Adjust Your Withholding—Why wait another year for a big refund? Now is a good time to review your withholding and make adjustments for next year, especially if you’d prefer more money in each paycheck this year. If you owed at tax time, perhaps you’d like next year’s tax payment to be smaller. Contact our office for help calculating your withholding.

Store Your Tax Return in a Secure Location—Put your current tax return and supporting documents somewhere secure so you’ll know exactly where to find them should you receive an IRS notice. This will also allow you to easily access your return and use it as a helpful guide for next year.

Organize Recordkeeping—Establish a central location where everyone in your household can put tax-related records all year long. Be consistent to avoid a scramble for misplaced mileage logs or charity receipts come tax time.

Review Your Paychecks—Make sure your employer is properly withholding and reporting retirement account contributions, health insurance payments, charitable payroll deductions, and other items. These payroll adjustments can make a big difference on your bottom line. Fixing an error on your paycheck now helps you avoid hassles later.

Prepare to Itemize Deductions—If your expenses typically fall just below the amount to make itemizing advantageous, a bit of planning to bundle deductions into 2012 may pay off. For example, an early or extra mortgage payment, pre-deadline property tax payments, or planned donations could equal some extra tax savings.

Strategize Tuition Payments—The American Opportunity Tax Credit, which offsets higher education expenses, is set to expire after 2012. It may be beneficial to pay 2013 tuition in 2012 to take full advantage of this tax credit, up to $2,500, before it expires.

Stay Apprised of Changes—Find out about tax law changes, helpful tips, and IRS announcements during the year by subscribing to IRS Tax Tips through www.irs.gov or IRS2Go (the IRS’s mobile app). The IRS issues tips regularly during summer and tax season. Special Edition tips are sent periodically for other timely updates.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Now, go get organized…

1. Make a Great First Impression—First impressions count…setting the stage for the customer experience. The first impression someone has of you can be the result of a phone call, email, or a visit to your business. Make sure you are putting your best foot forward in every instance. Always introduce yourself, be friendly, and offer to help in any way you can.

2. Don’t Rely Solely on Email—Email is convenient, but don’t hide behind it. Be willing to pick up the phone and return phone calls.

3. Treat Others the Way You Want to be Treated—It’s the Golden Rule…and still applies today. Be sure that you are treating customers with the same respect and courtesy that you want and expect from others.

4. Proactive Beats Reactive Every Time—Don’t wait for the customer to ask for help. Be proactive and approach the customer first. Proactive also means being willing to find the answer to a customer’s question when you don’t know the answer off hand.

5. Tone Sets the Stage—This is true whether it’s a phone call or an in-person conversation. Make sure that you keep your tone in check. Don’t ever make the customer feel as if they’ve interrupted you (even though you may feel overwhelmed at the moment). Be sure to always smile. A smile goes a long way, and ensures that your tone comes across as pleasant and helpful.

6. Take Responsibility for Mistakes—Mistakes happen…no one is perfect. More often than not, a customer will be forgiving if you admit your mistake and offer an apology right away.

Improving customer service should always be on a business owner’s to-do list. Hopefully, this list of tips will be helpful in your efforts.

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.”
2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.
3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think. There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”
4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.” My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, “Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you.”
5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.”
6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.
7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.
8. Be quick to decide. Remember what General George S. Patton said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.
10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.
11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.
12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.
13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).
14. Solve your own problems. You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.”
15. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.
16. There’s always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time!”

Copyright © 2004 Bob Parsons. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission.

Promoters claim that they can obtain a tax refund or nonexistent stimulus payment based on the American Opportunity Tax Credit—even if the victim was not enrolled in or paying for college. A variation of this scheme claims the college credit is available to compensate people for paying taxes on groceries.

These schemes can be quite costly for victims. Promoters may charge exorbitant upfront fees to file claims, and they often disappear once a victim discovers that they have been scammed. The following are informative tips to help you identify and avoid such activity. Taxpayers should look for:

1. Fictitious claims for refunds or rebates based on false statements of entitlement to tax credits.
2. Unfamiliar for-profit tax services selling refund and credit schemes to the membership of local churches.
3. Internet solicitations that direct individuals to toll-free numbers and then solicit social security numbers.
4. Homemade flyers and brochures implying that credits or refunds are available without proof of eligibility.
5. Offers of free money with no documentation required.
6. Promises of refunds for “Low Income – No Documents Tax Returns.”
7. Claims for the expired Economic Recovery Credit Program or for economic stimulus payments.
8. Unsolicited offers to prepare a return and split the refund.
9. Unfamiliar return preparation firms soliciting business from cities outside of the normal business or commuting area.

To get the real facts on education-related tax benefits, visit the “Tax Benefits for Education Information Center” on the IRS.gov website.

Please contact us with questions or concerns.

We hope you like what you see. It’s the same great service, just with a new look and feel.  Be sure to check back regularly for tips on how to better your financial future. Let us know what you like and don’t like about our website, and what you would like to learn about in future blog posts. We look forward to hearing your feedback.

As we progress further into the 2012 tax season, we hope this video will bring a smile to your face like it has ours.