Category Archives: Tax issues

Tools to Check Your Tax Refund Status

The IRS and Alabama Department of Revenue have some great new tools to check the status of your refund and tax account.  You will need to make sure you have the refund amount and taxpayer’s social security number (first SSN … Continue reading

Posted in Barfield Murphy Shank & Smith, Tax issues | Leave a comment

Identity Theft Protection & Phishing Reporting from IRS

The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through email. Unsolicited email claiming to be from the IRS should be reported to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. If you receive a phone call or paper letter via mail from an individual claiming … Continue reading

Posted in Security, Tax issues | Leave a comment

Using the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service

Are you aware of the Taxpayer Advocate Service at the IRS?  This is the promise from the Advocate web site: “The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is Your Voice at the IRS. Our job is to ensure that every taxpayer is … Continue reading

Posted in Barfield Murphy Shank & Smith, Birmingham, Keith Barfield, Tax issues | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Should you expense or capitalize mask set costs?

By Milton Tse, Senior Manager in the BDO Technology and Life Sciences practice State-of-the-art fabrication costs have reached highs of nearly $5 billion, according to market research group, In-stat, and the cost of mask sets—collections of the unique glass stencils … Continue reading

Posted in BDO, Tax issues | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Make Year-End Easier by Working with an Accountant at BMSS

By Keith Barfield, CPA, CITP, BMSS Founding Shareholder The end of 2012 will be here before we know it. To avoid surprises at tax time, now is the time to work with an accountant to find out where your company … Continue reading

Posted in Barfield Murphy Shank & Smith, Keith Barfield, Tax issues | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Taxes don’t have to be the death of your technology business

By Karen Poist, BMSS CPA Let’s say you’re a start-up technology company that sells, installs and monitors security systems. Does this mean you offer a tangible product or a service? Can it be both? Do you sell in other states? … Continue reading

Posted in Cloud technology, Start-ups, Tax issues | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Do you research & develop?

Did you realize that the IRS allows a tax credit for qualifying research expenditures? A credit directly offsets your tax liability, dollar for dollar. You may not think your company has research and development activities and that the credit is … Continue reading

Posted in Research & Development, Tax issues | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment