Accountants and the Internal Revenue Service aren’t the only ones that are especially busy during this time of year. Online spammers have also stepped up their efforts and are taking special advantage of the tax filing season. Spammers are sending emails which appear to have been sent from the IRS claiming filing of fraudulent tax returns or a denied tax appeal. These “phishing” schemes are especially clever and dangerous because they exploit people’s fear of the IRS at a time when they have the greatest chance of striking an authentic chord with the recipients.

On February 22, 2012, President Obama signed the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, H.R. 3630 into law.  This Act extends the 2% employee payroll tax cut through the end of the year.  Note that the employer portion of the Social Security tax remains unchanged at 6.2%, up to the taxable wage [...]

The IRS has compiled a list of 10 things you should know before taking an early distribution from your retirement plan.  Click  to see the list.
 

An article about Charity Walks on the Charity Review Council’s website (www.smartgivers.org) caught my eye recently.  We’ve all received e-mails from friends and family asking for support of their walk (or run, or bike ride) for a specific charity.  Perhaps you have made those solicitations yourself for a cause that is near and dear to [...]

**Originally published in the February 2012 issue of the Midwest Society of Association Executives’  (MSAE) newsletter**
Associations have had to find ways in recent years to cut their budgets by reducing expenses and/or creating new sources of revenue.  New sources of revenue can often be generated from unrelated business activities, requiring the organization to comply with [...]

In the start up of a new business that is operationally like the current business (a restaurant opening another restaurant), all pre-opening expenses can be deducted in the year it is incurred if done as a division of the current business.  If the new business is set up as a separate LLC or S-Corp by [...]

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) protects the reemployment rights of service members… and describes the relationship between employers and service members just prior to, during and after their return from uniformed military service.
Both employers and the service member are given responsibilities to carry out in this partnership between service and [...]

In an attempt to reduce the volume of paper involved in audits, the IRS has been seeking electronic records as a more efficient auditing procedure.  This is also in line with what practitioners wanted: less paperwork involved in the audit process.  However, the concern remains as to how in depth an audit of electronic data [...]