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Posted by : Daniel Stoica in (Articles) On: October 24th, 2009

Ten Tips for Taxpayers Making Charitable Donations

Ten Tips for Taxpayers Making Charitable Donations

Here is the IRS Summertime Tax Tip 2009-21

Every year, millions of taxpayers itemize their deductions on their federal tax return. One of the most common itemized deductions is a donation made to a charitable organization.

Here are the top ten things the IRS wants every taxpayer to know before deducting charitable donations.

1. Charitable contributions must be made to qualified organizations to be deductible. You can ask any organization whether it is a qualified organization and most will be able to tell you. You can also check IRS Publication 78, which lists most qualified organizations. IRS Publication 78 is available at IRS.gov.

2. Charitable contributions are deductible only if you itemize deductions using Form 1040, Schedule A.

3. You generally can 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.

4. If your contribution entitles you to receive merchandise, goods, or services in return – such as admission to a charity banquet or sporting event – you can deduct only the amount that exceeds the fair market value of the benefit received.

5. Be sure to keep good records of any contribution you make, regardless of the amount. For any contribution made in cash, you must maintain a record of the contribution such as a bank record – including a cancelled check or a bank or credit card statement – a written record from the charity containing the date and amount of the contribution and the donor’s name, or a payroll deduction record.

6. Only contributions actually made during the tax year are deductible. For example, if you pledged $500 in September but paid the charity only $200 by Dec. 31, your deduction would be $200.

7. Include credit card charges and payments by check in the year they are given to the charity, even though you may not pay the credit card bill or have your bank account debited until the next year.

8. For any contribution of $250 or more, you must have written acknowledgment from the organization to substantiate your donation. This written proof must include the amount of cash and a description of any property you contributed, and whether the organization provided any goods or services in exchange for the gift.

9. To deduct charitable contributions of items valued at $500 or more you must complete a Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions, and attached the form to your return.

10. An appraisal generally must be obtained if you claim a deduction for a contribution of noncash property worth more than $5,000. In that case, you must also fill out Section B of Form 8283 and attach the form to your return.
For more information see IRS Publication 526, Charitable Contributions, and for information on determining value, refer to Publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property. These publications are available on the IRS Web site, IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).
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Posted by : Daniel Stoica in (Blog) On: October 24th, 2009

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to B2B and B2C Social Networking by Daniel Stoica Accounting Professional, Part 8

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to B2B and B2C Social Networking by Daniel Stoica Accounting Professional, Part 8

Following the Yellow Brick Road I found the Tools menu on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn’s productivity Tools help you search, build your network, and manage your contacts, all from the applications you use today.

I use the Outlook Toolbar which allows you to:

Quickly and easily build your network using Outlook

  • Build your network from frequent contacts
  • Build your network selecting from people you email often
  • See suggestions of who to invite based on email frequency
  • Invite with one click to build your network faster
  • Manage your LinkedIn contacts in Outlook
  • Update your Outlook contacts with LinkedIn profile information
  • Receive notifications when your contacts change their LinkedIn Profiles
  • See when people you e-mail frequently are not in your network
  • Stay connected to your network
  • See LinkedIn mini-profiles for everyone that emails you
  • Use the LinkedIn dashboard to stay up to date with your network
  • Access LinkedIn with one quick and easy click

Browser Toolbar allows you to:

Quickly search and access LinkedIn anytime

  • Quick search from anywhere
  • Direct access to LinkedIn
  • See your inside connections at any hiring company

LinkedIn Mobile allows you to:

Stay connected wherever you are

  • On your iPhone™
  • Mobile on the web
  • On your Palm®Pre™
  • Using Palm Synergy

There are other LinkedIn productivity Tools that I have not used yet, but am looking forward to use in the future.

Are you using the productivity Tools available on LinkedIn?

Which LinkedIn productivity Tool is your favorite?

Looking forward to your comments!

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Posted by : Daniel Stoica in (Blog) On: October 17th, 2009

Solopreneur: “Jack of all trades” or Specialist

Solopreneur: “Jack of all trades” or Specialist

Are you a Solopreneur?

Do you describe yourself as a Specialist or as a Generalist?

There are Solopreneurs who can be described as a generalist with a wide array of knowledge.  A Solopreneur whose expertise fills a significant number of subject areas and is very knowledgeable in a lot of business functions would be a generalist that would be pretty close to being self-sufficient in all functional areas of the business.

The majority of Solopreneurs are business professionals specialized in a trade or business functional area.  Traditionally tradesmen have learned early in their career and business to rely on other tradesmen outside of their specialty to compliment their own services and deliver full satisfaction through a complete package to their customers.

Today’s SoloBusiness Professional has the same opportunity.  A Solopreneur has to rely on professionals specialized in functional areas such as: Research and Development, Human Resource, Information Technology and Customer Service, Operations Management and Administration, Marketing and Sales, Finance and Accounting, and Legal.

Successful Solopreneurs create strategic alliances with professionals specializing in areas outside of their expertise for many different reasons: exchange of services, referrals, mastermind support, synergy, improved service delivery to customers, and stronger professional network.

I find it a lot easier to refer a professional after I have received a service from that professional.  As an Independent Accountant I continuously seek to establish professional relationships with specialists outside of my expertise.

Are you a self-reliant generalist or a specialist?

Are you looking to establish long lasting business relationships with other professionals?

I look forward to your comments and interaction.

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Posted by : Daniel Stoica in (Articles) On: October 15th, 2009

Special Sales Tax Deduction for Car Purchases Available through End of 2009

Special Sales Tax Deduction for Car Purchases Available through End of 2009

Here is the IR-2009-88, Oct. 7, 2009

WASHINGTON — With 2010 models arriving in dealer showrooms, the Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers that purchasing a new car, light truck, motor home or motorcycle could qualify them for a special deduction for the state and local sales and excise taxes on their 2009 tax returns.

Purchases made before Jan. 1, 2010, will qualify for this deduction under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

The deduction is limited to the sales and excise taxes and similar fees paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price of a new vehicle. The deduction is reduced for joint filers with modified adjusted gross incomes (MAGI) between $250,000 and $260,000 and other taxpayers with MAGI between $125,000 and $135,000. Taxpayers with higher incomes do not qualify.

Taxpayers who make qualifying new vehicle purchases this year can estimate the deduction with the help of Worksheet 10 in IRSPublication 919, How Do I Adjust My Withholding? Lines 10a to 10k of the worksheet show how to take into account purchases above the $49,500 limit, as well as the reduced deductions for taxpayers at higher income levels.

The special deduction is available regardless of whether taxpayers itemize deductions on their returns. Taxpayers who do not itemize will add this additional amount to the standard deduction on their 2009 tax return.

For those that have questions about the deduction for sales tax and other fees, these questions and answers might help. A videovideo on the IRS Youtube.com channel and audio podcasts in  English and Spanish are also available to help taxpayers take full advantage of the deduction.
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Posted by : Daniel Stoica in (Blog) On: October 10th, 2009

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to B2B and B2C Social Networking by Daniel Stoica Accounting Professional, Part 7

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to B2B and B2C Social Networking by Daniel Stoica Accounting Professional, Part 7

Following the Yellow Brick Road I found the Applications feature on LinkedIn.

Featured Applications

LinkedIn Applications enable you to enrich your profile, share and collaborate with your network, and get the key insights that help you be more effective. Applications are added to your homepage and profile enabling you to control who gets access to what information.

Featured Applications

SlideShare Presentations by SlideShare Inc

SlideShare is the best way to share presentations on LinkedIn! You can upload & display your own presentations, check out presentations from your colleagues, and find experts within your network.  You can even add videos to your SlideShare’s LinkedIn Application.  See mine: http://www.linkedin.com/in/danielstoicaaccountant

Google Presentation by Google

Present yourself and your work. Upload a .PPT or use Google’s online application to embed a presentation on your profile.

WordPress by WordPress

Connect your virtual lives with the WordPress LinkedIn Application. With the WordPress App, you can sync your WordPress blog posts with your LinkedIn profile, keeping everyone you know in the know.  I post my blog on my website at www.DanielStoica.com and it feeds to LinkedIn and a few other places.

Reading List by Amazon by Amazon

Extend your professional profile by sharing the books you’re reading with other LinkedIn members. Find out what you should be reading by following updates from your connections, people in your field, or other LinkedIn members of professional interest to you.  I have continuously updated my list as I remembered books that I read and as I am reading new books.  I tend to list more than just the business or professional readings as I would like for people to get a picture of my personal reading preferences and gain a better picture of who I am.

There are other LinkedIn Applications that I have not used yet, but am looking forward to use in the future.

Are you using the Applications feature on LinkedIn?

Which LinkedIn Application is your favored?

Looking forward to your comments!

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Posted by : Daniel Stoica in (Articles) On: October 3rd, 2009

Taxpayers Have Until Oct. 15 to File Extended 2008 Tax Returns; Offshore Voluntary Disclosures Also Due

Taxpayers Have Until Oct. 15 to File Extended 2008 Tax Returns; Offshore Voluntary Disclosures Also Due

Here is IR-2009-87, Oct. 1, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Oct. 15 deadline is fast approaching for millions of taxpayers who requested a six-month extension to file their 2008 tax returns.

It’s also the deadline for special voluntary disclosures by taxpayers with assets in previously undisclosed offshore financial accounts.

In most cases, Oct. 15, 2009, is the last day taxpayers may timely file their 2008 federal tax returns. The IRS expects to receive as many as 10 million tax returns from taxpayers who used Form 4868 to request a six-month extension to file their returns. Some taxpayers, for example, may have requested a filing extension to claim the first-time homebuyer credit for a home purchase that closed after the April 15 deadline.

Some taxpayers can wait until after Oct. 15 to file. This includes those serving in Iraq, Afghanistan or other combat zone localities and people affected by recent natural disasters.

First-Time Homebuyer Credit

First-time homebuyers who purchased a home in 2009 may be able to receive a credit of up to $8,000 for home purchases that closed since the beginning of the year. First-time homebuyers who purchased a home in 2008 may be able to receive a credit of up to $7,500. The 2008 credit must be repaid over 15 years.

The credit is claimed on Form 5405.

E-file and Free File

The IRS encourages taxpayers to e-file. E-file with direct deposit results in a faster refund than by using a paper return. Electronic returns also have fewer errors than paper returns.

Oct. 15 is the last day to take advantage of e-file or the Free File program.

Free File is a fast, easy and free way to prepare and e-file federal taxes online. The Free File program provides free federal income tax preparation and electronic filing for eligible taxpayers through a partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance LLC, a group of private sector tax software companies.

Two Free File tax preparation and e-filing programs are available. Traditional Free File is available for taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of $56,000 or less. Free File Fillable Forms can be used by people who earned more.

Deadline nears for Special Offshore Voluntary Disclosures

Oct. 15 is the deadline for special voluntary disclosures by taxpayers with assets in previously undisclosed offshore financial accounts.

Under the special provisions issued in March, taxpayers with these accounts originally had until Sept. 23, 2009, to come forward. Those taxpayers who do not voluntarily disclose their accounts by Oct. 15 face harsh civil penalties, where applicable, and possible criminal prosecution.

Tax professionals or individuals who want to initiate a voluntary disclosure should call their local IRS Criminal Investigation office. Individuals or their representatives may either contact the nearest Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, stating their wish to make a voluntary disclosure, or provide a letter outlining information needed to assist the IRS in determining their acceptance into the voluntary disclosure program.

Taxpayers with questions on the offshore issue may also call the IRS Voluntary Disclosure Hotline (215-516-4777) .
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Posted by : Daniel Stoica in (Blog) On: October 3rd, 2009

Entrepreneurial Mindset – Option or Must for a Start-up? by Daniel Stoica Accounting Professional

Entrepreneurial Mindset – Option or Must for a Start-up? by Daniel Stoica Accounting Professional

Entrepreneurial spirit is being fueled by the very circumstance of executives falling off or sliding off the corporate ladder on one end of the spectrum and skilled-professional workers being laid off from the corporate world on the other.

Record numbers of new companies are being started and that is proof that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well.

What makes up the Entrepreneurial mindset?

The following four poles that were developed mainly through the phenomenological action research by Senges (2007), are reported to influence the individual as well as collective/institutional entrepreneurial identity, persona or mindset. They are presented in sequential order; however, they are simultaneously active and intermeshed in their influence. Each pole is formulated with a central question alluring to and provoking a Platonian midwife technique.

The circle begins with exploration and realizing existence, which is argued to lead to an internal locus of control.

Next, the meaning of life question is formulated as “what do I want”, which is argued to be most adequately contested with axiology and teleology. This permits the setting of priorities and subsequently leads to the possibility of engaging in entrepreneuring.

With the entrepreneurial ambition clarified, the implementation and practice comes to the forefront, combining with pragmatist philosophy and with cybernetics. These trends are believed to instill the creative bootstrapping practices of ‘trial and error’ based optimization favored by entrepreneurs.

Lastly, the life-plan is set in relation against the rest of world. Ethics as well as sustainability are questioned, because only just causes that consider their environment are successful in the long term. This last pole introduces the ‘other’ not only as part of a shared world, but also as differentiating factor. Thereby, it gives raise to yet another level of reflection. The differentiation, and thereby definition, of the ‘self’ contrasts and complements other beings, values and practices.

Another way to describe the Entrepreneurial Spirit is someone MAD.

Somebody with an entrepreneurial mindset has the means, ability and the desire (MAD) to materialize his vision. If any of those three pillars do not exist, and the entrepreneur cannot bring his or other’s resources to create all three, then the entrepreneurial mindset does not exist. You can go further into exploring the allocation and utilization of resources in novel ways or realizing opportunities where others do not and those are all important but are subservient to and come out as a consequence of the above three entrepreneurial pillars.

The Means: Capital. Access to resources. Be it angel funding, self funding, access to political capital, the ability to harness labor, high tech assembly, etc or some combination of the above. It generally takes something (usually but not always money) to make something else.

The Ability: Having the physical and mental capacity to understand their vision in ways required to succeed in their planned goals. Ability generally refers to being sufficiently adept in organizing the resources available to you in novel ways. It does not necessarily dictate a need to have all of the answers from the beginning. Entrepreneurs tend to constantly adjust their course as they proceed, in contrast to large organizations which must chart their course years before taking their first step.

The Desire: Lots of great ideas are out there. But it takes the alignment of ability, means AND the desire to invest in those ideas to make them happen. Very few entrepreneurial projects are small endeavors with spectacular results. Most take a personal investment of the entrepreneurs’ time and thus must yield sufficient payoff in exchange for that time investment, even if the work is self rewarding. Profits enable the entrepreneur to continue investing themselves in newer, bigger projects.

Are you an entrepreneur?  Do you have an Entrepreneurial Mindset?  Are you considering starting up a company?

I look forward to your comments and interaction

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Daniel Stoica Consulting, Accounting and Tax Professional based in Roscoe, Illinois, U.S.A. Serving Local, National, and International Clients