CPAs are on the cutting edge of business strategy, professional services and staffing issues. CPA Success, a blog run by the Maryland Association of CPAs, tells those stories. Find out what makes CPAs leaders in the business world.
Tax season is winding down, but there's still time to get your last-minute filing questions answered.
Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot will answer questions from taxpayers and tax pros alike in real time during an online chat session from 1 to 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 1.
Those interested can access the chat room by visiting the comptroller's Web site at www.MarylandTaxes.com.
"People will be able to logon and ask the comptroller any of their last-minute tax questions and seek advice before the approaching April 15 deadline," the Comptroller's Office states. "In the waning days of the filing season, the comptroller wants to offer answers to stressed-out filers and ensure taxpayers do not fall victim to any last-minute tax scams or rush into any short-sighted refund anticipation loans during these final hours."
A transcript of the chat will be available following the chat.
Health care reform is the law of the land. The U.S. Senate saw to that by passing a series of "fixes" in the reform bill approved earlier by the House and signed by President Obama.
In response, the folks at CCH have compiled a summary of the fixes and an examination of the final reform act.
The act's impact on the world of finance is clear. In the second paragraph of its briefing, CCH reports the following:
"The IRS is responsible for overseeing a significant part of health care reform, such as the administration of additional taxes and penalties on individuals and employers, determinations of various exemptions from those taxes, and oversight of new information reporting requirements. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman has said that one of the agency’s first priorities will be guidance on the new small business tax credit for health insurance coverage."
Meanwhile, throughout the rest of the finance world, questions remain. Like everyone else, CFOs see good points and bad in the reform act. Their biggest concern, though, lies in what's not in the bill. Writes CFO.com's Alix Stuart:
"Even finance chiefs who are in favor of the reform say a key issue was left unaddressed: the rising cost of health care. 'I can certainly see the benefits of making health-care insurance more readily available to everyone, and as a U.S. citizen, I'm glad to see that,' says Cal Stuart, CFO of water and air treatment equipment maker Rainsoft. But he adds that while the new law 'addresses the area of availability, it doesn't seem like it's really addressed the issue we're facing, which is the continued increase in health-care costs.'"
Stuart examines that claim in detail in the CFO.com article, "Reacting to reform." Read it, then tell us: What do you think of the new health care legislation?
Learn more at 'National Health Care: Government Savior or Budget Buster?' Join us from 1 to 2 p.m. on April 7 for a lively discussion of health care policy and its pragmatic implications, including a review of past initiatives, an assessment of the current state of the public and private insurance markets, and an analysis of the federal government's ability to maintain national standards in a cost-effective manner. Get details and register for either the Second Life session or the webcast.
My family and I spent some time at Disney World last week. My daughter is 7 and it was her first visit -- heck, it was my first visit, too -- so we had a blast. Three days, three parks (Epcot, the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios), too many rides, too much food, too much sun. It was awesome in (what I imagine was) a typically Disney way.
Near the end of our third and final day there, my wife and I looked around the park and noticed something -- or rather, didn't notice something. There was no garbage. Anywhere. A mass of humanity was rushing by us, shoulder to shoulder, eating, drinking, buying, consuming, and there was no trash to be seen. The park was as clean as the moment it opened.
Nor did I notice any Disney employees picking up the trash. Sure, they were there. Once I stopped to really look for them, I saw lots of them. But to tourists in a hurry to hit the next ride, they were next to invisible.
"So Disney keeps its parks clean and nobody notices," you say. "So what?"
Here's what: Suppose Disney didn't keep the parks clean. Suppose the rides were sticky and the restrooms stunk and Main Street USA was lined with litter. How do you think guests would react?
I'm guessing they'd do three things: (a) Complain, (b) leave, and (c) tell everyone they know what a dump Disney World is.
Disney gets it, and "it" boils down to this: Nothing else you do will matter if you don't take care of the basics. The little things really are big things.
Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team. Do you have a strong No. 2? A strong CFO? A strong management team with clarity around the organization's strategy can move mountains.
Create organizational clarity: This is done by making strategic planning a systematic process (versus episodic events).
Over-communicate organizational clarity: The more teams understand the strategy, the less they need to be supervised and directed.
Reinforce organizational clarity through human systems: Your strategy will be derailed if your human systems (compensation, recruiting, training) conflict with your strategies. You build clarity and alignment by developing simple structures around decision-making, performance and reward policies.
We have developed a strategic thinking system that helps develop these extraordinary leaders (Top Five Qualities of Extraordianry Leaders), align your team and develop a dynamic strategic plan capable of navigating these turbulent times. It is called I2A - Insights to Action, and it is used in leadership development and as a system for strategic planning. Call Pam Devine at (888) 481-3500 for more information.
Today's post is an oldie but a goodie (a post from the past).
It has been said that Michelangelo could "see" David inside the big block of stone and then simply removed the excess stone. We often marvel at people who have the vision to see those breakthrough opportunities and industry game-changers, but research shows that this can be learned and systematically applied.
Seeing David in the Stone, a book by James Schwartz, shows you how. Jim has spent his life in manufacturing companies and consulting on lean manufacturing and lean accounting, but this book goes way beyond L-E-A-N. It is for anyone who wants to find and seize breakthrough opportunities that are required to stay competitive in today's environment.
I had an opportunity to interview Jim and his daughters (who are also in the business) at a Lean Accounitng Summit Conference at which I was speaking. Their thoughts are summarized as "Finding Great Opportunities" (steps 1-4), "Mobilize Support" (steps 5-8) and "Seize Great Opportunities" (steps 9-12).
Here are Jim's 12 steps:
Differentiate yourself for opportunity.
Use powerful learning processes.
Learn to envision opportunities.
Select only high-leverage opportunities.
Find the highest meanings of others.
Co-create with those eager for opportunity.
Sell the opportunity to those who are cautious.
Find common meaning with and negotiate with opposers.
Use superior design and planning processes.
Seize rapidly at high-leverage points.
Deliver rewards.
Develop other innovators and high achievers.
Why do you need to do this? Swartz would say, "Simply to survive." He argues that every business needs to increase its value offerings in the market and reduce costs by 10 percent per year to survive. Jim told powerful stories of how these principles were applied by 70 great leaders, from Michaelango to Bill Gates.
Two things really resonated for me:
Jim's principles consider the realities of change management and the adoption curve in getting buy-in.
The stories and insights are developed from the failures of great leaders as much as the successes.
Just in time for the stretch run of busy season, we have a treat for you today -- a guest post from Skip Falatko, director of finance and administration for the Maryland Association of CPAs. Skip?
I’ve accumulated a number of family artifacts, including a scratch copy of my grandfather’s 1935 tax return.
Looking at it the other day, I was struck by how easy it was to prepare taxes back then. The entire form totals four pages and includes:
The body of the return listing taxable income and expenses
Instructions
Surtax tables
Schedule A, "Profit or Loss from Business"
Schedule B, "Income from Rents & Royalties"
Schedule C, "Capital Gains & Losses"
Schedule D, "Interest on Liberty Bonds"
Schedule E, "Income from Dividends"
Schedule F, "Explanation of Deductions"
My grandfather, William J. Endersbee, married with four daughters, earned $3,480.56 in wages in 1935, took a $2,500 personal exemption, and had a total credit for dependents of $1,600, bringing his taxable income to zero. Social Security didn’t start until 1937, so he didn’t yet pay any of that.
At that time, there was a flat 4 percent federal tax (I know) applied against taxable income, excluding Liberty Bond interest and dividends. In addition, there was a surtax applied to all taxable income, including interest and dividends, that started at 4 percent on taxable income of $4,000 or more and went up to 59 percent on taxable income of $1 million or more.
It’s a much more complex world today. A check of tax forms on the IRS Web site shows more than 1,000 income tax forms listed. It’s no wonder we need professional help.
Can we reduce complexity in the tax code? Should we? If so, where do we start?
This CBS News summary examines further provisions in the bill, including expanded coverage, insurance reforms, individual and employer mandates, and how Congress plans to pay for the bill.
This NPR article takes a closer look at some of the other major changes contained within the bill -- including an increase in the Medicare payroll tax.
"The bill adds a 0.9 percentage point to the Medicare payroll tax on earned income above $200,000 for individuals, or $250,000 for couples," the article reads. "Under the reconciliation bill, starting in 2013, people in those income brackets also would face a 3.8 percent tax on investment income, such as interest, capital gains and dividends."
Meanwhile, Peter Grier of the Christian Science Monitor examines what the bill means for businesses. CNNMoney's Neil deMause offers his take on the business angle here.
Stay tuned.
For the record, Maryland Reps. Elijah Cummings, Donna Edwards, Chris Van Hollen, Steny Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger and John Sarbanes voted in favor of the bill. Maryland Reps. Frank Kratovil and Roscoe Bartlett voted against the bill.
What do you think of the bill? Let us know your thoughts, then check out these related resources:
I've wondered before how much of our current economic woes are due to our own personal financial mismanagement and greed. Turns out the comedians at SNL were asking that same question four years ago. (My thanks to the folks at the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs for sharing this video on Twitter.)
"Say you were standing with one foot in the oven and one foot in an ice bucket," former Major League shortstop and manager Bobby Bragan once said. "According to the percentage people, you would be perfectly comfortable."
Bragan, who died earlier this year at the age of 92, knew the fickle nature of statistics: They can be spun to tell any story you'd like.
So he would've gotten a kick out of the way the press has covered a recent KPMG survey on international financial reporting standards, or IFRS.
Writes Reuters reporter Emily Chasan: "About half of U.S. executives would like to be able to move to international accounting sooner rather than later even though U.S. regulators have not made a formal decision to mandate a switch, according to a new survey."
Accountancy Age Reporter Mario Christodoulou looked at the same data and came to this conclusion: "More than half of American business executives are not convinced the U.S. should adopt international accounting standards, a KPMG survey has found."
No wonder it's so hard to figure out what's going on.
So who's right?
It depends on your point of view. It's kind of a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty argument: Half the executives want to move, half are unsure. There's no real consensus.
Maybe that's the real story. Though the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board both insist they're on track to adopt a single set of standards some time in 2011, some folks are concerned that the United States continues to argue about the merits of IFRS while more than 100 other countries march forward.
What's your take on IFRS? Is it time to hit the gas ... or the brake? Let us know, then check out these related resources:
For the uninitiated, OK Go is a Chicago-based rock band that has built an enthusiastic following largely through the magic of viral videos.
It all started a few years back with a quirky, low-tech video for the band's song "Here It Goes Again" (known simply as "the treadmill video"). Millions of people watched the video on YouTube, and bloggers from coast to coast shared it with their readers by embedding the video in their blogs. Even without huge CD sales, the band was a hit thanks to that video.
The video's viral success apparently got the wheels turning among the suits at OK Go's record label, EMI, and when the band released its latest CD, "Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky," EMI was ready.
The video for the CD's first single, "This Too Shall Pass," featured an incredibly elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque contraption that had "viral" written all over it. But instead of embracing the community, EMI decided to try to control it by refusing to allow bloggers to embed it in their blogs. If you wanted to watch the video, you had to go to the official, ad-supported YouTube video.
So OK Go fought back by dropping EMI and forming its own record label, Paracadute Recordings. Its first order of business: Allowing others to embed the "This Too Shall Pass" video.
The result this time?
"Since the videos have become embeddable, digital album sales have tripled and digital tracks sales have jumped more than sevenfold," Nosowitz writes.
The lesson? You can't control the community. The community wants to be social. It wants to share things. If you try to keep them from doing that, you'll pay the price. If you allow them to do it, they'll spread the word for you.
It's your choice: Fight the community and lose, or embrace it and win.
For their part, OK Go insists its parting with EMI was amicable.
"The metric of success that the label uses is record sales and, specifically, physical record sales," singer, songwriter and guitarist Damian Kulash told NPR. "A lot of what we make has nothing to do with record sales. So we sort of are headed off in the direction that makes more sense for our band, and I think the label is, frankly, happy to watch us go and be successful doing our thing."
Did EMI fumble the viral-video ball on this one? Thanks to OK Go's decision, we're embedding the video below and letting you decide for yourself.
, he says the answer is rather simple. He outlines the four obsessions of an extraordinary executive:
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