Six Ways to Turn Uninteresting Topics into Really Interesting Posts
Some topics that are really, really important may seem dull and uninteresting to the average web surfer. You can probably think of a few of these topics on your own. Income tax law is often one of these “unpopular” topics.
Aside from tax professionals, if you were to put 100 people in a room and ask them what topic they’d like to read about online, I’ll bet that very few would willingly choose income tax law.
However, tax law issues are important. Changes to tax law can change the amount of income we get to keep and ultimately affect our quality of life. That’s why it’s important to share information as you learn it and important that people read what you share.
So what can be done to get folks with no background in accounting to read about important topics like changes to the tax laws?
If the information that you are writing about might turn off some readers, here are six techniques to make your writing more exciting for your readers:
1. Pay attention to the headline and first few lines. The headline and first sentences are what your reader will see first so it’s important to pull out all stops to make these attention grabbers. If you don’t grab their attention with the headline or first few lines of your post or online article, your readers won’t go any further and you won’t convey the material that you’re trying to share.
2. Tell a story. In general, readers love to read about real people. Share a story about how a tax law change has actually affected someone (be sure to ask permission before telling the story) or even about how it has affected you. Talking about real people brings the tax law changes home and shows the reader that they too could be affected by tax changes.
3. Make it personal. Another good way to make income tax law more interesting to your readers is to use statistics to make it more personal. For example, many statistics state that the average income in the U.S. around $45,000. So, use that dollar figure as a baseline and discuss what might happen under the tax laws to someone earning that amount. A lot of “average” people will be able to relate.
4. Use compelling images. Images are powerful, so make sure yours are good. Images are important for all online writing, but they are especially important for technical and detailed material. Don’t stop at one image either. Use photos to illustrate a concept and charts and graphs to add visual impact to relevant statistics.
5. Avoid “legalese.” When writing about a complex subject, such as tax law, it’s important not to get caught up in the specialized language of your field. Terms that you use every day may be unclear to someone without an accounting background. Conversational English is the way to go. Write your online material as though you are explaining the concept to someone with no accounting background at all.
6. Don’t forgot to promote your material. Last, but not least, it’s important to promote your material through social media and among your clients and acquaintances. Even the best online material will not get read if no one knows it is out there. Build social media accounts and learn how to use them. Also, reference your online materials in your written correspondence with your clients and on your business cards.
With the right writing style and the right methods to grab attention, you’ll soon find there’s no really such thing as a “dull” topic online.
Do you write about tax or accounting topics? What methods do you use to capture the attention of your audience?
About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 19 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts.
A Week in Perspective
Want to let everyone know that with the upcoming holidays and my need to catch up my readiness for this upcoming season, The will be no Week In Perspective on December 26th, or January 2nd.
I also want to let you all know that I have a very special post for you scheduled for January 4th.
Happy birthday to us! – Twenty years ago, five more-or-less young accountants went over the wall of a national CPA firm to start their own firm. They wisely discarded their first working firm name (“Dunderhead CPAs”) and settled on the name “Roth & Company.”
Not sure how I missed this:
Are You Ready For The Big Payroll Tax Deposit Change? – The IRS is changing the rules in a BIG way, when it comes to payroll and corporation tax deposits. Are you going to be ready for this new change? If not, you don’t have long to get ready! The new change goes into effect on January 1, 2011.
IRA Investment Planning for Taxation
3 Ways to Improve Your Credit in the New Year – Improving your credit quickly can be tough since the whole point of a credit history is to establish good financial trends – a pattern of paying off your debts. However raising your score over a longer period of time isn’t too tough if you consistently follow good money habits.
Why Don’t We Tip Everyone? – Earlier this week I asked my readers why they tip at the holidays. I was afraid a lot of you would read that, scoff, and say “Of course I tip my coffee barista! Every day!”. Of the few people that commented it seemed that everyone thought there was an appropriate time to tip (I agree) and sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to tip. But as I considered holiday tipping another thought crossed my mind. Why do only certain professions warrant the expectation of tips?
Everyone is Deserving, Right?
Friday’s Tax Quote – December 17, 2010 – “People don’t complain about taxes because they are selfish or stingy. They complain because they simply don’t believe they’re getting their money’s worth.”
- Zell Miller
Don’t Overlook This Easy Way to Put More Money in Your Pocket – If you have an employer, you might be offered a health care or dependent care flexible spending account benefit. Flexible spending accounts are one of those benefits that can make your eyes glaze over, because at first glance they don’t seem like a benefit. But they’re actually great, because when you take advantage of them you get to:
Are You on the Hook for Repaying Your Homebuyer Tax Credit? – In the wake of the financial crisis and the housing market crash, there were a number of efforts made to prop up the failing market. Among these efforts were tax credits for homebuyers, encouraging them to buy homes. However, not all the tax credits were created equal; in some cases, homeowners may be on the hook for repaying the tax credit.
Merry Taxmas! House OKs tax bill – In addition to keeping the current six tax rates that range from 10 percent to 35 percent, the bill contains a raft other tax breaks for both individuals and businesses. Many of the provisions relate to 2011, but there are some of the individual tax provisions that expired at the end of 2009 and were extended retroactively for the 2010 tax year:
- Alternative minimum tax (AMT) patch
- State and local sales tax deduction (itemizing required)
- Tuition and fees deduction
- Teachers et al write-off for $250 of out-of-pocket expenses
- Private mortgage insurance (PMI) deduction
- Direct donation of IRA money by older account holders
A New 2011 Economic Stimulus Package With Obama-Bush Tax Cuts and Unemployment Benefit Extensions – [Update - No New Taxes with Tax Extensions Approved] President Obama has signed into law a bill that covers an extension of all the bush-era tax cuts and additional tax benefits. With this legislation he has essentially created a new 2011 Economic Stimulus package, estimated at around $858 billion. Here’s how various key components of the “2011 economic stimulus package” legislation will affect you:
Estate tax extension through 2012: Nudging mama off the train in two years?
With Obama’s signing of the compromise tax deal yesterday, the really wealthy were among those who got an early tax present.
Some of the House Democrats railed against this latest version of the estate tax, but in the end, it passed.
For 2011 and 2012, estates worth $5 million or less won’t be taxed at all. For estate values greater than that, a 35 percent tax rate will apply.
Bush-rate extension passes; what it means – After a day of posturing, the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts ended up passing easily last night, 277-148.
So what does it do? Go to the above page for Joes great list of. . .
Also with More coverage of the final bill:
Robert D. Flach, TaxGrrrl, Tax Foundation, Kay Bell, Peter Pappas, The Blog that Inexplicably Hates Our LInks
Tax Bill Passes: What This Means for You – Here’s what’s in and out and what this means for you.
Boston Tea Party Anniversary – The Boston Tea Party was 237 years ago.
Steps To Stimulate A Recovery And Employment The Law Of Opposites
December 19th, 2010 Filed under: MBA Finance Jobs — Finance Author
As I wrote in 2008 on the financial crash, I was in the small minority that would have let the market crash. Now, you may be wondering what I meant then and mean now:
How do we distribute tax benefits for charitable donations? – I’m struck by the remarkable generosity of many of the low-income taxpayers at our Union College Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site, who rarely get any tax benefits for their donations.
The AMT Effect for Individuals – For years, tax practitioners have been clamoring for a permanent fix to the AMT system. Ask a tax preparer about the late extension passed in 2007. If Congress does not pass the extension this year, it is estimated that 28 million taxpayers will pay AMT, with 82% of those taxpayers earning below $200,000. You will notice, that in 2009, 4.5 million were subject to the AMT.
2010 and 2011 AMT Tax Brackets – AMT is Alternative Minimum Tax. The Bush tax cut extension law officially known as the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4853) includes an AMT patch for 2010 and 2011. Congress used to patch AMT one year at a time. This time they did two years in one shot. That’s a 100% improvement!
How much are those New Year’s Eve babies worth?
A time to be born … a time to die – Playing the video while you read this post. And yes read the post. This is a great Article Mary.
“There’s no such thing as a free bike.” – Those “gift” bikes could turn out to be very expensive, because the IRS does not treat it as a “gift” but as a “taxable fringe benefit.”
It raises interesting tax questions.
Rentals and 1099s – Beginning in just a few days, landlords will have a new complication to renting their properties. As if dealing with renters who don’t want to pay their rent or trash the house when they leave isn’t bad enough, landlords will have to begin issuing 1099MISC to any service providers they pay $600 or more over the course of the year.
The new 1099 Requirement you MUST comply with in 2011 – Real estate investors take note: January 1, 2011, is the starting date for new 1099 Reporting rules. Effective January 1st, you must track payments you make to all businesses and individuals that you buy services from. Once you have paid $600 or more to any one business or person in connection with any kind of rental property expense, you’ll need to report those payments to the IRS, and issue each person or business a form 1099-MISC…
Form 1099 repeal fails yet again
While waiting for the Senate to get around to its final vote on the deal to extend the current income tax rates, the chair of the Finance Committee took another shot at repealing the new Form 1099 reporting requirement.
This tax task was devised as a way to help pay for health care reform. Specifically, businesses will have to provide 1099 information returns to each payee that the business pays $600 or more during the year.
How the Price to Earnings Ratio is Calculated – The price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) represents a company’s current share price compared to its earnings per share. Commonly referred to as the earnings multiple, the P/E is commonly used by investors to compare and analyze stocks, as well as determine if a company is under or overvalued. There are many different versions of the price to earnings ratio which are often used to understand past, present, and future valuations.
TAX BLOGOSPHERE BUDDIES – PROF JAMES MAULE – Friday series of mini-interviews with fellow tax bloggers is Professor James Maule of MAULED AGAIN. A fellow “Wandering Traveler in the Internet Wilderness”, Jim has been a professor at Villanova University School of Law in Pennsylvania since 1983, and has been blogging since 2004. I enjoy reading Jim’s, appropriate for his profession, scholarly posts on tax policy. We have both made the extreme error of disagreeing with a certain multi-initialed blogger.
Social Security by the Numbers
Charge cards vs. credit cards: 3 reasons to charge it – The other day, someone asked me, if given the option, which I preferred: charge cards or credit cards. My answer: “There’s a difference?”
There is. And who knew?
(If you knew, kudos, because I always thought “charge card” was what our ancient ancestors – Mom and Dad – called the plastic we carry around in our wallet.)
Pre-paid credit cards: Why you should give them a second look – Today, it’s often difficult for anyone to get a credit card – whether it’s a zero percent balance transfer card or a best cash back credit card. And if you’re just starting out -or starting over – getting an approval based on your credit score can be even more of a hassle. This is what makes pre-paid cards so attractive if you want to use them for online shopping, travel or even just everyday expenses.
Reminder;
You can go to my company web site Tax Center page where you’ll find this year I have a Free Tax Organizer. You’ll need a .pdf reader to open this 14 page organizer. You can also find my Online Tax Organizer, used mostly by clients and/or those who will be clients.
Enter your email to subscribe to the L & R Tax Preparation monthly newsletter.
A Week in Perspective
The Turbo Tax defense doesn’t work in Tax Court. No Gold at the End of the Rainbow – The Court also noted that they gave plenty of opportunities for the Aus to negotiate a settlement with the IRS, and/or to consult attorneys regarding their case. They didn’t until the Court was about to render its decision. Had they asked a tax professional or an attorney familiar with tax law about their case, they likely would have been advised to settle and they would be paying less than they’ll have to.
Disability Insurance Policy To Protect Your Most Important Asset – Your Income – Ask yourself this question. What is your most important and valuable asset? Think about it for a minute. Is it your house? Your savings or your 401(k) retirement plan? Your sports car or rare memorabilia? While all of these things are both important and valuable, none of them truly represent your MOST valuable asset
Don’t Get Taken! What Passive Income Really Means
Love And Money – Love and money don’t always go hand in hand. It can be the cause of countless arguments especially since most of us have different money styles. However, with a few guidelines to promote better money communication, money can become a source of joy within a relationship rather than a stress inducer.
I like this – My “Reverse” Black Friday
ANOTHER ONLINE DEBATE – It seems the announcement of THE SCHEDULE C LETTER has re-opened the online debate of “Should a Sole Proprietor Incorporate, or A One-Person LLC Elect To Be Taxed As A Corporation, For No Other Reason Than to Reduce the Chance of an IRS Audit?” –
The Answer is individually situational. Please see a lawyer then see you tax professional before making your choice.
Not Going To Happen – All over the tax blogs today has been coverage of the President’s Debt Reform Panel’s Tax Reform Panel options for cleaning up the American Tax Code. It looks well thought out and I intend to give it much more study over the next couple of days. But it doesn’t matter what the options suggest, it won’t happen.
Veterans Day 2010: Tax considerations for members of the military
Home Improvements That Qualify for Tax Deductions – Did you know that some home improvements may qualify for federal tax deductions or tax credits? Knowing which renovations and improvements are eligible for tax deductions can help you decide whether or not to make the improvements, and can help you correctly claim deductions or credits for these renovations when you file your taxes.
The One Thing to Drop from Your Budget Like a Hot Potato
Financial Loopholes to Take Advantage of Now – In 2001 Congress passed a massive tax reform bill called the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), which provided tax cuts to all Americans, in all income levels, via a multitude of changes to the tax code. These tax benefits have come to be known as the Bush tax cuts.
Tax Relief FAQ: How Does the IRS Compute Penalties For Delinquent Tax Returns? – An important step in avoiding IRS tax trouble is to understand how the IRS approaches delinquent tax return penalties.
1099s – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Having a small business issue 1099s for these purchases starting in 2012 would be pointless:
- $852 of office supplies purchased from Staples
- $2,592 of airline tickets purchased directly from the airlines
- $1,300 of services from their CPA firm
Issuing a 1099 for $700 of services rendered by a web designer makes sense though and existing law already covers that.
Steve Jobs Is NOT Giving You Tax Advice (But If He Did…) – . . . , as marketing goes, it’s pretty darn clever. And despite whether you love Apple or not, you have to give them credit for consistently being above the curve on the marketing side. As a tax geek, I’m a little bit in love. Using the Tax Code as a marketing tactic is genius (so, hey Apple, call me).
How to Work a Job Fair – Before You Go to a Job Fair, It’s best to be prepared for a job or career fair. Before you go, prepare yourself to impress, and have an idea of what companies you want to talk to. As get ready to go, consider taking these actions:
So I Won a Free Trip to the Bahamas. Now, How do I Report It on my Tax Return? - “I will not be sent a Form 1099-MISC. So how should I account for this on my tax return?”
What are the odds of an Obama compromise on Bush rates? – Tax planners got all excited yesterday when top White House aide David Axelrod hinted to the Huffington Post website that the President might be ready to extend the 2010 tax rates for top earners. Absent new legislation, the top marginal rate will rise from 35% to 39.6% in 2011 — and higher when phase-outs are counted. But if the Axelrod statements are a trial balloon, the President isn’t ready to climb aboard just yet. CNN reports on comments he made in Seoul:
Lottery winnings, charitable donations and the tax collector – By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the Nova Scotia couple who hit the lottery and then gave away most of their $10.9 million (Canadian) winnings to charities.
Allen and Violet Large are generous, but they’re no fools. They kept nearly a million for themselves. The septuagenarians say they’ll use the money for emergencies and to buy more lottery tickets.
Good for them! And doubly good for them that Canadian tax law allows them to give away so much of their windfall.
Wash Sale Rule for Investment Losses – All investors experience losses, no matter how experienced or knowledgeable they are. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows investors to deduct capital losses from investing gains in order to reduce your capital gains taxes. Under the IRS rules, short-term capital losses can be used to reduce short-term capital gains, which is extremely beneficial because short-term capital gains tax is equal to your ordinary income tax rate.
Roth Conversion Planning Ideas
5 Ways to Make Sure that a Partnership is a Good Idea for Your Business – Ask most business people their most horrendous business story, and it will almost always involve a partner.
Lucky Number 13: 13 Financial Changes for My 23rd Birthday – now that I’m one day away from being 23, I’ve realized it’s time to start being more financially responsible.
Financial Tips
You can avoid headaches at tax time by keeping track of your receipts and other records throughout the year. Good record-keeping will help you remember the various transactions you made during the year, which in turn may make filing your return less, ummm, taxing.
Records help you document the deductions you’ve claimed on your return. You’ll need this documentation should the IRS select your return for examination. Normally, tax records should be kept for three years, but some documents – such as records relating to a home purchase or sale, stock transactions, IRA, and business or rental property – should be kept longer.
In most cases, the IRS does not require you to keep records in any special manner. Generally speaking, however, you should keep any and all documents that may have an impact on your federal and State tax returns:
- Bills
- Credit card and other receipts
- Invoices
- Mileage logs
- Canceled, imaged, or substitute checks or any other proof of payment
- Any other records to support deductions or credits you claim on your return
Good record-keeping throughout the year saves you time and effort at tax time when organizing and completing your return. For more information on what kinds of records you should keep, check out my page Tax Strategies for Individuals and or Tax Strategies for Business Owners. Use the guides listed on the mentioned pages to learn how to lower your taxes with legitimate tax saving strategies and to find perfectly legal tax deductions that you may be missing.
A few other tips.
Asset Allocation Adjustments
Review the asset allocation of your portfolio. Increases and decreases in the value of your portfolio can upset the asset allocation you consider optimal. Should you shift some stock investments into or out of bond investments? Should you shift some funds into tax-free investments?
Health Spending Checkup
If your employer has a flexible spending arrangement (FSA), determine the balance left in the plan. Your plan may allow you to carry over a year-end balance for use early in the following year.
If your plan doesn’t allow unspent money to be carried over, then you may want to incur discretionary medical, dental, or optical costs prior to year-end. If you do not participate in such a plan, find out if one is available at your company. Also find out if you are eligible for a Health Savings Account.
Review Budget vs. Actuals
Compare September income and expenditures with your budget. Make adjustments as appropriate to your October expenditures. Make sure you have invested your planned savings amount for September.
Estimate Your 2010 Tax Liability
Total up your taxable income, capital gains, and deductions through this date. Estimate the amounts expected through year-end. Determine where you stand, and what steps, if any, you should take prior to year-end to minimize your tax liability. Please feel free to call us for help.
Reads From Last Week
I am back on the racks over at Alltop. Thank you everyone for helping get there.
What is it?
Alltop is sort of a “digital magazine rack of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points” the site provides categorized selections of links to blogs and other web resources that make it easy to scan a lot of information on a particular subject. For example the Taxes page lists many tax blogs with links to the most recent posts. Alltop is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to research, or just keep up on, well, stuff. If you have ever been to a real magazine rack you know.
Anyway, I am very excited to have been added once again. Very Exciting times. . .
THE REPORT ON TAX REFORM OPTIONS – In a meeting yesterday afternoon (Friday, August 27th) the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) released its report, summarized their concerns, and voted to send the report to President Obama for review.
Paul Volcker has the President’s ear on tax reform…but will he listen?
Obama tax reform panel report released
10 Year Treasury Bond at Lows.. What Does it Mean?
Another great source of collected blogs BlogRoll Beans from Cafétax
Let the Charitable Mud-Slinging Begin!
The Internet is the Best, and Worst, Thing That Happened to Tax Planning and Preparation – the Internet has a long memory – as in, forever. So, things posted in 2004 might have been true then, but no longer are true. But that doesn’t stop search engines from pulling old articles and others from posting the articles on their website in an attempt to boost Google search rankings.
My favorite news this week, What You Can Learn From Roni Deutch’s $34 Million Fraud Lawsuit.
Read more about Roni Deutch’s $34,000,000 Lawsuit:
Brown Seeks $34 Million from TV’s Tax Lady Roni Deutch: Official News Release
TV Tax Lady Roni Deutch Facing Legal Troubles
Tax Lady Roni Deutch Sued for “Heartless Scam”
Roni Deutch Sued by California AG
‘Tax Lady’ Accused of Unladylike Behavior
Unladylike Behavior or Election Year Politics?
California Sues Roni Deutch for “Heartless” Pennies on the Dollar Tax Scheme
Here’s what she had to say, Tax Lady: California lawsuit ‘election year politics’
The TaxProf has more.
The Internet, Virtual Meetings, and Taxation
Tax Relief for Innocent Spouses – You Must Act Swiftly to File Your Claim with the IRS – In recent tax relief news, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the IRS can continue to apply the two-year deadline for taxpayers looking to file for “innocent spouse” relief. Basically, this treasury ruling upholds that taxpayers claiming innocent spouse tax relief must make their claims within 2 years of the IRS’s commencement of collection action.
What is meant by an “innocent spouse”?
Tax and the City: Philly Tax Takes on a Life of Its Own
A Tax on Blog Writing or on Blog Business?
Philadelphia Demands License Fee and Taxes from Bloggers
All in all, I’d rather not be in Philadelphia
Click here for more information on Alltop. Or go to their home page at Alltop.com to start checking out your favorite information.
Choosing the Right Representative: A Re-post
Rob Teuber is an attorney with the law firm Weiss Berzowski Brady LLP and author of the tax law blog www.federaltaxlawforum.com.
I deside to repost this as it would seem the information has been forgotten.
Choosing the Right Representative to Help You with Your Federal Tax Problems.
When you or your business is faced with tax problems it is a good idea to consider hiring a professional to help you navigate through the complex tax laws and procedures. The problem is often finding the representative that is right for you. Questions you may have include: Should I hire an accountant or lawyer? Do I need a local representative or does it matter where the person is based? What is the lawyer’s/accountant’s reputation?
As a lawyer myself, I will answer these questions in typical lawyer fashion: “It depends.”
First and foremost, you should choose a representative that is right for you. The personal relationship that you form with a representative is one of the most valuable criteria for hiring someone. It is important that both the representative and client trust one another, be on the same page as to the desired resolution of the problems and agree on the way to approach the IRS.
Accountant or Lawyer.
Generally, both accountants and lawyers are permitted to practice before the IRS. This means that either may help you in handling a tax audit, appeals of audit findings and tax collection matters. However, subject to certain exceptions, only lawyers can represent a client in court. Therefore, when making a decision on whom to hire, consider how far you are willing (or can afford) to push a case to get the resolution you are looking for. In moving through the process, having a lawyer involved will increase the risk to the IRS that litigation will actually occur. This may encourage a more favorable settlement. Further, if you think you will need the protection of the “Attorney – Client Privilege” while pursuing your case, you may want a lawyer instead of an accountant.
Do You Need a Local Representative.
In days gone by (before the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 ) most tax related issues were handled by local IRS offices. The Restructuring Act, however, changed a lot of this by centralizing certain functions in different regions of the country. As such, local representation is less relevant than it used to be. Due to these landscape changes much of the work can easily be managed through conference calls and correspondence.
Knowledge and Reputation.
Of course, when choosing a representative to help you with your tax problems, you want to be sure that he or she has both the knowledge and reputation that can help you. Investigate the person to find out more about who you will be dealing with. If you are reading this post, you are likely already using the internet as a tool to find out more.
Most representatives will have a website. While informative, don’t rest completely on the representations made on that website. The website will list the accomplishments of the attorney/accountant and provide information on their skill set. Start here to find out if the person can do for you what you need. But don’t stop here.
Find out if the prospective representative has a blog. If so, spend some time reading through the blog to see if you are impressed with their knowledge of the tax laws and procedures. If so, this may be the right representative for you.
Use search engines to find out what you can about the representative’s reputation. While you won’t find a website called “here is a list of representatives and what the IRS thinks of them,” you will be able to find out whether the representative has written scholarly articles in industry magazines or business journals. This may be the best way to find out about one’s reputation. If a reputable journal will publish their work, there is a greater likelihood that the author has a good reputation.
Be mindful however, that specific and direct recommendations for a particular representative will likely be hard to come by. Most people don’t want to broadcast to the world that they or their business has had tax troubles.
The Ultimate Goal.
Ultimately, the goal is to find someone that is right for you. When doing so, consider the points made above. At the end of the day, you want to be comfortable with your choice and have confidence that you have hired the right person for the job.
Rob Teuber is an attorney with the law firm Weiss Berzowski Brady LLP and author of the tax law blog www.federaltaxlawforum.com.
Reads From Last Week
Sales tax collection on online purchases: legislation to ease it, lawsuit to stop it.
PREPAYING INDEBTEDNESS AT A DISCOUNT DOES NOT ALWAYS GIVE RISE TO CANCELLATION OF INDEBTEDNESS INCOME – the reduction in the amount due will often be characterized as cancellation of indebtedness income, which is subject to income tax.
HIRE and 941′s – 941s can be confusing to the new employer and with the new payroll forgiveness provision in the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act it’s even more trouble. . . IRS info on the HIRE Act
Why Are My Social Security Benefits Taxable??
There are 2 main time limits: How long debt stays in your credit reports and how long you can be sued for it. If you’re struggling, here’s what you need to know. Is there a statute of limitations on debt?
An Interview with the Richard “The IRS Hitman” Close
US banks with the largest branch networks have already started to discontinue free checking accounts for new customers. Andy has some great advice in his post The End of Free Checking and How to Avoid Monthly Account Fees.
- How to Choose a 529 Plan And Save Now For Future College Costs – Prepaid vs. College Tax Savings Plan
- How and Where to Open a Traditional or Roth IRA Account and Factors to Keep in Mind
- 401k Rollover and Conversion To Roth Accounts May Soon be Permitted
ON THE ROAD AGAIN from The Wondering Tax Pro tells the tale of an upcoming event I had hoped and planned to attend. Alas, I had issues that caused me to change those plans. However, Nothing will keep me from next year’s conference (at least nothing I can foresee) as I have already let all who need to know, know. It is already in my planner and what not. I will see everyone in St. Louis in 2011. Only a four hour drive. See you then my friend.
Want to know how to have more money? Start with saving, it’s the easiest way to have more money. How to Have More Money. Save Money to Make Money.
How to Open a Business Checking or Savings Account “One of the most important things you can do when you own a business is separate your business and personal income. The most important reason is to make things much easier when filing your taxes. One of the easiest ways to separate your personal and business finances is by opening a business bank account, such as a business checking and/or business savings (I recommend both).” I also recommend having both. I separate banking account from your personal is a must in my opinion.
How to Create a Sub Account in ING
One of the most commonly touted benefits of being a home owner is the ability to deduct mortgage interest from your taxes. How Much Are You Really Saving with the Mortgage Interest Deduction?
Small Business News: The Better Business Owner Today we realize that it is not so much money or the right connections that make a business succeed in the long run. How many well-funded businesses have you seen run into the ground by owners who failed to successfully negotiate a change in the market or who really didn’t ever understand the market to begin with? Similarly, the better business owner does not do everything for money. There’s a passion too for their business that is truly extraordinary and there is a vision that is unique and belongs to no one else. What sets the better business owner apart is information, the information to achieve their goals, and passion, a love for your product, service or brand that nothing can shake. We aim to provide the foundation for both in this edition of the small business roundup.
If you missed my post this past week I posted a two part explanation coving the Profit and Loss Statement. The information came from two sources cut and edited for the general information provided. Please be sure to check these out if you haven’t already.
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