Tony Novak CPA

Author: Tony Novak

  • Change to social media policies of affiliated organizations

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    Tony Novak
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    Larger organizations have social media policies and in the past I’ve been active in promoting the concept of social media policies for small organizations. I’ve successfully used social media policies to manage the reputation and relationships of smaller organizations where I serve as director or communications manager. Of course policies need to be updated from…

  • Disruption of local rural South Jersey real estate market

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    Tony Novak
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    Zillow forecasts that prices in some U.S. home markets will decline in the year ahead while far more communities will see a further increase in prices. This effect may disrupt communities, especially ours here in lower income rural Cumberland County. I only follow real estate investment for clients in the Delaware Valley region and it…

  • 401(k) investment choices

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    Tony Novak
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    The CFO is individually named as defendant in this class action lawsuit for his choice of investment offerings in company’s 401(k) plan. Contrast this story to other news of employees pressuring employers to add a range of non-traditional investments like real estate, partnerships, private company stock and cryptocurrency. The risk to employers and employees is…

  • Understanding cryptocurrency fraud

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    Tony Novak
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    Cryptocurrency fraud falls into two main categories: Scams soliciting investment Theft of accounts The number of cryptocurrency scams is decreasing as people become more suspicious of unsolicited offers. This seems like a natural reaction to the publication of fraud risks. But the number of security breaches and account thefts is increasing sharply. Even sophisticated owners…

  • Real estate investing forecast

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    Tony Novak
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    The sharp and fast rise in mortgage rates this year led to only slow and modest decreases in real estate sales prices. As a result, housing affordability is at its lowest level in 30 years. Predictably, the number of sales completed declined rapidly. The logical forecast is that sales transactions will remain sluggish, making this…

  • No tax change coming

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    Tony Novak
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    The Inflation Protection Act (IRA) is expected to be passed by Congress this weekend and signed into law by the President shortly thereafter. This is an appropriate time to repeat a reminder that there will be no significant change in income tax liability to anyone reading our publications. This message repeats the tax forecast offered…

  • Two easy ways to avoid tax misinformation

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    Tony Novak
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    In 2017 and again in 2021, Americans suffered the effects of deliberate lies about U.S. tax policy fed through news media and politicians. In contrast to well-vetted public process that led to the major Tax Reform Act of 1986, the current tax lawmaking process of our federal tax law is crude and largely based on…

  • Nonprofit financial governance FAILS

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    Tony Novak
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    This weekend I took an informal look at the legal and financial filings of two nonprofit organizations that are associated with potential accounting engagements. In other words, this was my preliminary homework in preparation for my work week ahead. What I found could be described as ‘more of he same’ in substandard governance and public…

  • Best practices for the future of small business accounting

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    Tony Novak
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    I woke today to find an email notice of another five star review from a small business client. I am grateful for the willingness of over 50 clients to share their comments on one of the various online business rating services. It’s pretty humbling, actually, that they are all organic five star reviews that they…

  • Significant small business tax news: Alliantgroup

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    Tony Novak
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    IRS sent subpoenas to CPAs who referred clients to a tax shelter seller Alliantgroup regarding R&D tax credits, cost segregation, and IRC Sec 179D, (all are aggressive tax strategies) taken by their business clients from January 1, 2011 to present. The IRS subpoena reportedly clarifies that Alliantgroup and not the individual business taxpayers who took…