This list of mistakes by John Burke and Steven Criscuolo have both general and complex mistakes that could really cost you in taxes and they mostly can be avoided with a little planning:http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Top-Tax-Mistakes-Made-Investors-67796-1.htmlThat is one reason I don’t bill for telephone and email time – I want my clients to let me know when they are planning something out of the ordinary so we can plan for the results.For financial, accounting and tax musings,You can count on us to count for you! email bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net phone 818-317-6035 Website www.briantstonercpa.com Follow me on Twitter! @bstonercpa
Cash Up Front: Do Retainers Work?
Now another age old question – should you charge a retainer and then hourly bill against it? Should you charge flat fee billing or value billing and get prepayments? Here is a post by Jeff Stimpson in the TaxProToday area of AccountingToday online with the retainer side of things:http://www.accountingtoday.com/taxprotoday/news/cash-up-front-do-retainers-work67807-1.html?ET=webcpa:e9177:204199a:&st=emailCall it retainer or a upfront payment on a value bill or a flat fee bill, prepayments on future work is always smart. I try to bill anywhere from half to all of a project before I start and try to get final payment before I release efile forms or reports. (I have to admit I sometimes stray from this, especially with a client I have a history with who I know will pay the bill.) For financial, accounting and tax musings,You can count on us to count for you! email bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net phone 818-317-6035 Website www.briantstonercpa.com Follow me on Twitter! @bstonercpa
Social Security as part of your portfolio
You may be counting on Social Security but if you’re not counting Social Security as a part of your overall asset allocation, you may be missing out on bigger gains in your retirement-savings portfolio. See this article in MarketWatch from the Wall Street Journal by Andrea Coombes:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/social-security-as-part-of-your-portfolio-2013-08-19It is definitely smart to talk to your financial advisor and classifying social security as some part of your retirement planning is necessary, since it will be there in some form in the future.For financial, accounting and tax musings,You can count on us to count for you! email bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net phone 818-317-6035 Website www.briantstonercpa.com Follow me on Twitter! @bstonercpa