Tax Identity Theft: 5 Tips to Help You Not Get Got This Year

How would you cope if the tax refund you were counting on, and were counting the days until you received, just never showed up? How freaked out would you be if you found that it was sent to another address instead? How angry would you be if you received a notice a couple weeks after filing from the IRS, that not only didn't include your refund but also demanded that you fork over additional taxes for supposedly failing to properly document income attributed to your Social Security number but from some employer you had never even heard of?

IRS Combats Identity Theft and Refund Fraud on Many Fronts

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has seen a significant increase in refund fraud that involves identity thieves who file false claims for refunds by stealing and using someone's Social Security number. The investigative work done by Criminal Investigation (CI) is a major component of the IRS’s efforts to combat tax-related identity theft.

Tax Videos from IRS Available To Help You File in 2014

The 2014 tax filing season begins on Jan. 31. To help you prepare for it, the IRS has several short and informative YouTube videos on a variety of tax topics. These videos are available in English, Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL).

7 unbeatable tax tips for year’s end

As 2013 wraps up, many of us have our minds on friends and family with the holiday season in full swing. However, a season that may deserve a little of your attention between Thanksgiving turkey and New Year's Eve champagne is tax season, which is lurking around the corner in April. It's never too early to prepare, and the year-end marker can be an important time to get your tax-related affairs in order. The blog Tax Break from TurboTax has come out with a series of posts for improving next year's April woes. Check out these seven pointers for 2013 to make next year's tax returns a little bit easier to handle.

250K business contest extends application deadline

250K business contest extends application deadline The Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge, a business pitch contest, will extend its application deadline to midnight Dec. 31. The contest pits startup firms and entrepreneurs nationwide against one another for a grand prize of $250,000, strategy and operations support, and a one-year business mentoring program. Fort Collins' Blue Ocean Enterprises and Colorado State University sponsor the event.

Why Proper Accounting Is Important

Whether for business or personal needs, proper accounting is necessary to keep finances in order. Accounting is a written record of any assets and deficits, and creating a complete record of what is going in and out of a company. Finances are necessary to keep any home or business in good, operating condition; therefore a great deal of attention should be paid to accounting. To properly perform accounting, all of the businesses records should be properly kept and filed for availability to company accountants or bookkeepers. Any outgoing or incoming financial transactions should be recorded regularly, so that accounting can be kept up to date and accurate. Depending on the size of the company, the book keeping may be done daily, weekly, or monthly. A regular, consistent bookkeeping schedule should be kept to insure that finances are in order, and that there will be no surprises when attempting to balance the books later. Monitoring assets and deficits can be simple with proper accounting and bookkeeping. For small business and personal budgets, computerized programs accounting software make it easy to keep income, purchases, and payments recorded. Accounting software can be downloaded and shared between a computer network, allowing all employees of the business to opportunity to view, correct, and publish any transactions for the business. For larger businesses, accounting is generally done by a team of accountants, who are employed by the business, or an accounting firm contracted by the company. Accounting firms concentrate on book keeping, budget analysis, and business accounting for a variety of clients. In order to keep up with the finances of a large business, each department has a budget within the overall budget of a the business, and the department heads are charged with the responsibility of keeping track of any expenses and reporting them on a regular basis. Accountants then update the businesses assets and deficits with reports from each department. Some businesses that require effective daily accounting are finance firms, such as payday loans online firms. Payday loans online offer the option for consumers to borrow money over the Internet and pay it back in accordance with the payday lenders terms. Another way you can do this is with cash loans too. Keeping a clear picture of just how much the business is bringing in, and can afford to lend out is crucial for payday loan lenders.

Colorado unemployment rate improves

Colorado's job picture continues to brighten, with numbers for October showing an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent, a rate approaching the low point in 2009, when it registered at 6.7 percent.

Expert: Interest rate hikes, tougher loan standards ahead

BOULDER - Home-loan interest rates will rise, new federal regulations will require more of mortgage lenders, and the demand for housing will increase in the coming year, according to Brad Blackwell with Wells Fargo Bank. Blackwell delivered his predictions in his keynote address, The National Picture: Residential Markets in 2014, on Thursday during the Boulder County Business Report's annual Boulder Valley Real Estate Conference & Forecast held at the Stadium Club on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus.

10 Tax Tips for 2013

Tax season brings confusion and anxiety for most taxpayers, but you can ease the stress with 10 tips. These tips also maximize your tax results and guarantee your financial readiness.

Give Tax Records a Mid-Year Tune-up this Summer

During the summer, you may not think about doing your taxes, but maybe you should. Some of the expenses you’ve paid over the past few months might qualify for money-saving tax credits or deductions come tax time. If you organize your tax records now, you’ll make tax filing easier and faster when you do them next year. It also helps reduce the chance that you’ll lose a receipt or statement that you need.