It’s sad but true. Following major disasters and tragedies, scam artists impersonate charities to steal money or get private information from well-intentioned taxpayers. Fraudulent schemes involve solicitations by phone, social media, email or in-person.

Scam artists use a variety of tactics. Some operate bogus charities that contact people by telephone to solicit money or financial information. Others use emails to steer people to bogus websites to solicit funds, allegedly for the benefit of tragedy victims. The fraudulent websites often mimic the sites of legitimate charities or use names similar to legitimate charities. They may claim affiliation with legitimate charities to persuade members of the public to send money or provide personal financial information. Scammers then use that information to steal the identities or money of their victims.

The IRS offers the following tips to help taxpayers who wish to donate to victims of the recent tragedies at the Boston Marathon and a Texas fertilizer plant:

• Donate to qualified charities.       Use the Exempt Organizations Select Check tool at IRS.gov to find qualified charities. Only donations to qualified charitable organizations are tax-deductible. You can also find legitimate charities on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Web site at fema.gov.
• Be wary of charities with similar names.  Some phony charities use names that are similar  to familiar or nationally known organizations. They may use names or websites that sound or look like those of legitimate organizations.
• Don’t give out personal financial information.  Do not give your Social Security number, credit card and bank account numbers and passwords to anyone who solicits a contribution from you. Scam artists use this information to steal your identity and money.
• Don’t give or send cash.  For  security and tax record purposes, contribute by check or credit card or another way that provides documentation of the donation.
• Report suspected fraud. Taxpayers suspecting tax or charity-related fraud should visit IRS.gov and perform a search using the keywords “Report Phishing.”

More information about tax scams and schemes is available at IRS.gov using the keywords “scams and schemes.”

Additional IRS Resources:

• IRS      Wants You to Know About Schemes, Scams and Cons
• Tax      Scams – How to Report Them
• Reporting      Phishing
• Identity      Protection Tips
• Protect      Yourself from the Dirty Dozen Tax Scams – Special Edition Tax Tip      2013-08
• Publication      526, Charitable Contributions

photo:  courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Well, the taxes have been filed and the diligent employees of the IRS are now crunching the numbers in our returns to make sure we have accounted for every dime we earned.  If they disagree with all or a portion of our filed return an audit may be in our future.    As the owner of a small business, there are several types of tax audits that you may be subjected to….income taxes, employment taxes or sales & use.  The following guidelines will help you to survive anything the IRS throws at you:

• Review the taxing authority’s guidelines for the type of audit to understand  its procedures and your rights.  Go to IRS.gov and search audit guidelines and scroll for your industry or topic.  Download those guidelines now, as the government may remove them at any time.  Check back for amendments.
• For IRS audits review the Taxpayer Bill of Rights – this includes the right to be examined at a reasonable time and place and freedom form repeat examinations.
• Review all your documentation prior to the audit and evaluate your strengths and weaknesses of your position on whatever is being audited.    
• Collect all of your correspondence or phone logs of conversations with the IRS.
• Organize all of your records so that they are easy to produce during the examination.
• If you have problems during the examination such as lack of proper documentation or evidence inconsistent with your position, do not hide or destroy any documents.  This is a crime.  You can simply provide what documentation you have in the best possible light to the examiner.
• If you feel you are being treated unfairly by the examiner you can contact the examiners supervisor or Local Taxpayer Advocate. 

There are generally two types of conclusions that can result from an audit.  The first is “no change”, where the taxes originally filed have been accepted.  The second is an assessment of additional taxes that you owe.  You can either agree that you owe the additional taxes, disagree completely or agree only in part.  You may file an appeal if you disagree with any or all of the examiners assessment. 

The important part to remember when faced with an audit is not to panic.  Organize your records and be able to present a strong case for your position.  And remember, you can always call your tax professional for advice and guidance during this time. 

 photo courtesy of: freedigitalphotos.net

• 56.5 cents per mile for business miles driven
• 24 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

photo courtesy of:  www.freedigitalphotos.net

1.  Double check your records for current addresses and names for all of your employees.  Remember, some employees may have moved or changed their marital status over the course of the past year, so getting that infomration updated is important before you send out their W2′s.

2.  Make sure you have an updated list of all Vendor’s that you will be giving 1099′s to this year.  You want to make sure that you the correct federal ID number as well as current mailing address.

3.   Pull out your mileage log and check it against your calendar.  You want to document any business travel, even if you were just running to the office supply store.    By cross checking you may discover client appointments that were not added to your mileage log.

4.  Clean up your QuickBooks!  If you haven’t been reconciling or have un-coded transactions, be sure to get that information cleaned up before turning your QB over to your accountant.  The time that your accountant has to spend cleaning up these loose ends translates into billable hours.  Save yourself some money and do it before hand. 

By taking some time over the next month to clean up your 2012 records, you can hit the ground running in 2013!

 photo courtesy of:  www.freedigitalphotos.net

This is just a ruse to get you to pay $125 for their service. They are not the government and do not have a contract with any government agency. Don’t waste your hard earned money on this service!

photo courtesy of:  www.freedigitalphotos.net

Save yourself the headache of being a beta test for Microsoft & wait for the patch!

photo:  courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

photo courtesty of: www.freedigitalphotos.net

Dear GoPayment Customer,

Today, Apple made available iOS6, the latest version of the operating system for iPhones and iPads. We advise that you hold off on upgrading your iPhone or iPad to iOS6, to ensure that you are able to continue to use GoPayment with your Apple devices.

We are working quickly to ensure that GoPayment works as well with the new operating system as it did with the earlier versions. We expect that an update to the GoPayment app will be required and we will notify you by email as soon as we release a version of GoPayment that will work optimally with iOS6.

For the latest updates on iOS6 compatibility, please visit gopayment.com or email us by visiting gopayment.com/support if you experience any issues related to the new iOS6 launch.

Thank you in advance for using GoPayment.

Intuit GoPayment Team

1. Stop Advertising Like you are a Big Business
 The goal of big business advertising is to create name recognition for future sales. Small businesses can’t afford to pay for advertising that is geared only for branding. It is smarter to create ads that will generate sales immediately. A great way to accomplish this is to include an offer with all of your ads and provide an easy way for prospective customers to respond to it.

2. Offer a Less Expensive Option
Some customers will be unwilling to pay full price for something that they haven’t used before.  If you offer a sample size or a basic version of your product or service, you may be able to capture those skeptics and make them into regular customers.  Otherwise, you might just lose them altogether.

3. Upsell a Premium Package
Image is everything and some of your customers might enjoy knowing that they are receiving a premium product or service.  Bundle several products or services and boost your average size sale and your total revenue.   

4.  Scale Down Your Ads
Reducing  the size of your ads means that you will be able to run more ads for the same cost. Short ads repeated over a period of time can generate a better response than a one-time, large ad.

 photo compliments of:  www.freedigitalphotos.net

Photo Courtesy of:  www.freedigitalphotos.net

Here’s a link to the event page on Technical Resource Solutions web page. 

August 24^th Class:  http://www.technicalrs.com/training/social-networking/constant-contact.html

 August 29^th Class:  http://www.technicalrs.com/training/social-networking/constantcontact.html