Month: April 2017
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Trump tax reform in a nutshell
The big picture goal is to stimulate economic growth from 2% to 3%. The overall long term impact and new debt left to our children cannot yet be estimated. Big question #1: Is a 1% increase in economic growth worth the trillions in immediate cost to public funding? The rich benefit the most. It is…
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Everybody loves a tax cut
Americans have been clear and consistent in their opinions that corporations and wealthy people do not pay their fair share of the tax burden. We’ve known and accepted this as reality for most of our lives with little or no government action to make the system more fair. This public opinion has been largely unaffected by…
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Health insurance help for illegal immigrants
My free online advisory service launched in the 1990s provides bits of financial advice to people; mostly on issues related to small business operation. The topical subjects of these questions have shifted over time and now quite often come from people who have trouble finding affordable health insurance or covering uninsured health care expenses. I presume this means that…
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Nonprofit tax returns due May 15
If your nonprofit organization has not yet filed its 2016 tax return then I would like to speak with you this week. The filing deadline is May 15. I would like to share the ways that I’ve worked with other nonprofits to lower the cost and hassle of tax filing while providing better information for…
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Estimating the cost of COBRA coverage
Yesterday I took a telephone call from a woman who planned to leave her job soon to start a business. She needs to estimate the cost of COBRA health coverage to compare to her other options. This is a simple but important step in planning to launch a business. We presume that most people know…
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Charging bull and defiant girl at the bayshore
This sculpture exhibit and the associated story in The Wall Street Journal this week perfectly symbolize for me where we stand today in the evolution of humanity. It strikes a chord with me personally having transitioned from Wall Street to environmental advocacy and now facing the threats of institutional power. This week the small business…
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Sample Tax Services Agreement
This page is outdated. A more recent version is available: Sample accounting services engagement agreement 2021 Each year I’ve modified my tax services engagement agreement as circumstances and technologies change. This is the current version of the individual tax service engagement agreement. The primary goal of the engagement agreement remains the same: to document our mutual understanding…
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Income earned in multiple states creates tax filing difficulties
Income earned in multiple states can pose a serious problem at tax filing time. I borrowed this example from a tax professionals online post: “Client walks in a $10,000 W2 and has about 20 states on it, with between $150-$800 wages for each state, but zero withholdings in those states. Total AGI (self employed) is…
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It’s not too late for professional tax filing services!
It is still possible to get fast and efficient late season tax services with the full professional attention that your important tax and financial details. I reserve some time late in the season to accommodate new clients and, in fact, this has become a primary marketing tool of my tax practice. Timing: I offer a…
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LinkedIn ProFinder to market low cost tax services
updated November 9, 2017 I tested a new marketing tool using LinkedIn ProFinder to promote my low-cost online tax filing service. This blog post explains my project and hopefully serves as a basis for further marketing discussion among peers and advisers. This post documents the process I used to develop and test the online lead generation…