#compliance
Navigate regulatory compliance and maintain audit-ready financial records
Australia's Tranche 2 AML/CTF reforms made accountants, bookkeepers, and tax agents AUSTRAC reporting entities on July 1, 2026, with enrollment due by July 29. Here are the nine designated services that trigger the obligation, what the enrollment form requires, and the penalties for missing it — up to $36.4 million per contravention for a corporation.
Colorado repealed SB 24-205 and replaced it with SB 26-189, which regulates automated decision-making technology (ADMT) in hiring starting January 1, 2027. Employers over 40 employees must give pre-use notice, provide a 30-day adverse-action explanation with human review, and retain records for three years — enforced only by the Attorney General, with penalties up to $20,000 per violation.
California's SB 61 caps private-project retention at 5% for contracts signed on or after January 1, 2026, and New York's S5655 voids any retainage clause above 5% on covered private contracts of $150,000+ as of December 19, 2025. Here's what changed, the carve-outs, and how contractors should track retainage receivable in their books.
Roughly 42 U.S. states have passed or are advancing laws replacing the CPA 150-hour education rule with 120 hours plus experience — Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, Utah, and Iowa lead in 2026. Here's how the accountant shortage, new licensure pathways, and fractured license mobility affect who small businesses can hire.
A North Dakota truck stop sued to lower debit card swipe fees — and in August 2025 a federal court vacated Regulation II's 21-cent interchange cap entirely. Here's how the Corner Post case reached the Eighth Circuit, the three ways it could end, and how small businesses can prepare for fees moving in either direction.
Virginia's pay transparency law took effect July 1, 2026, and Maine's LD 54 follows on July 29, bringing active U.S. pay transparency jurisdictions to 20. Because the rules attach to where a remote candidate could work — not where your company is headquartered — a remote posting without a good-faith salary range can violate laws in states where you have no office. Here's what changed, why remote postings trigger multi-state obligations, and a practical compliance checklist.
Nineteen states raised their minimum wage on January 1, 2026 — Washington now leads at $17.13 an hour — and roughly 68 cities and counties set higher local rates. This guide lists every 2026 state rate, the mid-year changes in Florida and Oregon, new PFML payroll taxes in Maryland, Minnesota, and Delaware, and a seven-step checklist for keeping multi-state payroll compliant.
In 2026, Maryland, Connecticut, and New York enacted the first U.S. laws restricting surveillance pricing — algorithms that use personal data to charge individual customers different prices. Here's what each law bans, the loyalty-program and cost-based carve-outs, and a compliance checklist for small businesses using dynamic pricing tools.
Virginia's HB 238, effective July 1, 2026, requires every employer to retain pay statements for at least three years, presumes workers are employees unless the IRS contractor test is met, and imposes treble damages for knowing wage violations. Here is what changed in Va. Code § 40.1-29 and a retention checklist that also covers federal FLSA, IRS, and public-works rules.
A workers' comp premium audit reconciles your estimated payroll against actual payroll, job classification codes, and subcontractor payments. Missing a subcontractor's certificate of insurance can add the entire contract amount to your auditable payroll — plus a 25–50% non-compliance surcharge. Here are the records to keep monthly, and the 30–60 day dispute window to know.
A reloading supply shop that only sells bullets, brass, primers, and powder owes no federal ammunition excise tax — but loading and selling finished ammunition triggers an 11% FAET liability filed quarterly on TTB Form 5300.26. This guide covers the chart of accounts, lot-number FIFO inventory tracking, and hazmat freight costing that keep a component retailer or hybrid manufacturer compliant.
ASC 606 permits revenue recognition on bill-and-hold arrangements only when four criteria are all met — a substantive reason for the delay, goods segregated for the customer, readiness for immediate transfer, and no seller right to redirect them. This guide walks through each test, a worked allocation example splitting goods revenue from a separate storage obligation, legitimate use cases, and the seller-initiated-delay red flag that draws SEC scrutiny.
