Month: February 2016
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America’s evolving attitudes about inheritance
When it comes to money, we are still not communicating well with family and advisers. Estate tax laws aren’t helping. A new report by Hearts and Wallets provides some fascinating insights on America’s evolving attitudes about inheritances, including: “only 27% of the parents surveyed have told their children how much they are likely to inherit”…
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My data management plan
It seems that my small business clients face a perfect storm of unimaginable and varied types of losses on a regular basis. I’ve personally suffered floods, thefts, head injury with amnesia, extended power outages, problems with fluctuating voltages, many hard disk failures, two unexplained SSD drive failures, Microsoft unannounced account cancellation, hacking attacks, human error, etc.…
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Promotional rate for new individual tax return preparation
Promotional rate for new individual clients: $195. Ask for the “introductory rate” before we prepare your tax engagement agreement. This rate may not be available late in the tax season. Includes: Form 1040 with standard deduction One state tax return Discussion of tax-reducing strategies E-filing with proof of acceptance Return of original documents Additional tax schedules are…
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The scary rise of fascism in 2016 politics
Could the dire issues facing our nation now be any more clear? Remember that it was only a short time ago that Americans feared the impact of having a socialist in its highest elected office. I reflected on this issue on December 12; only 77 days ago. (http://tonynovak.com/cpa/but-hes-a-socialist/). Yet that risk seems mild now compared to…
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Time to look ahead for work after tax season
Updating the resume and setting minimal earnings requirements Looking ahead to the end of tax season I became concerned with my lack of future work projects. So I updated my online resume and sent out a few inquiries. I also updated a cover letter to go with the resume that is not published online and,…
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“Pay half” tax preparation offer draws public discussion
H&R Block has caused commotion within the tax preparation industry last week with its “pay half” offer for new clients. Likewise, Intuit has annoyed some with its TurboTax advertisements suggesting that tax preparation is a simple do-it-yourself project. The TurboTax “It doesn’t take a genius” ad campaign belies the decades of training that tax professionals…
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NJ tax lien sale certificate class action settlement oddity
I am posting the content of this letter for whatever it may be worth. I have no further information on the matter but I simply suspect that others may be affected. February 24, 2016 NJ Tax Sales Certificates Antitrust Litigation c/o Gilardi & Co. LLC P.O. Box 808061 Petaluma CA 94975-8061 RE: In Re…
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The cheapest, easiest accounting system
With all of the amazing features of online accounting systems offered at price of $10 per month*, it is difficult to understand why some people prefer to continue using paper log books or spreadsheets for their accounting records. Yet I have several clients who keep records on spreadsheets. This works well for small businesses with…