indieFINANCIALnetwork™ Details

OUR SERVICES

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 101: We can manage your cash flow and prepare all of your budgets. We can do your payroll, withhold your taxes, manage your related insurance deductions, file the tax forms and submit all of your payroll taxes to the appropriate Federal, State and Local agencies. We will manage your bank accounts, reconcile monthly, pay your quarterly tax estimates and furnish you with detailed financial and management reports. We will provide reports as often as you request and we will educate you by reviewing, explaining and focusing you on the key management issues. We also collect your income from all sources worldwide. We put ticklers in our systems to remind us when each payment is due. if your check doesn't show up on time, we go after it. These services can be tailored to your business and this would include the areas of touring, recording, film, television, books, performing rights and music publishing. Did we mention we can also take care of your personal finances too?

TAX PLANNING, PREPARATION, PLAYING CATCH-UP AND INVESTMENTS: Our tax expert, Larry Blau, will guide you through tax planning in late fall and tax preparation early in the new year. Larry has an MBA in Taxation and has been a Tax Manager for over 30 years. Does your current advisor run the numbers for you so you know your tax liability BEORE the end of the year, so you know exactly what you are facing in April? If you know your tax liability well before year's end, you still have time to make some financial moves that could reduce your tax burden. This is one of our essential specialties. Having trouble sleeping because you haven’t kept up in life and filed your personal or your company tax returns in a year or two or a few or many? We usually find that one of the big reasons tax returns are not filed timely in the music industry is: in certain years your income level was down or you were busy funneling every cent back into your project. In either case, your tax liability is more than likely surprisingly small. If you kept decent records, and still have your checkbooks and bank statements from those years, send us an email. Nothing promotes a good night sleep more than having the iFn straighten it all out for you. You should deal with it NOW before it becomes a big deal, especially if some of your projects are finally selling well and your income is starting to really add up. No hard sell, but if you need any advice on specific investments, retirement planning, estate planning or portfolio review, Larry is also a Certified Financial Planner and would be happy to assist you in these areas too.

REVENUE SHARE ACCOUNTING: Starting to realize how incredibly complicated and out of control this buck-a-pop download world really is from an accounting standpoint? Are you at the point where you are seeing for yourself that the digital download services account to you in different ways and send you files in unstandardized digital formats? Are you accounting from multiple sources and finding that the timing and contractual differences have got you in a financial pickle? Or, do you KNOW you have some revenue from the past couple of cycles that you should be passing along to your participants, but you haven't found the time or had the system tools to get your statements out on time? Relax, we can help. Paul Barretta at the iFn can solve all your revenue sharing problems. You name it we can do it. You probably couldn't come up with a situation that is more complicated than what we are already doing. We can provide you with complete and accurate revenue share and/or royalty accounting statements on whatever basis you require. Our statements are remarkably detailed and address all revenue participants from all sources worldwide. The system we provide along with Paul, is currently unprecedented and can handle any level of complexity you can throw at it. We can combine all of your worldwide brick and mortar and third party distributor sales with all the download services, along with the band's stage sales and the mail order sales from the band’s and/or your website. We already do this and we do it monthly for half a dozen labels and a number of indie artists. Look no further, Paul is the man with the revenue sharing plan.

ENTITY FORMATION: Do you need separate entities for touring, recording and music publishing or should you run it all through the same company, and what exactly are the reasons for it? Should you form a corporation or an LLC for your touring activities? Are there any tax advantages that ring true in the music business for having an LLC versus an S Corp? Will a partnership suffice for your recording activities or should you incorporate? How about your music publishing company? For Federal, State and Local income tax purposes we give important advice about what types of entities to form for all of your commercial activities in the new frontier. Years of real time experience in anticipating and witnessing problems give us the wisdom to help you set things up properly from day one. Listen up and be careful here: it varies for what type of activities you are doing, your current asset base, who is sharing in it and where you and they are doing business. Don’t consult your uncle’s accountant or your brother's real estate attorney, trust me, they won’t know (even if they may act like they do). This is one of the most critical of all issues and one that can cause more headaches down the road than any other. As with most things music biz, there are also liability issues, which tread hand in hand with the tax implications. Do yourself a favor, drop the iFn an email and DON’T try this at home.

U.S. CLEARINGHOUSE FOR FOREIGN INDIE LABELS: Having trouble with the international rat’s nest of collecting income and paying taxes on the money earned from your music partners in the U.S.? Let the iFn be your global clearinghouse. We have a full range of indie label services ready and waiting for you to tap into. We can lead you through the potential pitfalls one step at a time. We can collect your money from any and all U.S. sources and account to you on whatever basis you require, for all your US activity. Let the iFn be your back AND front office in the US.

INTERNATIONAL TOURING: Taking your developing act to Europe? Japan? Australia? Or do you have an act in a non-US Territory that is coming to tour the US? Do you have any idea about how the taxes work over there? Unless you pro-actively secure tax clearances from each and every country in which you are doing business, you better be prepared to write a sizable shortfall check. Drop us an email if this is your issue.

AUDITS, AUDITS, AND MORE AUDITS: We will conduct examinations of the books and records of your partners on your behalf (actually, more likely, your ex-partners), upon your request to insure compliance with any and all contracts and agreements you may have, or may have once had, in effect. This would include the areas of recording, film, television, books, and music publishing. Got a weird situation? Weird situations a specialty here. Drop us a line.

MUSIC PUBLISHING: USE OF COPYRIGHT: If you have been advanced any money in a music publishing deal specifically for “use of copyright” and you have a contract, one which CLEARLY states exactly that, do yourself a HUGE favor and email us right now. ‘Nuff said. Due to a little known loophole in the tax law, we can save you a bundle in taxes. Got the deal a couple of years ago? Might be worth amending those past returns and getting a sizeable chunk of your hard earned bucks back. Most tax preparers don't even know this legal window exists.

CONTRACTS: Negotiating a deal? Getting out of a deal? Don't understand the financial or tax implications of a deal? We will go over any entertainment contracts with you and advise you on the financial and tax implications of any and all clauses that affect your wallet and well-being. Remember, we are not attorneys but we can recommend some good entertainment lawyers if you need one, who still care and actually have a heart. They can go over the legal issues with you, or we can work directly with your current entertainment attorney. No surprises here, believe us, we have seen it all.

INDIE NUMBERS, NUMBERS, NUMBERS: If needed, we can assist you in getting the numbers together for your indie CD releases. Can you spell UPC and ISRC? You will when we get finished with you. And that covers only the U.S. Releasing internationally? Whole new sets of numbers. Let us know if you need our help.

TRADEMARKS AND COPYRIGHTS: We will help you with all your copyright and trademark filings. When it comes to this stuff, we have been there and stayed all night. You found that killer name and now you better take serious steps to protect it. We work with very reasonably priced Trademark attorneys both in New York City and Washington D.C. and again, don’t try this at home. There are just too many angles and areas of concern, especially if your filing gets challenged. Copyright forms, well, we can talk you through ‘em or else we'll do ‘em.

LEASING VS. BUYING: Thinking of a car, some new computers, office equipment or maybe an upgrade to your precious Pro Tools rig? Wondering about leasing or buying? Or maybe you have some cash on hand and wonder if you should buy outright? Or maybe you are wondering if you should take advantage of a music store’s new 0% interest, "no payments due for a year" financing? Seems like an easy question on the surface, but trust us, there are a lot of considerations and a lot of numbers to crunch in order to make the intelligent choice specific to your situation. Contact the indieFINANCIALnetwork™ for details.

INSURANCE & RISK MANAGEMENT: We will advise you and help you secure, if needed, insurance policies designed to protect you, your businesses, your home, your gear, your life, your car and your assets. We can also secure tour liability insurance from several U.S. sources. We are not insurance agents and we don’t make a dime on insurance. We would merely share our long term insurance contacts for your benefit. We will help you understand the insurance facts of life along with the advice of our proven independent insurance contacts. They represent many different companies and shop each policy around so you can comparison shop and get the best deal on a highly rated company. Yes, even our long term insurance contacts are “indie".

COMPUTER CONSULTING: We are cross-platformers here, using both PC’s and Macs. We provide all types of troubleshooting, re-installing operating systems, software installation, system optimization, back up strategies and networking services. We have even been known to provide a little impromptu tech support with our clients over the phone from time to time. We sometimes write our own proprietary software. Need help? We only do this for our client base and only in our spare time. Sorry, if you don't become a client, you will have to call the Geek Squad.

MORTGAGE ASSISTANCE: For our clients, we provide mortgage assistance to those who need it with independent mortgage brokers in the New York area. This is a free service, as the fees are paid by the lender and cost the client zero bucks. Depending on where you live, we also have contacts in many, but not all states. As a general rule mortgage brokers must be licensed in the state in which you are purchasing the home.

CREDIT MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR: We will counsel you and assist you in getting your credit as up to snuff as humanly possible. We will also provide practical and useful advice on how to improve your credit score with the big three.