Taxes

October 15, 2014 

While most Americans are thinking about football season, the MLB baseball playoffs, the coming NBA season, hockey or the upcoming holidays, savvy financial professionals are advising taxpayers to think about their taxes.

October 14, 2014 

[This is part of a special series of articles designed to maximize tax benefits and minimize tax pitfalls at the end of the year.] The alternative minimum tax (AMT) is often referred to as a “stealth tax” because it sneaks up on unsuspecting taxpayers. But you’re not doing your job well if your clients are caught...…

Ken Berry, JD

October 12, 2014 

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that a planned power outage will cause some services to be unavailable this weekend (Oct. 11-14), which may affect some of the million-plus tax filers, and their tax professionals, who file extended personal inco

October 10, 2014 

Keeping up-to-date on changes and proposed changes can be overwhelming, especially if you have a business to run that doesn’t involve payroll. That’s why, as a payroll practitioner, it’s important that you help your clients understand any new changes and what they mean for their business. In 2015, there will be several changes that can...…

Taija Sparkman

October 10, 2014 

By Bill Kennedy, CPA, CA The Affordable Care Act changes had the biggest impact on tax software across the country this year, as developers scrambled to incorporate the new Net Investment regulations into their packages, particularly for high net worth individuals. All of the packages reviewed have been updated for the impact of this legislation....…

October 10, 2014 

By Steven Phelan, CPA.CITP As we approach the end of the year, many tasks are still ahead of accounting professionals. There are year-end tax planning situations to address, year-end accounting issues required to finalize financial statements and, of course, year-end reporting compliance for W-2s and 1099s. Although the rules have largely remained the same over...…

October 10, 2014 

Basic System Functions: 5 Stars Firms using the Lacerte tax preparation software will find the tax planner interface to be very similar and easy to navigate. The main window of the program has a menu bar at the top followed by a toolbar with icons. To navigate through the program, there are worksheet tabs below...…

Bill Kennedy

October 10, 2014 

The CS Professional Suite from Thomson Reuters offers an integrated set of tax, accounting, and practice management applications. Planner CS tightly integrates with the suite to provide tax projections for a virtually unlimited number of years and scenarios. Basic System Functions: 4.75 Stars Planner CS opens into a customizable welcome screen with a list of...…

Bill Kennedy

October 10, 2014 

While most other tax software systems offer tax planning as a separate module, Drake has included Tax Planner as a free add-on to its main tax system, Drake Tax. Basic System Functions: 4 Stars Drake Tax is designed for individuals as well as small and medium sized businesses. As such, it may not meet all...…

Bill Kennedy

October 10, 2014 

The ProSystem fx Suite from CCH offers integrated applications for tax and accounting firms. While CCH also has cloud-based solutions known as CCH Axcess, for now Planning is only a network or locally installed program which can import tax data from either ProSystem fx Tax or CCH Axcess Tax. However, plans can be created manually...…

Bill Kennedy

October 10, 2014 

It pays to collect the right information at the right time. For payroll practitioners, this payout comes in the form of being able to provide quality service to their clients.

Taija Sparkman

October 10, 2014 

While almost everyone has heard of sales tax, many business owners are unaware that most states have a “use tax.” State laws treat sales and use tax as two separate taxes, but in reality they act in concert to complement each other.