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Volume 3, Issue 3, June 2005

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Although retirement is generally seen as a time to stop working and make time for more enjoyable activities, many Americans plan to continue working long after they’ve hung up their work boots for retirement. People cite as reasons to continue working during retirement: making a little extra money, having something to occupy their time, and earning enough money to get by because they cannot survive on what they have saved for retirement. Retirees also seek employment because, increasingly, many companies are offering benefits to part-time employees, including health insurance and investment opportunities. Through full- or part-time work after retirement, many people are able to take advantage of additional medical coverage or the opportunity to establish a second nest egg.

Whether you plan to work for a little extra spending money or know you’ll need to work to make ends meet, it is important to consider the implications of working during retirement and to develop a plan that harmonizes with your retirement goals. Depending on your age and income during retirement, for example, earning money after retirement could negatively impact your Social Security benefits or your pension, especially if you retire and receive Social Security prior to your full retirement age.

Good retirement planning, however, can help you prepare for retirement so that working through your retirement just to survive isn’t your only option, and working during retirement doesn’t compromise your existing retirement funds. In addition, working with a financial professional can help you minimize your tax risks. Because there are many retirement-planning options and factors to consider, it is important to discuss your plans with a financial professional, whether your retirement is 3 or 30 years away.

At Kemper CPA Group LLP, we offer a host of retirement planning services designed to help you make sensible and sound choices for your retirement. It’s never the wrong time to discuss your retirement plans with a knowledgeable financial professional – contact us today for all of your retirement planning needs!

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When to Make Estimated Tax Payments

If you make estimated tax payments, it is important to remember that the year is split into four quarters, and each quarter has an estimated tax payment due date.

Keep in mind the following dates so you can avoid a penalty that would result from a late or missing estimated tax payment:

Should one of the due dates fall on either a Saturday, Sunday, or a legal holiday, the payment will be considered on-time if you make it on the next business day.

If at least two-thirds of your income for either 2004 or 2005 is from farming, you do not have the same due dates for your estimated tax payments. For farmers, 2005 estimated taxes would have one payment due date: January 15, 2006. In addition, there are specific instructions regarding how to determine if two-thirds of your income is from farming if you have a spouse and are filing a joint return – consult with your local Kemper CPA Group LLP professional to determine what requirements apply and ensure that your estimated tax payments are made on time. We can help – contact us today!

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While salary is certainly an important factor that employees consider when applying for and retaining new jobs, equally important is the employee’s perceived attitudes about the working environment and his or her ability to see the potential for personal growth and advancement. Additionally, losing employees who have already been trained to do their jobs results in lost revenue, as managers must take the time to orient and train new hires. Small business owners and managers can boost employee morale by creating an environment that inspires employees to perform well while feeling satisfied with their jobs.

Keeping spirits high and stress levels low is key to maintaining a successful workforce. Consider the following fundamentals as you prepare your employees for long-term service:

Make sure employees know how much you appreciate their hard work. Thank them verbally, with a note, or with a small gift, and do so often. Also be certain to acknowledge and celebrate employee successes by featuring them in company newsletters and telling clients about them.

Try to foster a feeling of involvement through a company motto or mission statement. When employees feel as if they are personally responsible for upholding a certain level of quality, they are more inclined to achieve their goals. Employees want to see how their jobs affect the future of the business. Additionally, by promoting car-pooling, collaborative work, and company get-togethers, you can also help your employees to feel as if they are family, and family members stick together.

Maintaining a certain level of community service helps employees to perceive their employer’s values as an extension of their own. Because a company’s reputation depends on more than just their customer service and business philosophies, it is important for employers to show employees that they are dedicated to the communities in which they are located. Encourage employees to participate in community activities by sponsoring charitable relay teams, by matching employee contributions to non-profit organizations, or by donating obsolete equipment to organizations in need. Allow employees time off to speak to area students about career opportunities.

Although employees do not necessarily want to divulge their entire personal lives to their employers, it is important for management personnel to allow time in their schedules for employees who seek help with personal issues. People who need to seek counseling for mental health issues or for drug or alcohol treatment appreciate the aid and confidentiality provided by their supervisors, as well as the time off necessary to complete their treatment. Also, maintaining a safe working environment and taking time to ensure that employees are following safety guidelines shows employees that the management has concern for their general well-being.

Loyalty and respect are reciprocal attributes. If you want employees to be loyal and respectful, you must also be loyal to and respectful of them. If employees feel that their employer will stand up for them, they are willing to stand up for the company during their interactions with customers. Additionally, if employees see their supervisors treating customers, vendors, and other employees with respect, they are more likely to be respectful. Allow employees to have a certain level of authority to solve customer service issues, and give the needs of your staff the same level of attentiveness you reserve for customer interactions.

The consultants at Kemper CPA Group LLP can help you with human resources issues, whether you need help with boosting employee morale or just want to discuss your human resources policies. Contact us today for solutions to your human resources needs!

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Understanding Diluted Shares

Increasingly, the term “diluted shares” is coming up in discussions between financial professionals and their clients, as the term becomes more prevalent in financial reports.

When financial reports discuss share dilution, companies are disclosing important information, letting investors know that they have diluted shares of their stock by adding more shares to the pool. For example, a company who has 1 million shares trading at $20 might add 1 million more shares to the pool, making each share now worth $10. One major source of diluted shares stems from stockholders’ decision to convert their “convertible preferred shares” to common stock. When reports on a company’s profit are expressed on a “fully diluted per share basis,” the number of convertible preferred shares is taken into account.

The professionals at Kemper Capital Management LLC seek to keep clients informed with up-to-date information. Contact us today for all of your investing needs.

Investment advisory services offered by KCPAG Financial Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor. Securities offered through CapPro Brokerage Services, Inc., member NASD & SIPC. Insurance services offered through KCPAG Insurance Services LLC.

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Pharming: What You Need to Know About
Phishing's Evil Cousin

You’ve heeded all of the warnings. You don’t fall for phishing scams that ask you to divulge your personal information on a phony Web site. It doesn’t matter – you could get caught anyway.

A new, more sophisticated form of phishing is gradually spreading across the Internet – it’s called pharming. Like phishing, pharming involves stealing personal information; however, pharming scams intercept users on their way to a legitimate site, and the user has no way of knowing. The highly-skilled con artists running the ploy secretly redirect users to fake financial sites, where they can harvest the victim’s personal information, and oftentimes, the fake Web address looks the same as the legitimate address.

Pharming scams capture victims as they attempt to complete transactions with their bank and credit card accounts, and it has the potential to affect many users at a time. It’s like swimming along, being mindful of phishing hooks, and being caught in a giant net, along with thousands of others.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group fears that this new form of identity theft will become widespread in a very short amount of time, and the financial institutions being targeted won’t know that they’re affected because they experience only minimal decline in Web traffic.

The hackers behind the pharming scams have two operating methods – they can either attack users’ computers or search engine servers. For the first method to work, victims must open virus-laden e-mail messages, which install software programs on the victim’s computer. When the victim opens a financial site, the virus redirects the victim to a phony site and requests updates to the log-in, password, PINs, or driver’s license number, resulting in identity theft. In addition, corrupted e-mail messages install keyloggers, which track users’ keystrokes in order to steal passwords.

The second method involves a direct interference with legitimate Web sites’ numeric addresses. Domain Name System (DNS) servers operate by reading the name of the Web site that a user enters and then locating that site by its numeric address. DNS servers are operated mainly by Internet service providers. Pharmers change the real site’s numeric address to that of the phony site, resulting in DNS poisoning. Because pharming can essentially reroute thousands of users at a time, the potential for mass identity theft is great; pharming plants malicious code, allowing hackers to harvest identity data later.

Pharmers generally come from China, Russia, and Eastern Europe and may be tied to organized-crime rings. Businesses should keep software updated and patched, in addition to installing firewalls. Internet service providers should add an additional layer of security to their DNS servers to prevent pharming from their systems. Software companies are working on anti-pharming software, but until then, it is important to use caution. Contact your financial institutions directly if you suddenly receive requests for personal information via e-mail. In addition, users operating Windows XP or 2000 can install the free Netcraft Toolbar for Internet Explorer, which can help protect them by displaying the country of origin of the servers behind the Web sites displayed on their browsers.

If you have any questions about pharming, phishing, or Internet security contact Kemper Technology Consulting today.

Kemper Technology Consulting
Robinson, IL
618-546-5633
www.kempertc.com
Evansville, IN  •  Indianapolis, IN  •  Paducah, KY

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