Employer Information Report (EEO-1) Due September 30th

The deadline for filing the Employer Information Report (also known as the EEO-1 Report) with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is September 30th. The report must be filed by: (1) employers with federal government contracts of $50,000 or more who have 50 or more employees; and (2) employers who do not have a federal government contract but have 100 or more employees.

The report requires employers to provide a count of their employees by job category, ethnicity, race, and gender. Employment numbers may be obtained from any pay period in July through September of 2010. The EEOC prefers the report to be filed using the EEO-1 online filing system. The system requires a login ID and password. Other filing options for private employers include submitting the report as a data file or filing the report as a computer printout. EEOC will only allow the report to be filed on paper if so requested by an employer with no Internet access.

The EEOC website contains a list of frequently asked questions on the report which can be viewed at http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/eeo1survey/faq.cfm. Further information on the reporting process can also be obtained by calling the EEO-1 Joint Reporting Committee at: (866) 286-6440.

Just Announced: 2010 Best Accounting Firms to Work For

New York, NY – September 16, 2010 – 100 accounting firms have been honored as the 2010 Best Accounting Firms to Work For in our third annual program created by Accounting Today and Best Companies Group. These top firms will be announced and honored at an awards luncheon on November 17 during Accounting Today’s Growth & Profitability Summit in Las Vegas and published in the December 13 issue of the magazine.This survey and award program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in the accounting profession, which benefit the nation's economy, its workforce and businesses.

The Best Accounting Firms to Work For list comprises 100 companies organized into three size categories: 45 small-sized companies (15-49 employees), 45 mid-sized companies (50-249 employees) and 10 large-sized companies (more than 250 employees). To be considered for participation, companies had to be public or privately held U.S. accounting firms with at least 15 employees.Firms from across the country entered the two-part survey process to determine the Best Accounting Firms to Work For. The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated firm's workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration, survey and analysis process and determined the final rankings.

For more information on the Best Accounting Firms to Work for program, visit http://link.p0.com/u.d?f4GrW2cTthyrG_83F0V8h=591.

2010 Best Accounting Firms to Work For (alphabetical order, no ranking)

Anchin Block & Anchin LLP Anglin Reichmann Snellgrove & Armstrong Anton Collins Mitchell LLP Averett Warmus Durkee Bader Martin, P.S. Baker Newman Noyes Barfield, Murphy, Shank & Smith, PC Bartlett, Pringle & Wolf, LLP Bartolomei Pucciarelli, LLC BeachFleischman PC Berlin, Ramos & Company, P.A. Berntson Porter & Company, PLLC Biscotti, Toback & Company, CPA's, P.C. Blue & Co., LLC Bond Beebe Accountants and Advisors Boyer & Ritter, CPAs and Consultants Brown Schultz Sheridan & Fritz Brown Smith Wallace LLC Burr Pilger Mayer, Inc. Citrin Cooperman Clark Nuber Cohen & Company Coulter & Justus, P.C. Covenant Consulting Group LLC Cowan Bolduc Doherty LLC Daszkal Bolton LLP Deemer Dana & Froehle LLP DeLeon & Stang CPAs & Advisors DiSanto, Priest & Co. Dixon Hughes PLLC Dunton & Associates, LLC E. Cohen and Company, CPAs Edelstein & Company LLP Ennis Pellum & Associates, CPAs Fesnak and Associates LLP Fulcrum Inquiry GALLINA LLP Ganze & Company Garcia, Espinosa, Miyares, & Co. LLP GBH CPAs, PC Hancock Askew & Co., LLP Hemming Morse, Inc. Hertzbach & Company, P.A. Homes, Lowry, Horn & Johnson, Ltd. Howard, Wershbale & Co. Hoyman Dobson Hughes Pittman & Gupton, LLP Hungerford, Aldrin, Nichols & Carter, PC Isdaner & Company, LLC Johanson & Yau Accountancy Corporation Johnson Jacobson Wilcox Kahn, Litwin, Renza & Co., Ltd. KatzAbosch Kaufman, Rossin & Co. Kearney & Company Kolb+Co. SC KraftCPAs PLLC Kreinces Rollins & Shanker, LLC Lanigan, Ryan, Malcolm & Doyle, P.C. LaPorte Sehrt Romig Hand Layton Layton & Tobler LLP LMGW Certified Public Accountants, LLP Lumsden & McCormick, LLP Mahoney Ulbrich Christiansen & Russ PA Mark Bailey & Company Martin Starnes & Associates, CPAs, P.A. May & Company, LLP Montgomery Coscia Greilich LLP Onisko & Scholz, LLP Certified Public Accountants Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, P.C. Payne, Nickles & Company Pender Newkirk & Company Petrinovich Pugh & Co, LLP Pittman & Brooks, P.C. Porter Keadle Moore, LLP PSK LLP RBZ, LLP RINA Accountancy Corporation Riney Hancock CPAs PSC Rodman & Rodman, P.C. Sample and Bailey CPAs SGA GROUP, PC Sikich LLP SingerLewak Sisterson & Co. LLP Smith Leonard PLLC Squire Swindoll, Janzen, Hawk & Loyd, LLC The Bonadio Group The Whitlock Company ThomasYork, LLP Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer, P.C. Walter & Shuffain, P.C. Wessel & Company WhippleWood CPAs, P.C. Whitley Penn LLP Wilkin & Guttenplan, P.C. Williams Benator & Libby, LLP Windham Brannon WithumSmith+Brown, PC

About Accounting Today and SourceMedia, Inc. SourceMedia's Accounting Today has served as the premier news vehicle for the nation’s tax and accounting community since 1987. Regular coverage includes news and features surrounding tax-law changes, regulatory and legislative updates, technology, financial planning, practice management, mergers & acquisitions and international developments. Accounting Today’s readership encompasses one of the widest demographics of any publication in the field, from the sole practitioner, to firms with multi-professionals, to national firms and ultimately, to the Big Four. SourceMedia, an Investcorp company, is a leading provider of timely and essential news, analysis, research, and insights for members of the financial services community, and the related fields of professional services and technology. SourceMedia offers its clients and subscribers professional publications and online information services, industry-standard data applications and in-depth seminars and conferences.

San Bruno Explosion Employer Payroll Tax Extension

Tax relief extended to Employers Affected by San Bruno Explosion and Fire

Employers in San Mateo County, California, that have been directly affected by the explosion and fire that occurred in that county in September 2010 may request up to a 60-day extension of time from the California Employment Development Department (EDD) to file their state payroll reports and/or deposit state payroll taxes without penalty or interest. Written requests for extension must be received within 60 days from the original delinquent date of the payment or return to file/pay. Related information is available on the EDD Web site at http://www.edd.ca.gov/Payroll_Taxes/.

Source:

http://www.edd.ca.gov/Payroll_Taxes/Emergency_and_Disaster_Assistance_for_Employers.htm#sanmateoseptember

Are Business Owners Risk-Takers?

I recently read the following summary, and as a new business owner found it intriguing. During tough economic times like we have now, many business owners, including yours truly, wonder if it was the right decision to start their own business. Thankfully I can still answer with an emphatic yes.

I hope you find this interesting as well.

Chris-

Are Business Owners Risk-Takers? Not When It Comes to Their Finances

Are entrepreneurs financial risk-takers? Conventional wisdom says yes, but a recent research report from the Kauffman Foundation, Business Owners, Financial Risk, and Wealth, suggests otherwise.

Tami Gurley-Calvez, from the Department of Economics at West Virginia University, studied 1989 to 2007 data from the Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) to research three questions:

1.) Are business owners generally more or less financially conservative than their non- business-owning counterparts?

2.) Do business owners accumulate more wealth?

3.) Do business owners hold a smaller share of their financial assets in risky stock holdings?

While entrepreneurs are typically portrayed as financial risk-takers, Gurley-Calvez found that when it comes to saving and borrowing, they are actually more conservative than non-business owners. For instance, 45 percent of business owners said it was important to them to save for retirement; just 32 percent of non-business owners said the same. In addition, business owners were focused on saving for the long term; they were more likely than non-business owners to say their savings horizon was five or more years in the future.

Finally, whether investing, saving or borrowing, business owners were more thorough than non-business owners in investigating their financial options. Ninety-one percent said they spent a "moderate" amount of time or more shopping for the best investment or borrowing terms; just 82 percent of non-business owners said the same.

Business owners accumulate more wealth over time than non-business owners. But although business owners showed more willingness to assume above-average risk in return for financial gain, in reality, both business owners and non-business owners invested similar shares of their portfolios in safe assets.

Business owners were less likely to say that an important reason for saving is having liquid cash available. However, they were substantially more likely than non-business owners to say they could borrow $3,000 from family or friends if needed.

They are also more likely to borrow from other sources. In the past five years, 84 percent of business owners had applied for a loan, compared to just 64 percent of non-business owners. And only 23 percent of them had been declined, compared to 31 percent of non-business owners.

Gurley-Calvez thinks perhaps the reason business owners aren't so concerned with liquidity is that they have "a stronger financial safety net." Compared to non-business owners, business owners seem to have more financial resources available to them—meaning that what others perceive as "risky" does not seem that way to them

Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/09/business-owners-risk-takers-finances.html

OBAMA TO PUSH TAX BREAK

It has been awhile since our last post so I thought this would be a good one to get back on track. I received the following news alert today and thought I would share it. As it says below the details will be released this coming Wednesday but if it does include the ability to write off 100% of new purchases for plant and equipment it could be a huge benefit for lots of businesses. I'm sure there will be all kinds of caveats and limitations but lets keep our fingers crossed that some of this actually comes to be.

__________________________________ News Alert from The Wall Street Journal

President Barack Obama, in one of his most dramatic gestures to business, will propose that companies be allowed to write off 100% of their new investment in plant and equipment through 2011, a plan that White House economists say would cut business taxes by nearly $200 billion over two years. The proposal, to be laid out Wednesday in a speech in Cleveland, tops a raft of announcements, from a proposed expansion of the research and experimentation tax credit to $50 billion in additional spending on roads, railways and runways. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704392104575475920686869934.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

Holiday Office Hours

Wishing you a safe and happy 4th of July! The team at TY will be observing the Fourth of July holiday. Please note that our office will be closed from Noon on Friday, July 2nd, until Monday, July 5, 2010. We will resume our normal business hours on Tuesday morning.