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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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 questions. As an investment advisor, I am often times able to help people formulate strategies to invest what they do have today, so they have a safe and secure tomorrow.I specialize in a different type of asset. In fact, most people don't really think of it as a retirement solution. Let me give you an example. Let's say that you had $500,000 in your IRA. Because it's more than likely invested in the stock market, the IRA could be worth $500,000 today and worth $10,000 tomorrow. "Impossible", you say. Would You Risk Your Retirement Monies?

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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 consultant Watson Wyatt, nearly half (47 percent) of the 453 large U.S. employers currently offer a consumer-directed health plan (CDHP), a high-deductible plan offered with a personal account that can be used to pay a portion of medical expenses not covered under the plan. It's the same concept as the pairing of a high deductible health plan (HDHP) with a health savings account (HSA). Also, don't be surprised if your employer or insurer is going to get tougher about you losing weight or quitting smoking.  

Here are some ideas to help you take the first step in monitoring these costs: 

Change your negative healthcare behavior: Losing weight will not only have immediate health benefits, it will also make your health insurance options and potential out-of-pocket costs more affordable over time. A Stanford University and Rand Corporation study reported that lifetime medical costs related to diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, hypertension and stroke among the obese are $10,000 higher than among the non-obese. It added that lifetime medical costs could be reduced by $2,200 to $5,300 following a 10 percent reduction in body weight.   FULL POST

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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Tax Garnishments, Collection Issues, and Offers in Compromise Directory of IRS Representation

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 methods including a garnishment. Working with a CPA is your best course to ensuring that you pay only the taxes that you owe while ensuring that any penalties that might be abated are done so, using your rights as a taxpayer to your advantage.

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Handling Your State Tax Issues

Dealing with the state of Georgia about your open tax issues, back taxes or an Offer in Compromise are critical to ensuring that your tax does do not indeed worsen. Retaining a CPA by filing a Power of Attorney is your best first course of action to assure that your rights and interests are protected as well as being sure to pay your lowest legal possible tax and that all penalties possible are abated. Below is a sample letter that I use to address such issues. Caution should be exercised though not to represent yourself either before the IRS or Georgia as those actions are a recipe for disaster.

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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 and get on their mailing list. You might get plenty of endless chatter from the hotels, amusement parks and other destinations you.re interested in, but you might also find coupons to those locations and other linked businesses that could save you money. Also go to travel magazines to see whether signing up might deliver similar money-saving offers. Most important, go to the tourism Web sites of the states you.re planning to visit to take advantage of coupons and specials. You might also find events and activities to attend that aren't publicized anywhere else. FULL POST

Becoming Like Him...Taking Christianity Into the World

Today 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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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 books and records so that if the tax man cometh that you are prepared and ready to support the business expenses you have claimed. Having served as a CPA to the Metro Atlanta area for decades I have learned that starting with the basics and fundamentals of sound recordkeeping is always a prudent and wise choice.  

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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 responsibilities. In this article, we will cover the three main types of net lease properties - modified net, triple net (NNN), and double net (NN) - and how each one can be beneficial to different types of investors and their investment criteria.  

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