Top Tax Scams to Watch for in 2012

Identity thieves and scammers love tax season.  Like a shark swimming around a bucket of chum, these criminals prey on careless individuals looking to file their taxes.  This list of tax scams is compiled by the IRS, and is provided to remind us to protect ourselves.  Many of these scams are attempted during tax season, so use precaution when filing your return. 

Identity Theft:  Watch out for people trying to steal your tax refunds.  If you receive an IRS notice informing you that more than one return was filed, or that you received wages from an unknown employer, seek immediate help. 

Phishing:  Unsolicited emails and fake websites pose as legitimate sources to lure in potential victims.  These emails and websites ask you to provide valuable personal and financial information.  If you receive any fictitious emails appearing to be from the IRS, immediately alert the IRS by sending a notice to phishing@irs.gov.

Return Preparer Fraud: Make sure you are using a credible tax preparing service.  There are unethical return preparers out there who secretly take money from their client’s refunds.

“Free Money” from the IRS & Tax Scams Involving Social Security: Flyers and other advertisements for free money from the IRS have been appearing in community churches around the country.  Scammers have also been known to lure in people with promises of non-existent Social Security refunds or rebates. 

If you feel you have become subject to any of these scams don’t hesitate to call our office.  We are a practice composed of certified public accounting professionals and support staff dedicated to providing you with the highest quality of tax services and financial support.  McDaniel & Company has been the best in the Triad for over 17 years.

  

518 Arbor Hill Rd.

Kernersville, NC 27284

Ph: 336-996-3338

www.cpamcdaniel.com

CPAs are the Best in the Game

Sometimes you might catch yourself wondering what’s so great about a CPA.  Well I’m about to tell you what sets them apart from any other financial professional.  CPAs first begin their careers with years of college and graduate education.  Then to become a licensed CPA they have to take a grueling Uniform CPA Examination.  This tests their knowledge on a vast range of business topics over a period of 14 hours!  Once this exam is passed, they have to meet an experience requirement.  After all of this has been completed, they may then be licensed by a State Board of Accountancy to practice with a certified title.   

Wait, there’s more!  CPAs are endlessly meeting continuing education requirements to update their knowledge of new business developments and are committed to a strict code of ethical standards.  They say if you want to be the best in the game, you have to practice practice practice.  With trends and legislation constantly changing, your CPA has to be up-to-date to produce the best results. 

Our CPAs here at McDaniel & Company are some of the finest in the Triad of NC.  They’re on the job year round and ready to help individuals and growing businesses address their financial challenges.  If you would like more information on our Certified Public Accountants or how our firm can help you resolve all your financial issues, don’t hesitate to contact us.

To see profiles on our CPAs please visit http://www.cpamcdaniel.com/Framestaff.htm

518 Arbor Hill Rd.

Kernersville, NC 27284

Ph: 336-996-3338

www.cpamcdaniel.com

She’s One Smart Cookie

It’s that time of year again! The Girl Scouts of America are rolling out their mouthwatering cookies for us to enjoy, and paying for your cookies has never been easier.  About 150 Girl Scout troops have begun using Sage Mobile Payments.  Now you can pay right on the spot with the swipe of a credit card.  All the Girl Scout has to do is plug in the mini card reader into her smartphone or tablet, open the Sage Mobile Payments app and she’s in business.  The 150 troops who have started using the mobile payment solution have increased sales by 13%.  It has also helped each girl increase an order by an average of six boxes per sale!  Now I can enjoy my favorite cookies like the Caramel deLites or the classic Thin Mints without having to find an ATM, or remembering to have cash or check ready when they come to my house.  Now I’ve got to find a way to convince my favorite hot dog vendor downtown to use Sage Mobile Payments too. 

Questions about the “Cloud” Answered by Applianz

Cloud computing has become the hottest trend for software applications.  It frees up space, time and resources, and is easy to use.  The cloud is one of the last pieces of the puzzle to globalization.  It allows you the flexibility and convenience needed to adapt to the way people are starting to do business.  Although it’s a great concept, some business owners and financial managers are wary of the new model and raise a brow with concerned questions.  Who has access to my data?  How often are backups performed, and how long are they kept?  Is there a disaster recovery plan?  What happens when our system goes down and how long will we be without our data and applications?

All are valuable questions which should certainly be addressed.  Here’s the good news. McDaniel & Company has done the work for you!  We have addressed these questions and have found a software hosting provider that we are confident with.  It’s called the AppEazy system from Applianz.  Their patented technology virtually provides a turnkey solution allowing your business the ability to deploy critical business software in minutes with no PC up-grades and essentially zero downtime. Your employees can securely connect to their software from any office, with any PC, Mac, or Ipad. 

Security

The AppEazy advanced security is a completely embedded system.  The integrated firewall, provided by Host Linux Operating System, secures communication internally and externally.  It only allows access to secure ports on the system that are encrypted.  It also uses an SSL Certificate managing secure remote access with a 128 bit bi-directional encryption model.  If you have recently had an employee leave your company, you can remove their login credentials with a few simple clicks on the Applianz web administration site. 

On-Site and Off-Site Backups

Applianz stores up to 30 days of backups both on and off-site to a secure remote server, and backups are performed automatically nightly.  Not only is your critical data backed up, but your entire operating system and user settings will be restored as well.  If disaster does strike, your system can easily be recreated. 

Disaster Recovery

In the event of a business interruption, your most recent nightly backup will be loaded onto an Applianz system in one of their data centers and your remote access capability will be switched to the backup system.  Even with a complete system failure or natural disaster, users are usually fully functional within 4 hours or less. 

If you would like additional information or a demo of the AppEazy system from Applianz, visit our website at http://www.cpamcdaniel.com/software/Applianz.htm

Resolving Tax issues with the IRS

When it comes to filing your taxes, things can get confusing pretty fast.  Many people quickly become overwhelmed with questions with how to respond to IRS tax notices, resolve tax problems, eliminating tax debt, and how to look up their tax refund status. 

When in doubt about any tax situation it is best to seek some type of help!  Don’t avoid the problem by not filing or ignoring notices.  It is much easier to deal with the issues now instead of digging yourself out of a tax interest hole. 

If you need to report additional income, make changes to your filing status, or add/remove dependents, get ahold of a 1040X form.  This form is for a Federal Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.  The following forms should be checked for mistakes or changes: 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ, 1040EZ-T, 1040NR, or 1040NR-EZ.

If you become overwhelmed with any of these tax issues and would like to speak with someone, our door is always open.  Our practice is composed of certified public accounting professionals and support staff dedicated to providing you with the highest quality of tax services.  

   

               Visit our website at www.cpamcdaniel.com

4 Ways to Hurt your SEO

            Last week we touched on a few ways to boost your organic search results.  Now I would like to reveal 4 factors that can lower your SEO score and hurt your website’s reputation with search engines.  There are short term actions web developers and marketing firms do to make you think your SEO has been boosted.  Yes these actions might show a sudden increase in your site’s search ability; however, in the long run there is a negative impact and will hurt your Internet credibility.           

1)      Stuffing: This is a term used when developers overdose your page with keywords.  Using key words and phrases in your heading code, and page content is ideal, but you don’t want to overdo it.  An example of stuffing your website description would read “accounting software, businessworks accounting software, businessworks payroll, businessworks support, peachtree accounting, peachtree support, peachtree accounting reseller.”  A good description would utilize these keywords without trying to trick the search engine.  Ex: “McDaniel & Company sells and gives support on a variety of accounting software such as BusinessWorks and Peachtree.”  

2)      Hiding:  Hiding a group of nonsense keywords on your page’s content will drop your SEO score.  No one wants to visit a website with a bunch of random words listed at the bottom.  To avoid this, web developers will put a list of key words, but write it in white text on white background, thus hiding it from the viewer, but still having it read by search engines.   I want to have content on my page that includes words such as support, North Carolina, BusinessWorks Accounting, but I need to make it relative and viewable.

3)   Paid Links:  Having several links on the Internet directing pages to your website will boost your SEO score.  Keep in mind these are credible websites providing your link.  Ex: social media sites, news articles, other business pages.  Web developers and marketing companies sometime use paid hosting sites to provide your link on the web.  This is another form of cheating that search engines look to prevent and in return lowering your SEO score.

4)      Link Spam:  Again, this relates to the theory of creating more links on the web to boost your score.  Some developers or marketing companies will create links for your page anywhere possible.  They’ll find random websites with areas such as discussion boards, forums, guest books, and comment areas to submit your link on.  Once more, trying to cheat the system.