http://askcpasam.com/blog Making Payroll, Tax, Finance, Accounting Understandable Fri, 04 May 2012 13:21:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2010/10/08/whats-your-motive/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2010/10/08/whats-your-motive/#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2010 13:32:29 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=589 Each day, we are assaulted with news stories about the level of debt Americans hold both in government and personally.  Still others trumpet the fact that Americans are actually reducing their debt levels.  Others are more cynical stating that debt levels are declining because of higher defaults.  No one really knows of course what is [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2010/10/08/whats-your-motive/feed/ 0 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2010/02/26/new-credit-card-rules/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2010/02/26/new-credit-card-rules/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:14:03 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=474 After watching the stories about the new credit card rules this week, I decided to do some digging and see exactly what options are available for those wanting to open new credit accounts.  One story I heard was from a man with a long-time Macy’s credit account.  He said his account is now charged interest [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2010/02/26/new-credit-card-rules/feed/ 1 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/10/21/a-government-minimum-wage/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/10/21/a-government-minimum-wage/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:48:16 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=419 When an employee is hired in the United States, in most cases, the employer is required to pay a minimum amount per hour for the services of that employee.  As of 7/24/09, that amount is $7.25 per hour.  If that employee works 40 hours per week and 52 weeks per year, the total gross wages [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/10/21/a-government-minimum-wage/feed/ 0 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/10/14/keeping-up-with-celebrities/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/10/14/keeping-up-with-celebrities/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:59:09 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=413 During my lunch break, I usually read news articles and opinions from various news sites.  One thing that is always fascinating is the paradox of how many people want to be like the various celebrities in the news, yet how out of touch those same celebrities are with real people’s lives.  So many magazines at [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/10/14/keeping-up-with-celebrities/feed/ 0 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/03/04/taxes_and_taxpayers/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/03/04/taxes_and_taxpayers/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:35:59 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=286 The IRS just released it’s taxpayer statistics for the 2006 tax year.  With all the press dedicated to analyzing the new administration’s tax proposals, I thought it would be good to look at just who is paying taxes these days. First, the average tax rate paid on all returns was 13.8%, which is slightly higher [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2009/03/04/taxes_and_taxpayers/feed/ 0 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/12/31/final-thoughts-on-2008/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/12/31/final-thoughts-on-2008/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:00:08 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=229 Don’t you just enjoy the passing of an old year?  2008 brought many challenges from a financial perspective.  Large and small corporations, retailers, stockholders, investors and regular employees all felt some pain.  This post will have two major points.  First, the biggest question everyone has is why did this happen.  Last year, I was reading [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/12/31/final-thoughts-on-2008/feed/ 0 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/12/04/the-sky-is-fallingor-is-it/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/12/04/the-sky-is-fallingor-is-it/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:03:27 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=208 Q. I have taken a 50% hit on my 401(k) account this year because of the market contraction.  I’m thinking of just pulling all the money out and investing in a rental property instead.  Is this a good idea? I live in the southwest where real estate has really dropped anyway. I’m not 59.5 yet [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/12/04/the-sky-is-fallingor-is-it/feed/ 0 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/10/10/debt-and-taxes-2/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/10/10/debt-and-taxes-2/#comments Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:36:44 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=83 Continuing on from where I left off yesterday, how do we become more financially free?  Debt is not the new inevitable item adding to the death and taxes list. After changing the way you think about debt (part 1) and developing a budget (part 2), you need to develop a plan.  First look at the [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/10/10/debt-and-taxes-2/feed/ 0 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/10/09/debt-and-taxes-part-2/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/10/09/debt-and-taxes-part-2/#comments Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:13:29 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=86 In this second installment of the personal financial freedom series, I will discuss budgeting.  To most people, a budget is how much money they have left to spend until the next check.  This is dangerous and keeps families and individuals from finding areas where they may be wasting their hard-earned cash. Why budget?  If you [...]

]]> http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/10/09/debt-and-taxes-part-2/feed/ 0 http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/10/08/debt-and-taxes/ http://askcpasam.com/blog/2008/10/08/debt-and-taxes/#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:32:02 +0000 CPA Sam http://askcpasam.com/blog/?p=80 I did not get a question on this one, however, the subject seems to be appropriate given the falling sky scenario presented by the media these days.  What is a person supposed to do to be financially prepared for unknown future events?  In my opinion, a lot of the pain being experienced today is the [...]

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