November 2009

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Monday Morning Message

November 30, 2009 in Monday Morning Message | No comments

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”

John C. Maxwell

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Tags: John C. Maxwell, Monday Morning Message, Real Leaders

I’m Thankful…

November 25, 2009 in Business, Other Thoughts, Spiritual | 2 comments

: Image by The Suss-Man (Mike) via Flickr

Looking back over 15 years of business, I can truly say that I’ve been blessed. I can look over my past employment, and I can see how God has prepared me for the very position I hold now in our firm… from my management style, to my knowledge, to the vision and mission of our firm, to our firm’s future. I’m not saying I’m the best at what I do, or that I’m even the best for this firm… but I can see the preparation that has been planned for me. And I’m thankful.

4. I’m thankful for our solid, qualified staff. My staff check my qualifications and my decisions all the time. They still recognize my leadership, but they are what makes our firm run. They consistently perform their job with excellence, consistency, and high integrity. Though we are not perfect, I’m so thankful for each and every person that works at our firm.

3. I’m thankful for our clients. I tell everyone all the time that we have the best clients in the world. And that takes work. We keep a “clean client list” so that dead weight won’t hinder our service to the clients that value what we can do for them. There is always purpose behind our decisions, and our decisions to fire our clients is for the good of the clients who truly rely on us. Because of our decision to keep a clean client list, we have ended up with the best clients in the world, and I’m so thankful for these friends.

2. I’m thankful for my wife. If anyone takes the hit for my commitment to our firm and our clients, it’s my wife. She understands what I have to do and allows me to do it. She offers me marketing advice, management advice, advice on the future of the firm, and so much more. I could not be effective without her constant guidance. I’m so blessed and thankful for her. I love her so much.

1. I’m thankful for Christ. My life is wrapped up in who I am in Christ. I’ve seen the darkness of my heart, and my love for myself. And now I know the love of a Father who has forgiven me for my sin, through Christ. Eternally, my hope is not in what I do on this earth and I’m thankful for Christ that has given me an eternal hope.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer

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Tuesday Tax Time: “The IRS is Wrong Edition”

November 24, 2009 in Business, Tuesday Tax Time | 1 comment

Seal of the United States Internal Revenue Ser...

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I just had to put up this blog post from Diane Kennedy, CPA’s US Tax Aid blog:

The IRS audit force has been doubled. The fairly new commissioner has been given one prime directive: collect more money! And, just like the feds, they’ve fired up the printing presses.

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen dozens of IRS notices and heard of hundreds more. In almost every case, the IRS is wrong. If you get an IRS notice, first of all, take a deep breath. There is a good chance that they are wrong.

Here are a few of the ones we’ve seen:

1 Your tax return was filed late. We’ve seen a handful of these, even though the extensions were accurately filed, on time, and we can prove it. (By a return receipt from the Post Office) And we can prove that the return itself was timely filed, again, by a return receipt from the Post Office.

2 Your C Corporation should be a personal service corporation. This is one that seems to be popular with the IRS right now. That’s because the personal service corporation will mean a higher tax rate. It also seems to be based on no proof whatsoever. One of our clients got the letter simply because the term “evaluation” was used in the title of his corporation. It was evident by looking at his return, the expenses and description of what his company did that it had nothing to do with performing evaluations of anything (which could be considered a personal service.)

3 We’re changing your W-4 exemptions. First of all, a gasp – never heard of this one before! In this case, the client typically paid some in taxes each year. But it was always paid on time and wasn’t a huge sum.

Yikes… I’ve been hearing rumors, but then my clients started getting their own bogus notices. This is NOT good. Taxpayer, beware!

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer, CPA

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Tags: Bogus IRS Notices, Diane Kennedy CPA, Tuesday Tax Time, US Tax Aid Blog

My Daughter’s Blog…

November 23, 2009 in Other Thoughts | 4 comments

My 11 year old daughter, has a knack for the creative. I’m not sure where she got it from because her Mother and I can’t even draw stick figures.

Here are a couple of her latest creations from her blog:

The Wolf

Rachel's Girl

Happy Thanksgiving Turkey

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Tags: Kookycreations blog

Monday Morning Message

November 23, 2009 in Monday Morning Message | 1 comment

Image by Timothy Valentine via Flickr

“All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.”

William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony

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GoSee: Thriveal’s Three on Thursday (the “Track the Government” Edition)

November 19, 2009 in GoSee | No comments

There are some amazing sites out there that allow you to track your House and Senate interests, by person, by topic, by dollars, etc.

1. OpenCongress: this is my favorite government tracking site. You’ll get lost in the drill down of available data! Make sure to check out The Money Trail under the representative or senator you are interested in to see who is contributing to their campaigns, how much money was given, listed by categorical interest and so much more – GoSee

2. Govtrack.us is also a great website allowing you to actually answer questions as to the public’s questions about various legislation. They claim to have started the “civic hacking” movement around the United States Congress (Joshua Tauberer’s blog, the founder of Govtrack.us, defines civic hacking as “the creative use of technology to innovate our civic lives especially our participation in government”) – GoSee

3. Watchdog.net is another great government transparency site. The design of the site is very clean, scaled down and not quite so confusing. I seem to be able to access more information when viewing the site – GoSee

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer, CPA

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Tags: civic hacking, GoSee, Government Transparency, Govtrack.us, OpenCongress.org, watchdog.net

Tuesday Tax Time: The Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009

November 17, 2009 in Tuesday Tax Time | 2 comments

: Image by smcgee via Flickr

There were some great things passed for small businesses and individuals in the recent tax act passed on November 6, 2009. Check out a few points that may apply to you, dang it (by the way, enjoy the pic of the Mayan changing table to the left):

1. Extension of First-Time Home Buyer’s Credit. The $8k credit has been extended! You can now buy a new home until April 30, 2010, and all you have to do is enter into a binding agreement by then (you have until July 1, 2010 to actually close on the house). And your adjusted gross income can be higher and still claim the credit. Before, if you made a certain income, then you were restricted from getting the credit. Now that income limit is higher. Income limits for single home buyer’s used to be $95k, and now it’s $145k. Income limits for joint filers used to be $170k, and now it’s $245k.

2. Extension of Home Buyer’s Credit to non-First-Time Home Buyers. After November 6, 2009, if you’ve used your primary residence 5 consecutive years out of the last 8, then you’ll be able to move up to a new home with a refundable $6,500 tax credit. NOTE: you have to attach a copy of the closing statement to your tax return now.

3. Loss Carryback for Small Businesses. No matter how big your company is, you can now carryback any losses generated in this year (or generated in 2008) back 5 years earlier to claim a refund against a more profitable year. 5 years is a long time, so that should boost the cash flow if you are generating losses but had profits in earlier years. If you took TARP money, then you are not eligible – the way it should be.

4. Penalties for S Corps and Partnerships that DO NOT file their tax returns on time. Beware: if you don’t file your business tax returns on time, you will be penalized $195 per partner. Yikes.

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer, CPA