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Volume 4, Issue 12, December 2006

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2006 Federal Tax Rate Tables

The year is quickly coming to an end, and it is time to begin thinking about your 2006 income tax return. To help you get started, the federal tax rate schedules provided by the IRS, which are used to compute your 2006 income tax, are provided below:

The certified public accountants and consultants at Kemper CPA Group LLP are available to meet with you to begin discussing your 2006 income tax return. Contact an office near you to set up an appointment today!

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Are You Concerned About Your Employees' Health in the Workplace?

As an employer, you want to provide a safe and healthy workplace for your employees. But what do you do about employees who come to work ill? The chance of an illness spreading from one employee to others is considerable, and for employers, a growing workplace concern. CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, conducted an unscheduled absence survey of 326 human resource executives in U.S. organizations in 2006, and found that 56% of employers now report that sick employees who show up for work, or “presenteeism,” is a problem in their organization. Just two years ago, that number was 39%. The CCH survey results are illustrated in the chart below:

Employees who are ill but on the job will likely have lower productivity as well. You do not want to punish those employees for being dedicated, and yet, the company stands to suffer if other employees become ill and productivity is affected. What to do?

CCH offers some tips for employers who wish to keep their workplace, and employees, as healthy as possible in their article entitled “Sick Workers on the Job Pose Problems for U.S. Companies”; suggestions include offering a workplace flu-vaccination program, review of your company’s absence-control policy, and tips on how to prevent the spread of germs in the workplace.

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Long-Distance Telephone Excise Tax Refund Formula for Businesses

After meeting with a variety of businesses, the IRS has come up with a formula which will enable businesses and tax-exempt organizations to estimate their long-distance telephone excise tax refunds. The IRS had previously announced that individual taxpayers could either request a standard refund amount based upon the number of exemptions claimed ($30 for one exemption, $40 for two, $50 for three, or $60 for four or more exemptions) or determine the amount of tax actually paid based upon the 41 months from March 2003 until July 2006, but the latter was the only option for businesses and tax-exempt organizations until this announcement was made.

Businesses must complete IRS Form 8913, Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid, and submit it with their 2006 income tax return if they wish to request a refund. Tax-exempt organizations must complete Form 8913 and submit it with their Form 990-T.

The formula for calculating the excise tax refund is as follows:

Calculate the long distance telephone excise tax as a percentage of both the April 2006 and September 2006 telephone bills.

Determine the difference between these two percentages (the April bill included the long-distance excise tax; the September bill did not), and apply it to the quarterly or annual phone expenses in order to determine the refund amount.

Additionally, consider the following:

Businesses may still choose to request a refund based upon the actual amount of the excise taxes paid if those records are available.

The refund has a cap of 2% of total phone expenses for businesses and organizations with 250 or fewer employees; for those with over 250 employees, the refund is capped at 1%.

For sole proprietors, the procedure for requesting the refund varies, depending upon the gross income reported on Schedule C. Similar rules apply for farmers and rental property owners using Schedules F and E.

Should you have any questions about the long-distance telephone excise tax as it pertains to your business, the tax professionals at Kemper CPA Group LLP can help. Contact us today for further details.

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Does the IRS Have Your Address?

If you moved and did not notify the IRS or the U.S. Postal Service, the IRS may still have your refund check. According to the IRS, an average refund of $963 is waiting for 95,746 taxpayers whose refund checks were returned as undeliverable. If you have not received your refund, you can check the status of the refund by using the “Where’s My Refund?” feature on the
IRS website.

To update your address with the IRS:

Use the “Where’s My Refund?” online mailing address update feature.

Fill out Form 8822, Change of Address.

Call the IRS toll-free assistance line at 1-800-829-1040.

The IRS recommends that taxpayers utilize the Direct Deposit option to have refunds deposited directly into their savings or checking accounts to avoid problems with delivery of refund checks.

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Loose Change

The November/December 2006 issue of the “Loose Change” Newsletter includes the following articles:

Contact Kemper Capital Management LLC for all of your investing needs.

Investment advisory services offered by KCPAG Financial Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor. Securities officered through Securities America, Inc., a registered broker/dealer. Member NASD/SIPC. Thomas A. Moore, John D. Porter, Polly Reynolds, Shawna D. Horne, Jeffery C. Holt, CA insurance Lic. #0E38034, Jessica Daugherty, Joseph M. Mendes, CA Insurance Lic. #0C62535, Regina S. Hughes, Gregory Meador, Marcia Elder, Registered Representatives. Insurance services offered through KCPAG Insurance Services LLC. Kemper Capital Management LLC and its subsidiaries are not affiliated with Securities America.

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Spam is on the Rise – Kemper Technology Consulting Can Help!

With spam now constituting as much as 90 percent of all e-mail messages sent, and with the holidays quickly approaching, Kemper Technology Consulting reminds you to be wary of suspicious e-mail messages. Increasingly, spam messages are getting through traditional filters, due, in part, to the new trend of disguising the text of a spam message inside a graphic in order to bypass spam-blocking software.

Beware of e-mail messages including any of the following:

Order confirmation numbers from online businesses from which you have not made a recent purchase.

Obscure stock tips – messages touting stocks of little known companies (Spammers buy stock, convince you to buy stock to drive up prices, and sell their shares to make a profit).

Subject lines with strange spellings, accent marks, or characters.

Offers for name-brand software (Microsoft Office, Adobe, etc.) at very low prices.

Bargain-priced drugs at “Canadian pharmacies.”

Offers to get out of debt “immediately” or “over night.”

Reports of errors in your credit report, often with your name or e-mail address in the subject line.

You can better protect yourself by:

Keeping spam and spyware filters up to date.

Regularly scanning computers and networks for viruses, and keeping Windows updates current.

Installing software and hardware firewalls.

Purchasing items directly off of a trusted vendor’s site, not by clicking through an e-mail you have received.

Using common sense – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The certified information technology professionals at Kemper Technology Consulting can help you protect your networks from incoming e-mail messages by performing a review of your network to identify vulnerable areas. For more information about what Kemper Technology Consulting can do for you, contact us today.

Kemper Technology Consulting
Robinson, IL
618-546-5633
www.kempertc.com

Evansville, IN  •  Indianapolis, IN  •  Paducah, KY  •  Effingham, IL

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Please be advised that, based upon current Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules and standards, the advice herein is not intended to be used, nor can it be used, as the sole basis for decisions. Additional issues may exist that could affect the treatment of the individual transactions, and this narrative does not provide a conclusion with respect to all such issues.

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