Be Careful EROs

I tell my clients this everyone year.  However I always get one that says “So and So did it last year” well here is what the IRS says about it:

Authorized IRS e-file Providers are prohibited from submitting electronic returns to the IRS prior to the receipt of all Forms W-2, W-2G, and 1099-R from the taxpayer.

If the taxpayer is unable to secure and provide a correct Form W-2, W-2G, or 1099-R, the return may be electronically filed after Form 4852 is completed in accordance with the use of that form. This is the only time information from Pay stubs or Leave and Earning Statements (LES) is allowed.

For further information see Publication 1345 Chapter3 “ Submitting the Electronic Return to the IRS” and Chapter 6 ” IRS e-file Rules and Requirements”.

Getting Your Cover Letter Noticed

If you’ve looked for a job in the past few years, you’re likely aware that employers are finding new ways to use resumes as screening tools. Web sites (TheLadders included) devote thousands of pages to discussing the best practices of resume writing. Meanwhile, a cottage industry has grown up around certified professional resume writers (CPRWs) who study the art and technique of producing a resume with the best chance of navigating the software and human readers who review and judge your document.

While experts talk less about cover letters, they must navigate the same course as your resume. If the sources are quiet on cover letters, do they matter anymore?

In this Package

• Manuscript vs. Machine
• How to Write a Great Cover Letter

Download the Package as a PDF document.

Yes, said CPRWs, ATS vendors and human-resource managers who handle the documents at both ends of the process.

Granted, your resume is center stage. Your cover letter may not be read at all, and it won’t salvage a poor resume, but it must be crafted just as carefully to satisfy software algorithms and HR screeners.

The introduction of the ATS as a first link in the chain has changed everything about the writing process, say CPRWs and HR managers. Like your resume, your cover letter has little room for error and demands exacting attention to structure and usage of keywords.

To determine the best rules for writing a cover letter, TheLadders asked the experts how cover letters are handled throughout the process.

Do you need a cover letter?

To start with, do you even need a cover letter?

Technology-wise, some ATSes treat cover letters as searchable text, the same as your resume; many don’t. Human process-wise, however, it’s the rare recruiter who even bothers to pass cover letters on to hiring managers.

But that doesn’t mean that you should stop writing them. Cover letters are a concise way to communicate your value to a company, and some recruiters and hiring managers do use them to winnow candidates. They demonstrate your attention to detail and anticipation of the company’s needs. Finally, small employers don’t necessarily employ ATSes, meaning your cover letter will more likely be read by human eyes.

How an ATS handles a cover letter

Nathan Shackles is a sales manager for ApplicantStack, an ATS made by Racarie Software and one of the software programs that render cover letters as searchable text. Shackles said that, like many ATSes, the application accepts cover letters as text pasted into its online form, not as an attachment. Therefore, the application stores cover letters with the resume as searchable text.

“I’d say this is fairly common, that cover letters are searchable,” Shackles said. “Because often, people will describe technologies in their cover letters and not put them in their resumes, for whatever reason. That’s the reason we search the cover letter as well.”

From that vantage point, Shackles recommends that job seekers look at the cover letter as a way to put in additional skills and credentials to add additional searchable keywords that a company may have programmed in the ATS to identify candidates for a specific job posting.

Your e-mail is the cover letter

Many ATSes, including ApplicantStack, also process resumes received via e-mail. In those cases, the ATS renders the content of your e-mail as the cover letter and assumes any attachment is your resume. Thus, when asked to e-mail a resume as an attachment, assume your e-mail content will be saved as a cover letter and write it accordingly.

On the flip side are ATSes that only process resumes, not cover letters. Tom Boyle is director of product strategy at one such ATS vendor, SilkRoad Technology.

Most ATS programs update or create a job seeker’s profile by uploading a resume; next, they cherry-pick information to parse and fill in the fields to create a profile within the ATS. While Boyle has seen ATS software parse “all sorts of resumes and formats,” he noted that SilkRoad only renders cover letters as attachments and doesn’t divide it up into fields.

That means the ATS doesn’t render your cover letter as searchable text. Thus, finessing the cover to make it machine-friendly by seeding it with keywords won’t influence your application’s ranking with this type of ATS.

Once a cover letter has become an attachment, it’s unlikely that it will be searched and processed like a resume, Boyle said, given that the number of ATS programs that have the ability to search an attachment on a candidate’s profile is “very small.”

How do humans process your cover letter?

What happens to your cover letter once it reaches human hands?

David Couper, a career coach, said that the recruiters at most Fortune 500 companies don’t even send him the cover letter, let alone scan it into an ATS.

His experience is backed up by research conducted by Phil Rosenberg, president of reCareered, an executive career-coaching service. Over the past two years, Rosenberg has surveyed hundreds of HR managers and recruiters and interviewed management at the Top 10 job boards. He found that:

• Less than 10 percent of HR departments scan cover letters.
• Eighty percent of HR staff, hiring managers and recruiters read the resume first.
• Job boards don’t keyword-search cover letters, only resumes.

However, don’t count those cover letters out. According to the survey:

• Most hiring managers have denied interviews to candidates qualified by their resumes, but disqualified by additional information in their cover letters.
• Tailor the resume as well as the cover letter

Couper advises his clients that you just never know whether someone is going to read the cover letter and whether it will make or break your application. “I recommend that the job hunter matches the job posting and includes keywords,” he said. “I also suggest that you lead in with a hook, preferably a personal contact, to someone the recruiting manager knows or some specific information that relates to the company or industry. … The cover (letter) is one of those items that you never know about but in the end you hope that it gets to someone — not a machine — and they read it.”

But this attention to customized cover letters may be missing the mark as far as achieving a high ATS ranking. Rosenberg noted that most candidates “put the majority of their customization (if any) in their application in a cover letter, using a largely static resume.”

Career Advice from TheLadders

• Writing Cover Letters That Sizzle
• Cover Letters that Command Attention
• Composing a Persuasive Cover Letter
• Help, The Internet Ate My Resume!

Job seekers do that in the hope that the words on their resume “magically match the keywords a company’s HR department or recruiters are searching for in their prescreening process,” he said. But the odds of matching keywords between a job listing and an uncustomized resume “stink,” Rosenberg said, generating response rates that range between 0 percent and 5 percent in healthy hiring years and sank to less than 2 percent in the current job market. Hence, he advises clients to spend more time customizing their resumes than tinkering with their cover letters.

What’s the safest thing to do? Tailor both your resume and your cover letter to match specific job listings. Mandy Minor, a resume writer with J Allan Studios, handles the possibility of ATS scanning by giving her clients several choices of what to use in a cover letter:

“I build a template with phrases such as, ‘I am an accomplished [CHOOSE ONE: marketing manager or marketing director or project manager]’ so that they can pick the title that will line up best for each job opening,” she said. “I also use industry keywords in a brief, bulleted list of accomplishments in the cover letter, which gets the attention of not just the ATS but also the human reader.”

–

Resumes!

A job title can make or break a good first impression. You certainly don’t want to lie about your job history, but you do want to be descriptive. For example, “Accounting” is too vague, while “Management of A/R and A/P and Recordkeeping” carries both far more information and way more impact. How do you make sure the job title you use on your resume will be accurate and impactful?

We’re not talking about changing the title or position you held in a previous job, said Marsh Sutherland, president of Walden Recruiting. There’s no way he’d tinker with a client’s actual title, he said. Doing so “could be considered misrepresentation” on both his part and that of his client — far too steep a price to pay in return for more impressive-sounding titles. We’re talking about the title of your resume, what you call yourself and how you define what you do.

Top of the resume

The job seeker’s title sits at the top of the resume above her Summary section, right below her name and contact information. Sutherland said he usually advises his clients to take cues from the job they’ve applied for. “I will often put the title of the job (on the top) so at first glance it appears the candidate is a perfect fit,” Sutherland says. “For instance, I am currently sourcing candidates for a Search Engine Optimization Analyst position. Guess what? I put ‛SEO Analyst Professional’ at the top of my resume submissions.”

Typical title mistakes

One common mistake seen by Beth Colley, principal of Chesapeake Resume Writing, is not including a title anywhere on the resume.

Another mistake she often sees is when job seekers include the old-fashioned “Objective” section, a section that nowadays is considered irrelevant and whose inclusion marks the resume subject as being out of touch with the current professional resume format. It might have been acceptable in years past to start a resume with an objective about how a job seeker is “seeking a position where I can utilize my gifts and talents in marketing and advance to a level of increasing responsibility,” but nowadays an objective at the top of the page simply means a job seeker is thinking of himself, not how he can help his potential employer.

Colley also sees unacceptably vague titles such as one resume that said “Public Advocate.” That job seeker’s profile included her “ability to direct complex projects from concept to fully operational status,” and it mentioned personality details such as being “highly organized” and a “detailed problem solver” who was “self-directed” and “creative.”

Just what type of public advocate, for what industry, was “not clear,” Colley says, “I totally didn’t understand what she was looking for.”

How to craft a title that’s broad, specific and narrowly targeted

Colley advises job seekers to use a “fairly broad title” that still targets the right industry but to then pair it with something they possess that’s in high demand in their industry.

Colley sets this type of title up in the format of “Broad title”—“Specific industry,” “Specialized skills or certifications.” For example, rather than using a broad title such as Project Manager, which could “literally be anything from construction to IT,” she advises her clients to use a slightly more targeted title heading. Some examples:

• Project Manager – IT Industry, DOD contractor with active Top Secret Clearance
• Project Manager – Civil Engineering, LEED & GBE Certified

Here are some other examples Colley cited that expand on less-informative titles such as CFO or Customer Service Representative:

• Chief Financial Officer – CPA, MBA with Controller and Financial Analyst Expertise
• Customer Service Representative – Inbound Call Center, 8 years of experience

“The whole point of resume development is to target the resume to a particular field or industry,” Colley said. “Job titles vary from one company to the next, so you want to pick a title that is recognizable to most employers and recruiters. By highlighting a marketable aspect about yourself or industry, the recruiter/employer will read for further information to see if you ‛fit the bill.’ Remember, if they read your resume for more than 15-20 seconds and you get a phone call, the resume has effectively done its job.”

Post-Recession Job Market

The past year has undoubtedly brought many changes and challenges to both employers and employees. Layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs have been widespread, thus contributing to a job market saturated with qualified candidates competing for fewer jobs. Despite this steep competition among candidates, employers struggle to find professionals with in-demand skill sets.

Along with these continued battles, employers face a new challenge: ensuring their companies are prepared when the economy does make an inevitable turnaround, which will give them a competitive advantage.

A new survey, the 2009 EDGE Report from Robert Half International and CareerBuilder, provides answers to many of the lingering questions surrounding today’s economy and job market: Where will jobs be added first in the recovery? What challenges will employers face in recruitment? How will compensation be impacted? And how will employers retain the talent they’ve preserved during this difficult time?

To take advantage of an improving economy, employers that cut staffing levels extensively are taking a close look at the core skills needed in new hires in order to rebuild their rosters once the economic recovery takes hold.

Fifty-three percent of employers said they plan to hire full-time employees in the next 12 months, while 39 percent will add part-time employees, according to a new survey. Forty percent will hire contract, temporary or project professionals.

Here are several key other findings from the report:

Where jobs will be added first
Hiring managers currently consider customer service as the most critical to the company’s success, followed by sales, marketing/creative and technology. Public relations/communication, business development and accounting/finance round out the list.

When the economy does start to rebound, respondents said technology, customer service and sales departments will add positions first, followed by marketing/creative, business development, human resources and accounting/finance.

In the meantime, hiring managers continue to appreciate employees who can perform multiple functions. Employers cited multitasking, initiative and creative problem-solving as the most valuable characteristics in ideal new hires.

Retaining talent
Although many business leaders have plans to add new employees to their organizations in the coming months, they also have to consider how their decisions during the financial crisis have impacted job satisfaction and loyalty of their current staff.

Fifty-five percent of workers polled have plans to change careers, find a new employer or go back to school once the economy recovers. Forty-nine percent said that the most effective way to keep them on board will be with pay increases; in fact, 28 percent plan to ask for a raise.

Employers are aware that competitive pay and benefits will play a critical role in retaining talent. Forty percent of employers said that they plan to increase pay when the economy improves and 20 percent said they hope for better benefits and perks.

Continued challenges in recruitment
Although there is a greater pool of available talent among job seekers, employers are still having trouble finding qualified professionals for open positions: 47 percent of employers cited under-qualified applicants as their most common hiring challenge. Employers said that, on average, 44 percent of the résumés they receive are from unqualified candidates.

As a result, employers are open to paying for great talent; 61 percent said their companies are willing to negotiate a higher salary for qualified candidates.

A common complaint from job seekers is the amount of time the hiring process takes; however, this is one area where employers won’t budge. The average time it takes to recruit a new full-time hire is 4.5 to 14.4 weeks. Employers say that in order to avoid costly hiring mistakes, it’s necessary to take their time reviewing and screening a high volume of résumés, and also to carefully evaluate those invited for interviews

I knew this was going to happen, SMH!!!!

Just when you thought you’d have to wait till March of 2010 for the ‘King of the South’ to make his return, think again.

T.I.’s release date from prison is March 23 but rumors were swirling Tuesday that the king was already out of the bing and had quietly retreated to his Atlanta home.

The speculation was cleared however after a prison official told The Atlanta Journal Constitution that while TIP is still locked up, he could be out very shortly.

Bureau of Prisons spokesman Edmond Ross told the AJC that it was customary for an inmate to transition from prison to freedom by spending time in a halfway house if there is no danger to the community and if there is space at a facility near where he lives.

He also told the publication,

“Usually that process begins when there are 18 months remaining on a sentence, but in this case it would have to start sooner. It’s not uncommon for inmates to be placed in community corrections for the last portion of their confinement to help with his transition.”

Ross also mentioned to the AJC that TIP could serve the final month of his sentence out of the halfway house and in his home in Atlanta.

Wow! Talk about good lawyers….or maybe it’s just good behavior…..or maybe it’s just good money.

Either way, get ready…The king’s baaack!

Princess and the Frog’ hops to No. 1 with $25M

© Walt Disney Pictures

`Princess and the Frog’ hops to No. 1 with $25M

Dec. 13, 2009, 1:01 PM EST

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Princess and the Frog” earned a big wet kiss from family audiences as the animated musical leaped to No. 1 with $25 million in its first weekend of nationwide release, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Disney musical is the studio’s first hand-drawn animated tale in five years, a contrast to the computer-animated films that now dominate the cartoon world.

“I’ve always believed that when you start with great storytelling, then the format aside doesn’t mean anything,” said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney.

The movie also is a return to Disney’s reinvention of classic fairy tales, offering a 1920s New Orleans twist on the Brothers Grimm story “The Frog Prince,” following the adventures of a young woman turned into a frog by a kiss from an amphibian.

Despite its No. 1 finish, “The Princess and the Frog” drew modest crowds compared to many big animated tales, which can open with two or three times as much business. Those films typically open during the busy summer season, though, and Disney is counting on the long shelf life that many films manage during the holidays.

“The Princess and the Frog” took over at No. 1 from the inspiring sports tale “The Blind Side,” which slipped to second-place with $15.5 million. Released by Warner Bros., “The Blind Side” raised its total to $150.2 million.

A surprise box-office sensation, “The Blind Side” is on its way to a domestic total of about $230 million, said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of distribution.

“The Blind Side” chronicles the real-life story of Baltimore Ravens rookie lineman Michael Oher, who had been a homeless teen taken in by a wealthy couple (Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw).

“It’s the heartland that’s pulling the strings of the movie,” Fellman said. “While it’s performing well everywhere, the response in smaller marketplaces and Christian communities has been outstanding.”

The film opened the same weekend as “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” but with only a fraction of that movie’s blockbuster business. Audience word-of-mouth has kept crowds coming for “The Blind Side,” while “New Moon” has waned to the No. 4 spot with an $8 million weekend, raising its domestic haul to $267.4 million.

Warner Bros. also had the No. 3 film with a $9.1 million debut for another inspirational sports drama, Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela saga “Invictus,” featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Freeman stars as the South African leader, who uses an underdog World Cup run by the country’s rugby team to help unite the racially divided nation.

Though it had a modest start, “Invictus” debuted in the range of Eastwood’s sober drama’s “Mystic River” and “Million Dollar Baby” in their first weekends of wide release. Eastwood’s films draw older audiences and tend to have a long life at the box office, Fellman said.

“The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson had a strong opening in limited release for “The Lovely Bones,” which pulled in $116,000 in three theaters.

The Paramount Pictures release features Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Stanley Tucci in an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best-seller about a murdered girl looking back on her grieving family from the afterlife.

The Weinstein Co. drama “A Single Man” also started well with $216,328 in nine theaters. The film stars Colin Firth as a gay academic in the early 1960s who’s planning to end his life amid grief over his lover’s death.

Hollywood is poised for a big finish to its record box-office year, with James Cameron’s science-fiction epic “Avatar” opening Friday, followed Christmas week by the family comedy “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” Robert Downey Jr.’s action tale “Sherlock Holmes” and the nationwide expansion of George Clooney’s comedy “Up in the Air.”

With nearly three weeks left in the year, 2009 domestic revenues already have set a new record of $9.79 billion, surpassing the previous high of $9.68 billion in 2007, according to Paul Dergarabedian, Hollywood.com box-office analyst.

Domestic grosses should top $10 billion for the first time within the next 10 days or so. Dergarabedian estimates that Hollywood will finish the year with $10.5 billion domestically.

GAY MAYOR

HOUSTON – A lesbian candidate won Houston’s mayoral election Saturday night, a vote that made the city the largest in the U.S. to ever have an openly gay mayor.

“This election has changed the world for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. Just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better, and that’s what my administration will be about,” City Controller Annise Parker told supporters after former city attorney Gene Locke conceded defeat.

Parker got 53 percent of the vote. More than 152,000 residents turned out to cast ballots in the fourth largest U.S. city.

The campaign leading up to Saturday’s balloting was marked by anti-gay rhetoric.

Locke congratulated Parker and urged the city to move on. “Here’s what our city needs now: It needs unity. It needs us to come together and heal like we’ve never healed before, and to move forward under a new administration,” he said.

Parker’s sexual orientation became the focus of the race in recent weeks after anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups endorsed the 61-year-old Locke and sent out mailers condemning Parker’s “homosexual behavior.”

Meanwhile, gay and lesbian political organizations nationwide rallied to support the 53-year-old Parker by raising money for her campaign and making calls urging people to vote.

Locke, who would have become the city’s second black mayor if elected, tried to distance himself from the anti-gay attacks while courting conservative voters who could tip the race in his favor.

Although Locke condemned the divisive rhetoric, two of his key supporters contributed money to a conservative political action committee that sent out an anti-gay mailer earlier this month, urging voters not to pick Parker because she was endorsed by the “gay and lesbian political caucus.”

Campaign finance reports show Ned Holmes, finance chairman of Locke’s campaign, and James Dannenbaum, a member of the campaign’s finance committee, each gave $20,000.

Parker and Locke, both Democrats in the nonpartisan race, made it to the runoff after garnering more votes than two other candidates on Nov. 3.

Parker replaced Bill White, who is term-limited after serving six years and is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

Several smaller U.S. cities have openly gay mayors, including Portland, Ore., Providence, R.I., and Cambridge, Mass.

Houston, the country’s fourth largest city, is predominantly Democratic and about 25 percent black and one-third Hispanic. About 60,000 of its 2.2 million residents identify as gay or lesbian.

I don’t think that Houston is the 1st, didn’t Atlanta have a gay mayor too?  Please correct me if you will.

Thanks!

QUARTERLY FILING

Generally, you will file Form 941 (PDF), Employer’s QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return, or Form 944, Employer’s ANNUAL Federal Tax Return, to report wages you have paid, tips your employees have reported to you, federal income tax withheld, social security and Medicare taxes withheld, your share of social security and Medicare taxes, and advance earned income credit payments. Form 944 may be filed only by small business employers who have been notified to file that form. To report wages and taxes for farm employees, you will file Form 943, Employer’s Annual Tax Return for Agricultural Employees.

A separate Form 941 is filed for each quarter. The first quarter is January through March. The second quarter is April through June. The third quarter is July through September. The fourth quarter is October through December. Form 941 is due by the last day of the month following the end of the quarter. For example, wages you pay during the first quarter, January through March, must generally be reported on Form 941 by April 30th.

If the due date for filing a return falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, you may file the return on the next business day.

Beginning with returns for calendar year 2006, some employers with small payrolls, including government employers, have filed an annual return Form 944, Employer’s ANNUAL Employment Tax Return, instead of Form 941 each quarter. Form 944 generally is due on January 31st of the following year (e.g., January 31, 2009 for the 2008 tax year). The purpose of Form 944 is to reduce burden on small business taxpayers by allowing certain employers to file one employment tax return per year to report social security, Medicare, and withheld federal income taxes, and in most cases pay the employment tax with the return. Form 944 is designed for employers with an annual liability of $1,000 or less for social security, Medicare, and withheld federal income taxes.

If you qualify for Form 944, you will be notified by the IRS. Employers cannot file Form 944 unless they are notified by the IRS that they qualify to file this form. Beginning in 2009, the IRS will only send eligibility to file Form 944 upon request by the qualified employer and in 2010 filing of Form 944 will be voluntary. For further information, see the Instructions for Form 944 and/or Form 941.

Employers notified to file Form 944 whose businesses grow during the year and exceed the $1,000 eligibility threshold should still file Form 944 for the year. Employers who exceed the eligibility threshold will be notified by the IRS that their filing requirement has been changed to Form 941 for a particular year.

Some employers are required to deposit their employment taxes before the Form 941 and Form 944 are filed. For the rules for making deposits, refer to Topic 757. If you have deposited all your tax on time, you have ten additional days to file.

The total social security and Medicare taxes on Form 941 and Form 944 may differ by a small amount from the total on your payroll records due to fractions of cents that you gained or lost when computing separate amounts for individual employees. You may add or subtract this difference on the line for tax adjustments. Generally, this should not be more than a few cents. You may also use this adjustment line to correct the social security and Medicare taxes you were unable to collect on employees’ tips, or for sick pay wages you report but for which social security and Medicare taxes were withheld by a third party, such as an insurance company. If you wish to correct an error on a previously filed Form 941 or Form 944, you will use Form 941X (PDF), Adjusted Employer’s QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund, or Form 944X (PDF), Adjusted Employer’s ANNUAL Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund, respectively. These forms will be used to make adjustments to previously filed Forms 941 or Forms 944 and to claim refunds of overpaid employment taxes. You will not attach Form 941X to Form 941 or attach Form 944X to Form 944. Forms 941X and 944X must be filed separately. Form 941c will no longer be used. For more information, see Publication 15, (Circular E), Employer’s Tax Guide, Section 13.

The federal income tax withheld and social security and Medicare taxes are added together on Form 941 and Form 944. If you made advance earned income credit payments to employees during the quarter, these payments are subtracted from your total taxes. Refer to Topic 754 for more information on the advance earned income credit.

The resulting net tax is the amount of employment taxes you owe for the quarter (Form 941) or the year (Form 944). If this amount is $2,500 or more, complete the Tax liability for each month in Part 2 of Form 941 and Form 944, if you are a monthly schedule depositor. If you file Form 941 and are a semiweekly depositor, then report your tax liability on Form 941, Schedule B (PDF), Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors. If you file Form 944 and are a semiweekly depositor, then report your tax liability on Form 945-A, Annual Record of Federal Tax Liability. The purpose of Part 2 of Form 941, Part 2 of Form 944, Schedule B (Form 941), and Form 945-A is to show the IRS when you paid your employees and the liability for that pay. IRS uses this information to determine if you deposited your employment taxes on time.

For monthly depositors you must show the combined amount of social security, Medicare, and withheld federal income tax owed for each month in Part 2 of Form 941 or Part 2 of Form 944. For semiweekly depositors, you must show the combined amount of social security, Medicare, and withheld federal income tax owed for each day on Schedule B (Form 941) or Form 945–A. Your liability for employment taxes occurs when you actually pay the employees their wages, not when the pay period ends. For example, if your pay period ends September 24th, but you do not pay the employees until October 1st, their wages would be reported in the fourth quarter, when you actually became liable for the tax, not the third quarter when the pay period ended.

It is very important that you complete Part 2 of Form 941 and Form 944, Schedule B of Form 941, or Form 945-A correctly, or it may appear that you did not deposit your taxes when due. There is a late deposit penalty ranging from 2% to 15%, depending on the length of time the deposit is late.

Generally, if your tax liability for the quarter is $2,500 or more and you have made the proper deposits, you should not have a balance due with Form 941 and Form 944. Generally, only taxpayers with a tax liability of less than $2,500 may pay with the tax return. If you pay taxes with your tax return that should have been deposited, you may be subject to a penalty. Be sure Form 941 and Form 944 is signed and dated before mailing it to your service center.

You may find Publication 15, (Circular E), Employer’s Tax Guide, helpful. It explains all the deposit rules and filing requirements for Form 941 and Form 944.

SAP Taxes, Sandra Parks, 972.569.7938

TYLER PERRY MOTHER DIES

ATLANTA (AP) — Movie producer Tyler Perry says his mother, Willie Maxine Perry, has died.

His mother was 64. Tyler Perry announced the news of the Tuesday death on his Web site, where he thanked fans for their prayers. He did not say where his mother died or anything about the cause.

Perry’s publicist did not immediately respond to a phone call.

Year in Review: In Memoriam 2009

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted a 2006 interview with Perry in which he said his mother was the basis for his most popular character, Madea.

The newspaper said Maxine Perry was a preschool teacher who worked at the New Orleans Jewish Community Center for most of her life.

MORE NETWORKING HELP!!

Free Marketing Strategy Part 1-How to Generate 10-30 Leads Per Day Using Facebook?

Over the past 8 or so years that I have been involved in network marketing I have seen and used different formats to generate leads for my businesses both free and paid. Most people do not have the cash to invest into their home based business especially in the beginning so the free strategy of the day is Facebook.

Facebook is the most powerful social media networking platform out there today and you can use it to generate leads for any business for free. The great thing about Facebook or social networking in general is that it does not matter if you are involved in MLM, direct marketing, affiliate marketing, online or offline business you can easily connect with like-minded individuals and the only thing it will cost you is a little bit of time and effort.

Facebook is-
-Ranked #2 globally by Alexa.com and #3 in the United States
-Gets over 600,000 new signups every single day
-Currently has over 300 million active users. The population of the world is around 6.7 billion so around 4-5% is logged onto one website which is Facebook.

Now I don’t know about you but that information itself is very powerful. Now out of 300 million active users I am sure you can find some people to connect with who are interested in whatever you are promoting. That brings me to this point what should you be promoting on social networks. It is very important that you promote yourself and the value you can bring to whatever industry you are involved in because even though you can meet business partners on Facebook it is still considered a social network so you have to be careful how you go about making connections so that you do not seem like a scammer.

You want people to ask how and what. How do I get results with my business? How do I connect with you? What do I need to do? You do not want people to ask why and who. Why are you bothering me? Who are you?

To use Facebook to your advantage do the opposite of what mostly everyone else is doing. When I look at my Facebook newsfeeds and status updates I see many people promoting the flavor of the month, jumping on one opportunity to the next, promoting 10 businesses at a time, and harassing and chasing everyone on Facebook. No one wants you slamming your network marketing company or business opportunity in their face every time you get a chance.

The most important brand you must promote is the Brand “You”. It is not your favorite home based business. Avoid the mentality I call “The Amusement Park” mentality. I see many networkers with this mentality jumping on one ride to the next and they see the MLM company or business opportunity with the most buzz (the ride with the longest line) and they feel this must be the thing to do. Remember in order to start generating daily leads to your business from Facebook you must provide value. I just wanted to set a foundation on how powerful this free strategy can be if used correctly. In Facebook Free Marketing Strategy Part 1 continued I will touch on what actions you should take and how to go about doing them to generate 10-20+ leads daily on Facebook.

Eb Udofia
Business and Life Builder
919-570-5000
ebudofia@gmail.com
http://www.fixalife.com

PS..Excited About Your Network/Direct Marketing Business But On A Tight Budget. This 76 Minute FREE Tutorial Will Show You How to Sign Up New Reps and Generate 20+ Leads a Day From 30 Mins a Day on Facebook.
=> http://www.fbresults.com