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Statewide Town Hall with
Governor on Michigan's Economy Will Air Wednesday Night
Governor Jennifer Granholm will talk with Michigan citizens about the
state's economy in a
televised town hall on Wednesday, March 19 at 8 p.m. on the state's six
NBC affiliates.
The stations scheduled to broadcast the town hall are WDIV Local 4 in
Detroit, WOOD-TV8 in Grand Rapids, WEYI-TV NBC25 in Saginaw, WILX-TV10 in
Lansing, WPBN/WTOM TV 7&4 in Traverse City and WLUC-TV6 in Marquette. The
town hall will originate from WOOD-TV8 studios in Grand Rapids and will be
moderated by two veteran political reporters: Devin Scillian from WDIV and
Rick Albin from WOOD. It will include citizens from around the state who
will be selected by the television stations to be a part of the studio
audience.
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The Fed Takes Weekend
Action to Promote Economic Growth
The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday announced
two initiatives designed to bolster market liquidity and promote orderly
market functioning. Liquid, well-functioning markets are essential for the
promotion of economic growth. First, the Fed decreased the primary credit
rate from 3.5 percent to 3.25 percent, effective immediately. Second, the
Fed authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to create a lending
facility to improve the ability of primary dealers to provide financing to
participants in securitization markets. This facility will be available for
business today, Monday, March 17. It will be in place for at least six
months and may be extended as conditions warrant.
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Marketing: Lessons
to be Learned from Presidential Campaigns
The 2008 presidential campaign serves as the harbinger of change in
marketing strategies and the use of new media, as well as understanding how
social networking can be adapted for building, marketing and in some cases,
defending a brand, according to a
new paper from Deloitte Consulting LLP. While businesses may sometimes
be ahead of politicians in using new media, the velocity of the presidential
campaigns forces politicians into much more aggressive experimentation and
adoption. Download the full report
here.
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More Companies, Workers
Adopt Consumer-Directed Health Plans
The number of companies that offer a consumer-directed health plan (CDHP) is
rising, and the number of workers who enroll in the programs has nearly
doubled over the last two years. Furthermore, health cost increases for
companies with high CDHP enrollment are roughly half of those facing companies
offering only traditional health coverage, according to an
annual survey conducted by Watson Wyatt and the National Business Group
on Health.
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A New Best Seller? IRS
Releases 2007 Data Book
A new publication hit the market last week: the
2007 IRS Data Book, which is an annual snapshot of IRS activities for a
given fiscal year. The report describes activities of the IRS from Oct. 1,
2006, to Sept. 30, 2007, and includes information about returns filed, tax
collections, enforcement, taxpayer assistance, as well as the IRS budget and
workforce. For example, in fiscal year 2007, the IRS spent an average of 40
cents to collect each $100 of tax revenue, which was the lowest in seven
years and down from 42 cents per $100 in fiscal year 2006. An electronic
version of the 2007 IRS Data Book can be found on the
Tax Stats
page. Or, if you want your own personal copy for bedtime reading, printed
copies will be available by mid-April from the U.S. Government Printing
Office.
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Phishing Scams Top the
2008 “Dirty Dozen” Tax Scams
Internet phishing scams and several frivolous tax arguments top the IRS 2008
list of “Dirty Dozen” tax scams. Phishing encompasses numerous
Internet-based ploys to steal financial information from taxpayers. New to
the “Dirty Dozen” this year is a scheme, which IRS auditors discovered, that
relates to unreasonable and/or excessive fuel tax credit claims. Other scams
are related to the economic stimulus payment, frivolous arguments, hiding
income offshore, abusive retirements plans and more. For details on the
dirty dozen scams, read the
full story.
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Links for Tax
Professionals
Income Tax Preparer Penalties – Section 8246 of the Small
Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007 amends several provisions of
the Tax Code to extend the application of the income tax preparer penalties
to all tax return preparers.
Section 6694 addresses tax return preparer penalty provisions. Read
these
FAQs from the IRS.
Standards of Practice for Tax Professionals – To better serve
its customers, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has
reorganized its
web site and created a resource center for tax professionals. The site
also hosts a new
OPR At-a-Glance page for customer convenience.
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Smart Tips for New
Technologies
Acronis Software has a few suggestions to help small companies begin
thinking about the most efficient way to handle new technologies, and how to
shield their data. Some of the issues the company hears about from
small-business owners include Vista upgrades, remote applications and data
recovery. Acronis senior director of strategic marketing Stephen Lawton says
when upgrading to Vista SP1, it is important for a company to create an
image of the computers when they are functioning correctly, as this offers a
fall-back position. To read this article in its entirety and
much more about developments in technology, access
Technology and Productivity Weekly, the MACPA's electronic technology
newsletter for industry professionals, sponsored by Information, Inc.
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