Jay Kimelman, the Digital CPA has been using Practice Ignition for 3 years now. It was the tax extension filing season when he had that a-ha moment. Jay stated he loved Practice Ignition from first sight, but once he got access to payments, it took his practice to the next level of streamlining.
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The Internal Revenue Service announced on September 26, 2016, that it plans to begin private collection of certain federal tax debts. Four contactors have been selected to implement this program. The contractors are CBE Group, ConServe, Performant, and Pioneer Credit Recovery. The IRS appears to have done their homework in selecting reputable companies.
Watching tax professionals reputations grow with higher visibility and authority in tax services is very exciting. Allow me to share the stories of tax professionals who are utilizing new marketing technology only available on www.taxconnections.com.
We focus on powerful native advertising strategies developed with TaxConnections proprietary software. For those of you who are unfamiliar with native advertising, it is a way to market your tax services without people realizing it is an ad about your tax services. We spent years developing this technology and we are delighted to see our members gaining new clients and authority for their tax expertise every day. Allow me to introduce some of our members and how they are accelerating their tax reputations. Read more
The first and very important note to make, in dealing with South African tax issues: tax year 2014 ends on the last day of FEBRUARY 2014. The South African tax year for most individuals, are 1 March until the last day of February in the next calendar year. Corporates can change their tax year-end to align with the last day of their financial year-end, yet Trusts partners in a JV or partnership, are obliged to file assuming a tax year-end on the last day of February, despite their financial year-end being the last day of another month.
Yes, sadly this date, Friday 28th 2014, is not even listed on the SARS webpage on important dates, yet is an extremely important tax deadline.
SARS has two webpages namely: www.sars.gov.za and www.sarsefiling.co.za. Read more
Assessments against business taxpayers that have not filed required tax returns have soared by nearly 60% according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration’s (TIGTA) report dated September 17, 2012. However, the IRS needs to improve internal controls to ensure staff follow the correct procedures in documenting the reasons for these assessments, according to this report.
The report found that in 10% of the cases, taxpayers were not provided a full thirty days to respond to proposed assessments prepared for them by IRS before the returns were processed as Collection Field function assessments under tax code Section 6020(b). This is a potential violation of taxpayers’ rights.
TIGTA also determined that during Calendar Year 2008, taxpayers with stand-alone 6020(b) assessments (assessments made in which the taxpayers had potential delinquent returns due but no outstanding tax liabilities) were less compliant in subsequent years than taxpayers without 6020(b) assessments. However, a more in-depth study of delinquent returns in which the for the Small Business/Self-Employed Division. Use of I.R.C. § 6020(b) authority was considered but not used may be needed to better understand these results. The IRS does not track subsequent filing compliance when The IRS has the ability to prepare returns and I.R.C. § 6020(b) authority is used.
When the Senate overwhelmingly passed the Marketplace Fairness Act (“MFA”) (S. 743) on May 6, 2013 tax professionals and other CPAs naturally took notice. Many journalists and bloggers have taken notice, too, writing prolifically about the so-called “Internet sales tax.” This is the closest such legislation has come to being enacted, and so naturally it is newsworthy. However, many in their excitement have begun talking about the passage of this Act as if it is a foregone conclusion. So far the MFA has passed the Senate. But some say it has a tough road ahead in the House and that it may even be dead-on-arrival in the Republican-controlled House.
Will it pass? We don’t know and can’t predict. The only thing we can be sure of is that whether the MFA passes or not, sales tax nexus is and will continue to be a very relevant, complex issue demanding attention by businesses large and small and their CPAs.
We are actually hearing this statement in one form or another from many CPAs and other professionals. While we could agree that the physical presence aspect of nexus has been under pressure since the Quill case and that the pressure appears to be increasing every year, we can not agree that nexus would be obsolete. The MFA still has many questions that need to be answered. For example, if the MFA does pass in the House, what modifications will be made and what will the final version look like? Will all the states participate? What will be the minimum threshold? Read more
We first posted UK mini-FATCA Agreements Spells The End for UK Tax Haven Territories!, on Monday, November 26, 2012, where we discussed that the UK government is about to reveal legislation imposing automatic client disclosure provisions on financial institutions in the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.
The draft, described as a UK version of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), is said to mandate the automatic reporting of financial and beneficial ownership information for each account of each offshore financial institution to the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs.
The draft agreement requires the automatic exchange of information for each reportable account of each reporting financial institution. That will include full details of all beneficial owners of the account, including those whose identities might otherwise be hidden by trusts or companies. It will also requires the account number, name and identifying number of the reporting financial institution as provided when registering with the IRS for FATCA purposes, and the account balance or value as of the end of the relevant calendar year or other appropriate reporting period or, if the account was closed during such year, immediately before closure. Read more
Video is a great way for people to get to know you better and help sell your tax services to prospective clients and business connections. Video enables you to create and share in a way that is not possible in plain text print. Studies show that video in emails increases traffic and client engagement considerably. In fact, you can increase the amount of your emails being opened by another five percent with the knowledge that 96 percent of the video will be viewed. Your video will also rank higher on the search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo so you definitely want to make the effort to produce video on your tax services.
Creating a video on the tax services you offer is important to building ongoing business relationships. When creating a video, think of ways to present problems you have solved and solutions you have provided to people and organizations. Create a video that people can relate to; create a memorable experience that describes real situations that people find themselves in. You will be remembered for the impressions you make in these videos, so focus on the people who will be watching them. If you offer viewers something of value they will keep coming back to you. Read more
Tax Brand Visibility is an important concept for you to understand because if you do not have strong visibility online, no one knows you exist! Tax professionals with a smart tax branding strategy will get noticed and hired long before anyone else! Do you realize you can create a strong tax brand in less than thirty minutes? Do you realize that you most likely do not even have control of your very own tax brand right now? Someone else probably controls it and you need to take it back to increase your business opportunities. You need to pay attention to what I am about to teach you!
After spending months studying a secret you are about to learn, I am going to open your eyes to a huge obstacle to your success as a tax professional! Go online and conduct a search for yourself. How many clicks does it take to find you? What does a person have to go through to connect with you? Can someone only find you if they go through a site and pay to access you? More than one billion times a year people go online for tax help so it is important to understand how one billion potential consumers of your tax expertise find you. Do they have to pay to find you? How many clicks does it take to find you? Do you control access to your tax professional profile in one or two clicks? Do you realize 99% of consumers walk away when they realize they must pay to find your contact information? Did you know you can now take control of your tax brand and people can find you in one click for free?
Recently, I contacted the Partner of a Big Four Firm and told him that I could not connect with him online after 20 clicks! That is more effort than most people would put forth to find him. I told him he was missing Read more
If people are looking to take a mortgage, the lender will usually ask to see accounts that have been certified by the accountant – another benefit of having a professional adviser, in addition to the potential tax savings that an adviser can bring.
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According to the newly released 2012 IRS Data Book, the IRS collected almost $2.5 trillion in federal revenue and processed 237 million returns, of which almost 145 million were filed electronically. Out of the 146 million individual income tax returns filed, almost 81 percent were e-filed. More than 120 million individual income tax return filers received a tax refund, which totaled almost $322.7 billion. On average, the IRS spent 48 cents to collect $100 in tax revenue during the fiscal year, the lowest cost since 2008.
The IRS examined just under one percent of all tax returns filed and about one percent of all individual income tax returns during fiscal year 2012. Of the 1.5 million individual tax returns examined, nearly 54,000 resulted in additional refunds.
An electronic version of the 2012 IRS Data Book can also be found on the Tax Stats and the following are some highlights worth noting.
In FY 2012, IRS initiated 5,125 criminal investigations.
In FY 2012, the IRS closed 60,793 applications for tax-exempt status and other determinations. Of those, the IRS approved tax-exempt status for 52,615 organizations. In FY 2012, the IRS recognized more than 1.6 million tax-exempt organizations and nonexempt charitable trusts.
In Fiscal Year 2012, General Counsel received 31,295 Tax Court cases involving a taxpayer contesting an IRS determination that he or she owed additional tax.
IRS workforce and the resources that the IRS spends to collect taxes and assist taxpayers. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, the IRS collected more than $2.5 trillion, incurring a cost of 48 cents, on average, to collect $100.
IRS’s actual expenditures in FY 2012 was less than $12.1 billion, which was used to meet the requirements of its three core operating appropriation budget activities.
In FY 2012, the IRS employed a total workforce of 97,941, including part-time and seasonal employees.
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