Month: August 2016
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Insulting Pennsylvanians: enough BS already
I’m still astounded by Trump’s accusations over the weekend about voter fraud in the banana republic of Pennsylvania. Even if he is completely ignorant on the topic, his advisors must be aware that there isn’t a single case of documented voter fraud in recent PA history even after substantial (and expensive) investigation and litigation in…
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Nonprofits and small businesses lack security measures
I started the week by reviewing IRS’s publication about guarding taxpayer data. The publication is meant for tax firms but the concepts apply to all organizations that handle sensitive data. Last week I reviewed an accounting firm’s operations and, for the second time this year, declined to work with a service provider solely on the…
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Small business equity crowdfunding: the first 90 days
In the first three months that small business equity crowdfunding was allowed, only 17 of the 117 businesses that registered offerings on SEC-approved platforms met their minimum funding requirement, according to a NextGen Crowdfunding press release. By ‘small business equity crowdfunding’ I am referring to public offerings up to $1 million sometime referred to as…
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Number of uninsured rises; self-employed most affected
Update: The Kaiser Family Foundation published a detailed update on this topic with 2017 data. The number of people without health insurance is rising again after declining with the massive funding of insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The federal government says that 29 million Americans were uninsured at the beginning of 2016 and this…
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CPA Mobility
This past few weeks I learned more than I care to know about CPA mobility; that is, the ability of a CPA to provide services in a different state than the state where I am licensed. We should hope as professionals and as consumers that this is a clear and easy-to-understand issue. It is not. This…
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Crowdfunding at its worst
It was bound to happen. A crowdfunding platform called First Asia Alliance apparently misrepresented investments, may have mishandled investors’ money and now the owners may now be bankrupt. Crowdfunding is a ripe opportunity for fraud and we know that mismanagement is rampant in some non-business crowdfunding platforms like Gofundme. Fortunately, this failed crowdfunding project was in Asia so few…
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The benefits of increasing estimated tax payments
The traditional financial planning and tax management strategy is to minimize tax withholding and estimated tax payments throughout the year. Now with interest rates so low and the economy generally on the rise – meaning that actual taxes are more likely to be higher than estimated – it may make more sense to over withhold…
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PA government says use a good financial adviser
The Department of Banking and Securities is reminding Pennsylvania investors and businesses interested in buying and selling shares in companies through crowdfunding that finding a good adviser is an important first step in the process. “It is important for investors to do your homework and/or seek trusted professional advice before investing money in an equity…
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Hubspot digital marketing
I think that Hubspot’s digital marketing blog has some great information and I try to read as many as possible. I would say that it is the overall highest quality blogs on this important and evolving topic. If I could only read one source of information on digital marketing, I would choose this one. This morning’s…
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Validating small business health care claims
tax law and labor laws require businesses to use an independent third party to validate health plan claims in uninsured plans