now, from President Biden’s perspective, politically, think about a president who’s running for re-election, who is presiding right now over chaos in the Middle East, who doesn’t seem to have good answers for the Israeli-Palestinian question, this is an opportunity for President Biden to deliver what could be at least what he would present as a diplomatic masterstroke that does multiple things at once, including creating a new pathway for Israel and the Palestinians to coexist, to break through the logjam, even as he is also improving Israel’s relations with Saudi Arabia.

So Biden and the Crown Prince hope that they can somehow persuade Bibi Netanyahu that in spite of all the reasons that he thinks this is a terrible idea, that this is a bet worth taking on Israel’s and the region’s long-term security and future?

That’s right. Now, no one has explained very clearly exactly how this is going to work, and it’s probably going to require artful diplomacy, possibly even a scenario where the Israelis would agree to something that maybe means one thing to them and means something else to other people. But Biden officials refuse to say that it’s hopeless and they refuse to essentially take Netanyahu’s preliminary no’s for an answer. And they still see some way that they can thread this incredibly narrow needle.

Michael, I’m curious about a constituency that we haven’t been talking about because they’re not at the table in these discussions that we are talking about here. And that would be Hamas. How does Hamas feel about the prospect of such a deal like this ever taking shape. Do they see it as any kind of a victory and vindication for what they did on October 7th?

So it’s hard to know exactly what Hamas’s leadership is thinking. I think they can feel two things. I think they can feel on the one hand, that they have established themselves as the champions of the Palestinian people who struck a blow against Israel and against a diplomatic process that was potentially going to leave the Palestinians out in the cold.

At the same time, Hamas has no interest in the kind of two-state solution that the US is trying to promote. They think Israel should be destroyed. They think the Palestinian state should cover the entire geography of what is now Israel, and they want to lead a state like that. And that’s not something that the US, Saudi Arabia, or anyone else is going to tolerate.

So what Hamas wants is to fight, to be the leader of the Palestinian people, and to destroy Israel. And they’re not interested in any sort of a peace process or statehood process.

It seems very clear from everything you’ve said here that neither Israel nor Hamas is ready to have the conversation about a grand bargain diplomatic program. And I wonder if that inevitably has any bearing on the ceasefire negotiations that are going on right now between the two of them that are supposed to bring this conflict to some sort of an end, even if it’s just temporary?

Because if, as you said, Michael, a ceasefire opens the door to this larger diplomatic solution, and these two players don’t necessarily want that larger diplomatic solution, doesn’t that inevitably impact their enthusiasm for even reaching a ceasefire?

Well, it certainly doesn’t help. You know, this is such a hellish problem. And of course, you first have the question of whether Israel and Hamas can make a deal on these immediate issues, including the hostages, Palestinian prisoners, and what the Israeli military is going to do, how long a ceasefire might last.

But on top of that, you have these much bigger diplomatic questions that are looming over them. And it’s not clear that either side is ready to turn and face those bigger questions.

So while for the Biden administration and for Saudi Arabia, this is a way out of this crisis, these larger diplomatic solutions, it’s not clear that it’s a conversation that the two parties that are actually at war here are prepared to start having.

Well, Michael, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

On Tuesday afternoon, under intense pressure from the US, delegations from Israel and Hamas arrived in Cairo to resume negotiations over a potential ceasefire. But in a statement, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that even with the talks underway, his government would, quote, “continue to wage war against Hamas.”

Here’s what else you need to know today. In a dramatic day of testimony, Stormy Daniels offered explicit details about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump that ultimately led to the hush money payment at the center of his trial. Daniels testified that Trump answered the door in pajamas, that he told her not to worry that he was married, and that he did not use a condom when they had sex.

That prompted lawyers for Trump to seek a mistrial based on what they called prejudicial testimony. But the judge in the case rejected that request. And,

We’ve seen a ferocious surge of anti-Semitism in America and around the world.

In a speech on Tuesday honoring victims of the Holocaust, President Biden condemned what he said was the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in the United States after the October 7th attacks on Israel. And he expressed worry that too many Americans were already forgetting the horrors of that attack.

The Jewish community, I want you to know I see your fear, your hurt, and your pain. Let me reassure you, as your president, you’re not alone. You belong. You always have and you always will.

Today’s episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Clare Toeniskoetter, and Rikki Novetsky. It was edited by Liz O. Baylen, contains original music by Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Dan Powell, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for The Daily. I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

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• May 8, 2024   •   28:28 A Plan to Remake the Middle East
• May 7, 2024   •   27:43 How Changing Ocean Temperatures Could Upend Life on Earth
• May 6, 2024   •   29:23 R.F.K. Jr.’s Battle to Get on the Ballot
• May 3, 2024   •   25:33 The Protesters and the President
• May 2, 2024   •   29:13 Biden Loosens Up on Weed
• May 1, 2024   •   35:16 The New Abortion Fight Before the Supreme Court
• April 30, 2024   •   27:40 The Secret Push That Could Ban TikTok
• April 29, 2024   •   47:53 Trump 2.0: What a Second Trump Presidency Would Bring
• April 26, 2024   •   21:50 Harvey Weinstein Conviction Thrown Out
• April 25, 2024   •   40:33 The Crackdown on Student Protesters

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Michael Crowley

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Clare Toeniskoetter and Rikki Novetsky

Edited by Liz O. Baylen

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Elisheba Ittoop and Dan Powell

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

If and when Israel and Hamas reach a deal for a cease-fire, the United States will immediately turn to a different set of negotiations over a grand diplomatic bargain that it believes could rebuild Gaza and remake the Middle East.

Michael Crowley, who covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times, explains why those involved in this plan believe they have so little time left to get it done.

On today’s episode

Michael Crowley , a reporter covering the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The New York Times.

Background reading :

Talks on a cease-fire in the Gaza war are once again at an uncertain stage .

Here’s how the push for a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia looked before Oct. 7 .

From early in the war, President Biden has said that a lasting resolution requires a “real” Palestinian state .

Here’s what Israeli officials are discussing about postwar Gaza.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state. More about Michael Crowley

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