Most of us are no stranger to receiving suspicious e-mails or letters in the mail. However, today’s more sophisticated scams can make it difficult to tell the difference between what’s the truth and what’s a hoax. To help you be more prepared, we've compiled a list of several scams currently targeting California businesses, including ways to spot them and what to do to ensure you’re not deceived.

The level of service is determined by your needs as the client, and what your creditors and/or investors require. The higher the level of service required, the more time the CPA needs to complete the engagement and therefore the more costly the engagement. While privately held companies opt for compiled or reviewed statements, credit agreements with lenders often require audited statements.

On January 18, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service published IR 2013-7, providing relief from the estimated tax penalty for farmers and fisherman who are unable to file and pay their 2012 taxes by the March 1st deadline. This year’s delayed tax filing start date has been due to the American Taxpayer Relief Act, which affected several forms typically filed by farmers and fishermen.

We recently released an article outlining changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act, and briefly touched on new reporting requirements for businesses. In response to questions from some of our clients, we felt it might be beneficial to elaborate on these new requirements, which will affect 2013 Form W‐2s.

As you may have already heard, the foreboding “Fiscal Cliff” was narrowly avoided recently with the passing of legislation on January 1, 2013. The legislation, titled the American Taxpayer Relief Act, allows Bush-era tax rates to sunset for individuals in the top tax brackets; permanently patches the alternative minimum tax (AMT); revives expired or expiring tax extenders; provides for a maximum estate tax of 40 percent with a $5 million exclusion; and delays sequestration. Here we outline some of the most impactful changes brought about by this federal legislation.