With the end of the filing season now behind us I have taken some time off. I have post ready for next week ,but I am out. all the same. The week now past held its own with great post. As Always I can’t get them all to you but please be sure to read what’s here. I have gathered great post from great bloggers with information we all need to know. See you all next week.
My favorite post this week:
How Your Financial Life Will Change After Marriage – 7 Important Money Matters to Consider – While the most common subject of marital conflict is money, premarital counseling rarely discusses the practicalities of managing household finances. Money matters are even more challenging when people move from individual to joint finances, often with very different financial viewpoints/habits and financial baggage (like student loans and credit card debt). But this article is here to help, with seven important money matters to consider before you tie the knot:
Understanding Your W2 Employer-Employee Reporting Form For 2010 Taxes Filed in 2011 – W2 Changes in 2011 – The W2 form for 2011 is pretty much the same as 2010 expect that employers now have to report the cost of tax-free medical coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan (this is optional for employers in 2011, but you may still see it). The reporting of this cost, mandated under the Obama’s health care plan, is intended to provide employees with greater transparency into their overall health care costs.
Your taxes, now in plain language – It’s now law. Federal government documents must be in “plain writing.” And yes, that includes the Internal Revenue Service.
The IRS and the latest licensing outrage -
Who would you rather prepare your taxes? A professional tax return preparer with over a dozen years’ experience in preparing tax returns for taxpayers without incident. Or me, an attorney who has never so much as taken a law school class or continuing legal education course in tax law, and gave up on doing his own taxes last year once he started needing to itemize his deductions. You probably think you’d prefer the first option, but the IRS says you’re wrong.
10 More Essential Skills You Didn’t Learn in College -
IRS Prefers Snot-Nosed Harvard Law Grads Over Experienced Tax Return Pros – . . . are most attorneys really that much better qualified to prepare your taxes? Absolutely not. . . .most attorneys don’t have any special training or testing on tax law, let alone tax return preparation.
Tax Return Preparer Regulation: What About Attorneys and CPAs? – In all fairness, Congress has created a tax law that rivals quantum physics in terms of difficulty, which surely makes attaining competence just that much more elusive, but that does not diminish the need for tax competence by all preparers. Demonstrating that competence ought to be accomplished by actual testing and not by erroneous presumption.
33 Questions To Ask Customers – Are you providing a good customer experience? Here are some questions to ask your customers to find out:
How regressive is YOUR state’s tax system?
“Do you have a business…or a hobby?” – just because you spend a lot of time working on your creations doesn’t mean you have a business. While you may protest: “Hey, I’m working hard How is it not a business?!” it is worth taking a closer look at the true definition of a “business.”
A List of Useful Twitter Stats and Analytics Tools – Just for You! – Twitter happens to be a powerful tool to promote your brand, products or services on the internet. And these days, everyone seems to be busy tweeting! To measure whether you are making the most of this social media marketing tool, you should have a couple of useful analytics tools at hand.
Benefits of Independent Contractor Status (vs Employee) – . . . the fact remains that there are a lot of benefits to hiring independent contractors instead of employees.
IRS Independent Contractor Test – The IRS used to use something called the “20 Factor” test. But, under pressure from Congress and from representatives of labor and business, there have been some attempts to simplify the test. There are now 11 main tests that are organized into 3 main groups:
Small Business News: The Business of the Future! – The future is here as far as small business goes. A rapidly changing economic and technological landscape has almost completely changed the idea of what it means to be in business including the trappings of a storefront location or office, a large bank loan and hiring and buying merchandise. (As we’ll see even the small business Website isn’t what it was a few years ago.) But the core values of running a small business, or any business, have remained the same: create value, operate efficiently, be profitable. Here are the ways small business has changed. It’s the wave of the future:
Jobless After 50? You May Be Out Of Luck – The economy officially crept out of recession in June of 2009, but for many Americans, the economic markers that really count are the ones that come out each month from the Department of Labor: unemployment statistics.
In other news:
There will likely be no increase in Social Security benefits (sometimes referred to as a “COLA” or “cost of living adjustment”) for 2011. That makes two years in a row since there wasn’t an increase in 2010 (though there was an above average increase – nearly 6% – in 2009)
Kay always has the best pictures.
IRS announces that W-2 reporting of 2011 workplace health benefits is optional
© 2010, Bruce Mc. All rights reserved.
