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IRS e-file Up Sharply in
2008
The IRS’s e-file program set another
record in the just-finished 2008 filing season, while web page visits to
IRS.gov also reached new highs in part due to interest in economic stimulus
payments. More than 86 million individual tax returns were electronically
filed so far in the 2008 filing season, a 12 percent increase over last year
at this time. By comparison, for all of 2007 just under 80 million returns
were filed electronically. In all, 60 percent of all returns filed so far
this year came in through e-file. This year’s economic-stimulus payments
helped fuel a 44 percent increase in the number of visits to the agency’s
website. The nearly 206 million visits included, for example, over 8 million
to the economic stimulus calculator in April.
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Employer Use of
Financial Incentives to Reward Healthy Behavior Expected to Surge
The number of employers offering workers
financial incentives to
better manage their health is expected to jump sharply next year,
according to a survey by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a global consulting firm,
and the National Business Group on Health, a national nonprofit association
of large employers. The survey of 453 large employers found that half
currently use incentives to encourage their workers to participate in health
improvement activities, such as smoking cessation or weight management
programs. By 2009, however, that number is expected to leap to 74 percent.
View an executive summary of the 13th annual National Business Group on
Health/Watson Wyatt Report
online.
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Millennials Seek Security
in First Job
Think young adults – members of the Millennial
generation – are more willing to take risks than previous generations? Not
when it comes to their careers, according to results of
a new study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and
Employers (NACE). NACE’s 2008 Graduating Student Survey found that new
college graduates are most focused on security when it comes to a potential
job or employer. In fact, compared to those responding to a similar study
NACE conducted in 1982, current graduates are more conservative about jobs
and employers than were their Baby Boomer counterparts. Complete survey
results will be released in June. Selected results are available in “The
Oldest Young Generation: A Report From the 2008 NACE Graduating Student
Survey” on the
NACE
website.
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MACPA Adds 14 to CPA
Ambassador Roster
Fourteen MACPA members completed the AICPA’s
CPA Ambassador training last week, bringing Michigan’s total number of
Ambassadors to 81. MACPA, with the most Ambassadors of all the state
societies, has been active with the nationwide program since its inception
in 2003. CPA Ambassadors undergo a full-day of rigorous training in four
subject areas: in the public interest, financial literacy, recruitment and
small business. The Ambassadors are taught skills that will assist them as
spokespeople, as well as prepare them for media interviews. Through the
Ambassadors’ community outreach, they can promote the profession’s depth of
financial knowledge, underscore the AICPA and MACPA’s effectiveness as
advocates for the public interest, and refocus the spotlight on the
profession so that it shines on the value of the CPA.
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