b'(continued from page 16) 1. Trust your gut. If you have any suspicion ansalary of $40,000, the other $60,000 would flow tointruder has breached your network, immediatelyyou as profit (K-1) and is not subject to Socialtake all communications with your employees to aSecurity and Medicare taxes. You only pay socialseparate, secure network that is not beingsecurity and Medicare tax on the $40,000 salary, for amonitored. Frank Shultz, chairman and CEO oftax of $6,120 ($40,000 x 15.3%). In this scenario,business resilience solutions firm Infinite Blue,using an S corporation would save $9,180 ($15,300 -has seen hacks in which infiltrators impersonate$6,120) in taxes each year. While it would be nice toan employee in the companys Slack channel andhave the whole $100,000 excluded from Socialare able to watch as the company formulates aSecurity and Medicare tax, the IRS requires thatplan to counter the hack. Shultz recommendsowner-employees of an S corporation be paid a salaryadopting a code word to let employees know therethat is a reasonable amount for the work beinghas been a breach and to switch to a secureperformed. messaging service.2. Get insurance. Shultz says cybersecurityConclusioninsurance can be crucialfor a company of anyAs a result of people not using all the deductions andsizeif you have no other option but to pay out alaws available, billions of dollars are overpaid inransom to a hacker. He recommends looking fortaxes. According to the IRS commissioner, millions ofpolicies that include access to teams that helptaxpayers are overpaying their taxes each year. Beginnegotiate with the hackers and help craftusing these five strategies to avoid paying more thancommunications about the hack to employees andyou are required in taxes. customers.Know your IP. The best thing your company can do is be prepared and ready to quickly take action. Determine which of your assets would be the most painful to lose and invest heavily to keep those assets secure. Three Steps to Take if Your Company is Hacked Companies increasingly are being affected by cyberattacks, and small and midsize companies tend to be more vulnerable to such attacks, according to Inc. Businesses are becoming more aware of efforts that can help prevent cyberattacks, such as conducting a cyber risk assessment to evaluate potential risks and training employees to identify attempts to hack into your companys systems. But what should your company do when your defenses are breached and your company is hacked? Inc. shares the following three key tips.18'