Before I get into this week’s newsletter, I wanted to say thank you to all of you who have reached out to check on me and our LA-based team. In the last week, I’m sure you all have seen the devastation that has become the reality for my beloved Los Angeles. Two of our team members plus me are based here and are, thankfully, thus far safe. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t been impacted by what has happened, including dealing with power outages, evacuation orders, supporting friends who have been evacuated or have lost their homes, and school closures. All while monitoring fire updates and getting emergency alerts at all hours. We continue to be in an active disaster situation and still under fire weather threat through Wednesday.

It's been a lot. It will be a lot.

Because of that, it has been a priority for us to keep working so we can share vital resources for fellow L.A.-based businesses. That is going to be the next challenge – getting back on our feet. As both our clients and our team deal with the uncertainty of the future, I’d like to ask you to support the work I’ve been doing in this newsletter and on social media.

If you are able, please make a $10 suggested contribution to support my newsletter via our donation page. This gives me an opportunity to keep the newsletter going today and keep it free in the future.

If you are an L.A. County-based business and need resources, I’ve included many below. I’ll also continue to share resources on my Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, and BlueSky pages, so please follow.

The recovery from this tragedy is going to be long and complicated. But as long as we need it, I’ll keep providing information vital to growing businesses as they recover and get back to growing.

January 15 deadlines

Things to check today:

• File your state and federal estimated tax payments for Q4 (unless you’re in LA County or a Hurricane Helene disaster area -- read on).

• Sign up for exchange-based health insurance starting on February 1. Massachusetts, California, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and DC are giving you a few more days. Complete your plan selection and provide your first payment before midnight.

LA County Wildfire Relief 

Back in October, I wrote about business disaster resources related to Hurricane Helene. I didn’t expect to be referencing that message for my own community.

I’m writing this on Tuesday, January 14. We’re still under a red flag warning. I don’t know what conditions will be when you get this tomorrow. 

“Impacted” has become a relative term. You might be saying you’re “okay” if you haven’t lost your home, as everyone knows someone who did. But no one is untouched. We have experienced five fires that started in Level 2 hurricane winds. All schools were closed for nearly a week, the power took days to restore, 150,000 households are still on mandatory evacuation, and the air quality is still hazardous. 

If you’re in LA County, use the resources available to you -- you’re affected.

Free extension on California and federal estimated taxes: this is a big one -- in current FEMA disaster areas, you get an automatic extension without penalty on your estimated income tax payments and tax filings. This applies to businesses and individuals. LA County is now on extension until October. Here are reference pages from the IRS and California FTB. That includes all estimated tax dates through September 15. You still have to pay, but there’s no penalty for not doing it right now. 

Areas of fourteen other states and two first nations territories also qualify for IRS relief. Take a look if you were impacted by Hurricane Helene, the Jennings Creek Fire, or Tropical Storm Francene. 

Mortgage emergency forbearance: you may request up to six months of mortgage forbearance due to loss of income. If your building or home were damaged or destroyed, you can request up to 12 months. Forbearance is added to the end of your mortgage. You’ll have to pay it eventually, but if you’re waiting on FEMA or insurance, this should buy you time for filing.

Misfortune and Calamity Relief: gotta love a county with a sense of humor. If your property experienced $10,000 or more in damage, you can ask LA County to reassess it and lower your property taxes. Keep in mind that a property purchased before 2000 might not be assessed at less than your Prop 19 protected payment. 

SBA loan hardship: suspend payment on your existing SBA EIDL loans for up to six months. Log into your account and make the request. Easy peasy. This is not tied to FEMA, you can do it at any time.

Business continuity insurance: your general or professional liability policy may include coverage for inability to operate, loss of income, loss of inventory, and damage to physical assets like buildings and cars. Disruption of your business operations is a valid claim.

Child care: if your child’s school is disrupted, LA Parks is offering free Care Camps from January 13-31. Several YMCAs are offering free drop-in child care for first responders and displaced families.

SBA EIDL loans: new loans are available to business owners, homeowners, and renters, regardless of whether you already have them from COVID. These can be used for everything from replacing furniture to covering payroll, up to $2 million.

FEMA emergency assistance: Go to disasterassistance.gov or ca.go/LAFires. Two comprehensive disaster recovery locations will be open beginning Wednesday from 9 AM to 8 PM to help with insurance claims, FEMA, state and local resources, Covered California and Medi-cal, EBT (food assistance).

Revised health insurance subsidy: if you’ve lost your job or experienced a loss of income, you can immediately update your household income with Covered California and have your subsidy and Medi-Cal eligibility reconsidered. 

Shadiness: price and rent gouging are illegal in California in an emergency. Report at oag.ca.gov/report or by calling 3-1-1 locally. Landlords may not increase listing prices by more than 10%. Prices of essential goods are also capped at 10% increase. Scams are rampant, beware of people calling you to offer to help or buy your property. 

For those who want to help, the best contributions now are cash, established charities, and mutual aid. We already had a severe housing shortage. Expect more temporary solutions to be allowed while people rebuild. If you have an Airbnb or an ADU and would be willing to rent it out for a bit, list it on a mutual aid site or call your realtor and let them know. My realtors have been working hard to match people with direct rental landlords.

FEMA has supported disasters in 26 states just in the past year. Los Angeles County is home to 10 million people, which is more than all but seven states. FEMA funding happens because your Congressional representatives vote to pay for it. The new House is already sworn in. Call your representative to voice your support for California disaster relief -- you never know when you might need it, too.

I rescheduled my January AMA to tomorrow, January 16, at 10 AM PT. We’ll be talking about 1099s, accessing retirement finds, and whatever folks want to ask live.

Send me your questions at [email protected]. Add my upcoming AMAs to your calendar using this link.

I wrote about this a bit last week, and we’ll address it at the AMA, but I’ve also updated my blog post to help you evaluate who needs a 1099 this year. While you’re supposed to report all of your income over $600 from any source, if you received 2024 payments totaling more than $5,000 via PayPal, Venmo, or Cash App, you’ll get a 1099-K. 1099s must be filed with the IRS by January 31. Read the post.

Quick things, since I didn’t watch much besides disaster relief this week, except a highly inappropriate AI video of Jerry Jones firing another Dallas Cowboys head coach. I will send it upon request.

The Supreme Court signaled it’s leaning toward banning Tik Tok on national security grounds and Elon Musk is now in the mix to buy it. Am I gonna get a win on my 2025 predictions this fast? 

Meta got rid of third-party fact checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. These are the rules you should know now for using these platforms. 

Job creation is up, inflation is down, the US economy is in a healthy place. Mark this moment before tariffs with 2-5% monthly ratchets take effect.

The Berlin Zoo feeds unused Christmas trees to the elephants. That’s the best ChatGPT could do when I asked for funny headlines from today. I guess?