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This Week in the iNews:

▲ CONGRESS’ TAX AGENDA

▲ HEALTH CARE REFORM

▲ TECH TIP WEEKLY – THE FUTURE OF MESSAGING AND WEB THREATS

▲ LUNCH & LEARN ON BUSINESS VALUATIONS

                         Please visit our website at www.pmcpa.com for all prior issues of iNews.

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▲ Congress’ Tax Agenda

            From the Desk of John Mack, CPA, MBA

1.         Tax increases to pay for health care reform.

2.         Extend special five-year net operating loss carry back. The five-year carry back is limited to small business with gross receipts of $15 million or less.

3.         More controversial are the Obama administrations proposals for international reform. The President has proposed limits on the tax deferral rules, use of foreign tax credits, and the check-the-box rules.

4.         The federal estate tax is scheduled to be eliminated in 2010 and then revived in 2011. Legislation has been introduced to make the top rate and exemption amount for 2009 permanent.

5.         Small Business Tax Relief Act introduced:

-           Expensing election increased to $500,000 from $250,000.

-           Extend the one-year carry back for general business credits to a five-year carry back for some small businesses.

-           Allow small businesses with $50 million or less in gross receipts to take advantage of the extended net operating loss (NOL) carry back.

6.         Boost home-buyer credit up to a maximum of $15,000, allow all buyers, not just first time buyers, and eliminate the current income caps.

▲Health Care Reform

            From the Desk of John Mack, CPA, MBA

So-called Blue Dog Democrats continue to resist key aspects of their party’s health-care overhaul, despite pressure from party leaders who fear they will endanger President Barack Obama’s most ambitious legislative efforts.

A leader of the fiscally conservative group of Representatives said he expects any vote on House’s health proposal would have to wait, likely until after Labor Day. “I think the American people want to take a closer look at this legislation. They want to feel more comfortable with it”, Rep. Jim Cooper, a Blue Dog from Tennessee, said recently on CBS’s “Face the Nation”.

The White House misread the national mood. The problem isn’t that they didn’t “bend the curve”, or “didn’t sell it right”. The problem is that the national mood has changed since the president was elected. Back then the mood was “change is for the good”. But that altered as the full implications of the financial crash seeped in. The crash gave everyone a diminished sense of their own margin for error. It gave them a diminished sense of their country’s margin for error. Americans are not in a chance taking or spending mood.

▲Tech Tip Weekly – The Future of Messaging and Web Threats

Several recent issues of iNEWS have included articles on email safety tips and problems with internet brand-name abuse.  It is time now to summarize and take a quick look ahead at the messaging threat horizons.

• Continued growth of spam, sent primarily from a growing number of zombie computers in botnets. User behavior and lax security procedures (especially by home computer users) will ensure this.

• Increasing attacks on mobile devices will also be a key threat as the number of mobile devices grows and the mobile-specific applications become more useful in a business context.

• Increasing attacks on social networking sites in which users’ pages on these sites will have Malware installed so to be able to infect visitors to these pages.  This threat is particularly problematic as the popularity of social networking sites continues to grow and grow.

• Instant messaging and other real-time threats will continue to rise as the use of these for communication continues to rise.

Because email is so critical, and because other communication tools – instant messaging, blogs, VoIP, and others – are becoming so much more widely used and accepted, attacks directed against these channels threaten the very ability of individuals and companies to communicate or protect their sensitive data.

▲ Lunch & Learn Series Program – Business Valuations

Please join us for our upcoming Lunch & Learn Series Program on Business Valuations at noon on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 in the Prangley Marks, LLP lunch/conference room, presented by Leslie N. Prangley, III, CPA, CVA, and Harold A. Marks, CPA, CVA.

Please contact mripley@pmcpa.com or call (616) 774-9004 to reserve your spot.

Complimentary lunch, program and parking provided.

Seating is limited.