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Greetings!
Here are your articles for Februrary 1, 2012. |
"At Kiesling Associates, we make it our mission to provide timely,
quality services that exceed the expectations of our clients."
Joe Gerot & Jeff Naig, Co-Managing Partners |
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Changes ahead for Federal Lifeline Program including Broadband and Heightened Cost Controls | |
Yesterday at its open meeting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an overhaul to the federal Lifeline program, which subsidizes telephone service for the poor. The Order bolsters the FCC's goals of limiting the program's size and adding support for broadband services.
The FCC voted to launch a $25 million pilot program to test extending Lifeline benefits to the purchase of broadband as well as voice service. The pilot program will solicit proposals from broadband providers starting later this year.
The $2.1 billion cost of the Low Income program has become an issue in Washington. The FCC hopes to achieve a $200 million savings target this year and as much as $2 billion over the next three years. During the open meeting Commissioner McDowell doubted this would be possible.
The Commission also voted to establish a national Lifeline database in an attempt to limit recipients from obtaining Low Income benefits from telecom carriers. The database, which duplicates some that individual states already have, is meant to reduce the potential for fraud and cut red tape for both recipients and carriers, the FCC said.
Lifeline provides a subsidy of up to $10 per month, and is funded through the Universal Service Fund surcharge on telephone and mobile carriers.
Your Kiesling regulatory consultant can provide additional information about the FCC's Low Income Order. |
Are you following backup withholding requirements? |
Have you ever had an issue with obtaining taxpayer identification numbers (TIN) or received an incorrect TIN from an individual or entity? Did you wonder what you were required to do in these situations when you prepared your annual informational returns (1099s)? If a taxpayer refuses, or simply neglects, to respond to a request for their TIN you must immediately begin a process called "backup withholding" on any reportable transactions. The current withholding rate on such transactions is twenty-eight percent and will remain in effect through December 31, 2012. Examples of such payments that may be subject to backup withholding include interest, dividends, rents, royalties, commissions, non-employee compensation, and other payments including broker proceeds and barter exchange transactions, and reportable gross proceeds paid to attorneys.
Certain payees may return completed W-9s with incorrect TIN's. In these cases after filing your annual informational returns you may receive a notice from the IRS for the 1099s that were filed where the name and TIN did not match IRS records. If this discrepancy is not due to an internal processing error you are required to send a backup withholding notice ("B" Notice) to the effected payees within 15 days of receipt of the IRS's notice and begin backup withholding on all reportable payments to the effected payees within 30 days of receipt of the IRS's notice.
Annual reporting of backup withholding must be made in the filing of form 945, Annual Return of Withheld Federal Income Tax.
For more information on this topic, contact your Kiesling representative. |
On deadline: How to deliver results when they're due |
Meeting deadlines shows that you take your work seriously and that you value other people's time. Even outside of work, the ability to keep your promises on time shows your commitment to doing the right thing. Here are some important tips for hitting your deadlines (without driving yourself to exhaustion):
* Start with specifics. What exactly is the deadline? Clarify whether "end of the week" means 5 p.m. Friday or first thing Friday morning. And hammer down the results: What does your boss want? How will he or she measure your effectiveness?
* Negotiate. Is the deadline realistic? Try not to accept an assignment you can't complete on time. Suggest alternative dates, or work out what other tasks you should put on hold in order to give the deadline the attention it deserves.
* Break the task down. Take a look at what's involved, and identify the individual steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal. Lay them out on a calendar in step-by-step form so you know what you've got to achieve, and you can monitor your progress.
* Get started. Don't procrastinate on step one. Focus on beginning without getting overwhelmed by the number of steps or the magnitude of the task ahead of you.
* Build in a buffer. As you schedule your work, give yourself a cushion of time-mark the due date a few days ahead of the actual deadline, for example. This will help you deal with changes or last-minute emergencies.
* Stay in contact. Let your boss, or whomever you're accountable to, know where you are on the project. He or she will feel more confident about your abilities, and you'll be able to alert the powers that be about potential roadblocks before they become full-blown crises threatening the deadline.
* Enlist assistance. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Your boss, a friend, or a co-worker will probably be willing to pitch in if you explain the circumstances and the stakes honestly. |
A Web of numbers: Stats on the biggest websites | |
The information superhighway (as the Internet was dubbed in the 1990s) is packed, and most of us are headed for the same few off-ramps. Here are some numbers associated with biggest, busiest destinations on the World Wide Web, from the Web data firm Alexa:
* Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia ranks sixth in U.S. traffic, and seventh globally. The average visitor spends about five minutes on the site, and about 52 percent of those visits are "bounces" (users view just one page before leaving).
* Amazon. Online since 1992, Amazon's users are more often female than male (55 percent versus 45 percent); about 19 percent of its visitors are referred to it by search engines. The average load time for an Amazon page is 1.783 seconds.
* YouTube. Only 22 percent of YouTube visitors come from the U.S., and about 27 percent of video visits are bounces. More than 755,000 websites link to it.
* Twitter. Visitors to the 140-character posting site view an average of 3.5 unique pages per day. They spend about seven minutes on the site, and 51 seconds per page view, and 62 percent are women.
* Facebook. With over 500 million users, the social network is ranked second in U.S. traffic. The highest percentage of users (30 percent) are in the 45-54 age range, and 57 percent of them are female. |
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Words of wisdom for watching the big game |
 The Super Bowl will be played Feb. 5. If you need something to say while watching the game with your friends, try a few of these timeless football quotations:
"It ain't necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it!" (Knute Rockne)
"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it."
(Lou Holtz)
"When you win, nothing hurts." (Joe Namath)
"Three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad." (Darrel Royal)
"My advice to defensive players: Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in a bad humor."
(Bowden Wyatt)
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Catch Kiesling at Upcoming Events | |
Conventions and seminars provide a common forum to present new ideas, learn about industry happenings, sharpen technical knowledge, discuss new products and services, and visit with friends-new and old. Kiesling values the opportunity to participate with you at industry events and looks forward to seeing you at the following upcoming events. More |
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Our firm provides the information in this e-newsletter for general guidance only, and does not constitute the provision of legal advice, tax advice, accounting services, investment advice, or professional consulting of any kind. The information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional tax, accounting, legal, or other competent advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a professional adviser who has been provided with all pertinent facts relevant to your particular situation. Tax articles in this e-newsletter are not intended to be used, and cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding accuracy-related penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. The information is provided "as is," with no assurance or guarantee of completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of the information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability, and fitness for a particular purpose. |
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