Reconstruct Records After a Disaster

Are you trying to help your business or family clean up the mess and recover from a hurricane, flood, fire or other disaster?

Reconstructing records to prove a loss for tax purposes, getting federal assistance, or insurance reimbursement often is one of the daunting challenges disaster victims face. Some tips that might help your business or family reconstruct your records include:

• To create a list of lost inventories, business owners can get copies of invoices from suppliers. Whenever possible, the invoices should date back at least one calendar year.
• For information about income, business owners can get copies of last year’s federal, state and local tax returns. These include sales tax reports, payroll tax returns, and business licenses from the city or county. These will reflect gross sales for a given period.
• Owners should check their mobile phone or other cameras for pictures and videos of their building, equipment and inventory.
• Business owners who don’t have photographs or videos may for some purposes be able to simply sketch an outline of the inside and outside of their location. For example, for the inside the building, draw out where equipment and inventory was located. For the outside of the building, map out the locations of items such as shrubs, parking, signs, and awnings.

For more suggestions and guidance on responding to a disaster, check out the following resources:

• IRS Disaster Assistance Hotline at 1-866-562-5227 – Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time
• Publication 2194, Disaster Resource Guide for Individuals and Businesses
• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• Small Business Administration
• Disasterassistance.gov

About The Author

Cynthia Marcotte Stamer is a Martindale-Hubble “AV-Preeminent (Top 1%) rated practicing attorney and management consultant, health industry public policy advocate, widely published author and lecturer, recognized for her nearly 30 years’ of work with business and government clients and their leaders as a LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® “LEGAL LEADER™ and “Top Rated Lawyer,” in Health Care Law and Labor and Employment Law; a D Magazine “Best Lawyers In Dallas” in the fields of “Health Care,” “Labor & Employment,” “Tax: Erisa & Employee Benefits” and “Business and Commercial Law,” a Fellow in the American Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Foundation and the American College of Employee Benefit Counsel.

Board Certified in Labor and Employment Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, Ms. Stamer serves as outside general counsel and special counsel advice, representation and other legal and operations services on a real-time “on demand,” special project and ongoing basis tailored to the needs of the client.  hroughout her career with health care providers, health plans, health care clearinghouses, their business associates, employers and other plan sponsors, banks, insurers and other financial institutions, and others on trade secret confidentiality, privacy, data security and other risk management and compliance including design, establishment, documentation, implementation, audit and enforcement of policies, procedures, systems and safeguards, drafting and negotiation of business associate, chain of custody, confidentiality, and other contracting; risk assessments, audits and other risk prevention and mitigation; investigation, reporting, mitigation and resolution of known or suspected breaches, violations or other incidents; and defending investigations or other actions by plaintiffs, OCR, FTC, state attorneys’ general and other federal or state agencies, other business partners, patients and others; reporting known or suspected violations; commenting or obtaining other clarification of guidance and other regulatory affairs, training and enforcement, and a host of other related concerns.

Best  recognized for her work on labor and employment, employee benefits and compensation, healthcare, insurance and risk management, technology and privacy and data security concerns, her experience encompasses work with management of a diverse array of clients and matters including domestic and multinational employers across many industries, health and other employee benefit plans, payroll, staffing, recruitment, technology, audit, training and coaching, consultin, and other outsourcing service providers, public and private health care providers, health and other insurers, banking and financial services, manufacturing, retail and other sales, hospitality, manufacturing, consulting, engineering bankruptcy, turnaround management restructuring and reengineering,  and other change management, technology and other vendors, nonprofit, government and others domestically and internationally.

Author of a multitude of highly-regarded works and training programs on published by BNA, the ABA and other premier legal and other industry publishers,  she also consults to and trains business and government and their leaders and speaks extensively about a wide range of general and special legal, business process and operations a and other concerns.

Beyond these involvements, Ms. Stamer also is active in the leadership of a broad range of other professional, charitable and civic organizations. Through these and other involvements, she provides hands on leadership, consulting and other support to develop and build solutions, build consensus, garner funding and other resources, manage compliance and other operations, and take other actions to identify promote tangible improvements in health care and other operations and policies.

For additional information about Ms. Stamer, see here or contact Ms. Stamer directly by e-mail here or by telephone at (469) 767-8872. ©2017 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer. Limited, non-exclusive right to republish granted to Solutions Law Press, Inc. All other rights reserved.