COMMEDIAN USES HALLOWEEN TO TEACH KIDS ABOUT TAXES

I thought that this was appropriate for Halloween.

REMINDER - TANNING TAX DUE NOVEMBER 1st

Don't forget, if you provide tanning services, the first payment of the new 10-percent tanning tax is due Monday, Nov. 1. The payment is made along with Form 720, Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return.

As you probably recall, the tax went into effect on July 1. Providers of indoor tanning services collect the tax at the time the purchaser pays for the tanning services. The provider then pays these amounts to the government, quarterly, along with IRS Form 720. Here is a good link to the IRS with Q&A on the tanning tax.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=224600,00.html

NON PROFITS AND HEALTH CARE CREDITS

IRS explains how nonprofits can get health care tax credit

Many of you may be involved as volunteers for non profits. If the non profit has has employees and provides health insurance you might pass this on to the nonprofit.

The Health Care Act created a credit for small businesses and small non profits that provide health insurance to their employees. At the time it appeared to us that many non profits might qualify for this credit. The problem was we were not given any guidance on how to get the credit for nonprofits. Now the IRS has given us the answer.

The Internal Revenue Service has posted information on how a nonprofit under Section 501(c) can claim the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit by filing a Form 990-T with an attached Form 8941 that explains how the claimed credit was calculated. The credit, which is designed to encourage small businesses to offer coverage to their employees, stipulates that the employer must cover half or more of coverage costs for some employees based on the single rate. Companies must have fewer than 25 full-time workers, or the equivalent, to qualify. Here is a complete explanation.

http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/zuxYvscgyzeilffgajaoyAalsdCr?format=standard

Let me know if you have any questions or need more information.

Larry Kopsa CPA

PERSONAL UPDATE

First of all, I want to thank all of you that took time to send a condolence and especially for your prayers. My stepson Tony got out of the hospital and is staying with us until he recuperates. Unfortunately he was not able to attend his wife, Jessica's funeral. It was estimated that over 1,200 people were in attendence. That is an indication of the number of people that she touched.

You always hear motivational speakers say that you should have a personal mission statement. That is good advice. I have one and I try to live my life around my mission. I thought that I would share with you Jessica's mission statement. She really lived this.

Aim high. Ask questions.
Listen well. Continue to study
and learn. Teach. Volunteer.
Travel. Develop a hobby.
Above all, enjoy.
There is time for everything.

Unfortunately her time was cut short.

CREDIT CARD DISCOUNTS

Below is a link to an article about offering discounts for people that use cash instead of credit cards. As you know credit card fees really eat into your bottom line. It is a good idea to remind the people collecting the money to ask if you would like to use debit or credit. Can save you a bunch.

http://journalstar.com/business/local/article_b1eb0758-d0c9-11df-8274-001cc4c002e0.html

BENEFITS OF MASSAGE FROM HEALTH AND SCIENCE

A recent issue of The Week had the following article on the many benefits of a massage. If you are doing massages in your spa or salon this is good info to pass on to your clients.

Larry Kopsa CPA

Nearly 9 percent of Americans get at least one massage every year, and they’re probably healthier for it: A new study suggests that massage not only relaxes the body, but also boosts the immune system and prompts beneficial hormonal changes. Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles subjected volunteers to what was perhaps the most pleasant experiment ever devised: Half received 45 minutes of deep-tissue Swedish massage, while the rest received light-touch massage for the same period.

Just a single massage session induced marked physiological changes. Blood and saliva samples from the Swedish group registered lower levels of cortisol, a hormone elevated by stress, and arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can elevate cortisol; they also showed a rise in lymphocytes, white blood cells that aid the immune response. The light-massage recipients showed a greater increase in the “Love hormone” oxytocin and a greater drop in a different hormone that prompts the release of cortisol.

Despite the popularity of massage, psychiatrist and study author Mark Hyman Rapaport tells The New York Times, “there hasn’t been much physiological proof of the body’s heightened immune response following massage until now.”


Health and Science
October 8, 2010

Feather In My Hat

On Monday (10.25.10) I was once again honored to make a presentation at the Nebraska Society of CPA’s annual convention. I had 2 hours during the general session to update over 200 of my fellow CPA’s on the new tax laws, rulings and cases that have came down over the last 12 months. This is the 15th year that they have invited me. Being recognized by your peers is quite an honor.

I mentioned above that this was a “feather in my hat.” I thought you might be interested in where that expression comes from. It apparently originated back in the olden days when regularly men wore hats. Attorneys in Washington DC that would argue a case before the Supreme Court would stand at a lectern in front of the Supreme Court judges and make their argument. On the table was a pen. In those days the pen had a quill (feather). After the attorney had made his argument, and attorneys being attorneys, he would shoplift the pen as he left the podium. He would then put the feather in their hat to let everyone that saw him know that he was an important attorney whom had testified before the court. If attorney’s testified more than once they would have two or more “feathers in their hat.”