Article provided by: emochila - Websites for Professionals emochila

Why should your site have a File Exchange Portal?
As an increasing number of tax and accounting professionals begin to develop a web presence, they may be overlooking the inclusion of a simple and valuable web-based tool—secure file exchange. Sometimes referred to as an “online file cabinet,” a file exchange portal is of particular interest in our current time of economic difficulty as it’s an inexpensive technology investment that improves productivity, client service, and saves YOU time and money.

In its simplest terms, a file exchange portal is a quick and efficient method of securely transferring bookkeeping documents, tax returns, and other financial documents from one computer to another.

Often, accountants run into problems transferring client information for 2 main reasons. First, current bookkeeping software files like QuickBooks or Peachtree are notorious for becoming larger and larger with each fiscal year. As such, these files quickly become too large for you to send or receive them through traditional email providers like Yahoo, Hotmail, or AOL. However, file exchange portals are specifically designed to transfer very large file sizes with ease.

Second, in the event that these bookkeeping files are small enough to send via email, many clients are reluctant to do so because of the lack of security. File exchange portals require users to log on to an encrypted third-party server, ensuring a security level comparable to that of online banking (B of A, Chase, etc). Last year, Massachusetts and Nevada were the first states to pass legislation requiring the encryption of sensitive information transfers between accountants and their clients: a move that will, no doubt, be copied by other proactive states.

So, how does this translate into increased productivity and improved client services? For one, a file exchange portal is an important step towards a paperless office. Being able to access documents online saves money on mailing costs, but more importantly, it saves you time. Many tax professionals find themselves hounded for old tax returns, but with online storage, old returns can be quickly uploaded and stored on the portal to be retrieved at your clients’ convenience. Also, with a portal capable of large file exchange your clients are no longer inconvenienced by having to copy bookkeeping files to a CD or flash drive to get them to you. They can simply upload them for you to access when you want.

Some web-developers that work within the accounting industry provide a file exchange portal as part of their basic services, while others require them to be purchased as a separate service.

Taking into consideration their ease of use and potential to streamline your existing practice, a file transfer portal is undoubtedly a smart addition to your site.

Article provided by: emochila - Websites for Professionals emochila

It depends. SEO is used by companies that want to get prospects through their website and convert them into new clients. If you have a full practice and don’t want new clients, SEO is not necessary!

However, if you are looking to build your practice, SEO is a great resource that will only become more and more relevant in the future.

Definition: SEO is a way to optimize your website’s performance on search engine rankings like Google, Yahoo! and MSN. There is a lot of intensive programming that goes in to it, but SEO companies take care of that for you and its all “back-end,” meaning that the appearance and content of your website will be unaffected. They will build links that go to your website, submit your site to all the major search engines, submit your site to directories and use many other strategies to gradually bring up your ranking.

Google and the other search engines have algorithms that decide which sites should be ranked at the top for certain keywords. They send out robots (or “spiders”) to crawl all the sites on the World Wide Web to gather information. Your website is usually crawled once every few months. Thus an SEO campaign takes at least a few months to be effective and sometimes 6 months to a year to get your website up to the top of the rankings. Because of this, most SEO providers have a minimum of a 3-6 month contract.

The pricing usually starts around $200/month and goes up from there. Pricing depends on your competition and location. If you are in New York City, it will be much harder to get ranked high for a search like “CPA New York” compared to a local market with less competition like “CPA Tucson.” This is because SEO is becoming increasingly popular and in large metro areas like NYC, there are going to be many other competing firms who are also using SEO.

Your SEO provider will give you performance reports that will allow you to see who is coming to your website, where they went on the site, what search engines are crawling your site, and other useful info that allows you to track the success of the SEO campaign.

SEO is not to be confused with adwords or Pay-Per-Click. These are also effective ways to market online, but SEO is for improving your ranking in the organic or “natural” results, not within the sponsored links. Studies have shown that 70% of people click on the organic results, as opposed to the sponsored links. Thus SEO is used as a long-term solution for gaining clients.

Chad Brubaker, CEO, www.emochila.com

IRS: First $2,400 of Unemployment Benefits Tax Free for 2009

IR-2009-29, March 26, 2009

WASHINGTON — All or part of unemployment benefits received in 2009 will be tax free for many unemployed workers, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

“This morning we learned that a record 5.6 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the middle of March. This underscores the need for the relief provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which includes making the first $2,400 of unemployment insurance exempt from tax,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “I urge all unemployed workers to take this special tax break into account as they plan their tax withholding and quarterly estimated tax payments for the year. This change offers a helping hand to millions of Americans who are out of work and struggling to make ends meet.”

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, enacted last month, every person who receives unemployment benefits during 2009 is eligible to exclude the first $2,400 of these benefits when they file their tax return next year. For a married couple, the exclusion applies to each spouse, separately. Thus, if both spouses receive unemployment benefits during 2009, each may exclude from income the first $2,400 of benefits they receive.

The new law doesn’t affect the return taxpayers are filling out now. Unemployment benefits received in 2008 and prior years remain fully taxable.

Unemployed workers can choose to have income tax withheld from their unemployment benefit payments. Withholding on these payments is voluntary. However, choosing this option may help avoid a surprise year-end tax bill or a possible penalty for having paid too little tax during the year. Those who choose this option will have a flat 10 percent tax withheld from their benefits.

Unemployed workers who expect to receive more than $2,400 in benefits this year should consider having tax withheld from their benefit payments in excess of that amount. Those unemployed workers who have already chosen to have tax taken out of their benefits, should consider the $2,400 exclusion in determining whether to continue to have tax withheld.

Use Form W-4V, Voluntary Withholding Request, or the equivalent form provided by the payer to request withholding to begin or end. Form W-4V is also available on IRS.gov or by calling the IRS toll-free at 1-800-TAX-FORM (829-3676)