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Alpha-Mail 
The Tax Professional's Guide to Georgia Tax Credits, Courtesy of Alpharesults
Vol. IV No. 1 January 2010
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Hello!
Welcome to Alpha-Mail, the monthly newsletter about Georgia tax credits for Georgia tax professionals.
This month, you get an update on the new 2010 Job Tax Credit tier rankings. And we conclude our series on how you can help your clients get a "Process Attitude" to improve their operations, survive in today's economy, and generate tax credits. We hope you can use this information to strengthen your client relationships! Thank you for reading Alpha-Mail -- please click reply to tell us what you think. All the best,
Dale Stapler Jim Tinsley
Alpharesults, LLC
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New Job Tax Credit Tier Rankings Released
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The 2010 county tier rankings have been released by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
You need to review your clients' physical locations and planned headcount changes to see if there are new opportunities for Job Tax Credits in 2010. If a client plans to expand, make sure they know about the minimum headcount increase requirements for their tier location. In cases where the client is close to the minimum, they might be able to adjust their hiring plans in order to meet the thresholds -- and that could mean a huge $$ difference. For example, in a Tier 1 location, adding only 5 jobs can amount to $20,000 per year for 5 years!
Also, if your client's tier designation has been changed to a lower tax credit tier, or their less developed census tract was discontinued, or their county moved out of the Lower 40, don't forget to file the Notice Of Intent to add more time to their current tier ranking, tract designation, or Lower 40 status (click here for form).
For more details, visit DCA's website here.
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Give Your Clients a Process Attitude -- Part V
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Last time we talked about Process Attitude Step 4, which is to train all affected employees and implement the process changes. Now we conclude the series with Steps 5 and 6.
At this point everyone is trained and the process changes have been implemented.
Step 5 is to evaluate what happened. Using your system for measuring results, compare the key metrics before and after the change. Overall, what grade would you give? What worked best? What needs to be improved? How about costs -- did you spend too little, or too much? How would you do it differently?
How broadly did you train? Did everyone affected in any way by the changes get at least an overview level of training? Did those most affected get an in-depth level of training? Did you try new training methods? Which ones worked? What additional training needs to be done now and over the next year? What can make it more effective? Who else needs to be trained or retrained?
Did the implementation of process changes accomplish your goals? If so, to what extent? Do you need to make further corrections and adjustments to the process? What about the financial results? Are you getting the return on investment you expected?
An honest evaluation of the training and implementation leads to Step 6 -- Standardize and Search for New Opportunities.
Now that you have evaluated and tweaked the process changes, you now have a stable process, and it's time to make it standard to your business. Set up your new standard process steps as part of each job's documentation and work practices. Set your standard process measurement baselines and begin tracking the process on a regular basis. But you're not quite done!
Now is the time to look for new opportunities. How can this new process be applied in other areas of the business? How can the changes you just made be used by other employees or departments? Tell the story about your Process Attitude efforts to other groups, departments, or areas of the business. Help them catch the fever!
And in summary -- Now you know that a Process Attitude is a great methodology for maximizing the impact of new technology and process changes. Most of the activities we have talked about would qualify for Georgia Retraining or other tax credits! On top of that, a Process Attitude will help you forge an even better partnership between you and your clients.
To view previous installments of this series or any other past article, go to the Alpha-Mail archives page here.
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Quick Update
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The new Retraining Tax Credit guidelines have finally been released, sort of! As of 1/27/10, if you go to the State Quickstart web site (click here), you see the old guidelines, but if you click on the link at the bottom of the page, you download the updated guidelines (click here). They include mention of the new $1,250 per employee per year cap as well as the Office-type software training restrictions.
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About Us
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Alpharesults has assembled a team with the specialized knowledge and approach required to obtain Georgia income tax credits. We are not a public accounting firm. Rather, our services complement those of public accounting firms and do not create conflicted loyalties, because our professionals do not perform attestation work or other external audit functions.
We focus on small to medium-sized businesses and work exclusively in Georgia with a wide variety of in-state and out-of-state accounting firms. For more information on our services, follow this link.
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