Sept / Oct BUZZ 2022

EXPECT MORE

Message from Joe Damiano

Team,

We are thrilled to officially announce the launch of our Mumbai, India office and are excited to internationally expand our operations. We welcome all our new team members based in India, and we look forward to continuing to build out an extension of our team globally. I’d also like to thank Shivani Jain and Michael Rolls who were instrumental in this strategic move. This is a big step for our firm, and just the beginning of our growing footprint Our press release announcing this launch was just released, and you can find that, along with more information on our current Mumbai team members within this issue of the BUZZ.

We are also very happy to announce that we blew by our goal of $70,000 for our 4 Miler to benefit St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital with a total raised of $114,000. As you know, 100% of the funds we have raised directly supports the Children’s Hospital’s Child Life Department to provide high impact therapies to their pediatric patients to mitigate the negative effects of illness, treatment and hospitalization.

We wish to thank all of you who donated, volunteered, participated, and secured sponsors for the 4 Miler. We couldn’t do this without you – and we appreciate all your support in making our 11th annual event such a success.

As we now move into Q4, we wish to thank you for all your hard work meeting our goals and deadlines. We understand it is a challenge managing heavy workloads through various busy seasons, all while trying to balance your personal lives.

As I mentioned in my previous announcement, in appreciation of your efforts, on Thursday, October 20th we will hold a Team Member Appreciation Happy Hour at our Parsippany office starting at 1pm for those who can join us. GrubHub gift cards will be sent to all remote team members.

The office will close on Thursday, October 20th at 1:00pm and we will close the office on Friday, October 21st. We hope you will find the time off a nice respite after the October deadline It is much deserving

Again, thank you for all your hard work and dedication to our clients, and support for our firm’s initiatives. Together, we can do really big things.

All my best, Joe

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FIRM ANNOUNCEMENTS

Megan Sartor was named to NJBIZ's 40 Under 40. Read the full list of winners here.

Shivani Jain was named to ROI Influencers of Color 2022 List. Read about her award here.

Joseph Damiano was interviewed by ROI-NJ discussing advice for accounting firms. Read the full article here.

FIRM ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mat Giordano was featured in an NJBIZ article discussing how businesses can keep a low profile when it comes to the IRS. Read the full article here.

Al Traverso was featured in an NJBIZ article discussing automation in the Manufacturing and Distribution space. Read the full article here.

Eddie Rivera was featured in an NJBIZ article discussing last minute tips for trimming your tax bill. Read the full article here.

FIRM ANNOUNCEMENTS

Virginia Dennerlein recently spoke on a webinar for SafeSend. You can view the presentation here.

Congrats to Michael Mongelli on becoming a first-time grandpa to his granddaughter Hailey!

Eddie Rivera was the moderator for MARENJ's 8th Annual NJ Multifamily Conference.

NEW FIRM HOTEL POLICY

Effective November 1, 2022, in NYC and January 1, 2023, in all New Jersey offices, our offices will adopt a Hotel Policy.

Dedicated offices and cubicles will be reserved for those team members who will be in the office five (5) days a week, including team members whose job requires them to be in the office five days a week. For those team members who cannot commit to being in the office 5 days a week, they will go to a 100% hoteling model. This is a strategic decision so that we can best accommodate our flexible work policy and our rapidly expanding team.

What this means to you if you will be in the office 5 days (excluding those who are required to be in the office 5 days a week):

Submit an email to Sharon Bleibtreu stating your intentions of working 5 days a week in the office by Oct. 24, 2022, for NYC and Nov. 30, 2022, for NJ.

You will reserve your space on Skedda, and you continue to use your dedicated workspace.

If you will not be in the office due to PTO, client visit, working in a different office, etc. you must make your workspace available in Skedda for others to use

What this means to you if you do not commit to being in the office 5 days a week:

When you come into the office you must reserve an appropriate workspace for your level in Skedda.

Offices and cubicles can be reserved two weeks at a time, and you are allowed to reserve the same spot every time you come into the office. However, it is very

important that you reserve the space when you know you will be in the office, so we avoid having reservations on empty offices and cubicles when people are looking for a place to sit.

If there is a business need for you to be in the office (client meeting, training, etc.) you must come in. Storage bins will be provided for items you wish to leave in the office.

Should you have any questions with our Hotel Policy, please feel free to reach out to Sharon Bleibtreu.

Please give a warm welcome to the newest members of our Sax family.

Anuj Dave HR Head India | 08 22 22

Fun fact: Anuj had a lot of hair on his head when he started working

Nadir Ramicevic Administrative Intern Parsippany | 08.25.22

Fun fact: Nadir enjoys theater and worked in production!

Gladys Lopez Retirement Client Service Assistant Remote | 09 01 22

Chaya Nussbaum Senior Tax Associate Parsippany | 08.29.22

Fun fact: Chaya is a mom to two beautiful children!

Michael Falco Director of Operations & CCO Sax Wealth Advisors Parsippany | 08 31 22

Fun fact: Mike loves spending time with his four year old daughter

Scott Goldberg Partner, Not for Prof NYC | 09.01.22

Fun fact: Scott attended a summer college at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa!

Rakesh Parmar Senior Tax Manager India | 09.01.22

Fun fact: Rakesh's favorite kind of exercise is yoga, hiking and riding bikes

Viola Smith Administrative Intern Parsippany | 09.07.22

Fun fact: Viola loves to travel, and went to Europe on a school trip this past Summer!

Peyton Bowman

M&A Integration Director NYC | 09 07 22

Fun fact: Peyton grew up on a family farm that was part of a US land grant in 1850, which distributed government lands to private owners to turn swampland into fertile irrigated crop land!

Jack Cassidy

Portfolio Manager

Sax Wealth Advisors

Parsippany | 10 03 22

Fun fact: This is Jack's second run of his career with Sax!

Charles Whitman

Senior A&A Associate Parsippany | 10.03.22

Fun fact: Charles loves cars and learning more on how to work on them!

Lauren Frary Director of Strategic Business Transformation

Parsippany | 10 03 22

Fun fact: Lauren is an avid hiker & hopes to climb to 14,000 feet in the next year!

eep Sachindranath ntry Lead a | 10 03 22

Kevin Moyer Partner

Head of Transaction Advisory Remote | 10 10 22

Fun fact: Kevin is an avid Cleveland sports fan (yes, that includes the Browns)

Donna Ellwood

ASG Part Time Remote | 10 17 22

The following employees are no longer with the firm. We wish them the best in their future endeavors.

Michael Amoresano

Senior Tax Associate | Parsippany | 08 19 22

Ashley Canty

Senior Tax Associate | Remote | 08 22 22

Michael Doyle A&A Manager | Parsippany | 09.02.22

Lisa Bushur Senior Tax Manager | Parsippany | 09.06.22

Paige Zawislak

Senior A&A Associate | Parsippany | 09.16.22

Monika Chawdhary

Senior Tax Associate | Parsippany | 9.27.22

Jeff Halverson

Senior Tax Manager | Remote | 9 27 22

Suchita Singh

Senior Tax Associate | Remote | 9 27 22

Ray Cohen

ASG | Remote | 9 30 22

Diana Djuric

Senior A&A Associate | Parsippany | 10 14 22

Mariniel Berko-nti

Tax Associate | Remote | 10.17.22

Joseph Fierro Tax Manager | NYC | 10.20.22

Andrew Blahut

Senior A&A Associate | Remote | 10.21.22

Great Cards

Preeti Manik did an outstanding job on a large and complex engagement that is new to the firm this year. She is organized, smart and easy to work with. She also stepped up on an engagement that was new to her and did a great job managing client communication and took ownership of completing the returns in a timely fashion with minor changes.

Tyler Goodspeed worked really hard on a tight deadline to exceed the expectations of a new construction client to the firm. He also worked hard on a difficult transaction to ensure that the tax reporting was done correctly, providing guidance and knowledge transfer to a senior.

Drew Kretz was scheduled on a client for weeks, but the client kept pushing it back. Two weeks before the deadline the client sent most of what we needed but Drew was scheduled on other work. He is a very efficient worker so he got the work done. He also worked over the weekend even though he was not asked nor expected to work then. Drew truly has a strong work ethic and thanks to him, we were able to move the job along because of his determination to get it done.

Great Cards

My Doan deserves a Great Card for her exceptional effort on a return she prepared. She put in a great effort that exceeded the client’s expectations. She is a pleasure to work with and sets a great example with her thoroughness and positive attitude.

Alex Celentano deserves a Great Card for all her hard word planning and facilitating this year’s 4 Miler. There are a million things to do in advance of the event, and Alex remained on top of everything, from coordinating our volunteers to securing donations, managing communications, and more! We appreciate all her efforts and the passion she has for her role. We are lucky to have her!

Chaya Nussbaum translated an Israeli tax return for us which contained crucial information that the Sax team needed in order to comply with foreign reporting requirements

Great Cards

Preston Szymanski was instrumental in Sax’s successful 4 Miler event this year. As his first 4 Miler event ever, Preston went above and beyond to coordinate the event months in advance, and ensure it ran smoothly the day of. This included keeping thorough records of donors and sponsors, speaking with sponsors regularly, A LOT of running around and heavy lifting, and more! The 4 Miler has a lot of moving parts, and is an important event to our firm. We are proud of how well Preston managed this large event with his first go-around.

Lisa Meyers has done an excellent job this season with training the interns, organizing the meals and most importantly, taking complete ownership of getting the paper 709s out the door. She has taken ownership over the project, maintains a VERY positive attitude and is consistently turning out a work product that our firm can be proud of.. Thanks so much Lisa!!

Christine Grispart worked hard on a very difficult return and was able to navigate the issues efficiently. She did an amazing job on a huge client.

to everyone who attended career fairs on behalf of Sax!

College Shivaley

SUNY Binghamton University

Dunn and Kelly Behrens

Lehigh University Shivaley

University

Fairleigh Dickinson University

College of NJ Greg Engemann

Montclair State University

Paterson University

University

University - New Brunswick

University

of Delaware

of Scranton

Fairleigh

University

Hall University

University

Chiuchiolo and Carole Datzko

Sinatra

King and Michael DeBenedetto

Hoff and Brandon Chinchilla

Klarberg and

Yassa and

2021 401K MATCH AND PROFIT SHARING CONTRIBUTIONS

SAX is excited to announce that the 401(k) company match and profit sharing contributions for the 2021 plan year, totaling $1,045,132.52, were deposited into employee accounts on Tuesday September 13, 2022. Employees can view their portion of these contributions in their account on the Principal website or mobile app.

Beginning January 2022 the firm raised its 401(k) matching contribution. Eligible employees now have the opportunity to receive up to a 5.5% total company contribution to their 401(k) from Sax. This consists of a 3% discretionary profit sharing contribution and a maximum company match of 2.5%, subject to IRS limits and vesting.

To receive the full company match portion, employees should contribute at least 10% to their Retirement Plan Account. The match formula is 25% up to the first 10% of eligible compensation contributed. Additionally starting in 2022, the company match is now deposited into employee accounts each pay period to take advantage of dollar cost averaging, rather than once per year in a lump sum.

If you have any questions about your 401(k) account or need assistance with your retirement needs, please call Principal at 800-547-7754 and follow the prompts to speak to a retirement specialist. If you are seeking any additional assistance or guidance, please reach out to the SAXWA Retirement team at retirement@saxwa.com.

KEEP IT ROLLING

2021 Returns may be out, but we have lots of prep for 2022 –perfect opportunities for Client touches.

Please reach out to your Clients for updated contact information, and remind them now to start prepping the vendor information for 1099s.

Here’s a quick list of upcoming opportunities for Client Communication (prepping for Sax India!)

For questions, reach out to Virginia Dennerlein.

MOST

Josh Chananie, Sandy Vosk & John Cosgrove presented on the State of the Supply Chain Industry

Jerome Fusco presented on "Navigating Inflationary Pressures"

Carl Van Dusen presented on "Making Sense of Cybersecurity Risks"

The 420Cannect Networking event took place on July 26th at the first floor cafe of the Parsippany Office. 420Cannect is about educating and connecting people in the cannabis industry, and the focus of the discussion and Q&A at the event was regarding what developments we can expect in Q4 in NJ and NY adult use roll-outs

Meet the 420Cannect Founders

Please stay tuned for updates on the next 420Cannect event on October 25th

Please click here to learn more about 420Cannect!