Is the Apple tax worth paying?

I know you like your TV. Maybe it’s plasma, or has surround-sound; maybe it makes the helm of the Starship Enterprise look like a cereal box with lights painted on. If you had to buy it again, you would. No question.

What if, though, I took your TV, painted it white, stuck a picture of an apple on the back, and then upped the price by 500 bucks. Would you buy it now?

Steve Ballmer (right), Microsoft CEO, took a lot of flak last week for suggesting Apple practice just this kind of fleecing of its customers. Ballmer, from an unbiased perspective of course, claims Mac users are mugs.

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Charities Skeptical About Obama's Proposed Tax Change

Charitable groups continue to warn that reducing the charitable tax deduction, as President Obama proposes, would hurt organizations already struggling to drum up funding in a recession.

Charity groups are still jittery over a proposed tax change they say could cause wealthy donors to give less, despite assurances from President Obama this week that donations are unlikely to go down because of a reduction in the tax deduction for charitable contributions.

While Obama argues that his administration is trying to make sure low-income donors enjoy the same tax benefits for their giving as high-income donors, charities and the organizations that represent them say they are concerned they could end up paying the price for a more equitable tax code.

"To put any block between the donor and the charity at this time, I think, is not helpful," said Lisa Hillman, board chairwoman for the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.

Obama told reporters during his prime-time press conference Tuesday that charities are wrong to assume the change will discourage donations.

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Tax tips for the self employed

Small businesses are being hit hard by the recession, with 85 now closing every day. Simple tax measures could make all the difference in 2009 – and all businesses should ensure they take advantage of the Government’s new schemes to help the self-employed through these tough times.

Here are five top tax tips to help you ride out the recession. You can also read our small business survival guide here.

1. Don't wait for help
   
   Don’t wait for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to come after you if you owe money. If you have trouble paying, talk to the Business Payment Support Service to arrange additional time to pay.
   
   The service was set-up on November 24,2008 to allow businesses to delay payments of tax, National Insurance, VAT or other payments owed to HMRC. Call 0845 302 1435.
   
   
2. Reduce your income tax
   If you are self-employed and your profits are falling, you may be able to reduce your income tax payments, which are due on January 31 and July 31. You will need to call HMRC and request a SA303 form or download one here.
   
   
3. De-register for VAT
   Do you really need to be registered for VAT? You must register only if the value of your taxable supplies in the past 12 months or less has exceeded £67,000. De-registration may enable you to reduce your prices or to keep more of your sales.
   
   
4. Use the VAT cash accounting scheme
   If you sell more on credit than you buy on credit, look at the VAT Cash Accounting Scheme. Normally you pay VAT on your sales whether or not your customer has paid you – but using this scheme means you do not need to pay VAT until the customer has paid. If the customer never pays, you never have to pay the VAT.
   
   You can use cash accounting if your estimated turnover during the next tax year is not more than £1.35 million. If VAT cash accounting is not for you, VAT bad debt relief can be claimed if your customer has not paid you after six months.
   
   
5. Claim your small business rate relief.
   
   Businesses have to pay their rates – like council tax – to their local authority, but if your premises have a rateable value of £15,000 (£21,500 in London) or less then you can claim a discount. Contact your local council for more information.

Source : http://online.wsj.com/

Tips for outsourcing bookkeeping resources

As an accountant, responding to a request from your clients to find a competent bookkeeper can present significant challenge because:

• They will most likely only need someone part time.
• Nine times out of ten they will insist the person works at their premises.
• They will expect you to provide someone excellent for free.
  

Of course, if you have your own team of internal bookkeepers you will attempt to persuade them that this is the best solution, but what if they don’t budge?

Most of the major recruitment players are less than ideal as they don’t specialise in part time bookkeepers. You also know that their approach is simply to aggregate the CVs of those candidates who happen to have walked into their offices that week. They forward them and let the client make the choice, without any sort of technical vetting. This won’t do, so you would probably look at the following options:

1. Use one of the tried and trusted bookkeepers you have been using for ages.
2. If they can’t do it you ask around your partners or local practitioners to see if they know anyone who is available and trustworthy.
3. Put up an advert online on sites such as Gumtree, Monster etc.
4. Tell the client to find one themselves.
   

At a time when ‘added value’ is a key differentiator and clients are struggling with dwindling revenues and slow cashflow, the last thing they need is inaccurate management information and/or big bill at the year end from you. Both of these consequences will arise if they use an incompetent bookkeeper.

So, how can you keep crucial goodwill with your client and satisfy their request without wasting hours and hours of your valuable time for free? From your client’s perspective, surely you must know a bookkeeper for goodness sake? You are an accountant after all!

You get the call (again), and go through the options.
If you do have a trusted bookkeeper and they are free, you can recommend them and then go back to the large pile of work on your desk, delighted that there is one less thing to do - until the next request comes in, that is.

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