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This Week in the iNews:

▲ LUNCH & LEARN ON BUSINESS VALUATIONS

▲ INDIVIDUAL TAX PLANNING

▲TECHNOLOGY – TODAY AND FOR TOMORROW

▲ 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.

▲ Individual Tax Planning

From the Desk of John Mack, CPA, MBA

Generally, you will want to use every tax break you can to reduce the ache of tax filing time. But, in some cases, such as when you are subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT), that is not the best remedy. Not sure what to do? Accumulate your tax data and check with your Prangley Marks, LLP tax advisor to see what is the best fit for you.

Some things to be considered:

- Itemized deductions/standard deduction in alternative years

- Impact of AMT on deductions

- Timing of property tax payments

- Mortgage Interest deductions and home equity loan interest

- Home sale gain exclusion and first-time homebuyer

- Rentals of former residence

- Charitable gifts:

· Cash

· Appreciated long-term capital gain property

- Sales tax deductions

- Education deduction and credits

- Child tax credits

▲ TECHNOLOGY – TODAY AND FOR TOMORROW

From the desk of Marty Grausam, CPA, CFE, CISA

Cloud Computing – Web-based Applications Soaring

The Good-Side and The Bad-Side

For the Good-Side

There continues to be a major change in the way corporate America obtains computing services and capacity as well as software. You may have heard of “cloud computing” but what you may not know is that its rapid growth has implications for all small business owners who are looking for ways to stay responsive and competitive in a tough economic climate.

“Cloud computing” was first deployed by a web-based company, Salesforce.com in 1999 to provide software to customers via the Internet. The idea of also delivering hardware, i.e. additional server or storage capacity, in the same way became more widely-desirable especially when it was implemented for Amazon and others. Today, Google, Microsoft and IBM have joined Amazon in the big-four users of this concept of on-demand computing with software as a service (SaaS) providing customizable, with little technical support required, software applications along with server, storage, and other hardware needs much more economically being met.

While the range of web-based applications has grown, the fundamental idea remains the same. Cloud computing providers allow customers to tap into the Internet to get software platforms and applications, as well as email, documents, calendars, etc. along with varied hardware needs at significantly lower costs. Off-site services, including server capacity and storage, can be available on demand giving some relief to companies with businesses where sales volumes surge and decline without much warning. Web-based server hosting is significantly more affordable (being seen as up to 75 percent less than more conventional options) giving smaller companies the possibility of doing more on a more modest IT budget.

Cloud computing has clearly shown it is here to stay. The large computing companies e.g. HP and IBM have built huge centers for cloud-computing customers. Companies like Microsoft and Dell are developing new software and hardware products for the cloud-computing market, even though their “bread and butter” has always been in the existing technology infrastructure.

Next time:

Cloud Computing – Web-based Applications Soaring

For The Bad-Side