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Greetings!
Here are your articles for February 29, 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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FCC Form 525....soon to be a form of the past for CETCs | |
The FCC's recent release of the "Connect America Fund" has left an extraordinary impact on the telecommunications industry and as many organizations are aware, it is one filled with uncertainty. While the exact impact on the incumbent companies isn't known, competitive eligible telecommunication carriers (CETCs) are faced with a little more certainty knowing that high cost support will draw to a close over the next four years as the identical support rule ends. More |
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Kiesling Accounting Seminar - SAVE THE DATE! | |
We welcome your topic suggestions. You can email them to dsmith@kiesling.com.
Watch for more information in future mailings and newsletter articles.
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Mutual Fund Cost Basis Reporting Changes Coming in 2012 | |
Annually investors who sold mutual funds during the year are required to report the gain or loss on their investment sales. When investors purchase shares through multiple periods and receive reinvested dividends or capital gains, it can be a difficult process to determine the share's cost basis in order to calculate the gain or loss on the sale. New legislation that takes effect in 2012 will make the investor's job easier. More
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| Books: Not an endangered species |
 E-books are growing in popularity, but regular print books aren't going the way of buggy whips and eight-track tapes. A survey from Simba Information found that about one in five U.S. adults have some kind of e-book reader like a Kindle or an iPad. They're not necessarily forsaking physical books, though. Forty percent of iPad owners, for instance, have never purchased an e-book, and 39 percent of e-book owners haven't bought any virtual volumes in the past 12 months. That's down from previous survey (June 2011), which found that 31 percent of e-book users hadn't purchased any digital titles in the past year.
One possible explanation: Simba's data suggests that the more multimedia options a consumer's e-reader includes, the less likely people are to buy books using their device. (In other words, maybe they're too busy playing Sudoku or watching videos to read.) |
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An extra day to enjoy! | |
 It's a leap year and today is your extra day to enjoy.
February 29 is an extra day added to the month in a leap year. It occurs every four years in years evenly divisible by four, except for centenary years not divisible by 400. But complicated formulas aside, we like to think of it as an "extra" day just for you.
Leap day itself is a pretty nifty fix for the scientific problems caused by the fact that the Earth's rotations around the Sun aren't completely even, and so we have a few extra hours each rotation that don't fit in our normal 365-day calendar. To compensate for the extra six hours each rotation (or quarter turn of the earth), every four years an extra day is added to the shortest month, February.
This was the solution the Romans came to when forming the Gregorian calendar more than 2,000 years ago. However, many other cultures with lunar-based calendars handle leap years differently: For instance, in the Hebrew calendar, a thirteenth lunar month is added seven times, every nienteen years to the twelve lunar months in its common years to keep its calendar year from drifting through the seasons too rapidly.
An easy way to remember what years are leap years is to see if the year is divisible by four: For instance, 2012 is divisible evenly by four, so it is a leap year, while 2011 was not evenly divisible by four, so it was a common year. There are some exceptions to this rule, however. Years that are divisible by 100 are not leap years unless they are also divisible by 400 (Still with us?). The year 2000 was a leap year, but 1800 was not. An even easier way to remember what years are leap years is they coincide with the United States presidential election and the Olympic Games.
So go out and enjoy these extra 24 hours by doing something fun!
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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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