When Opportunity Knocks, Should You Answer?

There is a quote from William James that reads:

“He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.”

A couple of weeks ago, I received a unique opportunity from Renee Warnimont, the business development officer who supports the Charter One Bank branches in the Downriver communities of Dearborn, Southgate, Taylor and Trenton, Michigan. Each month, Charter One conducts a conference call to discuss relevant topics in the banking industry.  Because February’s call focused on how the state of the economy in Michigan & Ohio is affecting small businesses, Renee offered me the chance to be the only CPA in the State of Michigan to present on the economic and tax issues that are having an adverse affect on small business owners today.

I decided to embrace this unique opportunity even though public speaking is not my expertise. In hindsight this proved to be a tremendous marketing opportunity. Initially, I expected the conference call would only include the branches of the Detroit metropolitan market and Toledo, Ohio. Instead, it turned out that the call included 40 bankers, 6 Regional Directors and the Michigan State Director of Charter One, along with branches representing Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, Ohio. Not only did I have exclusive access to all of these decision makers, but the following week I was able to meet the Michigan State Director for lunch to follow up on the conference call and to provide him with additional information about Numerico, P.C.

In closing, I want to give special thanks to Renee for this incredible opportunity. If you have any banking questions or would like to hear a different point of view regarding the banking industry, you can email Renee at Renee.Warnimont@CharterOneBank.com

This article was written by Jay Kossen, CPA at Numerico, PC. Click here to view Numerico’s website.

Tough Love in Your Business

What do oil and water and family members who are employees in your small business have in common?

They rarely mix and are frequently toxic to the environment.

Although it should be noted that there are of course occasions of success, the most likely outcome is entrenched employees that are nearly impossible to remove, strained relations and uncomfortable holiday dinners. In fact, you could probably make an argument that it is easier to remove a unionized government employee than a family member who is your employee.

I recently read an interesting article that deals with this topic in the New York Times on February 11, 2010, entitled “Fire Your Relatives. Scare Your Employees. And Stop Whining” by Kermit Pattison. (Click here to read).

While some of his suggestions may be too aggressive for your average small business owner, they get right down to my point.

As a business owner you are either in it to win it or you are not.

Which are you?

This article was written by Jay Kossen, CPA at Numerico, PC. Click here to view Numerico’s website.

New Energy Credits Available on your 2009 Michigan Tax Return

There are two new energy credits available to eligible taxpayers on their 2009, 2010 & 2011 Michigan tax returns. I am frankly shocked that these two credits where maintained during the budget cuts that came out of Lansing in October. In fact the state would have been far better off taking the tax monies from these credits and transferring them to its national award wining “Pure Michigan” advertising campaign.

Home Improvement/Appliance Credit

The credit is equal to 10% of EPA energy star certified appliances; the maximum credit is $75 for single taxpayers and $150 for married tax payers. This credit can be claimed on Michigan form 4764.

Energy Cost Recovery Surcharge Credit:

This non-refundable credit is available to both homeowners and renters who pay electric bills and is capped at $9 per meter in 2009. This credit can be claimed on Michigan Schedule 2.

For more information on these credits, including eligibility and income limitations please visit click here to visit the Michigan.gov taxes page.

This article was written by Jay Kossen, CPA at Numerico, PC. Click here to view Numerico’s website.

IRS Proposes New Rules for Tax Preparers

The IRS has recently announced a new set of proposed rules for tax preparers. If enacted, the new rules would become effective January 1, 2011.  According to the proposed rules, all paid tax preparers would be required to:

1. Register with the IRS and obtain a preparer tax identification number. Once a preparer is registered, the IRS will be able to verify that the preparer has filed his or her personal tax returns and business and employment tax returns, along with paying the taxes on those returns. If the paid tax preparer has not filed those returns timely or paid the taxes due, penalties can be imposed by the IRS, including a prohibition on filing tax returns for clients.

2. Submit to a competency test. This rule does not apply to attorneys and certified public accountants that are active and in good standing with their licensing agencies.

3. Obtain continuing professional education. Again this rule does not apply to the attorneys and certified public accountants of Demorest Law Firm, PLLC, or Numerico, P.C. since we have our own requirements from the Michigan Bar Association and the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants.

In my opinion, the proposed new rules are long overdue. Currently, only certified public accountants, attorneys and enrolled agents have standards that are implemented by their individual associations. For far too long, tax preparers have been able to put a sign up that says Joe’s Tax Service, yet they were not required to have any formal training, testing or registration requirements. The IRS is beginning to understand the complexities and dangers involved in regulating an industry with certain unregulated components.

Hopefully these proposed regulations will add a serious deterrent to the fraudulent or incompetent preparers that we hear about far too often in stories from individual taxpayers such as “I don’t know why I got such a large refund, my preparer just had me sign the return and I didn’t get all of the reported refund.” “ I didn’t know that I hadn’t been filing returns, I thought my preparer had already filed them.” “What do you mean that I have not paid my employment taxes for my business or filed my employment tax forms? I gave my paid tax preparer access to my Company’s bank account and electronic withdrawals for the employment taxes were taken from my bank account.”

To read the IRS proposed regulations please click here.