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Our experience with "cloud computing"... Wonderful!

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I suppose I should first ask if you even know what the term "cloud computing" means. According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is Internet-based development and use of computer technology.  Essentially, this means that rather than installing some type of hardware or software in your own business computers you just use the Internet to access the tools you need via the Internet.

In our case here at Scholl, Chyo & Company, CPAs we recently finished migrating our email, calendar, scheduling, tasks, etc. from our Microsoft Exchange Servers to Google's Apps Premier Edition. I can now say that we're thrilled with the results. We've been able to eliminate the cost of maintaining several expensive servers and saving David, our internal IT guru a ton of time and aggravation. At $50 per employee per year its cost is less than the annual Microsoft Exchange updates alone.

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Cash for Clunkers, Taxable?

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In June 2009 President Obama signed the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 (how much caffeine had they had when they came up with that name?), commonly referred to as "Cash for Clunkers." Auto dealers that signed up for this voluntary program received vouchers for qualifying trade-ins on the purchase off new cars where the fuel efficiency of the new car is better than the fuel efficiency of the clunker. The vouchers were for $3,500 or $4,500 depending on the how much you stepped up in fuel efficiency and they were treated as part of your down payment on your purchase. This applied for the period of Jul 1, 2009 until November 1, 2009.

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Top Ten Facts About Child & Dependent Care Credit

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Did you pay someone to care for a child, spouse, or dependent last year? If so, you may be able to claim the Child and Dependent Care Credit on your federal income tax return. Below are the top 10 things you should know about claiming a credit for child and dependent care expenses.

  1. The care must have been provided for one or more qualifying persons. A qualifying person is your dependent child age 12 or younger when the care was provided. Additionally, your spouse and certain other individuals who are physically or mentally incapable of self-care may also be qualifying persons. You must identify each qualifying person on your tax return.
  2. The care must have been provided so you – and your spouse if you are married filing jointly – could work or look for work.

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Schedule A for itemized deductions, now Schedule L too

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Not since the direct deduction for some charitable contributions was removed has the standard deduction changed from its basic amount plus its additional amounts for the aged or blind.

In recent years, however, we've had three law changes that add to the standard deduction.

  • The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 added sales taxes paid on the purchase of a new car to the standard deduction.

  • The Housing Act of 2008 added the property tax deduction for non-itemizers to the standard deduction.

  • The Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 added a standard deduction for net disaster losses.

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Time IS Money So Get The Best Return On Your Investment

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Have you ever reached the end of the day and wondered where all your time went? Playing catch-up to retrieve wasted time is what keeps many business owners welded to their business premises way outside of ‘normal’ business hours.

For many business owners a number of their customers, suppliers and employees are likely to be friends as well as business acquaintances. This overlap of private and business relationship can lead to requests for assistance or for special deals that can make serious inroads on their time. A lot of small business operators go slowly broke doing work for friends at discounted rates or for free. ‘Discounted rates’ translates as ‘at less than your market value’ and that means more hours you have to put in to make up for the lost profit.

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IRS eases (somewhat) rules to claim unrelated persons as dependents

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The IRS has ruled that an individual will no be treated as the qualifying child of a person if that person doesn't make enough to file a return and either does not file a return or files a return solely to obtain a complete refund of withheld income taxes. The code provides that the term "dependent" means a "qualifying child" or a "qualifying relative." Among other requirements, a qualifying relative cannot be the qualifying child of any other taxpayer.

So, to put it into an example. Jennifer supports as members of her household an unrelated friend, Rick, and Rick's four-year-old child, Lisa. Rick has no gross income and is