Accountants' Top 25 Tax Season Trends

The original article is from http://www.linkedin.com
Written by Rick T.
If you want to read more, please refer to the link above.

The most-read articles on tax season so far this year at CPA Trendlines. Meanwhile, find out how other tax professionals are surviving and even thriving in tax season: Join the survey; get the answers.

1. 10 Best Practices for Tax Season – First: Are your fees high enough?
2. 10 Tips for Creating More Energy this Tax Season – Good habits for thriving through the tough times.
3. 11 Ways to Make Sure Clients Know You Care During Tax Season – Including six situations that demand you call the client immediately.
4. 12 Reasons to Love Tax Season – Yes, no kidding. Love it!
5. 19 Easy Ways to Cut Costs, Find More Cash in Time for Tax Season – Start the new year with the resources you need.
6. Accountants Chop Prices for Schedule C’s and 1120′s – But raise rates 6% on 1040′s.
7. Are You Asking Clients the Right Tax Prep Questions? – The top ten tax questions that too often go unasked.
8. Five Ideas to Overcome Client Price-Sensitivity – Just in time for busy season.
9. Five Ways for Partners to Lead by Example this Busy Season – This busy season will test new processes – and a firm’s leadership.
10. FREE INSTANT DOWNLOAD: Sample fee schedule for 1040′s
11. Get Paid Faster this Tax Season: Six Good Reasons to Send the Bill with the Return – It’s good for business and considerate to clients.
12. How many IRS agents does it take to screw in a light bulb? … and more tax season humor.
13. How to Stay Energized, Upbeat, and Thinking Bigger through Busy Season – Five motivation tips from the masters.
14. How to Survive Tax Season: 100 Real-Life Ideas… and Counting – How do you survive tax season? You’ve been answering, by the hundreds.
15. Nine Healthy Things To Do During Tax Season – How to be at your best through April 15th.
16. Putting the “No Jerks” Rule to Work in Tax Season – And a couple more ideas for high performing firms.
17. Seven Checklist Secrets for Turning Tax Season into Opportunity Season – Use your time with the client to ask about more than just this year’s tax return.
18. Seven Smart Ways to Make This Your Best Tax Season Ever – How to make tax season work for you and not just your clients
19. Seven Smart Ways to Make This Your Best Tax Season Ever – How to make tax season work for you and not just your clients.
20. SURVEY RESULTS: Busy Season Outlook 2013 – Mergers, tech and the economy create a volatile mix in forecasting filing season.
21. Tax Pro’s Turn Negative on Busy Season – Washington brinksmanship spells big crunch for preparers.
22. Tax Season: ‘Tis Better to Give than to Receive for This Firm – Vicenti, Lloyd & Stutzman donates clean water with every tax return.
23. Ten Steps to a Better Tax Season – Tools for balancing work and life in the most special time of year.
24. The Big Issue for 2013: Fee Pressure
25. Who’s Missing in Action From Your Workflow Processing System? – “E-mail no longer enhances our productivity. It sucks the life out of us.”

Amazon's New Mobile Ad Network Is A Huge Threat To Google

The original article is from http://www.businessinsider.com
Written Jim Edwards | Mar. 6, 2013, 11:46 AM

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Amazon launched a new mobile ad network this week, which will allow advertisers to run ads on mobile apps downloaded from Amazon's app store.

That doesn't sound too dramatic — it's expected that users of Amazon's Kindle might see ads running on apps they got from Amazon.
But it's only when you understand the full specs of the new network that you realize what a huge potential threat to Google this could be: The ads will also run on any Android device that has downloaded apps from Amazon.

Android, of course, is Google's territory.

Currently, mobile ad revenue is poised to become the heart of Google's entire business. The company changed its ad buying interface to simplify ad buying across desktop and mobile devices. Advertisers expect that change to raise prices for Google ads. And CEO Larry Page has told Wall Street that he expects mobile ad prices to overtake desktop prices in the future. Notably, Google has also upped its game in the online shopping arena, pushing Amazon's search results further down the page.
In short, Google is girding itself for a mobile ad future, not a desktop future.

Amazon

What Amazon's new mobile ads will look like

Now comes Amazon, running ads in mobile apps on Google's Android devices.
Here's the potential, per Adweek:

Imagine a women’s shoe brand being able to serve ads for a particular pair of heels only to women who have owned a similar pair, have  purchased that pair years ago and need to replace them. That’s a possibility if Amazon can recognize app users and match them to their Amazon account. To do that the user would have at least needed to download the app through the Amazon Appstore.

The key here is that currently, Google cannot do anything like that. Amazon may know what shoes you bought in the past, Google does not. Being able to target ads at users with known purchase histories is a goldmine for advertisers.

Right now, Amazon's ad network can't target users that effectively, either. You can see the basic targeting options here, and they're modest (gender, location, and that's about it). 

But as long as Google allows anyone to use its Android phone operating system for free, there's not much it can do about Amazon stealing its eyeballs.

What Amazon doesn't know, however, is what users want to buy right now when they're not on Amazon. That information belongs largely to Google (when you search for Louboutins on Google, it's a pretty good indicator that you're in the market for a pair).

As we've noted before, the universe of information that advertisers need to target their ads is spread largely across three giants:

Amazon: Owns the best database of actual shopping history and purchases. This type of data is like gold for advertisers. Clients have long awaited the day when "the sleeping giant," as it is known in the ad biz, finally wakes up to advertisers. It also knows a lot about its consumers' identities, including addresses and credit card numbers.

Facebook: Owns the best database of personal information about consumers. 1 billion users strong, with all their interests and friends, it's terrifically useful stuff for marketers. But it doesn't know their purchase histories, or their future purchase desires.

Google: Has traditionally dominated the "purchase intent" sector of the category. When people search for "Star Wars DVD" online, that's a pretty good indicator they want to buy said movie. Google has been serving ads (and retargeting ads) against such requests for years. But its data on shoppers and their histories has never been as good as Amazon's or Facebook's.

In this scheme, Amazon appears to regard Google as the easiest competitor to attack. Google knows the least about its consumers (except when they want something right now). And while Facebook's user data is interesting, it's not the kind of e-commerce platform that threatens Amazon. Yet.

That's why Amazon is now leveraging Google's assets against itself.

It's dealing with the biggest threat first.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-new-mobile-ad-network-is-a-huge-threat-to-google-2013-3#ixzz2OK7Z99sZ

Microsoft - An expensive error

The original article is from http://www.economist.com
Written Mar 6th 2013, 12:53 by C.S.-W.

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VARIETY is the spice of life, though not if you are the maker of an ageing internet browser maker losing ground to your younger, nimbler competitors. Microsoft, maker of the Windows 8 operating system and the Internet Explorer web browser, has been fined €561m ($732m) by the European Union’s antitrust regulators for breaking a promise to offer its customers a choice of the browser they would like to use to surf the internet on their personal computers.


The decision that Microsoft must ask users of its Windows operating system which browser they would prefer was made in 2009 at the behest of EU regulators after lengthy antitrust proceedings. Microsoft complied, but claims that a technical error meant that users were not asked if they would like to install rival internet browsers between February 2011 and July 2012. It is this misstep that has prompted the EU to levy its fine. (Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, saw his 2012 bonus cut by the company’s board partially because of the faux-pas.)

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was once dominant in the browser world, mainly because it was the default web software on personal computers powered by Windows. In February 2009 64% of all desktop computers used Internet Explorer, according to data compiled by StatCounter, a web traffic analysis company. Four years on, that share is only 30%.

The fine is a fraction of the $7.4 billion regulators could have levied against the company, but is still significant. Having woken up to the fact that it lost ground to the competition because of lack of innovation, Microsoft has redoubled its development efforts. The latest version of Internet Explorer is considered to be on a par with its rivals. But having to share screen space with others (see picture) when booting up a Windows computer for the first time may mean the program’s new features are left untried.

The freedom to teach - Educational reform

The original article is from http://www.economist.com
Written Mar 4th 2013, 14:57 by M.D.S | HATTIESBURG, MS

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WITH Republican control of state government now firmly consolidated, Mississippi is poised for wholesale education reform. In his state-of-the-state address in January, Governor Phil Bryant proposed a robust, if rather familiar, basket of reforms: expansion of the state’s current (and highly restrictive) charter-school laws, merit pay for teachers, and higher standards for teacher training. More controversially, Mr Bryant proposed allowing students to enroll in schools outside of the district in which they live (so-called open enrollment), as well as privately-funded scholarships for students to attend private schools. With the exception of these last, the proposals have been enthusiastically embraced by the state legislature.

The question is whether they will work. Some charter schools have proven successful and the much-touted KIPP programme has produced marked improvement in test scores for low-income children. The worst fears of sceptics (that charter schools would siphon better teachers and better prepared students away from traditional public schools; that the result would intensify economic and ethnic segregation) have not been realised. But taken as a whole, school choice has failed to produce across-the-board improvements in student learning.

Under these conditions, charter-school performance is impressive, but points to a failing in the original conception of school choice. Milton Friedman, the Nobel-winning economist, sought to limit the role of government and introduce market-based reforms to the public-school system. By increasing the choices of parents, Friedman no doubt expected to see improvements in outcomes. But his focus was on how education is administered and financed, not on how it is delivered. And the basic fact about all education is that it is teachers who teach.

The gap in Friedman’s thinking (he did not claim expertise in education) has been filled with a woeful misconception: that innovation and creativity are the product of fear and insecurity. Education reformers attend to the discipline of the market, imposed by school choice, and the necessity of firing failing teachers and closing failing schools. While this makes sense, market mechanisms tell us only what worked—we have to dig deeper to find out why or how.


In the business world, we look at how companies innovate to meet the preferences of consumers. The following quote, describing innovation at Apple, is suggestive:

The designers at Apple are paid 50% more than their counterparts at other organizations. These designers aren’t working at Apple simply because they’re paid more. They stay at Apple because of the amazing things they get to do there. Rewards are about salary and benefits, but they are also about recognition and being able to do satisfying work that challenges the mind and allows the creative muscles to stretch.

Designers at Apple are held to high standards. Certainly school teachers should be too. But education reformers would do well to consider how Apple treats its innovative designers (the treatment of factory workers is another matter): higher salaries and benefits, recognition, a degree of self-direction, and active engagement in creative, challenging work.

Turnover in charter schools represents, partly, a failure to attract and retain more experienced and qualified teachers (one study found a close association with low unionisation). Such teachers prefer the higher salary and greater job security traditional public schools and unions provide, even though their ability to innovate is severely hampered by administrative oversight and the demands of testing. School choice, therefore, provides the mechanisms for rewarding innovation, but without the conditions for fostering it.

Finance, Accounting Confidence Index Turns Positive for 2013

The original article is from http://www.linkedin.com
Written Rick T. Dedicated to providing actionable intelligence and practical advice for the tax, finance and accounting community

If you want to read more, please refer to the link above.


A leading measure of overall confidence among U.S. finance and accounting workers, rose 5.4 points to 55.8 in 4Q 2012 — ending a two-quarter decline, according to new data reported by CPA Trendlines.

The new survey finds growing confidence in job availability and in workers’ personal employment situations, despite continued tepid sentiment in the strength of the economy.

“Confidence among finance and accounting workers has rebounded after declining for two consecutive quarters, mirroring a projected year of growth for the industry in 2013,” said Steve McMahan, executive vice president of Randstad US, Professionals, which produces the Mergis Group Finance and Accounting Employee Confidence Index.


Beliefs about Strength of Economy Remain Unchanged

• Thirty-seven percent of finance and accounting employees believe the economy is getting weaker, a slight decrease of three percentage points from the third quarter of 2012. Only a quarter (25 percent) of workers believe the strength of the economy is getting stronger—showing no change from the previous report.

Increasing Number of Finance and Accounting Workers Believe More Jobs are Available

• Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of finance and accounting employees believe more jobs are available, representing a significant increase of eight percentage points from the previous quarter.

Confidence in Ability to Find New Jobs Skyrockets

• More than half (53 percent) of finance and accounting workers are confident in their ability to find a new job, marking a 15 percentage point increase from third quarter. Only 16 percent say they are not confident that they could find a new job.

One-Third Likely to Look for New Job

• One-third (33 percent) of finance and accounting workers say they are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months, an increase from 26 percent last quarter. However, 58 percent say they are not likely to make a job transition, representing no change from third quarter.

Top 10 Things I Learned From Day 2 of TED

The original article is from http://www.linkedin.com
Written Bill Gross Founder and CEO of Idealab

If you want to read more, please refer to the link above.

1. Alastair Parvin gave a powerful lecture on making architecture more accessible to everyone in the world. He spoke of architecture as not just buildings, but solutions to problems, and gave some stunning examples, including WikiHouse, an amazing project where you can CNC-cut and print a whole house, almost like an “Ikea” kit. Alastair feels that architecture today is unfortunately about building for the top 1% of society, but wants to extend it to all. Right now in the world, the fastest growing cities in the world are NOT skyscraper cities, they are actually self-made cities, and thus we need to bring new distributed tools to those builders.
2. Danny Hillis took us on a wild tour to the beginning of the Internet, back in 1982, when there were only TWO other Danny’s on the entire Internet, and Danny knew both of them! Danny purchased the 3 domain name EVER. He could choose ANY name he wanted, as long as it wasn’t BBN.com or Symbolics. He chose Think.com. A day later he said, these might be useful, maybe I should grab a whole bunch of them. Then he said, nah, I will only take what I need. He said that was the attitude about the whole Internet back then, an ethic of support and only taking what you need. He then went on to say that today the Internet is vulnerable to mistakes and attacks because we’re building it the same way we have since 1982. He pitched passionately that we need a plan B for the internet because we depend upon it so much. He pointed out that most of us don’t realize that even flights are sometimes grounded because of bugs in routers.
3. Yo-Yo Master Tom Black gave an amazing performance, but to me, the highlight of it was not his performance at all, but his entrepreneurial perseverance. Continually, in the light of obstacles, he pursued his passion, and overcame those obstacles. It was inspirational to see someone so committed to spend 10,000+ hours on his passion, and find a way to break through every barrier to share that passion with the world and build to success.
4. Musician and performance artist Amanda Palmer gave a mind-blowing talk in how she connects with her fans in new ways. She crowd-funded more than $1.2m for her music project by ASKING them, not MAKING them participate. She showed herself to be a “Ninja Master” in fan connection by actually stripping naked and letting her fans draw and sign their names all over her body. She spoke about monetizing performance by saying, “Maybe the question is not how do we MAKE people pay for music, it is how do we LET people pay for music?” Those people who are confused about how she sells with no hard sticker price - what they are missing is that this is about trust – a new type of bond between artist and audience.
5. Larry Lessig gave one of the most impassioned and intelligent political speeches I have ever heard about taking back our Republic. He talked about how we need a government that works – not for the left OR the right, but works for citizens on the left AND the right. He spoke about the fast that 0.00042% of the United States Citizens – or 132 people – funded 60% of ALL the SuperPac money in the 2012 election cycle. He feels we need to change this if we want to take back our Republic, and despite many people feeling hopeless about this, he feels that if we take collective action, we can actually make a difference, and that we should NOT give up, that’s it’s just too important.
6. Chris Anderson interviewed Elon Musk. Elon said that the two most important goals of his (and he thinks the world) are transforming transportation and creating abundant cheap renewable energy. He also talked about space travel and his company SpaceX, where he said, “We don’t file patents. Because our primary competitors are national governments, the enforceability of patents is questionable.” Elon is very focused on re-usable rockets, because the fuel cost in rockets is only 0.3% of the cost, so if you can reuse, there can be up to 100x cost reduction possible. Elon also feels that ALL transportation will eventually be electric-powered, with the ironic exception of rockets, because of the need to eject mass out the back of the rocket for propulsion. Elon ended by showing his amazing Grasshopper rocket that can take off and land vertically. Here’s a video of its first test here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4PEXLODw9c It’s pretty remarkable to see how this could usher in a dramatically lower cost in space travel.
7. Mary Lou Jepson (no relation – I don’t think – to the “Call Me Maybe” singer!) gave a mind-boggling presentation on reading minds with a brain scanner, and showed the remarkable – albeit still fuzzy – progress that has been made. Here is a link where you can see a preview of the coming revolution in reconstructing visual experiences from brain activity that was evoked by people watching movies: http://designenvy.aiga.org/reconstructing-visual-experiences/
8. Taylor Wilson built a nuclear fusion reactor in his garage when he was 14. He’s an older and wiser 18-year old now <smile> presenting at TED with such poise and confidence that it’s both shocking and wonderful. He is so confident that he says that his real competitors are Nation States, even though he only graduated from High School in May! He is working on a closed-system nuclear reactor that can run for 30 years (versus 18 months) and thus be much more safe. He also wants to use as his base power source material that he reclaims from weapon stockpiles. He is so passionate and so smart and so dedicated that he just might do it!
9. Young Violinist Ji-Hae Park completely blew my mind with her stunning artistic AND acoustic performance. She was one of the winners of the Global TED Talent Search, and deservedly so. What I learned from her performance was the extreme connection of audience to artist in a live, intimate (albeit 1,000 person) setting, when the artist is exposed and vulnerable (due to her personal introduction before performing) that I had not experienced before. Her performance really touched my heart – it was extremely powerful, and I can’t wait till you can see it yourself when it’s uploaded to TED.com.
10. Finally, Stewart Brand taught me about “De-Extinction” or how we will bring back a species that is no longer on earth. This is controversial, of course, but it’s interesting that we (humans in some cases) have been responsible for the extinction in the first place. The question about whether we even want extinct species back is a challenging one. There is a new event, called TEDxDeExtinction on March 15, and the whole thing is being live-streamed for free, so if you are interested, this is a link to it here: http://longnow.org/revive/tedxdeextinction/

Community college grads out-earn bachelor's degree holders

The original article is from http://money.cnn.com
Written By Jon Marcus at The Hechinger Institute @CNNMoney February 26, 2013: 6:23 AM ET

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Berevan Omer graduated on a Friday in February with an associate's degree from Nashville State Community College and started work the following Monday as a computer-networking engineer at a local television station, making about $50,000 a year.

That's 15% higher than the average starting salary for graduates -- not only from community colleges, but for bachelor's degree holders from four-year universities.

"I have a buddy who got a four-year bachelor's degree in accounting who's making $10 an hour," Omer says. "I'm making two and a-half times more than he is."
Omer, who is 24, is one of many newly minted graduates of community colleges defying history and stereotypes by proving that a bachelor's degree is not, as widely believed, the only ticket to a middle-class income.

Nearly 30% of Americans with associate's degrees now make more than those with bachelor's degrees, according to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. In fact, other recent research in several states shows that, on average, community college graduates right out of school make more than graduates of four-year universities.              

The average wage for graduates of community colleges in Tennessee, for instance, is $38,948 -- more than $1,300 higher than the average salaries for graduates of the state's four-year institutions.

The increase in wages for community college grads is being driven by a high demand for people with so-called "middle-skills" that often require no more than an associate's degree, such as lab technicians, teachers in early childhood programs, computer engineers, draftsmen, radiation therapists, paralegals, and machinists.

With a two-year community college degree, air traffic controllers can make $113,547, radiation therapists $76,627, dental hygienists $70,408, nuclear medicine technologists $69,638, nuclear technicians $68,037, registered nurses $65,853, and fashion designers $63,170, CareerBuilder.com reported in January.