@XR250: Can you even get insurance for less than $1mm covered amount? I don't think that asking for $1mm is predatory as much as just a practical minimum.
If its a $1.2mm project your liability should be way less than $1mm. We recently did some facade engineering for a $1bb airport terminal...
$1mm is still not that much insurance. Normally when I get asked for higher amounts its $5mm, and $1mm is the minimum I would have under any circumstances.
I have gotten project specific policies (aka "SJX's") in the past but lately have given up because they are approximately the same cost as...
@LittleInch: yes I think they make it hard to get your 5% back. Registering as an entity etc would probably mean 10's or hundreds of hours of admin slog.
Generally we do not charge for CAD files but if we were in a situation where we had very low fees I would certainly consider doing so. It may not cost you anything to send the files but there is value for the client and liability for the consultant, both of which in a capitalist economy warrant...
I am writing a proposal for a project in Kuwait and I believe there is a 5% tax retainage that my client will have to subtract from our invoices. Apparently you can get your 5% back if you get a letter from the Kuwait government (aka the "DIT"), but I don't know how that works exactly. Does...
@phamEng: I think what Brad is saying is that the overhead aspects of a consultancy can add up to more than you would think, which can be stressful for the partners. One of my favorite topics is actually diseconomies of scale in professional services. The bigger the firm the higher the overhead...
@Brad221: At my old firm back in the 2000's the overhead multiplier was around 125% of salary. It was a structural firm doing mostly public sector bridge design, so was heavily regulated by the state DOT's. They really crawled down your shorts to micromanage you about stuff like how much you can...
@benny12: As others have pointed out there is a wide range of multipliers, so you should try to figure out what the multiplier is at your specific firm. It probably varies a little between projects but there will be a typical value. Also at junior levels the multiplier can be wonky. The...
The key calculation is the relative stiffness of the cap vs the gasket. If your cap deflects by 0.02" when you screw it down, you are going to need a gasket that is able to take up that movement plus any substrate tolerance without generating too much stress. The dog bone youngs modulus of a 60A...
@mikek396: Beazley is one of carriers that has come up in discussions with my broker I believe in a positive way. I don't think they are admitted, but most of them are not. You can get around that to an extent by looking at their financial ratings.
phamEng is quoting from the Turbotax website, which I think is not correct. The IRS language is pretty clear that medical premiums are taxable at the personal level:
"Health and accident insurance premiums paid on behalf of a greater than 2-percent S corporation shareholder-employee are...
@phamEng, @SWComposites: I just spoke to my accountant - apparently the reason I cannot take the Self Employed Health Insurance deduction is because I am an employee of my S corp and not "self employed". I could reclassify myself as "self employed" but I would lose all the benefits of the S...
@SWComposites: You can apparently deduct Self Insured Health Insurance (SEHI) on Schedule 1 of your 1040, but my accountants have never thought I was eligible for some reason. You need to fill out IRS form F7206, which is a confusing form.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f7206.pdf...
@phamEng: Yes you are right about the Medicare portion being uncapped. Yes a senior engineer salary is not unreasonable in the case of a solo practitioner. Where on the internet did you find the median salaries? I have been told by my accountant that I need to pay myself more than my highest...
@LOTE: I did not know that the health premiums could count towards your reasonable compensation. Useful info!
@phamENG: shielding your "profits" from FICA is of minimal benefit because you still have to pay almost to the FICA cap with your "reasonable" W2 compensation. The biggest tax benefit...
@SWComposites: the language is a bit convoluted, but it says that medical premiums are added to W2 wages. They are not taxable for FICA but are for income tax. Medical premiums are deductible at the corporate level, but as an S corp that doesn't help much because you don't pay any federal or...
For the S corp owners out there: As you probably are aware, the owners' health insurance premiums pass through as taxable income on your personal 1040, which is a very expensive and unfair from a tax perspective. Is there a workaround for this? Going on a spouse's insurance would work, but I...
@dik: Are lien rights something you actually need to stipulate in the contract? I would imagine some contracts actually prohibit liens, so the point of proactively allowing them would be to clarify that it is within your rights to do so?
@Retrograde: yes, the Australian legislation is what I have in mind. If you only allow 15 days legally to question invoices, it really does cut a lot scuzzball behavior off. The other dynamic is that some lowball idiot comes back like a year plus later, having possibly forgotten about your...
