The IRS with little official fanfare and no real advance warning began a “national research project” to study (1) payroll taxes, (2) fringe benefits, (3) independent contractor, (4) expense reimbursements and (5) other related “payroll” issues.

Use of the phrase “National Research Project” seems fairly innocuous and is easily confused with the IRS’ more benign National Research Program. The goal of the latter is to design a strategy to collect data that will be used to measure filing and reporting compliance with the guiding principle “to minimize taxpayer burden as data are [sic] collected.”

Confusion of the National Research Project with the National Research Program may be the IRS’ intent, because there have been few public statements that actually describe what is in reality a massive audit initiative.

As the rumored audits have begun, the IRS finally published “Headliner Volume 280″ describing in only the vaguest terms the audits being unleashed over the next three years. The National Research Program only created ripples in the vast sea of issues that taxpayers must address and many advisors have drawn the same conclusion with respect to the current initiative since the programs have similar names. (more…)

You probably know at least one friend, family member or business colleague who has lost their job.

Is there anything we, as individuals or business owners, can do to help those who need jobs and help the U.S. economy at the same time?

Yes!

Share this website with anyone, and everyone you know who needs a job. (more…)

I’ve noticed that, in letters, e-mails and conversation, more and more people are using the phrase “flourish and prosper” recently and I wondered just how many have actually analyzed what that actually means in terms of business money management, and just how it can be accomplished.

Socrates said, “The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms“ so, by habit, I went to the oldest set of dictionaries that I own to get the purest definition of flourish, and here is what I found:

Flourish (verb intransitive) to do well and be prosperous; to be in a state of activity and production; to reach a height of development or influence; to increase in health, wealth, happiness, honor, comfort or whatever is desirable. [Webster Third International Dictionary © 1909]

So if we can flourish, then we have a much better chance of being truly prosperous. How can we carry out the actions of flourishing when it comes to business money management? Here are a few thoughts.

Be in a state of activity and production: Activity can’t just be busy work, a person or company must also be in production. To me that means to be producing something of value that actually contributes to the income generation of the company. For example, if a salesman spends all day calling people on the phone, but closes no sales, then he was certainly active, but wasn’t productive because he didn’t produce what he was hired to produce; closed sales. If a company spends its time, money and energy acquiring or making products, but never sells any, they are not really producing. To prosper, the production must generate income for the company. (more…)

I live, think, and breathe money management, so I can’t believe I haven’t told you this before.

I guess I thought everybody knew this, until I was talking to a friend of mine today who said, “I finally rolled up that big jug of change last night and took it to the bank today.”

Of course I asked, “Did you find any silver dimes, quarters or nickels in it?”

And she said, “What?”

Okay, so I assumed, and you know what that usually means. Darn! (more…)