Making A Second Career With Accounting Training
As long as there is business, the field of accounting will exist and thrive as an accompanying necessity. The relationship between accounting and the business is one that mirrors the relationship between a doctor and patient. Like doctors, accountants are instrumental in diagnosing and communicating the financial health of a business.
While the perception of accounting involves the meticulous crunching numbers, accounting is actually the language of business. Learning to speak the language of business requires some type of accounting training or business training, which opens the door to a nearly infinite amount of career opportunities.
Before you jump into an accounting training course head first, the best way to propel your second career is by specializing in one specific area of accounting. The following areas explain the major sectors within the accounting field.
Public accounting refers to the general type of accounting that serves public entities, such as businesses, consumers, government agencies, and nonprofit agencies. Management accounting encompasses the use of accounting information and provisions by management to make vital decisions. Commonly, this information is used to make day-to-day transactions and decisions regarding purchases and every other facet of business.
Forensic accounting involves the investigation of white collar financial crimes through the analysis of the number trail. Very often, forensic accountants are summoned to court to testify in trials and hearings. Government accounting refers to the accounting system used in governments to record and report the various transactions. While public accounting is concerned with profits, government accounting involves the recording, classifying, summarizing, and to court to testify in trials and hearings.
Internal auditing involves the analysis of internal transactions to identify processes that are wasteful, fraudulent, or those that are very efficient. This branch of accounting training generally focuses on impactful internal practices and prevention.
If none of the areas of accounting genuinely interests you, an even wider world of business awaits you. The field of business includes several areas such as marketing, management, information systems, administrative support, human resources, sales, and customer service. Business training teaches prepares you with the essential skills and hands on experiences that will propel your second career in business. A few areas that are commonly offered in business training are listed below. Customer service is a form of business training that involves learning the best practices, methods, and techniques that are used to consistently diffuse irate customers and deliver stellar service.
Human resource training covers the legal matters surrounding the profession along with best interviewing practices and other issues surrounding people management. Sales training involves the communication of the most effective sales techniques and practices. This training also includes subjects such as reading body language, the importance of building trust or rapport with the customer, and active listening.
Professional communication entails the best practices, grammar skills, and various types of communications used for both internal and external business communications. In addition, this business training also covers niche areas such as technical writing.
Visit Academy of Learning College for other career paths like IT training.
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Top Accounting Tips for Businesses This Tax Season
Tax season is here and it’s important that you and your business are prepared well before the deadlines. We wrangled the Accounting Troops and asked our small business accountants that they provide us with some useful tax filing tips to ensure you get the best return possible.
General Tips: – Always itemize your deductions if you exceed the standard deduction threshold. – Review the tax documents you gave to your tax preparer last year to ensure nothing is missing from your current year documents. – Inform your tax preparer of major changes from last year that may affect your tax return. Changes include moving, new dependent, marriage/divorce, new job etc.
Refund/Balance Due Advice: – Always remember to e-file and setup direct deposit for a quicker refund. – File early for a quicker refund. – Use Direct Withdrawal if you owe taxes. You can file your return at any time and the funds will not be withdrawn until April 15th.
Penalties: – Always file on time regardless of your ability to pay tax liabilities. This will avoid the automatic failure-to-file penalty. – Be sure to determine your estimated taxes that are due for the current year in order to avoid estimated tax penalties.
Retirement: – Contribute the maximum amount on your 401k to reduce your tax liability. – Make contributions to a regular or Roth IRA by April 15th. The upper limit to put in is $5,000 ($6,000 if you are 50 or older), and you must have earned income at least equal to the contribution. Regular IRA contributions are usually tax-deductible, but withdrawals are taxable. Roth account contributions aren’t deductible, while withdrawals are usually tax-free. Income and other limits apply for both. Taxpayers stymied by the limits can do a -backdoor- Roth IRA: put up to $5,000 ($6,000, 50 or older) in a -nondeductible- regular IRA, and then convert it to a Roth account soon after. Income taxes are due on the conversion, but they will be minimal because the account won’t have earned much. – Filing an extension also provides self-employed taxpayers an extra six-months (until October 15th) to fund a SEP-IRA or SIMPLE IRA.
Medical: – Medical deductions need to exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income to be deductible on Schedule A (if you qualify). – Contribute to health savings accounts. You may deduct up to $6,250 per family ($3,100 single) for a health savings account if you had an approved -high-deductible- health plan linked to the health-savings account. The contributions may be made until April 15th.
Real Estate: – Remember to deduct your personal real estate taxes and mortgage interest on Schedule A. – If you refinanced your mortgage, be sure to properly deduct the points paid if any. – Points paid when you refinance may be able to be amortized and deducted over the life of the loan.
Charitable Gifts: – Employees who donate to charities via payroll deduction often forget to include the donations on their personal tax returns. The number isn’t on the W-2 form, and often there is no letter from the charity. – Donors may not deduct their labor or time, but they may deduct mileage or uniforms. For 2012 the allowance is 14 cents a mile. Board members or certain others may also deduct unreimbursed expenses for attending a conference.
Important Dates: – Feb 28th: File information returns, including Forms 1098, 1099, W-2G and form W-3 with Copy A for payments made during 2012. – March 15th: S Corporation tax returns and tax payments are due. – Remember April 15th is when Individual and Partnership tax returns and tax payments are due. Only tax returns can receive a six-month extension, not tax payments.
If you have any other tax related questions, we at Presti and Naegele are at your disposal.
About the author: Here at Presti and Naegele we offer tax services for both businesses and individuals. Investing in tax preparation services and income tax services in this period of the year can become profitable for both companies and individual taxpayers. If you have any tax accounting related questions, our staff is available on phone or via email (www.prestinaegele.com/contact) and if you decide to visit us in person, you are welcomed in our offices in Manhattan, Long Island and Philadelphia.
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