Featured
Articles:
1. Starting
an IRA with Summer Job Earnings
2. Focus on
Fraud: Put Your fraud Knowledge to the Test - Part II
3. Tech Tip
Weekly: Transient Toolbars
4.
Compliance Calendar
1. Starting
an IRA with Summer Job Earnings
If your children have summer
jobs this year, you can help kick-start their lifetime
savings. How? By encouraging them to open IRAs.
Most children work summer
jobs to earn spending money or to save for something
special like a car or a vacation. Saving for retirement
is the last of their priorities. But if you’re willing
to provide the cash, they can get an early start on a
lifetime of tax-favored savings.
Anyone with earned income
can contribute to an IRA. This year, the contribution
limit is $4,000, but not more than the amount of
earnings. So if your child earns up to $4,000 this year,
he or she could put the entire amount in a Roth IRA. The
savings would then grow tax-free, and distributions at
retirement would also be tax-free. By starting at an
early age, the savings will enjoy extra years of
compounding, which can produce a huge increase in the
final balance.
This suggestion assumes
that you’re willing to provide the cash that your
children invest in the IRA. Look upon it as a chance to
plant the savings habit. If you can’t afford to
contribute as much as your children have earned, have
them make part of the contribution. But make the match
only if they agree to save it in an IRA. Later in life,
they may continue the habit by making voluntary
contributions to earn their employer match in a 401(k)
plan.
A final note. For
most children, a Roth IRA is a better choice than a
traditional IRA. That’s because they’ll likely pay
little or no tax on their summer earnings. So the
upfront deduction with a traditional IRA is not worth
much compared to eventual tax-free distributions from a
Roth IRA.
2. Focus on
Fraud: Put Your Fraud Knowledge to the Test - Part II
Here are the answers to last
week's two sample questions (repeated here) typical to
the CFE Exam in the Criminology and Ethics
section.
1. Given all of the
following fraud prevention methods within organizations,
which one is probably the most effective?
a. reducing rationalization
b. having an open-door
policy
c. increasing the
perception of detection
d. screening employees
c. is correct.
Increasing the perception of detection may well be the
most effective fraud prevention method. Controls, for
example, do little good in forestalling internal theft
and fraud if their presence is not known by those at
risk. In the audit profession, this means letting
employees, managers, and executives know that auditors
are actively seeking out information concerning internal
theft.
2. Beta, a fraud suspect,
said he stole money from the ABC Company because the
company didn't pay its entry-level workers a living
wage. The view that crime is primarily caused by a
disadvantaged economic class position is called:
a. economic theory
b. social process theory
c. social structure theory
d. none of the above
c. is correct.
Social structure theories suggest that forces operating
in lower-class areas of the environment push many
residents into criminal behavior patterns. They hold
that a disadvantaged economic class position is a major
cause of criminality.
This week's new questions
also are in the Criminology and Ethics:
3. Blue, a fraud offender,
had no known history of criminality. One theory of
crime causation suggests that people are not inherently
bad, but rather are taught to commit crime through
life's experiences. This is called the:
a. social causation theory
b. trait theory
c. social learning theory
d. none of the above
4. According to research,
most embezzlers decide to commit their crimes because:
a. they are essentially
dishonest
b. they are living beyond
their means
c. they have drug problems
d. none of the above
3. Tech tip
Weekly: Transient Toolbars
Normally, the standard and
Formatting toolbars appear side by side on the second
bar at the top of the MS Excel program in a stationary
position politely referred to as being in a docked
position. Although, MS Excel automatically docks these
toolbars together at the top of the screen, you are free
to move them (as well as other toolbars that you open)
around by dragging them into new positions.
When you drag the Standard
or Formatting toolbar down from its perch and into the
work area containing the open workbook, the toolbar then
appears in a separate little window. Such
toolbars-in-a-window are referred to as floating
toolbars because they float like clouds above the open
workbook below (how poetic!). And not only can you move
these little dears, but you can resize them as well:
-You can move a floating
toolbar into new positions over the worksheet document
by dragging it by its tiny title bar.
-You can resize a floating
toolbar by dragging any one of its sides. Wait until
the mouse pointer changes to a double-headed arrow
before you start dragging.
-To close a floating toolbar
when you no longer want it in the document window, click
the Close box (the small box in the upper-right corner
of the toolbar window).
4.
Compliance Calendar
August 10
-Employers deposit Social
Security, Medicare and withheld income tax for payments
July 30, 31 and August 3, 4, and 5.
August 12
-Employers deposit Social
Security, Medicare and withheld income tax for payments
July 30, 31 and August 6, 7, 8, and 9.
August 15
-Monthly depositors deposit
Social Security, Medicare and withheld income tax for
July.
-Individuals who had an
automatic four-month extension to file their income tax
returns for 2004 should file Form 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ
and pay any tax, interest and penalties. Individuals
needing an additional two-month extension should file
Form 2688.
Thank you for
subscribing to the weekly edition of Strategic
Issues...Online. If you wish to unsubscribe to
this newsletter, please Reply to this e-mail and
type "unsubscribe" in the subject line and your
name will be removed. If you know of someone else
who would benefit from this newsletter, please
feel free to forward this on to them or send us
their e-mail address and we will be happy to add
them to our mailing list. This newsletter has been
compiled by Prangley Marks, LLP for our clients
and other interested persons. The information
presented may or may not apply to your facts and
circumstances and should not be acted upon without
professional advice.
***Privacy
Policy***
Prangley
Marks, LLP will
not sell,
distribute, or
otherwise misuse
any email
addresses received
or collected for
the purpose of
this newsletter.
Prangley Marks, LLP
Accountants and Consultants
"The Way We Figure, We Are The Only CPA Firm You Will Ever Need"
333 Bridge Street, NW, 11th Floor Bridgewater Place, Grand Rapids, MI 49504-5356
Phone#: 616-774-9004, Fax#: 616-774-9081
