Are You Overpaying Taxes If You Use Tax Preparation Software?

For many business owners the answer to this quandary is tax preparation software. Fill out a fairly simple interview, click “print” and out comes a completed return that will pass muster with the IRS. The answer to all your problems…or is it?

Can One Software Program Cover All Businesses?

Take a moment to consider the wide range of businesses that exist in the United States. Now cut that number down to those that can be categorized as “Internet businesses”. If you were asked to write a business plan to provide web design services to each of these services, how long would it be? It would be huge and completely useless because each business would have different needs. A Internet business selling flowers would have completely different needs from an online bank which would have different needs from a hosting company and so on. The only way you could create a practical plan for all Internet businesses would be to offer a collection of general services they could all use on their sites. Tax preparation software designers have the same problem.

There are over 15,000 pages in the tax code and over 100,000 pages of regulations interpreting those pages. Changes are made to the tax code ever year, and new regulations are issued constantly. If one were to create a list of questions for every tax deduction and credit detailed in those pages, the list of questions would be the size of a phone book! Yet, tax software programmers have somehow boiled it all down to a simple 30-minute interview process? Common sense should tell you that doesn’t make sense.

As practical matter, tax software programs are designed to make sure that you claim a general set of deductions that are applicable to businesses across all industries. Most programs try to mask this fact by asking you to identify your business before proceeding. For a lark, you might try selecting another industry and then running through the interview process. You will find that the interview process is modified a bit, but you are still being asked the same basic tax deduction questions.

If you are only claiming general business tax deductions, you are paying more than you should in taxes. Ask yourself if you have seen any of the following questions in a tax software program interview:

Q. Do you store business inventory in your house?

Hint: You may be able to claim hundreds or thousands of dollars in deductions.

Q. Did you start a pension plan for your employees?

Hint: You may be able to claim a tax credit for the next three years totaling $1,500.

Q. Do you have a home-based business and a second office?

Hint: You may be able to deduct your commuting expenses each day. Yes, commuting expenses.

Q. Do you have business meetings at your home?

Hint: Did you charge your business for the space?

Q. Should you claim the standard mileage rate for your auto or the actual costs?

Hint: The standard mileage rate may not the best option.

Q. Did you modify your business location to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act?

Hint: You may be able to claim a tax credit AND tax deduction for tax savings of $20,000 or more.

Q. Did you refinance your home?

Hint: The points you paid on your original mortgage are fully deductible now, not over the length of the loan.

This represents only the tip of the iceberg of available credits and deductions available to you. Just one of these deductions could save you thousands of dollars in taxes. Yet, you are never going to see these questions raised in a tax software program interview. The tax code and regulations are simply too large to be incorporated into a usable software program.

Your business is unique. You face and overcome issues and problems that are unique to your size, financial situation and particular business needs. Don’t short change yourself by limiting your deductions by using tax software programs.

Richard A. Chapo is with http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com - recovery of business taxes through tax help and tax relief. Visit http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com/articles to read more business tax articles.

Corporate Web Site Design

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If you are searching for web design solutions the corporate web site design Manchester services on the Internet are prepared to help you design your web pages at prices you can afford. Many of the corporate web site design Manchester services are prepared to help both small and large companies design ecommerce web stores. The design process involves programming language, e.g. Perl, C++, Javascript, etc, so be sure to find qualified designers at the corporate web site design Manchester services. Many people these days are building PHP based web sites, MySQL, and other sites that are programmed with server-side programs and database.

The corporate web site design Manchester services can help you get the pages you desire. It is not easy to design and program these types of web pages so keep in mind that while the company offers affordable prices, the costs has to match the timeline and other duties of the Manchester services. When it comes to designing web pages there are many things involved. A lot of the web sites today often contain client-side programming and web design strategies that make them unique. client-side programming and web combine with scripting language to improve web design and offers pages that contain rich content that can be ready by servers and then inserted into web pages before you see the results.

Server-side programming is language we use to achieve this goal, but then designers may have to use client-side programming and web design applications to get the pages at the right side of the browser once the pages are received. You can use these scripts to execute various tasks that relate to the information in which the page was received, including changing display colors, executing calculations, styles, checking user input, and validity.

Almost every browser supports many versions of the script language we know as JavaScript. JavaScript language is one of the most needed languages to create Ajax web pages.

Programming language is a mere part of creating web pages, but when designers from the corporate web site design Manchester services consider the pages they have to think of DNS and other aspects of the design carefully. DNS works with client-side programming. Each computer connects to the Web has its own special numerical address, which we refer to as IP, or Internet Protocol. This address is essentially needed because without it, we cannot access the Internet. IP is to some extent like a physical address. Internet Protocols enables you to view specific web pages from the browser without having to type in the IP address.

Users are not likely to type in strings of numbers into a search engine to pull up a web page and for this reason the pages must be optimized and use IP. Using the domain name, you can request web pages easier. Domain name when requested are handled by the server. The server submits the request from the DNS server, and searches the databases to find relevant information. Error messages appear if the server cannot locate anything that associates with the domain name. Designers at the corporate web site design Manchester services have to consider all these aspect while designing your web pages.

For further information, please visit Corporate Web Site Design Manchester

Web Design And Hosting

There are a lot of websites on the internet that are either finished or under development. Would you like to have your own website? Do you know the best options concerning web design and hosting?

First, you need to determine your reasons for wanting a website. Is it for business, personal or for other purposes such as sharing your opinion? Once you have determined the purpose for your site, you will get a clearer vision on the type of web design and hosting you will need. If you have the skills, you can design your own. However, another great option is to hire someone to design and develop your website for you.

If you decide to hire someone, you will need to consider your budget. You can post an ad on a classified website or on a freelance bid site. This is often a good way to make sure your project stays within your budget. You can also ask around. Contact people whose websites you admire, and see if they’ll offer you any advice or ask your friends and family if they know anyone.

Once you have the web design aspect of your site taken care of, you will need to consider your hosting options. Some web designers also offer hosting as part of their packages. You can find a company online or ask around. Just do a search on “web hosting” to find the companies. Check out the review sites to see what people think of the different companies.

It may seem overwhelming at first, but it is worth it to consider all your web design and hosting options before making a decision. Once your site is active, you can start to reap the benefits and have the personal satisfaction of sharing your information, opinions or business with others over the Internet.

Web Design And Hosting provides detailed information on Web Design And Hosting, Professional Web Hosting And Design, Affordable Web Design And Hosting Services, Cheap Web Site Design And Hosting and more. Web Design And Hosting is affiliated with Create Your Own Web Site.

Two Simple Things To Keep In Mind When You're Talking About How Your Web Site Will Look

Any web site designer for small business will say that design is one of the big parts of a web site. And I would agree.

Actually, you agree with this also. If a site that's being built for your business doesn't look good to you, you'll tell your designer to go away and start again. You wouldn't sign off on a poorly designed site for your own business, and you appreciate that your customer won't either.

You've got to have pleasing design, then. But where do you find it?

Fashion drives site design.

Look at the fashion change taking place at this moment at sites set up for Web 2.0. The clean lines, solid colors, gradients and large fonts are popular and becoming wide spread. Another, earlier, fashion change can be seen on corporate websites. A decade ago they had gray backgrounds and used burgundy colors: now you probably won't see this combination on a corporation's website. Just as design never stands still off-line, it is never resting on websites.

Welcome to Web Fashion. Your site ought to be reasonably close to the current fashion so it stays up-to-date for your visitor. For this reason evaluate your site every couple of years and perhaps redesign it.

As well, there is a technology consideration to design.

Form to email boxes, and Google Earth's maps and satellite imagery, are examples of this. New technologies in their days, these tools are now routinely built into web sites by designers.

You should use new technology on your site if it will help your customer, and your site will work better for them.

The design of a site is pushed by what visitors think looks cool and what designers know is technically possible. Think about both when you design a web site.

Len McGrane is a web site designer for small business giving small businesses web sites that look good and work exceptionally well in the commercial process ... for under $500.

Flash - 99% Still Bad?

On the 29th of November 2000 almost 8 years ago Jacob Nielsen infamously stated that 99% of Flash is bad. In his article he stated that "Flash on a website constitutes a usability disease" and summarized that Flash breaks design.

How true is this of today's high standard of design? Firstly lets take a trip back to the year 2000. If Flash wasn't going to kill design, it was certainly going to be the 'Y2K bug'. Macromedia owned Flash and was primarily used for creating long ugly flash intros. Which was in fairness a usability nightmare even with a skip intro button.

So yes the vast majority of Flash being used in websites did depict poor usability and bad design. We saw a huge increase in annoying loud Flash adverts, which were considered browsing hell by users and often resulted in the user leaving the page to escape them. However I still believe even back in 2000 flash had many benefits in web design and that nowhere near the large amount of 99% being considered bad.

By nowadays standards flash has grown and grown. Being implemented in more websites than ever before. With the release of Actionscript 2.0 and now Actionscript 3.0, the quality of design and usability in Flash websites have reached a new level and possibly hold the key for the future of web design. Not only by adhering to the basic set guidelines of user friendly web design but also by pushing new user interfaces for example jlern.com.

However, like anything new and experimental people will discard anything away from the norm and at the end of the day thats what it comes down to. Jakob Nielsen did produce a excellent and valid point at the time, but no longer relates to todays high standard of Flash Animation in web design. However, there are still many Flash related usability issues including the lack of consideration for users with hearing or sight problems.

With Google announcing it is now in works with Adobe to make text accessible by search engines in flash sites. Allowing a Flash website to be properly optimized for search engines. The inability to do this in my eyes is the major drawback with using Flash in web design. When incorporated properly in web design (like here), its future of Flash seems brighter than ever before and I can confidently say that only 29% of Flash is bad.

Published by Sam Logan Designer for Firebubble Web Design and Logo Design Company.