31. March 2009 by admin.

1. If I did not receive a Form 1099-MISC reporting the income I received as an independent contractor, then I don’t have to report the income on my tax return. It is not uncommon for companies to either overlook or intentionally fail to send Form 1099 to their independent contractors. The company that fails to report can be penalized $100 for each form they neglect to send out. The higher risk, however, is to the independent contractor because failure to report income carries serious penalties and can even be considered tax fraud. 1099 or no 1099, cash received for performance of services is taxable income.
2. If I volunteered 100 hours for charity and my time is worth $50 per hour, then I have a $5,000 tax deduction on my income tax return. Many taxpayers volunteer to work for their favorite charities. If someone is strapped for cash, contributing additional hours of service can provide a rewarding experience. These taxpayers often try to conclude that their contribution of time should be deductible just as if it were a contribution of cash. That logic is flawed because the value of the services were never reported as income, so there is no basis in the services that were contributed. The taxpayer is actually better off than if the income and offsetting deduction were reported, because there is no impact on self-employment tax or the limitation on itemized deductions.
3. Simply by signing up to a business opportunity, I can deduct otherwise personal expenses. The pitch for many “Biz-Ops” or “Tax Proofing Plans” is that setting up a home-based business will enable the deduction of virtually all expenses of running the home, bringing Federal taxes to near zero. The truth is that expenses are only going to be deductible when a business has a real profit motive, and then only to the extent of the business use allocation. For home office expenses, that limitation includes specific hoops and allocation procedures. For entertainment expenses, there are strict documentation guidelines. There are also hobby loss rules that eliminate deductions for activities that never make a profit.
4. I don’t need to worry about complex tax forms such as AMT or Passive Loss Limitations because I’m not rich. Even ordinary hard-working taxpayers can become subject to these special provisions. A year when income is especially high followed by a year when itemized deductions are especially high can easily trigger AMT. Maintaining rental property can trigger passive loss limitations. There are other special provisions to consider, which makes it important to have professional help or access to good tax guides and software.
5. I don’t need a computer to do my taxes. The biggest single problem with income tax returns is math errors. The use of inexpensive tax preparation software virtually eliminates this category of error.
6. It’s too complicated to track changes in the basis of mutual funds Mutual funds are bought and sold, resulting in capital gain or loss. The gain or loss is not as simple as subtracting the original cost from the sales proceeds. To the extent that dividends and capital gains have been reinvested rather than taken in cash, the basis is more than the original cost. When dollars are moved from one fund to another, there is a taxable event that again changes the basis. Failure to account for all these changes can cause significant overpayment of income tax. If you don’t want to track your basis, consider other types of investment.
7. Any check written to a charity is deductible as a contribution Many checks written to charities are in payment for products or services. These amounts are not deductible. For example, a taxpayer might pay $50 to a church for his child to participate in a youth soccer program. That payment is no different than paying a private soccer facility for the same service, and is not deductible. Sometimes, payments are only partially deductible. For example, a $200 ticket to a charity dinner could be deductible to the extent that the $200 exceeds the fair value of the dinner. The charity will generally disclose the amount that is considered to be fair value for the service.
8. I won’t take any “gray” deductions because I don’t want to be audited. Each expenditure is either deductible or not deductible. Most “gray” expenditures become more black or white with additional research and thought. Taxpayers need to spend the time and effort to properly categorize expenditures and stop leaving deductions on the table. Occasionally, a taxpayer may be unable to reach a clear answer about the deductibility of an item. If the item is unclear, but there is sound logic to support a deduction, then it is usually worth the risk to claim the deduction.
9. I lease my car because the lease payment is 100% deductible. Many taxpayers assume that every dollar spent on a car lease is deductible as a business expenditure. There are two problems with that notion. First, the deduction is only allowable based on the business use percentage - - IT IS STILL NECESSARY TO TRACK MILEAGE. Second, there is a requirement to add an “Inclusion” amount to income for leases of all but the most inexpensive vehicles. The intent of the leased vehicle inclusion is to limit the amount of the annual deduction in the same manner that a cap is placed on automobile depreciation for luxury autos (IRS definition of luxury ­ not common sense definition).
10. I need to spend more on deductions so I won’t have to pay as much tax. It never makes sense to spend a dollar to save 40 cents. It often makes sense to work the timing of an expenditure, or to modify the nature an expenditure to reflect its business purpose. It doesn’t make sense, however, to spend money for the sole purpose of reducing taxes.

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20. March 2009 by admin.

2. UrlTrends

UrlTrends is a service that shows historical trends, so that webmasters can see how their SEO efforts are affecting websites in the search engines. UrlTrends should be used in conjunction with web-logging software.

UrlTrends - www.urltrends.com

3. Favicon

Polish your website by adding a Favorite Icon. When a “favicon” is available on your site, and the site URL is entered in the user’s web browser URL box, the favicon will be displayed beside the URL. This gives the website a more professional and polished look.

Favicon HTMLKit - www.htmlkit.com

4. Color Matching

Match the primary web colors with those used in your logo. Simply choose a preferred color using the ColorBlender service below, and a 6-color matching palette and blend will be automatically calculated for you.

ColorBlender - www.colorblender.com

5. Online WYSIWYG Editing

Online webpage editing allows for collaboration, so that different users can log in and edit web pages.

Edit - www.edit.com

6. RSS Feeds

No longer considered to be just a nice addition, RSS feeds are now a “must have” for popular websites! Create RSS feeds for newsletters, press releases, educational articles, product tutorials, new product promotions, or just about any other sort of web content. FeedForAll - www.feedforall.com

7. MaxEmail

MaxEmail’s very affordable Internet fax and voicemail service allows a fax message to be delivered to an email address as a PDF formatted attachment. This allows fax messages to follow you regardless of your location. And, it also eliminates the need for a costly extra telephone line and a dedicated fax machine.

MaxEmail - maxemail.com

8. Royalty-Free Images

Locate stock photos to incorporate into your web design. Use royalty-free stock photography to add professional, high-quality images to your website.

Photo Wizard - www.photo-wizard.net

9. Submit Corner Web Assessment Tools

These web assessment tools help you use search engines to effectively monitor who links to your website, how many links, and who your competitors are. The tools include search indexing, link tracking, and competitor identification.

Submit Corner - www.SubmitCorner.com

10. Ranks.nl

This service assesses keyword density and prominence of a domain. The tool parses keywords and assesses the number of times a keyword occurs, and then discerns the density of the keywords.

Ranks.nl - ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

11. Webmaster Toolkit

The Webmaster Toolkit is a collection of webmaster tools developed to help webmasters with daily webmaster chores. The suite of free tools and resources included continues to grow, and contains something useful for the beginner and the advanced webmaster alike.

Webmaster Toolkit - www.webmaster-toolkit.com

12. HTML Web Templates

Make it clean and professional. Use easy-to-edit HTML web templates for web design.

Web Design - www.webmaster-templates.net or www.webdesign-elements.com

13. TrafficZap

This website includes script, page rank checker, link popularity checker, and more.

TrafficZap - www.trafficzap.com

14. Compete.com

Web Analytics - Stay on top of rivals with site metrics and audience profiles for the top 1,000,000 web domains. Identify rival search marketing strategies to take your SEM and SEO efforts to the next level.

SiteAnalytics - siteanalytics.compete.com

15. Thumbshots

Easily add thumbshot images to your webpages. Integrate website thumbnails by simply copying and pasting HTML code. Additional software is not needed.

Thumbshots - www.thumbshots.org

Use top-notch tools to make web maintenance and management a little easier.

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16. March 2009 by admin.

Pain serves an important function in our lives. When
you suffer an acute injury, pain warns you to stop the
activity that is causing the injury and tells you to take
care of the affected body part.

Chronic pain, on the other hand, persists for weeks,
months, or even years. Some people, often older
adults, suffer from chronic pain without any definable
past injury or signs of body damage. Common chronic
pain can be caused by headaches, the low back, and
arthritis. Unfortunately, there is scant objective evidence
or physical findings to explain such pain.
Until recently, some doctors who could not find a
physical cause for a person’s pain simply suggested
that it was imaginary—“all in your head.” This is unfortunate
because we know that all pain is real and not
imagined, except in the most extreme cases of psychosis.
Emerging scientific evidence is demonstrating
that the nerves in the spinal cord of patients with
chronic pain undergo structural changes.
Psychological and social issues often amplify the
effects of chronic pain. For example, people with
chronic pain frequently report a wide range of limitations
in family and social roles, such as the inability to
perform household or workplace chores, take care of
children, or engage in leisure activities. In turn, spouses,
children, and co-workers often have to take over
these responsibilities. Such changes often lead to
depression, agitation, resentment, and anger for the
pain patient and to stress and strain in family and other
social relationships.

How is depression involved with chronic
pain?
Depression is the most common emotion associated
with chronic pain. It is thought to be 3 to 4 times more
common in people with chronic pain than in the general
population. In addition, 30 to 80% of people with
chronic pain will have some type of depression.
The combination of chronic pain and depression is
often associated with greater disability than either
depression or chronic pain alone.
People with chronic pain and depression suffer dramatic
changes in their physical, mental, and social
well-being—and in their quality of life. Such people
often find it difficult to sleep, are easily agitated, cannot
perform their normal activities of daily living, cannot
concentrate, and are often unable to perform their
duties at work. This constellation of disabilities starts
a vicious cycle—pain leads to more depression, which
leads to more chronic pain. In some cases, the depression
occurs before the pain.

Depression associated with pain is powerful enough to
have a substantial negative impact on the outcome of
treatment, including surgery. It is important for your
doctor to take into consideration not only biological,
but also psychological and social issues that pain
brings.

What is the treatment for chronic pain
and depression?
The first step in coping with chronic pain is to determine
its cause, if possible. Addressing the problem
will help the pain subside. In other cases, especially
when the pain is chronic, you should try to keep the
chronic pain from being the entire focus of your life.
• Stay active and do not avoid activities that
cause pain simply because they cause pain.
The amount and type of activity should be
directed by your doctor, so that activities that
might actually cause more harm are avoided.
• Relaxation training, hypnosis, biofeedback, and
guided imagery, can help you cope with chronic
pain. Cognitive therapy can also help
patients recognize destructive patterns of emotion
and behavior and help them modify or
replace such behaviors and thoughts with more
reasonable or supportive ones.
• Distraction (redirecting your attention away
from chronic pain), imagery (going to your
“happy place”), and dissociation (detaching
yourself from the chronic pain) can be useful.
• Involving your family with your recovery may be
quite helpful, according to recent scientific evidence.

Feel free to discuss these or other techniques with
your doctor of therapist. He or she may suggest
some simple techniques that may work for you or may
refer you to another health care provider for more indepth
training in these techniques

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14. March 2009 by admin.

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14. March 2009 by admin.

You have two choices

Jerry is the manager of a restaurant. He is always in a good mood.

When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply: “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs,

so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant

Why?

Because Jerry was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling him how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him.

“I don’t get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today.. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood.

I always choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always choose the positive side of life.”

“But it’s not always that easy,”  I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said.

“Life is all about choices.. When you cut away all the junk every situation is a choice..

You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. It’s your choice how you live your life.”

Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business.

He left the back door of his restaurant open in the morning, he was robbed by three armed men.

While Jerry trying to open the safe his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination.

The robbers panicked and shot him.

Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Want to see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied.

“Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or could choose to die. I chose to live.” “Weren’t you scared I asked?

Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine.

But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the expression on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared.

In their eyes, I read ‘He’s a dead man.

I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked..

“Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry.. “She asked if I was allergic to anything.”

“Yes, to bullets,” I replied.

Over their laughter, I told them “I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.

I learned from him that every day you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it.

The only thing that is truly yours - that no one can control or take from you, is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.

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13. March 2009 by admin.

Simple, Automatic, Secure Online Backup (Windows and OSX)

- directly from the Mozy Website

Why all the fuss about backup?

Chances are you have a lot of important stuff on your computer like financial documents, email, digital photos, music and more. Unfortunately, computers are vulnerable to hard drive crashes, virus attacks, theft and natural disasters, which can erase everything in an instant.
Current statistics show that one in every ten hard drives fail each year. The cost of recovering a failed hard drive can exceed $7,500, and success is never guaranteed.

I would have lost it all

“When I saw that some of my files were missing, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Then I remembered I had backed up my computer with Mozy. I restored what I needed to, and ten minutes later all my files were intact again.”

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12. March 2009 by admin.

Merchant accounts are required in order to connect your shopping cart to your bank.  The Kewler Company has negotiated with Authorize.net to provide you with the least expensive solution using the most trusted source for eCommerce.  Follow this link and fill out the application materials and we will provide you with access for less than Authorize.net can offer directly.

New Merchant Tour and Web Tutorials
We have created a New Merchant Tour, located at http://welcome.authorize.net, designed to assist new merchants with setting up and managing their payment gateway accounts. The New Merchant Tour is a great place for your merchants to begin familiarizing themselves with the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway.

Additionally, to help with educating your merchants about the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway, we have launched a series of Web tutorials available at http://www.authorize.net/videos. Our goal is to add new videos each month, so please encourage your merchants to check back on a regular basis.

If you have been thinking about shopping cart software, we recommend OScommerce (its open source and very flexible), but there are many others.  We also recommend 1and1.com to host your website which incorporates OScommerce in their eCommerce product.  You don’t need to spend a fortune to get a professional looking online store.  Let us know if we can help.

We now have to worry about PCI fees (the extortion that the credit card companies have forced us to pay annually).  This is their way of passing on fraud protection to the small business.  There seems to be no way around it even if you have the most secure site possible (as we do).  Watch out for these hidden costs as they are not standardized, but are set my your merchant service provider.

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