Gail Perry is Editor-in-Chief at Sift Media US, Inc., and oversees the content on the Sift sites: AccountingWEB.com and GoingConcern.com. She also speaks at many accounting events, trade shows, and webinars. Perry is the author of 30 books including Mint.com For Dummies, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Doing Your Income Taxes, and Surviving Financial Downsizing: A Practical Guide to Living Well on Less Income.
Perry teaches an online personal finance course and maintains a small tax practice. She is a graduate of Indiana University where she got a bachelors degree in journalism. She returned to school to study accounting at Illinois State University, passed the CPA exam (in one sitting!), and worked for Deloitte in the Chicago tax department. She also taught a college-level introductory accounting class and was on staff at the Indiana CPA Society as a computer applications instructor. Gail was a contributing editor for Accounting Today magazine for five years before taking over the helm at AccountingWEB.
05/16/2012 - 12:29 - 478 reads
Many states have existing reciprocity agreements with their neighboring states, allowing workers, particularly those who live close to the state borders, to work in one state but pay income taxes in their state of residence. In recent years, however, as states are looking under rocks for more revenue, some of these reciprocity rules have been rescinded. But that's a different story. The Mobile Workforce State Tax Simplification Act of 2011 (we expect the year will change to 2012 if this ever becomes law) addresses the issue of workers who do a part-time gig in a state where they don't live.
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05/15/2012 - 12:36 - 439 reads
A
fascinating survey answers some basic questions about the mindset of college students as they venture out into the job world. Some of the results are startling: fewer than 20% expect to get jobs through job fairs, recruiting agents, or employment agencies; almost 70% had at least one internship during college; more than 70% expect to make more than $30,000 at their first post-college job; 45% expect to make more than $40,000; 41% expect to stay one year at their first job, 38% expect to stay two years.
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05/14/2012 - 13:19 - 402 reads
Today we feature an article on
10 signs that your client might be planning on switching to a new accountant. Some of these signs are the regular suspects - the client focuses on how much you charge instead of what type of service you give, the client seems disinterested when you converse, appointments are rescheduled instead of anticipated. But let's talk about the flip side - best practices for
keeping your clients.
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05/10/2012 - 12:32 - 1526 reads
I hate time sheets. I did them for years and hated every bit of it. I hated having to account for every speck of my time. I hated that my bosses looked at my hours first and my work second. I hated hearing that I did a great job, but "how are we going to bill for the all the hours you put in on this project?" I hated listening to coworkers talk about double-billing their time to multiple clients, and then goofing off because they had figured out how to fudge extra hours into their time sheets.
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05/08/2012 - 12:52 - 655 reads
Results from a
recent survey tell us that nearly 75 percent of private sector employers expect their professional staff members to foot the bill for their own continuing education costs in order to maintain their licenses. Is this merely an issue of cutting costs, or do private sector employers not see the value in professional certifications? It seems to me that having that CPA after your name is often key to landing a job, but is there value in keeping the license after the paychecks start coming in?
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