7/25/2011 All of these suggestions to protect yourself as a business owner are very good.  I would like to comment on No. 6 - Check the Books.  We have a number of business clients that use QuickBooks as their accounting software for many good reasons.  One of the best reasons is their bank reconciliation; yet most small businesses don't use this feature.  By using this feature, business owners can catch numerous mistakes such as transposing numbers, failing to enter debit card transactions and potentially someone stealing from you.  If you want to learn how, let us know so we can schedule a training session.  To read the full article please click here. 7/23/2011 Attention foreign account holders, please be sure to read the articles provided under Foreign Account News in the Links section.  Also, to keep up with the latest financial and accounting news, "like" us on Facebook and Twitter.  7/19/2011 There have been issues surrounding emails and phone calls from the IRS.  Please be aware that these are scams and the IRS will contact you ONLY through letters.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us for assistance.  Please send us copies of any correspondence you receive from IRS to make sure it is legitimate and if so, you are paying the correct amount.  7/14/2011 New Reporting Requirements for Sales of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco Products issued June 27, 2011.         Beginning July 1, 2011, sellers of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products are required to report to the Florida Department of Revenue all sales of the related products by retailer name, license number, address, general item type (cigarettes, cigars, beer wine, spirits, etc.) and the net monthly sales total.  The report is due July 1, 2011 and is late after September 30, 2011.  The report covers the fiscal year of July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.       A "Retailer" is defined as a person engaged in the business of making sales at retail and who holds a license under Chapters 561-565, Florida Statutes (F.S.) or a permit under Chapters 210 and 569 F.S. 7/12/2011 The IRS is definitely looking and actively pursuing taxpayers with overseas accounts. Please contact us for assistance with filing the appropriate forms.  7/7/2011 July 1st the Federal Unemployment Rate (FUTA) decreased from .8% to .6%.  This change will impact wages paid in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2011. 6/28/2011 Effective July 1st, IRS has changed the rate for business and moving and medical mileage.? For business, the rate will increase from $0.51 to $0.555 per mile and for moving and medical from $0.19 to $0.235.? Charitable mileage will remain at $0.14.? Therefore, the mileage claimed on your tax return will need to be allocated between January – June mileage and July – December mileage.? Technically, IRS doesn’t allow you to just divide the total mileage in half. 6/23/2011 Do you have foreign bank/investment accounts with an aggregated balance over $10,000?? If so, you should be reporting these on Form TD-90.1 which is due June 30, 2011.? IRS instituted an amnesty program in 2009 for taxpayers that had not reported the income or the accounts on their returns.? The deadline for the amnesty program has been extended to November 1, 2011.? If you have unreported income/accounts, please contact us so we can provide you with the contact information for a tax attorney.? CPA’s and accountants do not have client privilege if IRS makes inquiries whereas attorneys do; therefore, they are not required to disclose information to IRS during this amnesty program. 5/25/11 Hello all! I just wanted to let you know that effective June 1st, 2011, the Florida minimum wage is increasing from $7.25/hour to $7.31/hour.  If you have employees who receive tips as part of their income, the rate is increasing from$4.23/hour to $4.29/hour. 11/17/10   Starting in 2011, owners of rental property will have to issue form 1099-Misc to all service providers for payments of $600 or more during the calendar year.  This means when an owner hires a repair person to fix something the owner will need to obtain a completed Form W-9 which will include the pertinent information, such as, name, address and federal identification number. 11/04/10 Below is a reprint of the Florida Department of Revenue information for registering to pay Use Tax on items purchased out of state or on the internet.  Florida's sales tax is really named Sales & Use Tax; therefore if you have not paid sales tax on a purchase you are still liable for the Use Tax.  If you do not pay the Use Tax, you are not "avoiding" the tax but "evading" the tax.  Avoiding tax is legal, but evading tax is not.     easy online application that you can use to report and pay use tax on Internet, catalog, and other out-of-state purchases. This is an online version of Form DR-15MO (Out-of-State Purchase Return). not use the DR-15MO to remit use tax. Registered Florida dealers should remit any use tax due on their sales and use tax returns as explained in their instructions for returns.     Use tax normally applies to items purchased outside Florida, including another country, which are brought or delivered into this state and would have been taxed if purchased in Florida. The use tax rate is the same as the sales tax rate, 6%. A registered Florida dealer should State law often requires Florida businesses or professionals that make repeated untaxed purchases through the Internet or from out-of-state vendors to register with the Department of Revenue. If you make these types of purchases for your business and are unsure whether you are required to register to pay sales and use tax, go to our online registration site. The site uses an interactive wizard to help you determine your tax registration requirements. You may also call the Department at 800-352-3671 to discuss your individual situation   New online application makes it easier to report tax on out-of-state purchases     04/30/10 Well, I guess I didn't do very well keeping my blog up to date during tax season.  I will do better the rest of the year. I recently read an article regarding the new health care bill in a newsletter from CCH-a Wolters Kluwer business, one of the main tax research companies.  The main point for 2010 - 2013, small businesses are eligible for a 35% tax credit for premiums paid for employee health coverage.  They state a "small business" has no more than 25 emplyees with average annual wages less than $50,000.  Businesses can exclude the owner's compensation from this calculation. There are other issues relating to additional taxes but they start in 2013 or 2014 which I will either include in the newsletter section or detail at another time. 01/25/10 Haiti Relief Donations People who give to charities providing earthquake relief in haiti can claim these donations on the tax return they are completing this season according to IRS.  Taxpayers who itemize deductions on their 2009 return qualify for this special tax relief provision enacted Jan. 22, 2010.  Only cash contributions made to these charities after Jan. 11 and before March 1, 2010 are eligible.  This includes contributions made by text messge, check, credit card or debit card.  The new law only applies to cash contribtions (as opposed to property).  These contributions must be specifically for the Haiti relief.  Taxpayers have the option of deducting these contributions on their 2009 or 2010 tax returns. 01/06/10 We are pleased to announce that we have completed the upgrade of our Client portal.  Our clients will now be able to see their tax organizer, tax returns and source documents, accounting documents and .   Business clients can now send up QuickBook files, excel spreadsheets and other types of files to their portal so we can access them securely.  This service is available to other clients as well if requested.  The clients that tested this service have loved the ease of obtaining their information and the fact they no longer have to keep track of paper. We may offer in the future a service of scanning your documents into the client portal.  Please let us know if this is something you'd be interested in. 11/30/09 IRS has announced that in February 2010, they will begin it's first Employment Tax National Research Project (ET NRP) in 25 years.  IRS will randomly select 2,000 business taxpayers each year for the next 3 years to examine their employment tax returns and issues.  The 2 main goals for the ET NRP are: To secure statistically valid information for computing the Employment Tax Gap and To determine compliance characteristics so IRS can focus on the most noncompliant emplyment tax areas. Employment tax noncompliance can be THE MOST COSTLY expense of a business.  The penalty for noncompliance can be as high as 10% per incident and the penalty itself is nondeductible for tax purposes.  The  ET NRP examinations are in addition to the regular audits IRS conducts every year.   The Department of Revenue now has an