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Post Published in July, 2009
Jul 30,2009, 7:21AM

Helping Your Entrepreneurial Business Grow Using a Part-Time Chief Financial Officer/Virtual Controller

By John Dillard
Helping Your Entrepreneurial Business Grow Using a Part-Time Chief Financial Officer/Virtual Controller A CPA who is well versed in Business Issues can be much more than just a tax return preparer. If you are a business owner, run and do not walk to the nearest and best CPA you can find. Utilizing the services of a CPA with a divergent track able and proven history of success is essential to long...
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Jul 29,2009, 8:40AM

Filing Old Tax Returns: Turning and Repenting...Taking Christianity Into the World

By John Dillard
Filing Old Tax Returns: Turning and Repenting...Taking Christianity Into the World Recently I received the attached letter from a taxpayer looking to address their unfiled and unpaid back taxes. The fear and the sin is not in the repenting but from not doing so. Our faith is centered and based upon forgiveness to all who honestly seek it and turn from their past and look to live in the light of J...
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Jul 28,2009, 6:48AM

How to be Sure Your Internal Bookkeeping is Correct

By John Dillard
How to be Sure Your Internal Bookkeeping is Correct Below is a list of items you might use to critique to your internal books. Each and every company should prepare one that is specifically designed to their business to ensure that their financial results are carefully monitored and operating integrity retained. Serving as an Atlanta CPA for over thirty years, I have learned that both having and referring to a "well-kept" set of internal books is a sign of all successful entrepreneurs. The attached checklist will be a good start to ensuring that your own company's books are correct:
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Jul 27,2009, 7:23AM

Getting Ready for the Rest of Your Life: Planning for Retirement

By John Dillard
Getting Ready for the Rest of Your Life: Planning for Retirement   1. What will I do when I retire?2. What will my lifestyle be like?3. Can I afford to retire?   If those questions are plaguing you as you get ready to retire, please know that you are not alone. I speak with individuals all of the time who are contemplating their retirement without knowing the answers to these...
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Jul 26,2009, 5:54PM

How to Save Money on Health Care

By John Dillard
How to Save Money on Health Care   Whether you buy your healthcare coverage through your employer or independently, you need to look at your coverage the same way cost-cutting entrepreneurs do. Buying coverage in the future won't stop at finding the best price - what you pay increasingly will involve how well you personally manage your health. According to a report last year by benefits...
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Jul 23,2009, 1:15PM

Loving Others Through Difficult Times...Taking Christianity Into the World

By John Dillard
Loving Others Through Difficult Times...Taking Christianity Into the World Just recently I received the attached letter (which of course was sterilized to protect all parties concerned) from a Believer who was seeking to be obedient to God's word. Perhaps the most difficult verse of all in the Bible is Philippians 2:3 which calls us to respect and consider others better than ourselves even though, perhaps intellectually, the facts suggest otherwise. The letter is as follows:
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Jul 22,2009, 8:29AM

Tax Garnishments, Collection Issues, and Offers in Compromise

By John Dillard
Tax Garnishments, Collection Issues, and Offers in Compromise Often when the tax man cometh, he does so with an iron fist and a hammer. Frequently in striving to address tax issues, situations frequently worsen before they can get better as it takes time for items to be "worked through the process." This is a sample letter that might be used when the state is pursuing aggressively collection meth...
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Jul 20,2009, 12:56PM

Tips to Keep Vacation Spending in Check

By John Dillard
Tips to Keep Vacation Spending in Check   As the economy continues its climb out of recession, many families might be thinking twice about what they spend on the annual summer vacation. But there are ways to preserve the tradition by being smart about spending. Some ideas:   Get on the mailing list: For any possible destination you can think of, go to their Web sites early an...
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Jul 19,2009, 9:33AM

Becoming Like Him...Taking Christianity Into the World

By John Dillard
Becoming Like Him...Taking Christianity Into the WorldToday I received a note from a Believer who was seeking what they might do as they were at the lowest spiritual level personally that they had been in years. They were seeking what they might do to encourage and strengthen themselves in the Lord prompting me to suggest:
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Jul 16,2009, 8:31AM

Tax Tips to Have a Successful Audit Experience

By John Dillard
Tax Tips to Have a Successful Audit Experience   These basis tax tips will do much to ensure that you keep adequate books and records to support your business deductions as well as to ensure that you will have much of the documentation that an IRS agent will want to see during the performance of an audit. Being prepared is your best bet and it starts each and every day by keeping good b...
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Jul 15,2009, 8:20AM

Utilizing Net Leases & Investing in Commercial Real Estate

By John Dillard
Utilizing Net Leases When Investing in Commercial Real Estate Investing   As I speak with potential investors about the possibilities of investing in commercial real estate, one of the biggest misunderstandings is the net lease. Net leases are commercial real estate investments in which the tenant takes more responsibility for the building, while giving the landlord less management re...
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Jul 14,2009, 8:00AM

Determining if You Need an Audit vs. a Compilation

By John Dillard
When to Use an Audit vs. a Compilation Yes you can get a CPA Audit done on your company. However an audit is approximately four to five times more expense than a compilation. Frequently a banker or outside investor can be satisfied without having to go through the full expense of an audit. Knowing when to use which and the nuances thereof will do much to help ensure that you do not incur unn...
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Jul 13,2009, 3:35PM

Planning for the Financial Impacts of Job Changes and Retiring

By John Dillard
Planning for the Financial Impacts of Job Changes and Retiring Your retirement savings plan offers you several choices when you decide to change jobs or when you retire. A distribution is a payout of realized savings and earnings from a 401(k) or other retirement plan. In general, you must begin taking distributions from your account by April 1 of the year following the year in which you turn 70 ...
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Jul 12,2009, 7:57PM

Understanding Investment Risk

By John Dillard
Understanding Investment Risk Ask any investor about risk and you'll probably hear that it's something the investor wants to avoid or at least keep to a minimum. Like it or not, investment risk is an essential part of any investment decision. Properly managed, risk can be turned to the investor's advantage. What is risk? The answer depends on whom you ask. If you ask an investor, particularly an inexperienced investor, you'll probably hear that risk means that you might permanently lose a portion of the money you invest.
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Jul 10,2009, 8:09PM

Are You Ready for Retirement

By John Dillard
Are You Ready for RetirementWith summer here many of us are planning our summer get away. We take a lot of time to make sure that we get where we want to go and are able to enjoy the things we look forward to all year. We work hard all year and deserve to have a nice vacation. Planning is essential to being sure that our vacation is what we want it to be. Planning for your retirement is also very ...
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Jul 09,2009, 8:16AM

Understanding Market Fluctuations

By John Dillard
Understanding Market Fluctuations Continuing to invest in your retirement plan is sometimes difficult to do during market declines but, regularly adding to an account that's designed for a long-term goal may cushion the emotional impact of market swings. If losses are offset even in part by new savings, the bottom-line number on your statement might not be quite so discouraging.
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Jul 08,2009, 3:52PM

Roth's & Traditional IRA's for 2009

By John Dillard
Roth's & Traditional IRA's for 2009There are no changes to the contribution limits set for traditional or Roth IRAs in 2009. The ceiling remains as it was last year: you may contribute up to $5,000 if you're under 50 years of age, or $6,000 (using the "catch-up" provision that allows an additional $1,000 if you're over 50 or turn 50 during 2009). Current legislation stipulates that future limits will be adjusted for inflation in $500 increments.
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Jul 07,2009, 5:14PM

Helping Your Clients with Clear Concise Communications

By John Dillard
Helping Your Clients with Clear Concise Communications   Taxes and Running a Business as an Entrepreneur are difficult enough without having to wonder about what to do and when. For over twenty years each and every one of our invoices to clients have detailed not only the work done but clear concise constructive communication that a client can use to stay aware of their responsibilities...
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Jul 07,2009, 7:54AM

Sample Letter to Georgia Addressing Assessed/Unpaid Income Taxes

By John Dillard
Sample Letter to Georgia Addressing Assessed/Unpaid Income Taxes Attached please find a sample letter one might use to address assessed taxes to the state of Georgia when the taxpayer is not aware of what the taxes might be for. Care should be exercised in all letters to ensure that honesty, integrity and good faith are maintained at all levels of communication, as well as to stay ever vigilant o...
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Jul 06,2009, 7:56AM

Offers in Compromise & Installment Plans

By John Dillard
Offers in Compromise & Installment Plans Working with the state and not against it is your best option for getting your tax issues resolved. Hiding you head in the sand will only make the situation worse and taxes and penalties are added and collection efforts are intensified. Having served as a CPA to Atlanta business owners and individual decades I have learned that good honest forthright c...
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Jul 05,2009, 4:54PM

Protecting Your Hard Earned Money

By John Dillard
Protecting Your Hard Earned Money I am constantly encouraging homeowners to get "Fire Insurance" for their money. It's free and all it takes is a little initiative, a little time, a home and a bank. Banks and savings and loans have long helped homeowners finance life's little surprises by offering a home equity line on their home. This amount is a function of both the equity in your home as well as your credit score. Even though the market for loans is tight and home values are depressed setting up a line with the bank is usually free and will help ensure you have money "when you need it."
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Jul 03,2009, 8:20AM

WWJD...What Would Jesus Do if He Was a CPA

By John Dillard
WWJD...What Would Jesus Do if He Was a CPA We strive to live our lives by a higher standard; not just to live by the world's but to live by God's standards. Though I am challenged to be the very best CPA I can be by helping clients keep their tax bills as low as legally possible. However I believe as a CPA and a Believer I am called to a much higher standard in helping clients develop tools and r...
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Jul 02,2009, 7:03AM

Straight Dealings with the IRS is Your Best Opportunity to Audit Success

By John Dillard
Straight Dealings with the IRS is Your Best Opportunity to Audit Success Working with the IRS in an honest open and straightforward basis is your best bet to ensure that your audit experience, to the extent that it can be, is an success. Frequently I see clients who are audited because they have a business and attempt to prepare their returns on their own. Tax law should never be attempted to be ...
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Jul 01,2009, 2:00PM

Unlocking the Mystery Behind CPA Fees

By John Dillard
Unlocking the Mystery Behind CPA Fees A typical small business fees annually to do your corporate and personal income tax return, tax planning, miscellaneous questions throughout the year, and help get your year-end data ready to prepare your corporate return would be approximately $1300.
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