Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen stunning development in recent years, and these improvements are wiggling their way into the day-to-day operations of small businesses faster than many business owners realize.
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There are few experiences that conjure such dread and stress as when a taxpayer has received notification from the Internal Revenue Service that he or she will undergo an audit of their tax returns.
Frankly, it feels like a punch in the gut when you first read those words.
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(Pursuant To IR-2018-66, March 21, 2018) Internal Revenue Service
Every year the IRS issues its “Dirty Dozen” report to highlight the biggest scams that the public needs to avoid.
The IRS has released the following press release:
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If you’ve formed certain habits related to how you handle meals, entertainment, transportation, and parking as it relates to your business and taxes, the time to change those habits has come.
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No business looks forward to the time-consuming process of closing their books at the end of each month. It’s certainly not the fun part of running a business. It can be tedious. (Though when business is doing well, it can be encouraging to see everything closing nicely in healthy shape.)
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After a lengthy process, Congress and the President did what they had to do in late December 2017 to put into law one of the most significant pieces of legislation in decades: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The Act put into place a number of provisions that will affect Not for Profit Organizations. Note the following areas of tax impact that the provisions of the TCJA brought in relation to Not For Profit Organizations, as noted in Yeo Yeo:
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Every business owner wants growth and profit. No one wants to sit back passively and miss out on opportunities. However, as noted in Rhonda Abram’s analysis in USA Today, it’s easier said than done: there’s a certain key combination of factors that must be achieved. The key is coming up with the right combination of resources and steps to take to achieve “growth.” There are big problems with growing a small business opportunistically.
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There is plenty of misunderstanding about the definition of cryptocurrency. Wikipedia’s well-researched entry on the topic defines “cryptocurrency” as follows (with their links included):
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Most articles about the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December buzz about the resulting income tax consequences for individuals and businesses.
But what about the intersection of the TCJA and estate planning?
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A recent interview style Q and A session appeared in Accounting Today featuring the expertise of author Iralma Pozo. In this series of questions, Pozo tackles some important aspects of the most significant change to the U.S. tax code since 1986. With such historic changes underway, it’s critical that you understand how the Tax Cuts and Job Act will affect cash flow issues for clients.
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Over the years in our regulation-heavy business environment, small businesses have had forests of rules and regulations to wade through every year. The hard truth is that legislative and regulatory challenges (especially over-regulation) often hit small businesses the hardest. They have fewer resources in terms of staff, money, time and management attention to handle the sometimes massive tasks of keeping up with regulations.
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The following article provides a preliminary overview to blockchain technology. Additional information regarding this technology and its potential will be presented in subsequent articles. This information was presented in the Journal of Accountancy by Lou Carlozo:
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At the beginning of the new year, the time is right to assess where your company is going and examine strategic initiatives. It’s also a terrific time to put a plan together to see what resources would be required to bring those initiatives to fruition. It’s also time to ask a lot of questions to determine which plans are “pie in the sky” dreams, and which plans are in realistic alignment with the company’s long-term goals.
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An intriguing survey was recently conducted by BeeBole with several CFOs and financial experts, asking them to predict which tech trends will shake up financial management in 2018.
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In last month’s newsletter we presented some general facets of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). In this article, we will explore some portions of the new bill in greater detail.
In general, the law cuts corporate tax rates permanently and individual tax rates temporarily. It permanently removes the individual mandate, a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, and it changes other policies in dramatic ways, such as the SALT deduction (which will be explained in more detail below).
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President Trump signed the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" into law on Dec. 22, as noted and summerized from a report by Investopedia. The Senate passed the bill on Dec. 20 by a party-line vote of 51 to 48. The House passed the bill later in the day by a vote of 224 to 201. No House Democrats supported the bill, and 12 Republicans voted no, most of them representing California, New York and New Jersey.
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In practice, the sharing economy is nothing new. It’s been around for a thousand years, in fact. Societies have always shared the use of assets.
But then the internet came along, and following close behind was Big Data.
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Poor cash flow can affect much more than the financial performance of your business. The non-financial costs of poor cash flow can have just as negative an impact on your business as the financial costs. Here are a few ways, as noted in Beyond the Numbers, that poor cash flow can affect your business.
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Carefully crafted, plainly understood communication is fundamental to the establishment of relationships, whether personal or business. If there is ever going to be a meaningful exchange of thoughts and emotions it will be through effective communication.
But it’s easier said than done.
To say precisely what you mean without leaving any shred of nuance out of your intended message is a fine art form that takes practice and hard work.
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The relationship between accountant and client is a relationship based on open communication and the exchange of relevant ideas, and this serves as the basis for decision making. Without the exchange of ideas between client and accountant there is no value added to the decision making process. Key to the relationship between both client and accountant is what can be viewed as an exchange of “relevant ideas.” For there to be an exchange of relevant ideas both parties need to establish what information the other party would likely need in the near-term and the long-term.
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You may have heard about subscription businesses and what owning a subscription business might be like. This article will help clarify what you may or may not have heard by going through some of the basics of owning and operating a subscription business.
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With the holidays fast approaching, many people are looking for ways to combine their desire to help the causes they believe in along with their desire to save on taxes. For the charitably inclined, there are strategic ways of giving that can accomplish both goals. The following strategies, as noted by Fidelity, are for your consideration and can help you make the most of your charitable giving this year.
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Clients (and accountants) are human whether we like it or not. And as we know, humans make mistakes. Identifying and fixing financial mistakes is a large part of the effort expended by clients and accountants. An analysis of these efforts make up the crux of this article.
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As noted in recent reports, current US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) as prescribed by Accounting Standards Codification (ASC 840) focuses on whether the lease transfers substantially all of the risks and rewards of ownership.
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On September 27, 2017, the Trump Administration and select Republican members of Congress released a “unified framework” for tax reform. The document provides more detail than a number of other tax reform documents that have emerged from the Administration over the past few months, but it still leaves many specifics to be worked out by the tax-writing committees. The term “framework” means it is not the finished bill or a draft of actual legislation. The framework is subject to change after the September 27, 2017 issuance of the framework.
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As the IRS has noted in its alerts to the public, a variety of different tax scams continue to rob people of millions of dollars and trick them into handing over sensitive personal information. Scammers use the regular mail, telephone, fax or email to set up their victims.
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The decision of when to draw social security benefits can have a lifelong impact on one’s ability to have sufficient enough funds to afford retirement. For too many retirees, an insufficient social security nest egg is all they have.
Waiting to collect social security benefits versus not waiting to collect social security benefits can be a difficult decision make. A number of factors need to be taken into account in order to make an intelligent and well-informed decision.
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In recent days the world has become familiar with perhaps the largest data breach event ever known to humanity. I’m referring, of course, to the Equifax data breach.
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What is a foreclosure?
A foreclosure occurs when a property owner cannot service their mortgage (i.e. make principal and/or interest payments), usually leading to the property (distressed property) being seized and sold (foreclosure sale). Typically, the property in foreclosure is available for investors to purchase.
Buying a foreclosed home is different from buying a typical resale. In many cases the following applies:
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