In March 2019, the IRS warned that scammers claiming to be from the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service office in Houston or Brooklyn were making unsolicited calls to unsuspecting taxpayers. Those who answered the phone or returned the calls were asked for their Social Security numbers or other identifying information.

Meanwhile, the accompanying rise in phishing schemes eventually prompted the IRS to release its list of top IRS scams in June 2021.

That said, how can you protect yourself from falling victim to IRS scams? Below, we offer 5 suggestions that can help.

1. UNDERSTAND HOW THE IRS INITIATES CONTACT

In almost all cases, the IRS contacts taxpayers via regular mail delivered by the United States Postal Service (USPS). 

While there are several exceptions to this rule, those are few and far in-between. They usually involve serious tax delinquency, a comprehensive audit, or a criminal investigation — and even under those special circumstances, the taxpayer usually receives a prior notice in the mail.

2. NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR INFORMATION VIA PHONE, EMAIL, OR SOCIAL MEDIA

A scammer claiming to represent the IRS may call you over the phone or contact you via email, text messaging, or social media. Such imposters may sound very convincing and have seemingly legitimate credentials.

They may even threaten to take legal action against you if you don’t comply with their demands. However, take note. The IRS very rarely contacts anyone over the phone and will never initiate contact with a taxpayer via email, text, or social media.

3. ASK WHO WILL BE RECEIVING THE PAYMENT

IRS employees, and the collection agencies that partner with the IRS, will never demand immediate payment to a recipient other than “U. S. Treasury.” If someone claiming to represent the IRS asks for payment to any other entity besides “U. S. Treasury,” that’s a dead giveaway that you’re dealing with an imposter.

4. FILE YOUR TAX RETURN EARLY IN THE YEAR

Tax identity theft is another type of IRS scam that’s become more prevalent in recent years. Scammers may try to impersonate you by filing a tax return in your name and redirect your refund to their own address or bank account. 

If a scammer beats you to the punch, then it may take a lot of time and effort to sort things out — and you may end up losing whatever money was coming your way. 

Apart from keeping your Social Security number safe from prying eyes, filing your return early in the tax year can help prevent this kind of fraud from happening to you. If you receive one of the following IRS notices in the mail, be sure to follow up with the agency directly to determine if you’ve fallen victim to tax identity theft:

• More than one tax return was filed using your Social Security number.
• You owe additional tax on your return.
• You have had a tax refund offset.
• IRS records show that you earned wages from an employer you don’t recognize.
• You’ve had collection actions taken against you for a tax year in which you didn’t file a tax return.

5. ALWAYS GO THROUGH THE PROPER CHANNELS

If you do have any questions about your status with the IRS or are worried that a collection agent will initiate legal action against you, always go through official IRS channels to address your concerns. 

You can find a wealth of information on the official IRS website. For example, the website has a list of official contacts for the IRS, including phone numbers for hearing-impaired callers, non-profits, individuals, and businesses. 

Even though IRS scammers are getting more sophisticated with each passing year, you can educate yourself about their tactics, and learn how the real IRS operates. If you implement the 5 suggestions above, you’ll be less likely to fall victim to IRS scams, and you’ll be able to enjoy peace of mind as you live your best life.

The post 5 Ways to Protect Yourself From IRS Scams appeared first on Verblio.

Report Finds Americans Are Missing Out on Billions in Retirement Contributions

We have good news and bad news on the 401(k) front. The good news is that about 80 percent of Americans who have access to them are taking advantage of 401(k) matching programs, according to a 2014 report. The bad news, however, is that another report found that Americans are not using their matching program effectively. In fact, they are leaving $24 billion in company match funds behind each year. Here’s what that means for you.

What Does $24 Billion Mean for Me?

That’s a huge number to digest. Here’s how researchers arrived at it. They examined the retirement funds of 4.4 million participants from more than 500 companies. Twenty-five percent of those participants were not contributing enough of their own money to their 401(k) to take advantage of the company’s full match. $24 billion averaged out to about $1,336 in uncollected employer match funds each year. Over 20 years, the missed funds could add up to over $42,000 per employee.

Here’s another way to look at it. Let’s say you work for a company that matches 50 cents on every dollar you contribute. If you invest six percent of your $50,000 salary, that’s $3,000 per year you are contributing and $1,500 per year your employer is giving you. In effect, you are getting a tax-free, $1,500 raise.

How Much Is Enough?

“How much should I be contributing?” is probably the most common question asked of financial advisors. However, the answer is not always straightforward. “As much as you can” is the simple answer, but that leaves room for a lot of interpretation. And it’s sometimes a cop-out.

Each situation is unique. For example, a 40-year-old that has never contributed to a retirement plan needs to start saving fast, contributing at least 15 percent.

There are restrictions, though. For 2015, employees are allowed to contribute up to $18,000 annually or an extra $6,000 if they are over 50. Conversely, a recent college graduate starting his or her first real job at 22, can afford to start at a lower percentage.

Contribute the Maximum

A good rule of thumb is to contribute at least the maximum that can be matched. Most companies that offer matching will only do so up to a certain percentage of your salary. You want to at least contribute enough to maximize that match.

The best way to accurately assess how much you need to contribute is to talk to a financial advisor who can come up with an overall retirement strategy that includes your 401(k) and other resources available.

While a 401(k) is nice in that it does not need constant attention, you should monitor your growth periodically and talk to your financial advisor to see if you are on track.

For example, it’s generally recommended that your 401(k) include at least one year’s salary by age 30. How much could that end up being? If you had $40,000 in your 401(k) by age 30 and never added any more money, you would have $600,000 by 65, figuring an average eight percent annual return. That amount will only grow with increased contributions.

Who’s Most at Risk?

Researchers also examined what demographics are missing out the most and what factors contribute to employees’ financial decisions. Here’s what they found.

Young employees are missing out

Employees under 30 are twice as likely to miss out on employer match programs than employees over 60. This isn’t necessarily because they don’t see the importance. Many young adults have endured unemployment, as well as massive student loan debt.

According to USA Today, 40 million Americans are carrying $1.2 trillion in student debt — any extra each month likely goes toward paying that down. Graduate students may still be attending school, balancing the increasing cost of tuition with supporting themselves.

Lower salaries = lower matching

Forty-two percent of employees earning less than $40,000 annually were not taking full advantage of employee matching, compared to only 10 percent of employees earning over $100,000 a year. It’s understandable that those that make more can contribute more.

However, remember we are talking percentages. As illustrated above, even small percentages will grow exponentially over time. Waiting until you start making more is not an effective strategy. You will lose thousands in “free” matching money.

Middle-age poses new obstacles

The research showed middle-aged employees decreasing contributions. This stage in life often brings new expenses, including the cost of raising children and saving for their college funds. However, the point is that every stage in life presents challenges to saving. Middle-age is not the time to decrease contributions and lose out on valuable employer matching.

Getting an advisor matters

Employees across all demographics were less likely to miss out on employer contributions when they worked with a financial advisor. For example, among employees earning $20,000 a year, only 18 percent of employees that worked with a financial advisor were still not taking advantage of employer matching. Among the same income bracket, 48 percent that did not get advisory services were not reaping the rewards of employee matching.

Take Action

Regardless of your income level, age or industry, resolve to take full advantage of your company’s retirement benefits today.

• Start by gaining an understanding of your plan.
• How much does your employer match your contributions? Are you leaving money on the table?
• Commit to regularly increasing your contributions. A good time to do this is with each year’s raise.
• Lastly, get professional help. Your 401(k) should be just a piece of your retirement strategy.

Let an experienced advisor help you create a customized plan based on your retirement goals and your current financial situation. [Advisor name] has more than [years] experience assisting people from all different income levels achieve their retirement goals. Contact our firm to schedule a consultation. 

What are the benefits of an effective blogging strategy?

• Establish yourself as a trusted source of information among clients and your peers.
• Show that you keep up with the latest trends and research.
• Increase your SEO by providing search engines with fresh content that includes your all-important keywords.
• Have content to push out to your social media feeds.
• Engage clients through comments within the blog or feedback on your social media feed.
• Brand your firm, showing your personal side.
• Create opportunities for content to be shared, either through your followers’ feeds or industry bloggers that may like your commentary.

The post How Financial Advisors Make the Most of Your 401(k) appeared first on Verblio.

Why Blogging is Important (Yes, Still)

At a time when many brands are pivoting toward more video and social media marketing, is blogging still important? The answer is a resounding “yes!” For businesses just starting to flesh out a marketing strategy, blogging is a marketing tool with a low barrier to entry and a tangible payoff. For more established brands, a blog is an ideal anchor for a multi-faceted marketing strategy.

A consistently updated, the high-quality blog remains the ideal way to drive traffic and grow your brand. As our friends at Crazy Egg point out, when a blog is managed well, it boosts your inbound leads in a major way. Google loves a meaty, frequently updated blog, rewarding great content with higher search engine rankings as an overall trend.

Blogging is also the perfect way to establish a brand voice, becoming recognizable to customers and growing loyalty. A great blog shows that your brand has its own unique personality, has tons of interesting information to knowledge-drop, and is worth spending time with.

What other marketing tool brings in leads, helps you create your own unique presence in your niche, and establishes you as a thought leader, all without the need for a full-scale marketing department or a massive budget?

Here are a few concrete examples of the importance of blogging to keep in mind:

1. Blogging improves your Google rankings

In fact, simply having a blog on your website improves your Google ranking by as much as 434%! Regular blogging with high quality content improves your Google ranking even more dramatically.

Simply having a website is not enough. Google rewards sites that publish consistent, informative content that provides actual value to visitors. Freshly updated content is even better. Blogging remains the best way to pull this off.

2. Blogging is flexible & complements your overall strategy

Blogging is adaptable and is the perfect complement to the other facets of your marketing strategy. Creating an e-book to give away on your site? Your blogs for the next few months can each hone in on a topic covered in your e-book, and link to your e-book landing page.

Blogs can be similarly helpful as an anchor for your social media updates. When you publish a new blog post that you’re excited to share, go ahead and do so via your social channels. You may find that readers click over to your blog, read a few posts, then return to your Facebook status update to comment with their thoughts. Your audience will soon learn that you are providing useful, fun, unique content across various platforms, allowing them to engage however works best for them.

Blogging, creating video content and cool downloadable graphics, and updating your Facebook or Twitter on a regular basis are all important! A thoughtful marketing strategy is made up of several moving parts that all help highlight each other. And since blogging is designed to be flexible, you can pivot your strategy over time as your marketing needs change. Want to target specific local SEO keywords? Build your blogging strategy around those keywords for the time being, until a new priority pops up.

3. Blogs are trustworthy & informative

Yes, your followers will click on a quick video out of boredom or curiosity. But when they want to dig deeper and learn more, they’ll turn to your latest blog posts.

Bite-sized, shorter blogs are a great way to share a unique take on a specific topic in your industry, quickly explore a new feature or product, or even talk about a book or podcast you know your readers will love.

Long-form posts, on the other hand, let you go deeper and become a trusted authority on whatever you are most passionate or knowledgeable about. A well-researched, thoughtful blog post can help you become the thought leader in a given area of your niche in a way that social media and other forms of digital marketing are unlikely to accomplish.

4. Blog posts are the ideal home for internal links

Internal links encourage your customers and readers to spend more time on your site. A blog is the most intuitive and logical place to work in those links, whether they lead to related blog posts, services, or products.

As long as you are linking to relevant pages using anchor text that makes sense to your readers, blogging is the most effective way to get readers to spend more and more time exploring your site.

Here is an example: Let’s say you are a fashion startup, blogging about the importance of trade shows as a way to expand your brand reach and get your product in front of more customers. You can use something like “reach more customers” as the anchor text for a complementary post on the importance of social media engagement for fashion businesses. Your readers get to learn multiple useful lessons that they can apply to their own marketing strategy, all because they followed a link to your blog post.

Blogging Consistently is Important

As you can see, blogging is as important as ever in 2018. But it’s important to keep in mind that while just having a blog at all is a great start, it also needs to be updated consistently.

It’s tempting to craft each post with the precision of a literary masterpiece. After all, you want your blog to be a reflection of your company’s values. If you have time to do that—great! But beware: are you spending so much time perfecting your posts that you don’t publish as frequently and as consistently as you should?

The bottom line is that while the quality of your content matters, how frequently you post and update that content is vitally important, too. Balancing the relationship between quality and frequency is so, so critical.

Here’s why you should be making a concerted effort to keep up with a consistent publishing schedule to maintain fresh content:

1. Rack up SEO & page rankings

The more frequently you update your site with fresh content, the more opportunities you have to strengthen your SEO and be indexed higher by search engines.

Here’s how it works: search engines like Google use algorithm-based web crawlers to index the one-billion websites that exist online today. These crawlers rank the sites based on a variety of factors like inbound links, user time on site, mobile friendliness, and much more.

Search engines regularly crawl your site looking for new content. Even if you don’t post new content, search engines will still crawl that page. But if you are posting new, quality information frequently, you increase your chances to rank even better the next time your site is crawled.

Other factors influencing your SEO & page ranks include building a network of inbound links from outside sources. Getting other reputable sites to link to your site is a very powerful signal to search engines that the information on your site or page is a credible source. The best way to do this is to publish the kind of content other sites want to link to, and to do so often!

Never underestimate the power of new, updated, and regular blogging as a factor in search engine optimization and page rank.

2. Curate your keyword profile

The SEO benefits of regular blogging for business go beyond the results from indexing and crawling. The importance of blog writing consistently also comes from increased opportunities to increase the amount and range of keywords for which you rank.

For example: If you are a veterinarian looking to help and attract local pet owners to your website, chances are that potential clients will search for keywords ranging wildly, from “dog dental care” to “bird feather diseases”.

If you update your blog frequently, you can devote individual posts to a wide range of keywords related to your business and increase the chances that potential customers using very specific keywords will find you using Google, Bing, or Yahoo.

Frequent updates also allow you to home in on specific audiences with specialized keywords—like a local audience—while still maintaining a breadth of keywords for which you’d like to rank.

3. Beef up social media content

Unless you’re in the minority among small- and medium-sized businesses, your website is likely not the only avenue that you use to promote your services in the digital realm. You hopefully also have a social media account or two, on which frequent content is just as important as it is on your blog.

Why are frequent social updates important? In an article for Moz, Larry Kim explored what the nature of the relationship is between search rankings and social shares is. He says, “If you’ve done any SEO at all, you’ve probably noticed that the stories that rank well tend to have high social share counts”.

Kim notes that posts with high engagement rates and lots of shares come from the same content that gets higher click-through rates in search results. Ultimately, Kim posits:

Facebook Ads, Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm, Google AdWords, and increasingly Google organic search are all systems governed by machine learning systems that reward remarkable engagement with greater visibility.

What’s the takeaway? The more frequently you post stellar content on social media, the more opportunities you’ll have for engagement. Here again, we see the relationship between quality and frequency. The more engagement, the better. This is an art that content writers have learned to master through various tactics.

Of course, coming up with high-quality content is not always easy. Following Kim’s theory on social media and organic search, you should share your content that already performs well in organic searches and vice versa. Blogging and social media play well together in this way: your blog is where the high-quality, valuable content lives, and your social profiles are where you share your blog posts with the widest possible audience.

With the importance of blogging consistently and frequently established, the next question to answer is: exactly how frequently should you blog? The simple answer is: without compromising on quality. Balancing the relationship between quality and frequency is key to successfully growing your online presence and gaining customers.

Okay, but how do you accomplish this?

How To Blog Consistently

Blogging on a consistent, frequent basis may sound like an impossible task when you’re already short on time. The truth is that blogging is like any other good-for-you habit: once you make it a priority and fit it into your weekly schedule, you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

Here’s how to make that “impossible” task possible.

1. Use an editorial calendar!

The first step to blogging consistently is to create and follow an editorial calendar. This allows you to get on a regular blogging schedule in a low-stress way. Simply set aside some time to brainstorm a month or a quarter’s worth of blog topics that will be fun to write but also help you build out your marketing strategy.

Schedule a manageable number of blogs per week (start low and scale up as you can). Set calendar alerts or use workflow programs like Trello or Asana for yourself and your team to stay accountable to one another. From there, the calendar will do a lot of the logistical work for you.

At Verblio, we believe so strongly in the importance of a good editorial calendar that we created one anyone can download for free!

2. Know when to outsource blog writing

If you’re spending hours each week staring at your laptop screen and willing a blank document to magically become a compelling blog post, it’s probably time to outsource your blogging. Every business owner and startup founder knows the danger of trying to do everything yourself. You quickly become burned out, your work becomes mediocre, and you start to question why you ever became your own boss in the first place.

Luckily, blogging is up there with doing your own accounting on the list of things that simply make the most sense to outsource to the experts. Whether you’re short on time, writing isn’t your main talent in life, or you get major writer’s block every time you even think about blogging, outsourcing is the way to take this task off your plate and make sure it actually gets done and gets done well.

Blogging Isn’t Going Anywhere

We really can’t over-emphasize the importance of blogging as a key element of your marketing strategy. Blogging isn’t antiquated—in fact, it’s an agile, modern, and adaptable way to hit several marketing goals at once. Anytime you wonder why blogging is important, just take the time to look at your metrics pre- and post-blogging, including customer engagement, keyword ranking, and time spent on your website per visit.

And if all of this sounds great but you simply don’t have the time or know-how to make blogging profitable yet for your business, brand, or organization, get in touch with Verblio about our content creation services. We’re always thrilled to show off our platform and answer questions for anyone who’s curious via a guided tour or phone consultation.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2015. While blogging is just as important as ever, we saw the opportunity to include even more helpful updates on the importance of blogging, and how’s it’s critical to success in your overall marketing strategy.

The post The Importance of Blogging appeared first on Verblio.

When facing tax planning, estate management, and the possibility of IRS audits, a tax accountant becomes an essential part of your tax preparation.

Tax Professional vs. Tax Software

At face value, a tax preparation software might seem like your easiest, cheapest option. But, an impersonal software may actually lose you money in the long run. Working with an individual tax accountant will give you focused attention to make certain that your taxes are prepared correctly, and it will also ensure you have a relationship with someone who is prepared to represent you in the case of an audit or other tax issues.

This personalized attention is one reason that people choose a tax professional over DIY solutions, but there are several more, including the Ten Tips for Choosing a Tax Preparer released by the IRS in January 2018.

IRS Tips to Help You Choose a Tax Pro

The IRS puts out notices at the beginning of each tax season to help people decide who should do their taxes, and these tips are important to consider as you look at your taxes this year and plan ahead for your finances in the year to come.

1. Check Qualifications

A good tax preparer at minimum meets the standards necessary for being included in the IRS Directory of federal tax preparers. Ideally, a quality tax preparer will also carry qualifications as an accountant or bookkeeper. When you are considering building a relationship with someone who can file your taxes for your business, consider that you may also use them in bookkeeping to keep track of expenses and reduce costs throughout the year.

If you are interested in this type of financial relationship, check with your tax pro to make certain that their qualifications match your needs.

2. Check Their History

There will always be a friend of a relative’s great aunt who is starting their tax preparation service. You have spent years building your business, so you do not want to trust that to someone who is just starting out.

A good tax preparer will have years of experience, preferably with similar income levels and business types to yours.

3. Look for Transparent Pricing

Commission-based fees, no clear costs per return or hours worked…these are some of the symptoms that your tax preparer is not operating completely above board. If you are looking for an organization to build long-term relationships with, fees need to be even more clear.

4. Electronic Integration

From e-filing taxes to integrated accounting and banking services, a tax and bookkeeping professional should use electronic means to reduce filing times, reduce costs of paper preparation, and increase accuracy through automated processes.

Take time to ask your tax professional whether they are able to check accounting through electronic processes and whether they e-file with the IRS.

5. Build a Long-Term Relationship

One of the IRS’s recommendations is to ensure that your tax preparer will be around after April 17th. We work with our clients throughout the year and focus on long-term relationships. This ensures that we will be there to follow-up with you on your taxes any time throughout the year if you have questions or need consulting.

6. Ensure Accurate Record Keeping

How long do you have to keep receipts from your expenses? An experienced tax preparer will help you find, organize, and store records of your expenses and income. This will both help in the event of an audit, and provide you accurate financial tracking throughout the year. Accurate financial tracking helps you plan your spending, budget your income, and plan for growth in the coming years.

7. Just Sign the Return?

Never, ever, use an accountant, tax preparer, or other help who tells you to just sign the paperwork. The IRS says this and common sense says this.

The IRS thought it was important to tell you, but any good tax accountant will never ask you to sign blank paperwork.

8. Review With the Heart of a Teacher

The IRS just recommends that you make certain your tax preparer reviews the return with you. We recommend that you make certain that your tax accountant reviews it with the heart of a teacher. A teacher wants you to understand the best decisions to make, both towards your tax balance and your long-term financial health.

9. Get Our PTIN

The IRS reminds people that a legitimate tax preparer has a Preparer Tax Identification Number; this is the law. Ask for the number, as it is a way to weed out potential fraudsters.

10. Let The IRS Know 

Finally, the IRS reminds people that they have a system for reporting abusive or fraudulent tax preparers.

Tax Accountant vs. Tax Preparer

A good tax accountant will not only meet all of these tips the IRS recommends, but they will also be able to work with you as a consultant on your finances as well. While there are many tax preparation services, an accountant can work with you to recommend financial planning for large tax questions (estate planning, sales of capital, multiple streams of income, etc).

Look for an accountant who understands tax laws, tax filing, but also has a great understanding of financial planning for businesses and for individuals.

So, in summary, as you are preparing for taxes this year, consider a tax accountant who can work with you throughout the year to provide quality tax preparation services so you don’t run shy of the IRS. Also, consider a tax preparer who understands general accounting principles to help you integrate tax planning into your financial plan. Finally, consider working with someone who has a proven track record working with people in your line of work and at your income level.

The post The Benefits Of Working With A Tax Professional appeared first on Verblio.

Nine years ago, business and commerce worldwide were quickly adapting to online bank accounts, online credit card payments, and completely online payment systems like PayPal when a mysterious programming entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the bitcoin framework. They had a clear intent to change the way modern manipulative banking practices work and introduce transparency to internal financial transactions. The framework of bitcoin is based on long-proven banking transactions and encryption designs and the blockchain element ensures that every transaction becomes a permanent part of the currency itself.

This was the birth of the first, and so far, the most successful of many cryptocurrencies, something it seems everyone is jumping on board to invest in. But what exactly does this incredibly hot topic actually mean for your business? Should you invest, and if so, how? These are the issues we’ll be covering in this article.

Cryptocurrency & the Blockchain

For most people hearing about ‘crypto’, as it’s becoming known in slang-prone business circles, the concept can seem to be made up entirely of buzzwords and dollar signs. This is unsurprising considering that a single bitcoin raised from under $1,000 to nearly $20,000 in 2017, but surprisingly few people actually understand the world of cryptocurrency. Unlike the gift cards and online bank accounts that are crypto’s predecessors, it’s more complicated to grasp how the digital currency trend can turn into solid business decisions and profits. Let’s start with blockchain and distributed processing.

The whole idea of the blockchain trend is that every transaction (but not any identifying information) is permanently recorded in a way that every crypto user has access to. Every time you trade, transfer, or buy something with digital money of any kind, a computer has to run a process in order to move the data around securely so that the money officially gets where it’s going.

Usually, these transactions are done by enormous bank-owned servers which allows them to make an infinite number of undetected minor transactions that few will notice but opens the door to intentional banker fraud. Cryptocurrency design, on the other hand, distributes the work anonymously to thousands of individual user computers capable of running these calculations. Rather than one bank server running a million small transaction processes a day, five thousand individuals can each run 200 transactions daily while their computers are otherwise idle, meaning no centralized control.

Mining the Blockchain

So where do bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies actually come from? Since there’s no minting and they’re not backed by specie (precious metals) or national wealth, how do you get more crypto-coins? The answer is in those same people doing all the transactions. The infrastructure was built so that anyone receiving and processing anonymous cryptocurrency data packets for transactions, also known as ‘mining’ for crypto, earns fractions of a crypto coin with each transaction they run and submit. However, in order to mine a cryptocurrency, you’ll need two very important things.

First, you need the right hardware to process the transaction math problems and second, you need access to the entire blockchain from the first transaction to the most recent in order to ‘hash’ and add your newly processed transactions to the chain. Miners with extremely powerful systems can download the entire blockchain and compete for whole transaction blocks for a bigger share of the fractional coin rewards.

While initially, this meant that miners had to download the entire blockchain to their local computers to mine, recent innovations in pool mining, a way to share out a single mining job, allow miners to access a shared copy of the blockchain as well.

The Introduction of Alt-Coins

There’s no denying that bitcoin was the first and meteorically successful cryptocurrency but it is by no means the last. Soon, spin-off coins and entirely new blockchain cryptocurrency systems were popping up as a result of bitcoin’s innovation and success. An ‘Altcoin’ is a new project built from the same principles and technology as bitcoin and put to many of the same purposes. This means that any of the spin-off cryptocurrencies that aren’t bitcoin are known as altcoins. Many altcoins were built by innovative new programmers who managed to solve a few problems highlighted by bitcoin use in their own coins while others are simple clones of bitcoin or a successful altcoin looking to catch some of that hot investor action.

Altcoins can be used in most of the same ways as bitcoin with slightly less adoption as a form of payment in trendy stores and businesses. With the individual value arcs of each altcoin showing clearly independent variations and general profitability, it’s no wonder that some of the most popular and well-designed altcoins are gaining a success to rival where bitcoin was at the beginning of 2017. Currently, Etherium (aka Ether) is at the top of the altcoin ladder with Dash and Zcash coming up surprisingly fast from behind.

Investing in Cryptocurrencies

So how exactly does one make money with blockchain cryptocurrencies? Like any type of currency, you’ve got more than a few options. Some companies are starting to accept bitcoin as a form of payment so you can theoretically, but not universally, use it for trade. However, this approach is irregular at best while there are three well-established ways for both businesses and individuals to start turning cryptocurrency use into a profit.

• Speculation Investment
• ICO Investment
• Mining

If you’ve heard that investing in cryptocurrency is a big risk, this used to be true but is now outdated advice. Back when bitcoin was the only major cryptocurrency, investors faced more danger with the wild rise and fall in price. However, with the addition of strong altcoins, you no longer have to put all your crypto eggs in one basket. Speculation investors can diversify their portfolios and miners can actually mine more than one coin type at once, creating more stability and easier to guarantee ROI.

Cryptocurrency Speculation

To understand cryptocurrency investment, start with the fact that it can and does translate directly into a dollar value. Right now, for example, Bitcoin is worth about $10,000 and Etherium is worth about $1,000. If you owned one coin, or even a fraction of a coin, you can ‘cash out’ using wallet programs that will send the equivalent value to your bank account in return for your cryptocurrency. This means that it is the same as any commodity investment that can be bought with cash and cashed out as it reaches a different value.

Let’s use Etherium as a great example. In 2016, the baby altcoin grew out of penny-stakes and increased its per-coin worth from below $1 to $14 at the peak. In February of 2017, it jumped up to $18 and has been rising semi-steadily ever since. Even after the recent market-wide crash, Eth has already stabilized back at about eight hundred as of February 9, 2018. If you bought $1,250 worth of ether back in early 2016, you’d be a millionaire now. Or, more conservatively, if you bought $200 in ether when it first took off and was worth $20 a coin, you’d have made $8,000 back today or even $13,000 if you wisely sold during the most recent big peak.

When it comes to cryptocurrency speculation, it’s really no different from any other kind of stock market betting. You judge the trend lines, then try to buy the dips and sell at the peaks. Not everybody wins, but not everyone is good at reading trendlines or sensing the way public sentiment is blowing.

Investing in ICOs & Crypto Tokens

The first thing you need to know about an ICO is that it is not really anything like an IPO. Where an Initial Public Offering is when a company sells stock shares, what you get when you invest in an Initial Coin Offering is essentially providing arcade tokens that might become truly valuable altcoins with time. The coins you receive in return for investing in a company through their ICO are known as tokens because there is no guarantee that the coins will become valuable outside the worth the company itself places on them and the importance of token owners. ICO tokens usually function as something conceptually in between currency trade, store credits, and stocks.

What happens when a company decides to host an ICO, essentially a fundraising campaign, is that the company itself invents a new digital currency. Some are new crypto-blockchain currencies like etherium, while others are symbolic tokens. The company asks for a fixed price of an established cryptocurrency for each of their tokens for the first two weeks that the new digital currency is released. They are betting (and asking investors to bet) that the currency will take off, the value of the coins will increase, and you’ll be able to sell the tokens at a profit later on.

The successful ICOs almost universally offer a new and better designed crypto-coin design making them altcoins or the companies go out of their way to offer some internal value for their tokens as well. It’s your job as the investor to determine which ICOs have a good design, a good value premise, and have promise to grow and become profitable over time.

Mining Cryptocurrency

The final way to invest in cryptocurrency is to build a mining server. Mining crypto, as I mentioned earlier, is actually at the heart of the distributed blockchain design. Centralized banks aren’t needed precisely because anyone with a powerful enough computer can download the blockchain and receive completely anonymous and encrypted tasks to run on a mining program. These tasks are each a fraction of a real transaction made with the currency, ensuring that all transactions are processed quickly and by someone who is incapable of tampering because of the fractional and encrypted design.

The beauty of mining is that this is also how coins are generated. Every transaction your computer handles, you get another tiny fraction of the coin you’re running transactions for. Using a wallet program, you can then cash out whole or partial coins at their dollar value or use them to trade cryptocurrencies or invest in ICOs for potentially greater returns. The key to mining is, to many people’s surprise, high-end gaming-quality graphics cards. The excessive amount of high-speed memory and processors capable of rendering complex images are particularly well-suited to quickly completing the multi-part mathematical equations required to process cryptocurrency transactions.

Building and running a mining rig costs a few thousand dollars and requires a reasonable amount of electricity but you can also mine several types of cryptocurrency, essentially investing in the rising value of the best-looking altcoins. This way, you can turn a one-time (per mining rig) investment and slightly higher power bill into tens, hundreds, and possibly even thousands of dollars ‘mined’ in a month. Just remember to sell at the peaks or re-invest in a financially promising ICO.

Should You Invest in Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology it embodies is more than just a buzzword trend, it’s a new aspect of the digital economy that can’t be ignored. If your business has taken note of the crypto activity and has been debating dipping a toe into the new markets, start slow and careful. Investing in cryptocurrency may be treated like a theme park by some recreational investors with money to lose, but your business should treat the decision with the same consideration and due diligence as it would any other type of investment. Just as you would get a full inspection on buying property or investigate a potential new business partner, don’t invest in a new altcoin, ICO, or even a relatively reliable mining rig strategy until you’ve run the numbers, assessed your chances of success, and your (probably) reward. If the research comes out positive, start slow and get a feel for the process before throwing in big investments.

Finally, don’t forget that once you get the hang of the cryptocurrency world, you can always consider building your own new token and hosting an ICO of your own. Who knows, if you can improve on the blockchain design or if your token offers a neat new transactional feature that people love, you might just become the source of the next big altcoin.

Sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bitcoin-what-is-cryptocurrency-where-use-investment-dark-web-illegal-explained-value-exchange-rate-a8082491.html

http://learningspot.altervista.org/altcoins-history-and-main-features-and-differences-from-bitcoin/

https://www.worldcoinindex.com/coin/ethereum

https://www.recode.net/2017/9/19/16243110/initial-coin-offering-ico-explained-what-is-money-bitcoin-digital-currency

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Research and development

Do you have a favorite client or type of client that you want to attract to your business? What does that client require, and can you meet those requirements? A good accounting firm can give you a snapshot of your business each month so that you know which clients are making money for you, and which clients are taking more time than they are paying you for. This type of analysis is more than numbers, it is a forecasting tool for your future. Such reviews can point you toward proper investments ranging from equipment, hiring standards, advertising strategies, and other business elements.

Training on software

Does your accounting firm offer a working understanding of your current sales software? A good accounting firm should have a firm grasp of how to manipulate the recording of your transactions so that your sales employees and technicians don’t need a degree in accounting just to close out their day.

Any good system that gives you key insights must offer detail, but software can sort that detail if the system is set up properly for your business. A firm that is serious about giving you powerful tools for guiding your business decisions will take the time necessary to set your business up properly on a system that is user-friendly while remaining detail-oriented. This requires a combination of expertise in accounting principles (an overall view) as well as bookkeeping skills (transaction-based detail).

Sharing your focus with your team

Look at the way these areas of your business are affected by expenditures.

What are the bottlenecks in your business, and how do you eliminate them? This type of expenditure often takes sweat and tears as well as money, but it is important that your chart of accounts includes coaching, not only for your employees but for yourself in order to remind everyone of what your business means to accomplish, and how to get there.

Tax strategies and how they affect the organization of your business

While taxes are of vital concern, a good accountant will not assume that you should base your business decisions on the tax consequences. A good accountant will give you the best tax advice based on your business plan, not give you business advice based on paying lower taxes.

Most small businesses are looking for an economical answer to their bookkeeping and accounting problems. Be careful not to minimize the value of a good accounting service. If you find a firm that offers senior tax advice, business accounting knowledge, and bookkeeping skills, all of which have been tried and tested through state and federal audits over the years, then understand what you will be paying for.

Essential points to ponder

1. Are you spending money that you do not have? A good accountant can spot this before it is a debilitating issue.
2. Are you currently using the correct entity? Maybe you should be a “C” corporation instead of a Sole Proprietor. If you are going to make an entity change, what is the proper timing, and what options are you giving up? What is the meaning and benefit of being an LLC?
3. Are you aware of the opportunities in the new tax code, or is the person that “does your books” too busy with inventory to go through all the options? The tax code is geared to simplify taxes for the individual, and to encourage business activity on every level, big and small, in the hope that you will hire skilled workers.

When you find a good accounting firm, be prepared for an initial setup fee and a monthly charge that justifies the standards used to maintain its personnel. There is a lot to know about business, taxes, and point-of-sale technology that can bring your company to a higher level. Big companies hire specialists in these areas. Base your fee expectations on the expertise that is available to you with a well-staffed accounting firm.

Call us for an interview regarding your business and its inherent worth. Find a package that suits your stage of growth and reach for a better understanding of your potential.

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You may know a bit about writing an accounting blog, but do you really know enough to convince a business or individual to trust you? Ever run short of ideas?

It’s understandable. Even accountants—who will happily discuss accounting topics at length with each other—often have trouble translating their ideas into blog posts or deciding which accounting topics to write about. The key is to focus on accounting blog topics that are easy for customers to understand, instead of overly dry and technical. A great accounting blog conveys expertise while also being engaging to read even for readers with very little accounting knowledge.

A great way to pull this off is to focus on the question “What do my customers want to know?”

10 Blog Topics

Here are ten accounting blog topics to get your accounting blog started, or breathe new life into it if you’ve run out of material:

1. What specific steps a business owner needs to follow in order to get tax-exempt status for a nonprofit organization.
2. What the updated revenue recognition standards are and how they affect small businesses.
3. How to pay taxes as a freelance worker or sole proprietor.
4. Basic information about tax changes or financial planning advice for people going through a major life transition, including marriage, divorce, or parenthood.
5. Tax considerations for e-commerce business owners. Explain how this an evolving area of tax law that often requires the guidance of a skilled accountant.
6. Ten red flags that may cause the Internal Revenue Service to audit any business. Some include claiming a business deduction for personal expenses, math errors, or not using fair market value for real estate rentals, especially using a very low market value.
7. End-of-the-year tax planning primer for new business owners. A new business owner has most likely been focusing on how to attract customers, how to price services or products, and even how to advertise and boost their SEO. How much have they thought about taxes?
8. Phony IRS email scams. You could explain that the IRS never initiates contact with any taxpayer using social media or email, and certainly never attempts to get a credit card or other personal information this way. Receiving an official-seeming communication from the government is scary, so your potential customers will like being reassured that these are not real messages from the IRS.
9. Tips for finding a legitimate and qualified tax preparer. For example, a legitimate accountant or tax preparer would never charge a percentage for preparing a tax return.
10. QuickBooks tricks and tips for the non-tech-savvy. In which cases might a QuickBooks alternative (like FreshBooks) be a better fit?

Learn More Tips for Running an Accounting Blog

As an accountant, you help individuals and businesses in countless ways. A small or new business owner might be looking for someone to handle their financial records or deal with government regulations so they don’t have to, and so they can avoid fines and penalties. An individual may be ready to finally hire an accountant to handle their taxes as their financial life becomes more complex.

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Your ability to move nimbly on that small but high-powered vehicle gives you an advantage on traffic-clogged freeways much as pair trading as a solo investor allows you to move nimbly through the stock market, making money ahead of the big boys. Of course, you’d love to beat the big boys on Wall Street. We can help you get there by showing you how long-short equity trading pays off in volatile markets.

Understanding Long-Short Equity Trading

First, you need to understand what we mean by long-short equity trading, also known as pair trading, pairs trading, statistical arbitrage, and relative value arbitrage. From here on out, we’ll keep it simple and refer to it as pair trading.

Pair trading has been around the markets for about 60 years and is widely used by hedge funds, institutions and other market investors. It’s only been since the outset of the 21st century that small traders have had access to the necessary tools to become successful as pair traders.

The basic concept of pair trading is that you monitor pairs of similar stocks and if their values begin to diverge, you assess whether the underlying reason is fundamental or accidental. If there is no valid reason for the stocks to diverge, you know it’s some kind of fluke and the market soon will correct itself and the stocks will reach similar values again, usually pretty quickly. If that’s going to happen, you have your chance to make money by buying long and short on the two stocks, exiting the deal when they return to their stable positions.

How Does Pair Trading Beat Volatility?

Next, we’ll look at why pair trading is especially effective in volatile markets.

Keeping your emotions out of your trading during volatile market times is the biggest challenge most traders face.

Of course, you’re excited to make those huge payoffs when you bet the right direction, but you’re also likely to get scared, run off and hide when you suffer the big losses.

Pair trading is a great strategy during volatile times as it allows you to remain in control of your investments, lower your risk, and still make money ahead of the market indexes.

Let’s look at three reasons why.

• Not riding the market wave

When you are pair trading, you have no real interest in what the rest of the market is doing. Your investment is keyed into only two similar stocks, so as they move with the market, you’re merely waiting for them to meet back at their stable place in the middle.

You’re making money whether they are going up or down, as long as they are drawing closer together.

• No emotions

When pair trading, you are working a system, so you don’t need to get emotional about your trades and panic when they’re not going your way. Because you have a short- and long-sell paired together, you can easily ride it out until the payoff comes.

• Many eggs

The best strategy for operating pair trading is to make small investments in many pairs of stocks, spread over as many sectors of the market as possible. Of course, you’re going to feel more confident in some sectors than others, so your portfolio may not span the spectrum, but still, you will feel more stability even if one pair fails to return to center.

Pair Trading Toolbox

Finally, let’s look at the tools you can use to enter the pair trading strategy.

While you’ve gained a little better understanding of pair trading, the best way to gain knowledge and confidence in your ability to beat the market indexes is to get right in there and do some trading.

Well, you may want to do some paper trading to begin with until you feel like you’ve gotten a handle on things. Once you’re ready to get serious about pair trading, here are some tools that will help you do so profitably.

Analytics Program

Many solo investors believe they can do everything on their own with free websites, spreadsheets, and other sources, but a truly successful pair trader understands spending all that extra time on research and crunching numbers is costlier than paying for analytics services.

Remember our example from the beginning of this series about the nimble motorcycle rider gliding through stalled traffic. A service that can provide you potential pairs, alert you when they are diverging, automatically give you the charts on ratio, RSI, correlation, and volatility, will give you the nimble edge to get ahead of the competition.

The most successful strategy for successful pair trading is a diversified portfolio, so the faster you can move when trade opportunities arise, the more trades you can make and the more successful you will be.

A Reliable Online Broker

The other piece of that equation is having an online broker with reasonable fees and one that makes your transactions in a timely manner.

Pair trading frequently means a quick exit from a stock holding, so you don’t want to be stuck paying high broker fees for short-held stocks.

Your profit margins also are going to be best when you time your trades, so you want to be sure your broker can make the transactions in real time.

Following the practices you learn through our website and using our reasonably priced analytics software offers you the best opportunity to succeed as a pair trader. Visit our website today to learn more.

The post Why Long-Short Equity Trading Pays Off In Volatile Markets appeared first on Verblio.

Compliance With Laws

Chances are, you’re not well-versed on every tax, employment, and withholding law on the books at the local, state, and federal levels. However, that does not excuse you from following them. Make a mistake in any of these areas, and you could end up paying a substantial amount in penalties and fines. When you hire an experienced payroll service, they take on all of the responsibilities that payroll entails. In addition, they will maintain accurate records, file the appropriate forms, and remit the taxes due in a timely manner.

Minimize Expenses

Maintaining an internal payroll department may seem like a good idea, but it could be costing you more than you think. Consider the fact that you must pay the salaries of the payroll department, maintain office spaces, and buy supplies and equipment. In addition, the average company spends about four percent more on payroll than they need to because of inaccurate record keeping of employees’ time and attendance. Finally, 40 percent of businesses pay around $850 in fines and penalties for late or incorrect tax filings each year.

Access To Technology

You may have gotten by with using off-the-shelf business accounting software when you started your business. However, as your company grows, you’ll hire more employees, which means you’ll increase the number of records that need to be maintained. Lack of technology in this vital area can hinder your company’s growth. In addition, employees expect things like direct deposit and instant access to their payroll information. If your company cannot provide these, you’ll be at a disadvantage compared to a competitor that can.

As you can see, outsourcing payroll services is beneficial to your business. If you’re still doing your own payroll, contact us for a free consultation. We will assess your situation and tailor a payroll plan that addresses your needs.

The post 3 Reasons To Outsource Your Company’s Payroll Services appeared first on Verblio.

1. Dispute old items on your credit report – The majority of negative items are only able to be reported up to seven years. Items that are older than this length of time might not immediately disappear. You are able to use a dispute to have negative old items taken from a credit report. Don’t forget that Chapter 7 will stay on the report for 10 years and tax liens, unpaid or paid, can remain on your report for as many as 10 years in California.
2. Regularly make your payments – At least pay the minimum on the accounts even if they’re not on the report. Any balances that are past due might ruin your credit if it’s been sent to one of the collection agencies. They almost always report their accounts to the bureaus. Delinquencies are going to hurt a score even more once they get older.
3. Don’t close your unused cards – Many people believe that closing an account will help their credit, but it will hurt it. The closed account will still be on your report and will likely affect your score.

Don’t forget that repairing your credit is going to take time. It’s not going to happen overnight. But when you take the three steps above, you’ll be getting yourself on the right road to credit repair. Just take the time to do it right and pay your bills. You will find that your score is going up and that things aren’t as bad as they used to be.

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