“Why is your CPA firm on Facebook?”  I get asked all the time.  “Why would a CPA firm be twittering, or blogging, or posting videos on YouTube?”  This question is the 2010 version of the one I was asked ten years ago – why does a CPA firm need a marketing department? 

It’s simple – we’re an entrepreneurial  business like any other.  And no matter how technically expert our CPAs are at tax planning for your business, assessing whether you’re protected from fraud, or helping you evaluate a potential merger or acquisition, we won’t stay in business long if potential clients don’t know us.

Ignoring social media is a mistake for any business that earns revenue from customers, has competitors, or isn’t the Kleenex of your category.  If you’re questioning whether your business should engage in social media, consider these three questions:

1. Is your business built on relationships?
2. Do you have competitors?
3. Does everybody you want to do business with already know your name?

Build relationships.

As far as I know, a business without customers is a business that’s failing.  For centuries, marketing people like me have been figuring out how companies can start new relationships with potential customers, and keep existing customers happy enough to pay their bills and maybe even tell their friends about the great product or service they’ve discovered. 

Entrepreneurs and their employees spend considerable time building relationships through networking (at the Chamber, at the Rotary, at the kids’ softball game.)  They hand out business cards and make lunch dates.  They start dialogues with potential clients through direct marketing.  They target lists of companies or individuals they want to know and work with.

Social media is a new way to do that same old thing in new ways. 

• Tools like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter let you target and link to the people you want to meet, just like looking at the list of Chamber members to decide what committee you want to be on.   
• They help you stay in front of those people by sending them useful information, just like clipping an article from the newspaper and sending it with your business card.
• They make it easy to help someone (the best way to build relationships!) by doing things like distributing their son’s resume to a network who might give him a summer internship.

And while it may seem like it takes a little time to keep your online relationships active, consider how many more people can appreciate you and your company than you’d be able to meet by spending the same time at a reception or a luncheon!

Differentiate from competitors.

If all of your marketing only promotes your category and not what’s special about your company, why would anyone choose you?  Every business is special, and social media lets you share your special benefits with your target audience, or even create new ones.  Just a few examples to get your creative juices flowing:

• A specialist in foreclosure law starts a blog to share new developments  in this changing area, hosts a webinar, and then post snippets of the session on YouTube.  
• A French restaurant holds a contest for the best “wish I was in Paris” video.
• A community theater company holds on-line video auditions and creates a community-based video series that’s shared with all participants and beyond. 
• An interior designer posts a weekly photo album on Flickr and asks people to write why they want to live in that home.  A weekly winner gets a free design consultation based on photos they send you, and a package of products that some of your other contacts want to sample to homeowners.

Build brand awareness

Here’s a story I’ve been telling for years. On Saturday night you host a big dinner party at your home and your klutzy friend Freddy spills a big glass of red wine on your white carpet.  Years ago the payoff for this story would have been the flyer for the carpet cleaner that showed up in Monday’s mail, demonstrating that, with frequency, low cost direct mail will eventually hit your customer at the moment they need you. 

Today, you’d search immediately online for a carpet cleaner (and hopefully Freddy would pay the bill).  The internet has given consumers an easy way to be proactive about our shopping, and we use it constantly.  Being at the top of the google search, or at least high up on the list, is like being the one carpet cleaning postcard in the mailbox on messy Monday.

And social media is great for search engine optimization.  Make sure to use key words and tags that you’d want people to find you with.  Create backlinks with other sites.   I’m oversimplifying when I say that increased presence in cyberspace means a higher ranking with google, but that’s the basic concept. 

Define your plan so you can see it work

I’d encourage you to test the waters a little and see what’s out there.  But before diving in and splashing around with energy but no direction, sit down and develop some specific objectives for social media.  A great feature of this tactic is its measurability – you can set targets for the number of visitors, fans, time on your site and see your results!

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Janet Kyle Altman is a marketing  principal at Kaufman, Rossin’s Miami office.  Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country.  She can be reached at jaltman@kaufmanrossin.com.

If you feel that your assessment may be too high, the deadlines to appeal your property taxes are approaching.

• September 16, 2010 – Palm Beach
• September 20, 2010 – Broward
• September 20, 2010 – Miami-Dade

The steps to appeal your property assessment can be challenging. For example, you’ll need to be able to document the market value of your property as of January 1st of the current year by showing its value relative to the qualified comparable sales. And you’ll need to make your case to the Special Magistrate at the Value Adjustment Board hearing.

If you need assistance with this process, please contact a Kaufman, Rossin accountant or contact the following resources directly who specialize in these tax appeals:

Mitchell Feldman – President of FBS Property Tax Abatement, LLC
305.350.7360 or mfeldman@fbstaxabatement.com

Todd M. Wolff – President of LeaseGuard, Inc.
561.998.2800 or toddwolff@leaseguardusa.com

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Scott F. Berger is a tax principal at Kaufman, Rossin’s Miami office.  Kaufman, Rossin & Co. is one of the top CPA firms in the country.  He can be reached at sberger@kaufmanrossin.com.

The legislation is designed to reduce the opportunities for U.S. corporations to optimize the use of the foreign tax credit by incorporating a host of international tax reform measures and closing a number of foreign tax credit loopholes.

For example, the provisions will:

• Eliminate the ability to split foreign taxes from the associated foreign income in order to prevent inappropriate separation of creditable foreign taxes.
• Reduce foreign tax credits on stepped-up assets in order to prevent taxpayers from claiming the foreign tax credit on foreign income that is never taxed in the U.S.
• Restrict tax treaty use to resource U.S. income in order to segregate the income so that it is not used for claiming foreign tax credits.
• Limit the amount of foreign taxes deemed paid with respect to Sec. 956 inclusions (relating to investments in U.S. property) in order to limit the foreign tax credits claimed on a deemed dividend.

Other provisions of the legislation include the repeal of the 80/20 rules under which interest and dividends received from a domestic corporation or a resident alien were treated as foreign source when for a 3 year period and at least 80% of the gross income was active foreign business income. 

In addition, the new law eliminates the advance payment option for the earned income credit. However, the elimination is projected to impact a relatively small number of taxpayers.

Most of these provisions are effective for taxable years beginning January 1, 2011, yet some may be retroactive.

Keep in mind this is a summary of some of the provisions of the legislation. If you’d like further information on how these provisions may affect you and/or your business, please contact Yadira Hiraldo at 305.646.6031 or yhiraldo@kaufmanrossin.com.

Yadira Hiraldo, CPA, is an international tax manager at Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top CPA firms in Florida with offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton.

You might be tempted to automatically pay these notices in order to take advantage of the Amnesty program, but you should check them first to determine if the alleged liabilities are in fact owed.

For example:

• In many cases, these statements include liabilities which the FDOR has estimated to be due where a sales tax return, corporate income tax return or other state return was not filed.
• And in some cases, these notices are being received by S Corps and partnerships which have no Florida Corporate Income Tax filing requirement.

If you’ve received Amnesty notices be sure to check the statements against your records and/or contact your accountant to make sure the claims are correct. For more information, contact Dan Wagner at 561.620.1718 or dwagner@kaufmanrossin.com.

Dan Wagner is an associate principal in the State & Local Tax Practice department at Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top CPA firms in Florida with offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton.

We can’t imagine anyone wanting to die to take advantage of the current estate tax opportunity.  Fortunately, the current law also provides an opportunity to make large lifetime gifts in 2010.

Here are some reasons why making gifts now make sense.   

• The $13,000 annual exclusions and $1,000,000 gift tax exemption for gifts in excess of your annual exclusions is still in place.
• Right now the gift tax rate is 35% on amounts over the $1,000,000 exemption. This rate can be as low as 26% if the transferor survives three years from the date of the gift.  However, in 2011 the maximum rate is scheduled to go up to 60%.  
• As of now, there is no Generation Skipping Tax in 2010.  Gifts directly to individuals more than one generation below the transferor are not subject to the Generation Skipping Tax which historically has been as high as 55%.
• With the extremely low interest rate environment many gift strategies, such as charitable lead trusts and GRATs, result in lower gifts than in higher interest rate periods.
• Transfer values are lower with the depressed real estate values and stock markets. Closely held business interests are likely to be valued lower.

What is the downside?

• Estate and gift tax might be repealed permanently. However, this doesn’t seem likely in a period of budget deficits and the fact that transfer taxes in recent years affect less than 1% of the population.  
• If the transferor dies in 2010, no transfer tax would apply under current law and unnecessary gift taxes would have been incurred.  This can be avoided by using techniques which will make the gift incomplete until after the tax laws for 2010 are certain.

If you have questions about how you can take advantage of current planning opportunities, please contact John Anzivino at janzivino@kaufmanrossin.com or 305.857.6706.

John R. Anzivino, CPA, is an estate and trust principal at Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top CPA firms in the Southeast.

Is your favorite non-profit at risk?   If your business, like ours, is involved in the community, you’ll want to check.  The IRS has published a list. 

The good news is that there’s a “one-time relief program.”  Organizations can preserve their status by filing returns by October 15, 2010. 

If you’re involved with a nonprofit organization of any type, make sure they’re aware of the IRS actions, and the deadline to file returns if they have not done so!

Janet Fifer is an associate principal in the Estate, Trust and Exempt Organizations department at Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top CPA firms in the Southeast.  She can be reached at jfifer@kaufmanrossin.com.

The retreat consisted of CPE presentations, planning meetings, plenty of networking happy hours and a golf tournament, not to mention tanning by the pool. Bonnie gave us a little scare – I was up early Friday morning checking the weather reports. We lucked out only having to reschedule the golf tournament, and by 2:00pm the sun was back out.

The retreat was well attended with many of our industry leaders. For example, we held a happy hour in honor of Michael Pender, the current FICPA President. Bill Ezzell, the former chairman of the Board of Directors of the AICPA and past president of its Foundation Board of Trustees, was our Keynote speaker for the Beach Luau dinner. And we honored nine past presidents of the FICPA ED Foundation including the current president, Jeff Green, at the 50 Past Presidents dinner. Beyond raising money to benefit a great cause, this retreat is an excellent networking event for CPAs and a great mini-vacation for their families. Mark your calendars now, and I look forward to seeing lots of new CPAs at the Reef next year as we continue to raise more money for the FICPA Ed Foundation.

Jason A. Chorlins

President, FICPA Miami-Dade Chapter

Jason A. Chorlins, CPA, CFE, CAMS, is a member of the Forensic, Advisory and Valuation Services department at Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top CPA firms in Florida. He can be reached at jchorlins@kaufmanrossin.com.

The University of Miami American Airlines/Eagle Jamaica Project is the final result of University of Miami Hyperion Council members devoting their energy, time and knowledge to creating lessons and real-life activities to teach 50 Jamaican small business owners.  In the U.S. we take a lot of things for granted like basic education, financing, paved roads, modern technology, clean water and shelter. How would you run your business if you didn’t have access to all of these things (which we consider necessities)? It would probably be pretty challenging, which is exactly what these business owners are experiencing.  And by business owners, I mean chicken farmers, agro-processors, juice producers, and hair dressers among others.

Although we couldn’t help them through all of their challenges, we are confident we taught them sound business practices.  We presented lessons that taught these Jamaican entrepreneurs basic accounting, marketing, operations, and business plan development skills.  We actually visited some of their businesses to help them distinguish themselves in their local market and obtain small business loans.  We worked in small groups which helped us really get to know these participants on a deeper level and understand their mission and vision.

It was truly amazing to see how these third world businesses survive on a daily basis.  Even though it was my second time visiting Jamaica and implementing this project, I was still stunned and fascinated by what I saw.  As a new addition to Kaufman, Rossin, I’ve grown accustomed to the great work environment that I experience every day.  We’re able to make business decisions by the click of a button, and many of our employees have graduated from some of the nation’s top schools.  And it goes without saying that we have clean water, beautiful facilities, and some other great amenities that come with being a part of the Best Place to Work For in South Florida.

Experiencing Jamaica and meeting these extraordinary people reminded me of how great things are here, and how entirely different it is just one time zone away.  As I now begin my professional career at Kaufman, Rossin, I bring to it my one-of-a-kind experience meeting and teaching these inspiring business owners as I was exposed to a different way of living and operating a business.  As we work in our robust, modern business world sometimes it’s necessary to go back to the basics – and enjoy the simple things in both life and business.

Aubrey Swanson is the social media coordinator with Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top accounting firms in the Southeast. She can be reached at aswanson@kaufmanrossin.com.

What’s the benefit?
If you have overdue Florida taxes, until September 30 you can pay them, with no penalty and reduced interest.  Plus you get the ability avoid criminal prosecution.

What’s covered?
Taxes covered include

•  Sales and Use Tax,
• Florida Corporate Tax and
• Florida Intangible Tax.

 The Department of Revenue has a full list posted here.

What’s not covered?
If you entered into an agreement with the Department before July 1, 2010, your overdue taxes aren’t covered by this amnesty.  But if you were notified but haven’t made arrangements yet, you should take advantage of amnesty. 

What should I do? 

There’s a good FAQs document on the FDOR site.   If you think you might be eligible, contact your tax professional right away.  The window is closing! 

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Scott F. Berger is a tax principal with Kaufman, Rossin & Co., one of the top CPA firms in the Southeast.  He can be reached at sberger@kaufmanrossin.com.

The President signed the Dodd-Frank Act (Financial Reform) this week, and we wanted to share what we know about what’s in it.

Many of the provisions still require what I’d call “implementation planning” — exactly how is this going to work? — but here’s what we know so far.   The law is primarily focused on avoiding future systemic banking system failure, and includes provisions that affect consumers, businesses, banks, investors, and investment advisors. 

Here are some of the highlights:

For consumers:

• A new regulatory body, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will be responsible for writing new rules on financial consumer products.
• New mortgage rules requiring those granting loans to verify applicants’ credit history, income, and employment status (establishing that you can actually pay back what you’re borrowing) may be helpful to those whose appetites are bigger than their paychecks.  And rules that require lenders to hold onto a certain percentage of the loans they write should limit lending to people at a high risk of default.
• New credit card rules may benefit consumers — card minimums now cannot exceed $10, and limits to the “interchange fees” that banks can charge merchants may lead to better prices for consumers. 
• Got a complaint about a financial institution?  This act creates a national consumer complaint hotline to report problems with financial products and services.
• You’ll now be entitled to a free look at your credit score, not just your credit report, if it affects whether you get credit you’ve applied for.
• And if one of those “too big” financial companies needs to be liquidated, taxpayers will bear no cost.  FDIC can borrow only the amount of funds to liquidate a company that it expects to be repaid from the assets of the company being liquidated.

For businesses:

• Finally, the suspense over SOX 404 is over for smaller public companies.  For “non-accelerated filers,” (those with less than $75 million in market cap), the act amends Sarbanes-Oxley to make permanent the exemption from its section 404(b) requirement.  It  also requires the SEC to study (within 9 months) how to reduce the burden of 404(b) compliance for companies with market caps between $75 million and $250 million.
• New rules limiting the interchange fees that credit care issuers can charge merchants may help small businesses.

For investors:

• The bill addresses the conflict of interest created when banks and financial institutions pay a credit rating agency to evaluate their securities. 
• It gives shareholders of publicly traded companies a vote on executive pay, though the vote is nonbinding.
• Executives of public companies who are paid based on their financial performance will have to pay back up to three years worth of compensation if the financial reporting that was used to calculate the pay turns out to be inaccurate and is restated.
• The  U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission will have authority to regulate over-the-counter derivatives.  Banks will be prohibited from trading certain forms of derivatives, and most of the trading must occur on transparent exchanges.

Regarding financial institutions:

• The “Volker Rule” prohibits banks from engaging in proprietary trading (trading the bank’s money for profit), which some perceive as creating conflicts of interest. 
• Banks’ relationships with hedge funds and private equity funds will also be limited, and they will be prohibited from trading certain types of derivatives.
• A new council will be watching.  The “Financial Stability Oversight Council,” will monitor the U.S. economy for underlying systemic risks and make recommendations to the Federal Reserve on issues created by firms that are deeply interconnected within the financial system.   The council will also monitor and advise Congress and the SEC regarding domestic and international accounting standards developments.
• Liquidation authority. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will have a mechanism to unwind “failing systemically significant financial companies,” with no financial impact to taxpayers.

Regarding investment advisors:

• Regulation of more registered investment advisors will move from the SEC  to the states.  The threshold requiring registration with the SEC will be raised from $30 million in assets under management to $100 million, with smaller advisors regulated by the states.  Some exceptions apply.
• Private advisers are no longer exempt from registering with the SEC.  Advisers to venture capital funds remain exempt, as do those who only advise private funds and have U.S. assets under management below $150 million.  Family offices are also exempt.

There are more provisions (the bill is 2,300 pages).  We’ll keep an eye on developments as the new rules are  implemented.

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Alan Chosed, CPA, is a principal at Kaufman, Rossin & Co, one of the top accounting firms in the Southeast.  He can be reached at achosed@kaufmanrossin.com