Bid-Rigging Schemes Can Be Difficult to Detect
A competitive bidding process is meant to ensure that contracts are awarded to the most qualified vendor at a fair price. A well-designed and suitably controlled process can level the “playing field” with all bids being judged solely on their merits. False Bids Made One Company Appear the Best Choice Two men entered guilty pleas in…
How College Financial Aid Benefits Are Taxed
here’s no doubt about it … college is expensive. At top-rated private universities, the annual cost can be $55,000 and up. Some public schools charge out-of-state students $40,000 and up. With any luck, however, your child or grandchild will qualify for financial aid. These days, a surprisingly high percentage of students do. If your student does score some…
Do You Need Long-Term Care Insurance?
Some people are worried that they will wind up in a nursing home with their life savings wiped out. But that doesn’t have to be the case. You can buy some peace of mind with long-term care insurance. What’s Covered? Life expectancies have increased significantly and are expected to continue to increase in the future. As…
Dividing Assets, and Tax Bills, in Divorce
When a divorce happens, there are often major financial consequences and some important tax issues too. Here are the tax rules that generally apply when a couple’s assets are split up in a divorce property settlement. State Law Is Important How assets are split up in a divorce depends largely on where the divorcing couple lives….
Give Back and Save Taxes with Charitable Contributions
As year end approaches, you may be thinking about making some charitable donations. Here’s a rundown of the potential tax breaks for your generosity. Donating Clothing and Household Items When it comes to your old clothes, furniture, linens, electronics, appliances, and the like, the general rule is that you can claim deductions only for items in…
Five Tips for Dynamic Strategic Planning
Is your not-for-profit the same organization it was three years ago? Are your stakeholders the same now as then? Is your community and its support of your not-for-profit the same? It’s been said that the only thing certain in life is change, so you likely answered “no” to each of these questions. Change is a key…
Planned Gifts Hold Tremendous Promise
Is your organization pursuing planned gifts? It should be. Research suggests that the average planned gift in the United States falls between $35,000 and $70,000 — and the amount may increase with more Baby Boomers moving into retirement. Yet many not-for-profits, especially small and medium-sized organizations, lack formal planned giving programs. Benefits of Planned Giving…
Minimizing Your Risk of Cyber Breach
Concerns about cyber threats disrupting core operations are now a top operational risk. The Securities and Exchange Commission has called threats to cybersecurity “the biggest systematic risk we have facing us.” Given the impact that breaches can have and the level of sophistication shown by hackers in recent breaches, it’s not a matter of if…
Electronic Spreadsheets Can Conceal Numerous Errors
Electronic spreadsheets are versatile and vital for all types of organizations. However, the flexibility that makes spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel so popular is also the primary reason that they can end up concealing countless critical errors. Spreadsheet “Horror Stories” An organization called European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group keeps a list of “horror stories” caused by…
The Engine Behind e-Commerce
Nearly everyone who has any experience with the Web knows programmers use HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to create the pages we read on the Internet. Benefits of XML Here are some of the ways XML can bolster your business: Boosts efficiency by standardizing information transfers. Lowers repetitive modifications and duplications in transforming data to various types…