Category Archives: Blog

• Join Us This Tax Season on Team GREEN!

  Posted on 10/19/2011 in Blog

  Tax season can be overwhelming, especially when you consider all the paper and manual tasks involved. We’ve worked hard in our firm to go paperless—creating a digital filing system that puts clients’ documents at our fingertips…so when you ask, we can send needed files to you immediately.Working with electronic files is far more efficient, so this year we encourage you to provide your tax source documents to us within your client portal. In turn, we will also deliver your tax return in your portal—there for you to review and retrieve when it’s convenient for you, 24/7. By following a paperless tax process you can eliminate:Manually printing, collecting, and delivering your tax source documents.Scanning in and emailing sensitive data (it’s far more secure to exchange files via your client portal).Receiving a printed copy of your return to manually file.And all of this adds up to a speedier and more secure tax process!Join us this year on Team GREEN!

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• Have You Started Getting Ready for Tax Season?

  Posted on 10/04/2011 in Blog

  It may seem a bit early to ask this question, but trust that tax season will be upon us before you know it. October is just, well, hours away! That means that it’s officially “year end,” which is when you want to start getting things in order for the upcoming tax season.Our firm has certainly started to prepare. Let us help you do the same. The following are a few tips to get you going.Let Document Gathering Commence!—Start getting all your documents ready to go. Pull together different tax forms, receipts, invoices, etc.Get Organized—Be sure to organize your documents properly. This will help you identify any missing pieces. Practicing good recordkeeping will make tax season far less stressful.Start Scanning and Go Paperless—If you haven’t already, now is a good time to adopt a paperless process. It’s so much easier to operate in a digital environment…with invoices, receipts, and all other documents available with the click of the mouse. Going into tax season, you’ll feel a big sense of relief by having all your documents stored electronically.Use Your Portal—We developed our advanced online portals to provide you with an easy-to-use and convenient system to both send us your tax source documents…

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• Nine Tips for Charitable Taxpayers

  Posted on 09/21/2011 in Blog

  Many taxpayers enjoy giving back to the community by donating cash or goods to their favorite charitable organizations. In addition to the warm and fuzzy feeling you get from helping others, you may also be able to take a deduction for the donation on your 2011 tax return. But before you start tallying up your good deeds, take a look at the top nine things the IRS wants every taxpayer to know before deducting charitable donations:Make sure the organization qualifies. Charitable contributions must be made to qualified organizations to be deductible. You can ask any organization whether it is a qualified organization, or check IRS Publication 78, Cumulative List of Organizations. It is available at www.IRS.gov.Itemize! Charitable contributions are deductible only if you itemize deductions using Form 1040, Schedule A.What is deductible? You are generally able to deduct your cash contributions and the fair market value of most property you donate to a qualified organization. Special rules apply to several types of donated property, including clothing or household items, cars and boats.What if you receive something in return? If your contribution entitles you to receive merchandise, goods, or services in return—such as admission to a charity banquet or sporting event—you…

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• Getting into the Right Social Media Mindset

  Posted on 09/01/2011 in Blog

  Social media is part of business…a permanent part. It can’t be ignored; it’s just too powerful—especially when you look at the shear number of people using it, the millions of conversations taking place, and the ability to reach anyone, anywhere.For small businesses, social media is a valuable marketing tool. It can be used to promote your business, build your brand, and sell product. The biggest obstacle to implementing social media, like Facebook and Twitter, is the mindset of business owners. Many think that Twitter is a “fad” and refuse to jump on the bandwagon based on hype alone.Harnessing the power of social media can only happen after you’ve changed your mindset. Think about it this way: embrace the concept NOT the brand. For example, the brand is Twitter…but the concept is mobile. It’s not really about being a Twitter fanatic; it’s about taking advantage of mobile capabilities. The playing field has been leveled. Small businesses can now market to broad audiences like the big guys—and for free!So, get out there. Set up your social media accounts and start broadcasting what you do and how well you do it. It all starts by changing the way you think about social media.

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• Key Information for Taxpayers Who Owe Money to the IRS

  Posted on 08/16/2011 in Blog

  While most Americans receive a refund each year from the IRS, there are those who owe and cannot pay the full amount due. For those that find themselves in this situation, the IRS offers alternatives for paying your tax bill. Named the Fresh Start initiative, the IRS developed this program to help individuals and small business meet their tax obligations without adding unnecessary burden. The following tips and general information were developed by the IRS:1.    Tax Bill Payments v. Loan—If you are unable to pay your current summer tax bill, it is often in your best interest to get a loan to pay the bill in full rather than making installment payments to the IRS.2.    Additional Time to Pay—Based on your circumstances, you may be granted a short additional time to pay your taxes in full. Additional time to pay can be requested through the Online Payment Agreement application at www.irs.gov or by calling 800-829-1040.3.    Credit Card Payments—You can pay your bill with a credit card. The interest rate on a credit card may be lower than the combination of interest and penalties imposed by the Internal Revenue Code. To pay by credit card contact one of the following processing…

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• It’s a New Brand Day

  Posted on 07/28/2011 in Blog

  It’s a New Brand Day at Yudichak CPA PC!Yudichak CPA PC is excited to announce the recent launch of our firm’s new brand. We’ve been working very hard to enhance our website, develop helpful new client communications, create premium marketing materials, and give our firm a major facelift. We’ve also continued to research and identify the latest and greatest technologies to improve the services we provide and ensure we continue to meet your needs.Take a moment to look around our new website and review some of our advanced features, like our Client Center. The Client Center is designed to provide you with a highly secure and convenient web-based tool to access your financial documents, data, and collaborate with our firm in real time.We hope you like what you see. It’s the same great service, just with a new look and feel. We look forward to hearing your feedback.

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• Garmin 405cx

  Posted on 11/20/2010 in Blog

  Damon’s review of Garmin 405cxJust finished my first run with Garmin 405cx. The one word that describes the Garmin 405cx isFreedomNow I have never run with a GPS watch so this is not meant to be comparative to any other GPS watch. I really like having the ability to run wherever I want. I have my running target for the day and it was nice to watch my progress and know when I was close to the end. I had the flexibility to change my route at any time which was very liberating.When I was in my teenage years i ran a lot just to run. Now that I’m training for a marathon, I have to make sure that I get the right mileage in with each workout. The beauty of having a GPS watch is that I can still run wherever I like, only now I can make sure that I get my mileage in.I read some reviews of the 405cx that said it was difficult to read the watch because of the size of the numbers. I did not find this to be a problem at all. It was easy to read. I like the look of the…

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• Indie Conf 2010

  Posted on 11/14/2010 in Blog

  Yesterday I had the opportunity to be on a panel at the Indie Conf in Raleigh, NC. It was a well attended event with some excellent speakers. And no I am not saying that because I was one of the speakers. While I did do a good presentation, I really got a lot from the other speakers as well. Michael Kimisal organized the first time event for independent web professionals.In some respects, I did not fit in with the programmers at the Indie Conf. In another respect I did fit in with them because I am an independent. Here is what I liked about the event.I got to meet a lot of really neat business people. It was a good networking event.I learned from the speakers who presented.I got to share some of my knowledge of accounting and taxes with othersMy big takeaway from the conference is that attending conferences needs to be a new business goal for me in 2011. It will help me to expand my network and also to grow as a professional.

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• Life is more than just practice

  Posted on 08/18/2010 in Blog

  I recently had lunch with an individual who I hired for a short term project. He is in the process of studying for the CPA exam so he can also be a CPA exam.I encouraged him that all the hard work is worthwhile. I contemplated everything that I did so that I could become a CPA. There is a high barrier to entry to become a CPA.This reminded me somewhat of my Army training. When I went through basic training, there were some very long hours and times when I did not get much sleep. Stress levels were high and there were challenging tasks to complete.I realized that the training was that intense because the Army wanted to prepare soldiers for the rigors of battle. While I never served in a combat zone, I talked with others that did encounter combat. After talking with them, the conclusion was that Army training was the best the Army could do to prepare soldiers for combat.As challenging as training was it is still inadequate. There is no way the Army could artificially simulate combat.I think the same is with a profession. Training can only get you so far. Part of why training is…

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• Unintended Benefits

  Posted on 07/03/2010 in Blog

  I just got back from a housewarming party for my of my clients who just bought a new house. Yesterday I finalized his 2009 tax return. He just bought his new house and qualified for the first time home buyer credit.Last fall I met him and reviewed his 2008 tax return. One thing I noticed was that he received a large refund in 2008. I spoke with him and said it probably made sense to change his payroll tax withholding so that he was paying so much in taxes. I asked him if he really wanted to get a big tax refund each year. While it may be nice to get a big check, the problem with getting a big tax refund is you can’t use the money during the year and extra couple hundred dollars of take pay each paycheck could make a big difference.The big benefit of this would be that he would have more take home pay each paycheck. He really liked that and I helped him changed his withholding taxes.It turns out that as a result of this he and his wife were able to qualify to buy a new home which they were very excited…

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