Do you use Paypal to accept funds? Do you live in the United States or otherwise have to pay taxes to the U.S. government? Then you should be aware of upcoming changes for Paypal and other payment processors resulting from the 2008 law IRS 6050W. In short, Paypal and those other processors might start tracking and reporting your income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Not every Paypal user will be affected, and the first reports to the IRS will happen in early 2012 (covering your 2011 income). Here’s some background on the 2008 law leading to these changes and what they might mean for you and your business.

Who will the New Rules Affect?

Paypal will report your earnings to the IRS if you meet both of the following requirements:

1. You receive $20,000 or more during the year (gross payments, not net).
2. You process at least 200 transactions.

This would affect any users in the U.S. or those with businesses registered in the U.S. It would also include those living overseas if they’re still U.S. citizens and required to report their earnings.

What if you have multiple Paypal accounts and they meet the requirements when combined, but not when counted separately? Paypal will still report your income to the IRS. So don’t think that using multiple accounts will get you around the reporting requirements.

Who will not be Affected by the New Rules?

If you are a citizen of another country and have absolutely no ties to the U.S. tax system, you shouldn’t be affected by the reporting change.

Also, if you only meet one of the two requirements listed above, you will not be affected.

Why is Information Reported Using a Form 1099?

The 1099 form series from the IRS is used to report income earned as an independent contractor or in other miscellaneous non-wage ways. Paypal will use 1099 forms to report income received through their system if you meet the requirements.

IRS Form 1099-k Draft

What Should You do if the New Rules Apply to You or Your Business?

Start by reviewing the current year’s transactions to see if you meet the requirements. If you do, you’ll be asked to submit your identification number to Paypal for reporting purposes — your social security number (SSN), employer identification number (EIN), or taxpayer identification number (TIN).

Don’t assume you can get around the reporting requirements by switching to a different payment processor. The law doesn’t only apply to Paypal. Any payment processor you use will be required to report your earnings if you meet the requirements.

If you use a personal or premiere account with Paypal, you might also be required to upgrade to a business account if you meet the requirements. The account change is free.

What are the Consequences if You Fail to Act?

If you don’t give Paypal the requested identification number, your Paypal account might be limited until you do. If you use other payment processors, check with them to find out how long you have to comply and what will happen if you don’t.

What Issues Might You Run Into?

I’ll be affected by this change, and there are a couple of issues that come to mind — ones I haven’t seen adequately addressed elsewhere. Here’s some background so you’re aware of them as well.

1. Business income and personal transactions are not separated in this payment processor reporting. And since all accounts are lumped together that could result in non-taxable money from personal transactions being reported as income.
2. Every client in the U.S. who pays an independent contractor $600 or more is required to submit a 1099 for that income. If those clients process payments through Paypal and the contractor meets reporting requirements, Paypal will also report that money as income. In other words, the same income will be reported on two different 1099 forms. With double-reported income, that might make it appear a freelancer is earning significantly more than they actually are (and that they owe taxes on more income than they actually make).

Find out today if the new rules might apply to you. Visit Paypal’s reports page (like the one below — my personal earnings information was blocked out) and review your monthly sales reports. There you can find out how much you’re earning in 2010, and how many sales transactions you process each month.

Paypal Reports Page

In the end, you were always required to report your income, 1099 or not. So it shouldn’t affect you too greatly. But if you’re concerned about the potential reporting issues mentioned above, it’s strongly suggested that you speak to a financial services, legal, or tax professional for more personal advice.

If you’d like a preview of the new 1099 form that will be used, you can visit the IRS website to view a draft of the 1099-k.

Disclaimer: Information in this article is for educational purposes only, and neither the author nor the website’s owner may be held responsible for any real or perceived damage caused by, or allegedly caused by, the information contained in this article. The author is not engaged in offering legal, financial, or other professional services or advice. If further information or more individual information is needed, it is suggested that the reader consult with a qualified tax professional.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and PayScale, the best jobs in America currently are as follows.  If you have an educational qualification and experience in IT or healthcare, it’s going to be a cakewalk for you, what with the numerous opportunities out there, just waiting for you.

Let’s take a look at the 50 best jobs in the United States:

#1 Systems Engineer – Information Technology (Pay: $87,100 – $130,000)

The highest rated job in the United States is in the information technology sector. Engineers are considered extremely valuable due to their exceptional technical problem solving skills. They have jobs as the think-tank “managers” on complex projects, including military defense programs and major transportation networks.

#2 Physician Assistant – Healthcare (Pay: $90,900 – $124,000)

They work under a doctor’s supervision and it is a recession proof field because of the shortage of PAs.

#3 College Professor – Education (Pay: $70,400 – $115,000)

The best part of this job is the scheduling freedom they get, as well as the time off for holidays and less workload in summer.

#4 Nurse Practitioner – Healthcare (Pay: $85,200- $113,000)

With the growth of retail health clinics and the shortage of primary care doctors, NPs have lots of opportunities in hospitals, private practices and urgent-care centers.

#5 Information Technology Project Manager – IT (Pay: $98,700 – $140,000)

Plenty of opportunities and scope for growth as every company needs tech savvy managers. They can even rise to the level of a chief technology office with salaries of $300,000.

#6 Certified Public Accountant – Financial (Pay: $74,200 – $138,000)

CPAs are in demand with the government and businesses. They can also work for themselves as tax preparers. A great recession proof job!

#7 Physical Therapist – Healthcare (Pay: $74,300 – $98,100)

The inevitability of aging makes this a high demand job, where physical therapy treatment is needed for a lot of chronic conditions.

#8 Computer/Network Security Consultant – IT (Pay: $99,700 – $152,000)

Companies and government agencies increasingly need to safeguard themselves against breach of security in their computer systems. Top level consultants demand very high pay.

#9 Intelligence Analyst – Government (Pay: $82,500 – $115,000)

Great for those who love adventure as data is collected from internet, military, spy reports, satellite images etc.

#10 Sales Director – Sales & Marketing (Pay: $140,000 – $239,000)

Sales directors who can help during an economic downturn are always needed. They often get promoted to the higher levels of management.

#11 Anesthesiologist – Healthcare (Pay: $292,000 – $408,000)

They are doctors who are in great demand, as they are essential to administer anesthesia during surgery or other procedures.

#12 Software Developer – IT (Pay: $79,400 – $116,000)

Their job is to write software for websites, applications and data processing systems.

#13 Pharmacists – Healthcare (Pay: $109,000 – $134,000)

They give medications for prescriptions issued by medical practitioners.

#14 Occupational Therapist – Healthcare (Pay: $69,700 – $100,000)

This job involves organizing and participating in rehabilitative programs to help restore daily living and vocational skills to disabled persons.

#15 Nurse Anesthetist – Healthcare (Pay: $117,000 – $214,000)

Working with anesthesiologists to help administer anesthesia to patients, they monitor and adjust the levels of anesthesia during the surgery and also take care of patients after surgery.

#16 Software Product Manager – IT (Pay: $106,000 – $148,000)

Their job is to assess customer needs and come up with new software products or new features for the old products.

#17 Business Analyst – IT (Pay: $82,600 – $119,000)

Analyzing management, healthcare, engineering, operations and other business information processes to provide software and hardware solutions is their job.

#18 Attorney/Lawyer – Legal (Pay: $115,000 – $262,000)

They represent clients in civil and criminal proceedings, advice clients on legal matters and draw up legal documents.

#19 Physician/General Practice (Pay: $150,000 – $228,000)

They will always be in demand as they help treat all sorts of diseases, conditions and injuries.

#20 Human Resource Manager (Pay: $71,000 – $111,000)

Their role is central to any organization.  They have to plan and manage everything related to human resources; including recruitment, benefits, training, compensation and employee relations.  They are also required to ensure that all procedures and policies of the company are properly followed through.

While the above listed are the top 20 best jobs, let us take a brief look at the rest of the 30 jobs in the list along with the pay.

#21 Senior Financial Analyst (Pay: $79,900 – $109,000)

#22 Physician/Obstetrician/Gynecologist – Healthcare (Pay: $222,000 – $338,000)

#23 Clinical Psychologist – Healthcare (Pay: $81,100 – $172,000)

#24 Psychiatrist – Healthcare (Pay: $177,000 – $279,000)

#25 Veterinarian (Pay: $83,900 – $157,000)

#26 Marketing Manager – Sales & Marketing (Pay: $76,600 – $126,000)

#27 Speech Language Pathologist – Healthcare (Pay: $70,900 – $116,000)

#28 Technical Writer – IT (Pay: $67,400 – $99,600)

#29 Finance Director – Financial (Pay: $121,000 – $214,000)

#30 Telecommunications Network Engineer – IT (Pay: $86,200 – $130,000)

#31 Director of Communications – Sales & Marketing (Pay: $78,300 – $135,000)

#32 Hotel General Manager (Pay: $76,800 – $146000)

#33 Securities Trader – Financial (Pay: $113,000 – $491,000)

#34 Account Executive – Sales & Marketing (Pay: $81,400 – $157,000)

#35 Education/Training Consultant – Education (Pay: $77,800 – $157,000)

#36 Corporate Paralegal – Legal (Pay: $65,600 – $96,000)

#37 Quality Control Engineer – Engineering (Pay: $69,300 – $96,800)

#38 Manufacturing Engineer – Engineering (Pay: $75,100 – $103,000)

#39 Software Program Managers – IT (Pay: $110,000 – $152,000)

#40 Applications Systems Analyst – IT (Pay: $71,500 – $95,900)

#41 Senior Internal Auditor – Financial (Pay: $75,000 – $106,000)

#42 Commercial Property Manager (Pay: $75,400 – $123,000)

#43 Creative Director (Pay: $86,900 – $157,000)

#44 Pharmaceutical & Sales Representative – Sales & Marketing (Pay: $105,000 – $138,000)

#45 Associate – Investment Banking – Financial (Pay: $106,000 – $221,000)

#46 Training & Development Manager (Pay: $79,800 – $120,000)

#47 Product Marketing Manager – Sales & Marketing (Pay: $105,000 – $146,000)

#48 Quality Assurance Manager – Engineering (Pay: $79,500 – $122,000)

#49 Financial Research Analyst – Financial (Pay: $65,500 – $155,000)

#50 Outside Sales Representative – Sales & Marketing (Pay: $66,900 – $125,000)

The starting pay mentioned for all the jobs is for workers with at least 2-7 years experience in the particular field. What are you waiting for?  Grab the job that suits your qualifications the best and make hay, recession or not.

The term “white collar crime,” is not just some crime conducted by people in white-collar jobs; it is a crime of artful lying. White collar criminals use persuasion and deceit to achieve their end.  Not all crime is illegal, a person can be deceitful and unethical while not committing any illegal acts, according to law.

Spinning is the favorite tool of these criminals. Since humans live on hope, they are sold hopes and dreams through lies. It is a common thing for accountants of companies to employ several tricks to dupe auditors, but one trick that was much talked about involves using women.

Sam Antar

As a former CPA and former Chief Financial Officer for Crazy Eddie, Inc.; Sam Antar had become (in)famous in the 1980s for masterminding one of the largest securities frauds of its time, which shaved investors off by hundreds of millions of dollars.  Many lost their life savings, some lost their careers, cost creditors lost hundreds of millions of dollars and overall was responsible for immeasurable suffering of thousands of people, including shareholders, creditors, financial analysts, employees, public accounting firms, Wall Street firms etc.  The fraud hit so many people that Antar was called, “the Darth Vader of Capitalism,” by US Attorney Michael Chertoff.

Compared to today’s frauds which go into billions of dollars, the fraud at Crazy Eddie may seem small; however, it was much more outrageous than most frauds committed during those years because it went on for 18 long years (1969-1987), and it used multiple methods.

Antar used several complicated accounting tricks, but one of the simple methods used by him was to pair hot female employees with young male auditors who were in their 20s. He later said, “These auditors from the Big Four accounting firms are usually single kids just a few years out of school. What do kids in their 20s think about all the time? Sex. In effect, I was a fraudster, matchmaker and pimp.”

In Sam Antar’s words, “We committed crime simply because we could. Criminologists like to analyze white collar crime in terms of the ‘fraud triangle’ — incentive, opportunity, and rationalization. We had no rationalization. Simply put the incentive and opportunity was there, but the morality and excuses were lacking. We never had one conversation about morality during the 18 years that the fraud was going on.”

Eventually Antar took full responsibility for his actions and to avoid jail time, worked with the U.S. government, and now has taken up a position as advisor to the government agencies and other businesses on avoiding accounting fraud.

Accounting Scams of Today

The current financial crisis has seen several such accounting scams, including the Bernard Madoff scheme, which is a multi-billion dollar fraud.  But Bernie Madoff may just be the tip of the iceberg with the unraveling of several such frauds.

Accounting firm, KPMG, another of the Big Four accounting firms (with Ernst, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu being the other three), had its Executive siphon as much as $900,000 of the company funds for personal use.  Ernst & Young had one of its Hong Kong executives detained by police because of evidence of false audit documents came to fore in a court case.

According to a former FBI accounting fraud investigator, “There’s always an uptick in fraud activity when the economy goes down.  It’s like the ocean going out and you can see everything that was hidden under water.”

The Need for Accounting Education

Antar feels that reform has to start with accounting education. He says, “The kids who are out on the front lines of auditing, they know nothing about people like me.  It is easy to fool them.” He wrote in one of his posts, “Accounting students must take separate in-depth courses in criminology, securities laws, internal controls, insurance/risk management, and other ‘real experience’ areas they require for the fieldwork they will encounter on audits.”

Key Elements In Fraud Cases

In spite of there being millions of ways to commit fraud, the key elements in most employee fraud cases are found to be incentive, opportunity and rationalization.

Incentive – A deeper look into the whole thing reveals that while greed is the main incentive, there are other strong incentives, such as gambling debts, drug usage, infidelity or just ego. There have been cases where fraud was conducted just to satisfy the psyche, and not for monetary reasons.

Opportunity – This is when an employee feels that there is a lesser chance of being caught and this happens in private companies where there are less internal checks and controls rather than in public limited companies.

Rationalization – The white-collar criminal consoles their conscience and rationalizes his or her behavior, usually when there exist internal problems such as downsizing or overworking.

Antar says accounting fraud is all about “distraction,” like diverting the auditors’ attention with attractive young females.  He says, “It’s like David Copperfield, it’s an illusion … I want you to look over here so you don’t see what I’m doing over there.”

Another tactic is “delay.” If the auditors have five weeks to do the audit, the fraudster’s goal would be to leave 80% of the work till the last minute, so that the auditors feel rushed.

According to another white-collar fraudster, accounting fraud means understanding the difference between truth and accuracy.  He said that every financial statement he has ever created was completely accurate – but not truthful.

One of the best ways of detecting fraud is said to be by asking questions and if someone gets offended in the process when asked a question about verification, then something is wrong there. Honest people do not get offended when asked to verify something official.The one good thing that came out of the financial crisis was that several people were being trained to detect this fraud. Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, a US based company, trains accountants in fraud investigation, and 10,000 of its 47.000 members joined last year alone. Could this be the beginning to the end of white-collar fraud?

The US government, as part of its stimulus plan to revive the depression in the US economy, recently decided on including an amendment that imposes a ban on firms receiving government bailouts, from hiring workers from other countries. Microsoft has recently been asked to remove foreign workers that are employed under the H-1B Visa program, resulting in the software giant announcing that 5,000 jobs will be cut in the next six months; including 1,400 immediately.

H-1B visas are offered by the US government to enable international students and highly skilled international workers, from all over the world, or who are already living in the USA, the opportunity to live and work in America legally.

From the beginning, there has been criticism from various quarters, over the role of the H-1B program in replacing US workers. There were several instances of US staff being replaced with H-1B workers. The ploy employers used is to hire these H-1B replacements from contract job shops. This way the companies could claim that they had not applied for H-1B visas, making it possible for them to legally replace their US staff.

Another complaint was that US Employers hired H-1B workers because they pay significantly less than they would have to for US workers. This cheap labor causes depression in the overall wage structure.

Currently, 65,000 H-1B visas are granted by the US annually to Hi-technology workers from countries like China, India and Philippines.

The US government states that they are not against the H-1B program, but it has to be used in the actual spirit of why it was started in the first place – to have alternatives for specialized workers when there is no availability in the US. It was also clarified that since the 900 billion dollars for the stimulus plan is being paid by the American taxpayer, it is only fair that American workers are hired.

This decision for foreign countries could mean hundreds of thousands of foreign students studying in the US universities will not get employment and millions will be made jobless.

The US government is also planning on controlling outsourcing. American firms that move their jobs to other countries will not be eligible for any tax breaks. Obama, in his address said, “We will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas.”

This will affect more than 1,000 American firms that have over the years moved their jobs outside the country. The government is doing away with a particular provision of the tax code where US companies pay lower taxes for profits earned from foreign countries. There has been opposition for this tax code for a long time, as it was seen as an encouragement for companies to send their jobs abroad, when they rightfully belong to the American workers. The government’s aim through this move is to make outsourcing unattractive to companies in the US.

However, many believe that tax breaks when compared to savings through outsourcing do not stand a chance. While the idea of tax breaks would certainly appeal to the US businesses, it would require a huge tax break to change the established trend of global outsourcing. It would be highly unlikely for companies involved in significant outsourcing to take their businesses, and the related infrastructure and human-resource costs back onshore. So, the impact of this move may be very little.

People who oppose this move say that this move will only hurt the US as outsourcing makes a lot of sense; both economic and logical. It is left to be seen what actually happens. However, with Obama focusing on the revival of the US economy, this is the kind of positive reaction that Americans expect from their new President.

Verizon and AT&T, two of the largest cellphone service providers, won the Spectrum auction, leaving Google behind.

A Spectrum auction is a process where governments throughout the world sell the rights to transmit signals. Companies who are in the business of providing wireless communication services need to bid at these auctions and win the licenses provided by the government.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducts these auctions and assigns thousands of licenses to many firms. These auctions are sold for billions of dollars. This auction method for assigning Spectrum resources, which are scarce, is being used widely everywhere in the world.

Earlier, before these Spectrum auctions were started in the US, lotteries and administrative process were used. Later on, they were rejected because they were found not to be efficient enough.

These auctions are not awarded to everyone. The main thing that is looked into is efficiency – which means that the Spectrum has to be given to those that are best able to use it. The second consideration is maximization of revenue. Even with all the concern about efficiency, governments have to care about the revenues raised at these auctions as they are huge sums.

Armed with this knowledge about Spectrum, you would understand better the heavy competition there is, to win these auctions. In the auction that ended this week, both Verizon Wireless and AT&T won a greater part of radio Spectrum.

The winning of this auction is a great thing to happen to Verizon, as it will help Verizon in catching up with AT&T, which is currently the nation’s largest wireless carrier and also the largest portfolio holder of Spectrum.

Google also participated in bidding for C block frequencies for $4.7 billion, but lost the auction to Verizon. C block frequencies can be used for wireless voice and data service nationwide.

According to analyst, Jason Armstrong, Verizon has taken a risk in bidding for these frequencies. He said that the C block frequencies that Verizon bought have open-access restrictions, A block frequencies have risks with interference, and the few licenses in the B block that Verizon bought have very high valuations.

AT&T on the other hand, got the okay for its bid for licenses owned by Aloha Spectrum Holdings, which will enable it to expand wireless services or even add broadcast video, and agreed to pay $2.5 billion. According to IDG News Service, AT&T’s section of the bid covers 196 million US residents out of the 303 million and 72 of the top media markets in the country out of the total 100. Their plan is to use the Spectrum for combining data, voice and video transmissions. The slice that was purchased was not part of the FCC auction.

This auction had a secret bidding going on for seven weeks and made the government treasury richer by $19.12 billion.

With both Verizon and AT&T making their foothold on the Spectrum stronger, it is highly unlikely that competition will bring the prices down for consumers; although the new Spectrum may improve the wireless service quality.

This Spectrum uses higher frequencies that were earlier used by UHF TV stations. Signals with these frequencies possess better ability to penetrate buildings than the current cellular service.

Wireless customers may need to buy handsets that are compatible with the new frequencies; otherwise they may not experience any noticeable changes in their service. There may be new wireless data plans or even a wireless TV broadcasting soon.

The recently imposed restriction on H-1B visas that prohibit employers from filing more than one petition for an employee in the fiscal year, did not go down too well with many people, as was expected.

In fact, there have been demands from various US employers to raise the cap on H-1B visas. A new study reveals that American businesses are finding it difficult to fill the skilled positions, even with the large number of foreign professionals coming to US on H-1B visas.

These quotas on H-1B visas have been a sore spot for a long time with companies like Microsoft and other high technology companies. Even heads of education are miffed with these visa rules that have become even more strict post 9/11. The Institute of International Education estimated that the number of foreign students coming into the US to study has dropped since 2003, for the first time in more than 30 years. It blamed the decline to stricter visa rules and increased competition from other foreign universities.

US businesses actually benefit from the issue of H-1B visas to employ foreign workers in various fields where practical and theoretical expertise in certain specialized occupations needs a Bachelors or a higher degree, including engineers, computer programmers and scientists.

The current cap on these visas is 65000 per fiscal year. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reveal that the first 20,000 H-1B petitions files by foreigners with US-earned masters degree or higher are exempt from this cap.

According to USCIS, there are a few more exceptions that are exempt from this cap. If the foreigners wish to come to US on H-1B visas to work for affiliated non profit entities, non profit research organizations, government research organizations or specific higher education institutions, they will be granted visas regardless of the visa availability.

The USCIS will start receiving H-1B visa petitions from April 1, 2008 for fiscal year 2009. Once the above mentioned caps are reached, they will randomly approve the visas from among the petitions received on the last date of receipt.

The reason for this restriction is being given by the USCIS as an intention to promote fair and systematic process for H-1B petitioners. They say that this rule will ensure that all companies applying for H-1B petitions will be given an equal chance to receive H-1B visa for their workers.

Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates contends that a cap on these visas is what forces Americans to outsource jobs. He has repeatedly requested the US Congress to let more foreign engineers work in the high tech firms, as these firms are having to outsource jobs to overseas companies. Gates even went on to add that the increased caliber of research institutions in India and China means the cap on visas will pose a big threat to America’s competitiveness.

In fact, when he was asked what he would do if he could write US law, Bill Gates is said to have promptly replied that he would certainly get rid of the H-1B visa caps.

In spite of all these contentions, the USCIS went ahead and imposed the restriction on H-1B visas. A survey shows that many people are of the opinion that this sort of thinking threatens to harm the economic future of America, with the US companies being given limited access to the skilled professionals, who are needed for the growth of US companies. When this happens, more and more companies will be looking to place more of their human resources outside the United States, which is certainly not what the US government wants.

Why is the government so complicated? You figure out all the details of your business, make it successful, and then the law comes into play and makes things a mess. It seems so simple to start a company, but you must file paperwork with the government, give various notices, adhere to certain standards, and, of course, pay the government their piece for the privilege.

Copyrights and patents are an area some are familiar with and others violate accidentally on a regular basis. Corporations, sole proprietorships and partnerships have their own set of criteria and paperwork that must be filed in a timely manner. Unfortunately, the government does not offer much wiggle room when it comes to business operations, so be sure all legal aspects are in perfect order at all times.

Legal standards change on a regular basis. The government puts forth quotas and instructions for any number of things, especially for those businesses that are on some form of government assistance or funding. If the government gives your business money, it is also going to give you plenty of rules to follow.

Staying in Line

With rules and ordinances changing on an almost daily basis, how is a company supposed to stay ahead? Only by staying educated on the topics relevant the business or finding a professional who is can you be sure you are operating free and clear of any infractions.

Handle the Paperwork

Businesses come with paperwork, and sometimes it’s best to get legal advice on the best wording for a contract or to help with complicated matters such as incorporation or dissolving a partnership. Even if you forgo a trained professional, there is still plenty of information available online that can make any legal process less confusing.

The law is the bottom line for many businesses, and it’s important to stay on the government’s good side. Find legal services and information you need in the Legal Area of http://www.dirjournal.com