Our Newest Series Starts Today...Getting Financing For Your Business

Techniques for Financing Your Business, Procuring Credit & Mortgages

Learning what you can do to get your business and personal affairs in order to address financing needs and issues is essential. As a forbearer to a new series called Getting Financing For Your Business will be coming soon. This series will focus on what you can do to get ready for this series and to ensure that you have much of the requisite "course material" out of the way. Having a basic familiarity with Financing Vehicles, Terms, and Options will ensure that as the Series begins you will be ready to learn and apply the concepts. Stay tuned to this site as we unfold the Financial Series... Getting Financing For Your Business.

Read more

Mission Trip Preparations Prayers...Taking Christianity Into the World

I found in my journal from June, 2004 when we did our first family mission trip to serve the people in Jamaica. These were notes that I listed and prayed over before the trip, that I constantly prayed during, and continue to have prayed on past and for future trips:

Read more

Business Inspiration/Leadership & Financial Management

Working closely with business owners for decades, our experience to bear to "Keep Your Tax Bill as Low as Legally Possible" while serving as a part-time Virtual Chief Financial Officer for Business Owners has created a wealth of information that is available now, at your fingertips. To that end we look first to serve, be helping others with a wide and varied host of free on-line business and accounting articles. Serving as a CPA and Business Speaker for Georgia Business Owners for decades, we have compiled a host of articles that are free and on-line. On the links below you will find all of this information available 24/7 by visiting the links below:

Read more

Navajo Family Missions Supported by American Bible Society

Taking Christianity Into the World

The American Bible Society is a non-profit organization with the goal of presenting the fullness of life through faith in Jesus Christ. The organization originally began in 1816 and continues on its ministry, still today, almost 200 years later. Last year the American Bible Society supported Family Missions, by donating three hundred Bibles, through Sugarloaf United Methodist Church in Duluth, GA, which we given to the local churches and Navajo people in Pueblo Pintado, NM. Mission work to Native Americans is not new to the American Bible Society as the first translation done by the Bible Society was done in 1818.

Read more

Passing Along the Gift...Taking Christianity Into the World

Many factors affect the difficult career decisions our students must make. This is true whether a student is in grade school, high school or college. Personal contact with a practicing professional in the field is helpful because it makes the idea of being in an certain professional or trade field. Willingness to share your knowledge and insights certainly indicates your commitment to the your profession and the advancement of understanding your chosen field. This helps students get a feel for what they might enjoy doing and to carefully contemplate a chosen field of study and career path.

Read more

Determining Mr. or Ms. Right/Christian Dating...Taking Christianity Into the World

Often we make many issues in life out to be much harder than they need to be. Many of life's answers are available if we will just be still, be aware and be open. When we clutter our lives with dizzying schedules, dates, socials and deadlines of all types, we will not be prone to hear the truth. We have all fallen for what we initially thought was that special someone, who turned everything different that we had originally thought. These tangibles will help you ensure that you are able to develop for yourself ways to discover, if your "romantic interest" is really right for you, or not. Dating and courtship are an integral part of our becoming an mature adult. These dating guidelines will help you avoid unnecessary heartaches, missteps and Mr. or Ms. Wrong.

Read more

Utilizing a Payroll Service Saves Time & Money

For the new business owner getting your new business started; it is essential to get it going in the right direction; utilizing an Payroll Service is your best bet to get your business started off on the right foot. A payroll service has the advantage, whether you have one employee or thousands, of quickly and efficiently handling all of your payroll needs. Payroll services will handle all of your payroll issues including:

-Payroll Check Preparation.
-Payments to federal, state and local authorities.
-Payroll reports to federal, state and local authorities.
-Printed or Electronic Checks.
-On-line or next day delivery.
-On-line, verbal for fax reporting.
-Active customer support.
-Management ready payroll reports.
-New Hire Reporting Assistance & Compliance.
-Garnishment Assistance.
-Assistance with Payroll Reports.
-Handling of any IRS or state tax notices received.
-Automatic drafting of payroll taxes and fees.
-Automatic crediting of payroll proceeds to an employee's personal account.

Having served as a CPA in Atlanta for now 30 years, I remain committed now more than ever that a CPA firm, who has your best interests at heart, will not perform payroll services. Though a CPA firm is eminently qualified to handle and perform payroll tasks and all of their reporting issues, a CPA firm by definition will either charge you CPA rates for predominantly clerical services or they will package or bundle the services putting their name on a payroll company's work adding there mark up for doing so. Desiring first to serve is a motto we all should aspire to. If where you live is at all similar to the Atlanta marketplace, there are many fine payroll companies, many of them national companies, who are more than capable of providing excellent service at a fair price. To read more about payroll tax issues visit:
Information on Payroll and Independent Contractors Reporting

Identifying if a Worker Is an Employee or Independent Contractor. Classification of your workers is often one of the most confusing sections of tax law. This recap will begin to enable you to properly classify your workers. http://www.hiscpa.com/independent-contratctor.html

Payroll Tax Withholding. Employers are required to withhold portions of each employee's salary and pay additional taxes to local, state and federal governments. This article discusses the types of taxes that must be withheld or paid. http://www.hiscpa.com/payroll-tax.html Read more

Staying the Course...Taking Christianity Into the World

As a Body of Believers we are constantly bombarded with issues that are well beyond our "pay grade" leaving us to do the only thing we can: lean on the power of the Holy Spirit. Life issues will bombard us leaving us confused, dismayed, bewildered and feeling hopeless. Though many times in life our intentions are pure, are actions are without reproach and our heart-felt passions filled with good intentions, only to find those about us who are naysayers, power driven, polar in their actions and their deeds, dishonest and misleading.

Read more

Witnessing...Taking Christianity Into the World

Determining your witnessing style one of the essential components of your Christian Walk. Knowing how you best relate to others and how God can use you to share the word of God is a gift that keeps on giving, as more and more people are led to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not 'hang out at church' to reach the world, but looked to Take Christianity Into the World. Jesus did not just meet with other Believers, though he mentored and gained strength from fellow brethren, but he went out into the world, willing to get his hands dirty. Meeting with people who were infirmed/sick, weak-hearted, fearful and in sin, Jesus chose to meet with people "where the rubber meets the road." Jesus walked with others seeking to bring light in a lost and fallen world.

Read more

Estate Planning 101: What You Don't Know Might Cost You

A CPA should not only be your best "financial friend" he should also be a source of providing other financial advisers who can assist and advice in many other varied sections of longer-term financial advising, such as estate planning. Though many of us, even though as Believers we know where we are going, there is frequently a lack of interest or desire to planning for our life's end and indeed our passing. Estate planning issues cover a myriad of issues, many of which I maintain a broad general understanding, however for the wise and judicious use and application of Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts I would defer to the skill and wisdom of a Tax Attorney with decades of practical and insightful experience. To this end, I often assist in these meetings between the Tax Attorney and my client to serve as a go between and to ensure that client's wishes are carried out in a thoughtful and insightful manner.

Read more

Resolving Tax Issues with the IRS

Two basis tenants are at the center of most every tax issue. As U.S. citizen's law requires us, to pay our just and fair tax. Though we, while making the calculation of the tax itself to determine the determination of the actual tax amount owed, the responsibility to file and pay your just legal taxes is not voluntary and is required by law. Most tax issues that I have seen over the years while practicing as a CPA in Atlanta for almost thirty years, stem predominantly from not addressing a tax issue, as it occurs. Though we often might feel that the enemy is the IRS, as indeed they do deliver the message. However, the true bane of most tax problems is procrastination. I have recapped below some of the most common IRS tax problems and issues that when ignored become much more problematic than they would be if they had been dealt with initially.

Read more

Incorporation Procedures 101

Incorporating is not necessarily difficult but those who do it alone without the services of a good attorney are a sitting recipe for disaster. Frequently I will see clients, who have incorporated themselves soon to learn that although they have filed their Articles of Incorporation they have failed in many other areas including. Please note these issues were written in light of Georgia law and each and every state has the ability to temper and draft laws and determine procedures. Working with an attorney who is familiar with these rules in states where you are domiciled/transact business is essential:

Read more

Offer in Compromise Letter for Offer in Compromise Appeal

Below please find a sample Offer in Compromise Letter that one Might Use for an Appeal. All letters to the IRS should be drafted with an means to an end, build empathy, create trust and cite tax law. Helping processing agents understand a tax case can do much to have an Offer in Compromise accepted saving thousands of dollars, avoid unnecessary fines, penalties, levies and garnishments. Working with the IRS and within the confines of "the system" with a CPA who is well versed about such matters will do much to aid and albeit the Offer Process. Ensuring that you follow the IRS Appeals Process to the letter of the law is a critical component of a satisfactory IRS experience.

Read more

Tax Law Surrounding Non-Cash/Property Charitable Contributions

The tax recording for and the claiming of itemized deductions on your personal income tax return has been a "hot-bed" of consternation for both taxpayers and the IRS alike. Often one of the deductions that the IRS will evaluate when auditing a return, it is prudent as with all areas of tax law to understand the nuances and to record them appropriately Form 8283: Noncash Charitable Contributions. I believe that much of the confusion that exists is a taxpayers misunderstanding of the law.

Read more

Utilizing Investment Strategies to Maximize Your Rate of Return

Especially in light of these economic times being a wise steward and investor are even more critical. It is prudent to keep in mind when investing the difference between short and long-term capital gain rates as often the difference between paying a lesser amount and a larger amount can be determined on the holding period of stock.

Read more

Sample IRS Representation Letter to File Power of Attorney & Offer in Compromise

Ensuring Successful Dealings with the Internal Revenue Service

When transmitting data to the IRS on behalf of a client I never use it as a means to a end but rather as part of a well-thought out process. Letters should be polite regardless of the situation, informative, insightful and direct. In all letters that I send when doing IRS Representation work, whether it be for an Offer in Compromise, tax lien, levy, garnishment or other collection issues and statutory assessments I strive to help all parties involved understand our intent and direction. Read more

Speaking The Truth in Love...Taking Christianity Into the World

My wife is perhaps the most beautiful woman in the whole world. Though she is beautiful on the outside, that is not what I love most about her. I love who she loves more than anyone else in the world, she loves my Savior, she loves God, Abba Father, Emmanuel (God in Us), she loves Jesus Christ. I would die for this woman any day, anytime, anywhere. Though she does not "complete me" as suggested in the movie Jerry McGuire, she does move me to higher heights and to better places than I would have ever been led to myself.

Read more

State Payroll Tax Issues/State Sales Tax/Business Licenses

One of your first steps as you being your business, is that you will apply for a State Taxpayer ID Number to pay your Income Tax and Net Worth Tax obligations. This will be true for a C Corporation , S Corporation, LLC, LLP, Partnership or Proprietorship. If you are an S or an S Corporation or an LLC that converts to an S Corporation for tax purposes you will need to have a withholding number and also register with the Georgia Department of Labor, even if you have no other employees, other than yourself as tax law requires these entities to pay a fair and reasonable salary given position and profit. If you do this online, you may also get a Federal ID number at the same time. To obtain a state withholding number you will typically contact your individual states Department of Revenue.

Read more

Payroll Reporting Guidelines with the Internal Revenue Service

The most burdensome administrative responsibility for a business owner. Whether you have one employee or a thousand, both the IRS and your state has a myriad of payroll reports and deadlines for which you are required to complete. Unfortunately there is not a one-stop shop to pay and report all of the varying deadlines and taxes. However, there is a solution that makes the reporting of payroll dramatically more seamless than if you strive to go it on your own. The easy part of preparing a payroll is the actual paycheck itself, but that is where the simplicity stops and the difficulty begins as there are a dramatic list of reports and varying deadlines to meet. However that is where the difficultly of handling your own payroll increases.

Read more

How to Utilize the First Time Home Buyer Credit

Beginning after April 8, 2008 and before December 1, 2009 taxpayers are eligible for the First-Time Homebuyer Credit. TO qualify you home must be purchased in the United States and you (and your spouse, if you are married) must not have owned any other main home during the three years preceding the date of purchase.

The credit is determined as the lesser of:
-10% of the purchase price of the house.
-$7,500 ($8,000 if the home was purchased in 2009). If you file as married filing separately, then the credit would be half of this amount. Read more