Top Ten Tax Time Tips

January 5, 2010

While the tax filing deadline is more than three months away, it always seems to be here before you know it. Here are the Internal Revenue Service’s top 10 tips that will help your tax filing process run smoother than ever this year. Start gathering your records Round up any documents or forms you’ll need [...]

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Seven Things you Should Know When Selling Your Home

December 27, 2009

People who sell their home may be able to exclude the gain from their income. Here are seven things every homeowner should know if they sold, or plan to sell their house. Amount of exclusion. When you have gain from the sale of your home, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of [...]

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Do’s and don’ts for paying part-time employees

December 7, 2009

Do withhold FICA on part-timers, including retirees. Even if someone who works for you part-time also has a full-time job where they have had 100% of their FICA withheld for the year, you must withhold the full amount of FICA from their pay. These individuals can obtain a refund of any overpaid FICA on their [...]

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Having a password is not enough!

November 15, 2009

Password protection for sensitive personal and other data is only as good as the password itself. Easily accessed “cracker,” “breaker,” or “recovery” software runs millions of passwords per second through a log-on box. A password of even 6 characters combining numbers, symbols and upper- and lower-case letters can be broken in 5 hours; only numbers, symbols [...]

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Ten Facts about the First-Time Homebuyer Credit

October 30, 2009

Many taxpayers who purchase a home this year will qualify for an $8,000 federal tax credit. The refundable first-time homebuyer credit is a major tax provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But time is running out to qualify for this credit. Here are ten things the IRS wants you to know [...]

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QuickBooks Tutorial: Getting Your Straight Deposits to Show up on Your Customer QuickReport

October 29, 2009

In QuickBooks, when trying to view customer quickreports in QuickBooks, straight deposits don’t show up.  By default, this report only lists A/R items.  I have prepared a Jing to show you how to get your straight/direct deposits to show up on your customer reports. To view the larger, 1010 x 800 video, click on read [...]

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If your firm gives employees gifts—any gifts— better know what’s taxable

October 28, 2009

Nontaxable gifts: Fruit baskets, hams, turkeys, wine, flowers and occasional entertainment tickets, such as to a show or sporting event, generally are nontaxable de minimis fringes. Taxable gifts: Gift certificates (“cash in kind”) are wages subject to FIT, FITW, FICA, and FUTA, even for a de minimis item. For example, a gift certificate for a [...]

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QuickBooks Tutorial: How does the Undeposited Funds Account Work?

October 27, 2009

There is a chart of account created automatically in QuickBooks called, Undeposited Funds.  What is it there for exactly?  In short, it is a holding account on monies that you have collected but not yet deposited.  To see a visual, here is a jing…. To view the larger, 1010 x 800 video, click on read [...]

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Get ready for a sales/use tax audit

October 26, 2009

The target: Buyers from other states who fail to pay a use tax on purchases made online or by phone. Vendors in these states are not responsible for collecting sales taxes unless they have a physical presence in the buyer’s state, so their state sales tax will not appear on the invoice. But the buyer [...]

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QuickBooks Tutorial: How to pay sales tax with a credit card, using the sales tax function

October 25, 2009

It’s that time again to file sales tax.  You have already made your payment online via a credit card and it’s time to enter the transaction into QuickBooks.  You go to Vendors > Sales Tax > Pay Sales Tax, you select all the information to pay and realize that you don’t have the option to [...]

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