Greene Publishing, Inc.

By Mark Buescher, C.P.A.
Guest Columnist

Tax filing season is finally over and our office lights on Range Avenue here in Madison are no longer shining until late at night. But as the dust settles, a concern among taxpayers seems to be growing more and more each year. That concern is identity theft.

Consumers should protect themselves against online identity theft and other scams that increase during—and after—the filing season. Such scams may appropriate the name, logo, or other appurtenances of the IRS or U.S. Department of the Treasury to mislead taxpayers into believing the communication is legitimate. In fact, right here in Madison County, I know through various sources of at least eight taxpayers this year who have had fraudulent tax returns filed on their behalf.

The Internal Revenue Service receives thousands of reports each year from taxpayers who receive suspicious emails, phone calls, faxes or notices claiming to be from the IRS. Many of these scams fraudulently use the IRS name or logo as a lure to make the communication appear more authentic and enticing. The goal of these scams is to trick you into revealing your personal and financial information. The scammers can then use your information – like your Social Security number, bank account or credit card numbers – to commit identity theft or steal your money.

Generally, the IRS does not send unsolicited e-mails to taxpayers. Further, the IRS does not discuss tax account information with taxpayers via e-mail or use e-mail to solicit sensitive financial and personal information from taxpayers. The IRS does not request financial account security information, such as passwords and PIN numbers, from taxpayers.

Most scams impersonating the IRS are identity theft schemes. In this type of scam, the scammer poses as a legitimate institution to trick consumers into revealing personal and financial information – such as passwords and Social Security, PIN, bank account and credit card numbers – that can be used to gain access to their bank, credit card, or other financial accounts.

Attempted identity theft scams that take place via e-mail are known as phishing. Other scams may try to persuade a victim to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a larger gain. These are known as advance fee scams.

Here is how an identity theft scam works. Typically, a consumer will receive an e-mail that claims to come from the IRS or Treasury Department. The message will contain an enticing or intimidating subject line, such as “Tax Refund,” “Inherited Funds,” or “IRS Notice.” Usually, the message will state that the recipient needs to provide the IRS with information to obtain the refund or avoid some penalty.

The message will instruct the consumer to open an attachment or click on a link in the e-mail. This may lead to an official-looking IRS Web site. The look-alike site will then contain a phony but genuine-looking online form or interactive application that requires personal and financial information, which the scammer then uses to commit identity theft.

Alternatively, the clicked link may secretly download malware to the consumer’s computer. Malware is malicious code that can take over the computer’s hard drive, giving the scammer remote access to the computer, or it could look for passwords and other information and send them to the scammer.

In reality, taxpayers do not need to complete a special form to obtain their federal tax refund. Refunds are triggered by the tax return they submitted to the IRS.

The contents of other IRS-impersonation scams vary but may claim that the recipient will be paid for participating in an online survey or is under investigation or audit. Some scam e-mails have referenced Recovery-related tax provisions, such as Making Work Pay, or solicited for charitable donations to victims of natural disasters. Taxpayers should beware of an e-mail scam that references underreported income and the recipient’s “tax statement,” since clicking on a link or opening an attachment is known to download malware onto the recipient’s computer.

Nevertheless, scams involving the IRS are on the rise and literally involve tens of thousands of taxpayers. Consumers who believe they are or may be victims of identity theft or other scams may visit the U.S. Federal Trade Commission website for guidance on what to do. The IRS is one of the sponsors of this site.

Mark Buescher, CPA is owner and principal of Buescher and Ruff, LLC, a local full service accounting firm in Madison, specializing in tax preparation and planning, business consulting and assurance services. Tax laws contain varying effective dates and numerous limitations and exemptions that cannot be summarized easily. For details and guidance for your specific situation, contact your tax advisor.

By Diann Douglas
Guest Columnist

When it comes to money, you are in the driver’s seat and it is up to you to manage all of your resources. Where does your money go? Do you let it slip out of your hands or do you control it? During Financial Literacy Month, make an effort to take charge of your money and other resources to achieve your goals and get from where you are to where you want to be.

If you want to control your money, first distinguish between “needs and wants,” consider your values, goals and all of your resources. It is ok to have a list of “wants”, we usually don’t have enough money to pay the bills and purchase all of the things we want. It becomes necessary to cover basic needs, then prioritize those “wants” and make a plan to acquire things one at a time.

You can save up to 15 % of your take home pay by making and following a spending plan that covers your fixed expenses, flexible expenses, and funds for emergencies and future goals. Another 25 to 30 % can be cut by shopping with a list, and doing comparative shopping before you make a purchase. Look at flexible spending categories and find ways to cut back, then direct the difference toward savings or paying off debts.

In these economic times, the price of gas and transportation takes a big chunk out of our budgets. Stretch your transportation dollars by keeping your automobile in good shape. Get regular maintenance and service checkups and use your care owner’s manual to plan maintenance. Make your car last longer by taking care of it and you will delay the need for purchasing a newer vehicle.

Spend less by taking care of what you already have, whether it’s clothing, appliances or your home; regular maintenance keeps you from making big repairs that cost big money. Use care – recycle, remodel and recreate. Use your skills to repair or trade off with someone who has the skills you don’t. For example, a friend or relative might be able to do a roof repair for you if you do the painting job at their house.

Food is another spending category that can be controlled if you plan in advance. Buy only what you will use within a week and eliminate food waste. . The average family wastes about 20 % of their food through improper storage; buying too much and then eat out all week or not using leftovers. Just think about all of those science projects in the back of the refrigerator you have to throw out. Next time you clean out the refrigerator, add up the cost you are putting into the garbage can. Plan meals and snacks around weekly sales, start preparing more food at home and you will spend less on food.

Manage credit wisely. If you use credit, try to buy at the start of the billing cycle so you won’t be billed for 25 days and charge only what you can pay off. Pay the bill in full to save the interest fees. Try operating on a cash only basis for a couple of months while you work on paying down those credit card debts.

Check your spending habits. Do you waste money? We often spend more than we think and money slips our wallets without much thought. Try this exercise – for one week, whenever you take your wallet out, write down how much you spend. You may be shocked at the amount of money that leaves your pocket each week. We call these small amounts spending leaks, and they can add up to large amounts over time. Remember, a dollar a day saved is $365.00 a year.

Money control is in your hands. It’s up to you to manage your resources and direct money where you want it to go. For more information on how you can cut costs and take charge of your money, contact the Madison County Extension Service.

The IFAS/University of Florida Extension – Madison County is an Equal Employment Opportunity Affirmative Action Employer authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to race, color, sex, age, handicap or national origin.

I had been having trouble sleeping since I got out of the hospital in December.

At first, I blamed it on the hospital, since they send nurses in during the night and poke you. Some even would wake me in the middle of the night and give me a chocolate milkshake named Glucerna, because my sugar had dropped way too low. Nurses. Nurses. Nurses. Can’t a man have any peace?

After I got over blaming it on the nurses, I blamed it on a friend who would text me all through the night. I couldn’t really blame it on her, though, could I? My cell phone does have an off button, doesn’t it? The fact is, I was texting her back also.

After the texting between me and my friend came to a halt, I had no one to blame it on. I still could not sleep.

I tried reading. I tried counting sheep. I even tried counting my many blessings but nothing would help me sleep.

I tried melatonin, which had always helped in the past. It did not work. I went to the doctor and she prescribed trazadone. Still, it did not work.

One night, I was playing with my iPod Touch, looking at different apps, when I discovered an app called Bible.is. I downloaded the app, excited that I had something to read the Bible to me during the day.

When I went to bed, I thought, “I’m going to try something.” I put my ear buds in and began listening to the Bible. I left them in all through the night and slept like a baby. The next night, I did the same.

I thank God that I was able to discover this app and there is nothing better than going to sleep hearing the words of God in your ear and then waking up to them each morning.

By Joe Boyles
Guest Columnist

For those of you who follow newspaper crash reports, you know that I was involved in an auto accident on Good Friday (see last week’s Carrier front page). I never go by my first name David, but always by the shortened version of my middle name Joseph.

For the record, I was stopped at the intersection of highways 255 and 6 when a violent, two-car collision occurred not 20 feet in front of me. I caught the ricochet on the driver’s side. Other than flying glass, Linda and I weren’t injured although our Camry was totaled. The other parties walked away from this too, fortunately.

The driver who caused the crash apparently completely missed the warning signs (two signs, rumble strips, flashing red light, and stop sign) and bolted through the intersection only to be broadsided by a pickup motoring on SR 6. For whatever reason, the young driver was apparently distracted from the primary job of safely driving her vehicle.

That got me to thinking about the business of distraction, a frequent and often deadly occurrence. In my flying career, I investigated many aircraft accidents where the only plausible answer was that the pilot became distracted from his primary duty (flying) and “put the aircraft into a position from which recovery was not possible.”

What caused that distraction? Could be a lot of things. For example, the distraction could be: another aircraft; a warning signal in the cockpit; focusing attention on something away from the motion of the aircraft; etc. Whatever the reason, the pilot diverted his attention to some other activity other than his primary job.

One such accident was a single Phantom flying a low level over southern Germany. He came across two A-10s working over a simulated target on the ground. As the F-4 turned to keep the other two fighters in sight, he failed to notice a tower on a hill secured by guide wires. When the pilot did turn his head around to the front, he was nose-to-nose with one of those cables. When he snatched the stick to avoid the collision, the aircraft “departed controlled flight (high speed stall).” At that instance, they were so close to the ground that they were dead. The ground always wins those encounters!

In another instance, the test pilot was so engrossed in helping the engineer calculate the airspeed for the next test point that he failed to follow the checklist and transfer fuel forward for the next configuration. The plane was tail heavy because it was out-of-balance and stalled, crashing into the desert floor. And this accident wasn’t caused by inexperience; the test pilot was the most experienced large aircraft test pilot in the world.

Whether we’re flying a high-speed jet, operating a car, or doing a myriad of other things, what causes our attention to be diverted? There are many answers to that question. Does that mean we can’t multi-task? No, but some people are better at this than others. Back in my flying days, I could read the checklist, talk on the radio, check the radar, scan the horizon for bogeys … literally a jillion things at once, but when I was flying at 540 knots at 75 feet above the ground, I didn’t do any of those things. Instead, I was focused on the immediate threat – the ground and obstacles in front of my jet. A moment of inattention in that regime could spell disaster.

There are lessons in this for all of us. Do not narrow our focus (aka tunnel vision) on anything other than our primary duty. If you’re driving a car, then that is your primary duty. And focus your attention commensurate with driving conditions. For example, I frequently talk on my cell phone when driving, but I won’t do that if I’m driving at high speed on a crowded freeway.

We can all learn from every mishap. I hope the others in my accident did. While I didn’t do anything wrong to cause the accident, I’ll never again approach that intersection the same way. I’m much more cautious as the result of my experience.

This day in history: Seventy years ago, Jimmy Doolittle led 16 B-25 medium bombers to attack targets around Tokyo. The Army Air Force bombers were launched from the USS Hornet, a Navy carrier. It was a daring attack that really boosted American morale in the early days of World War II. Check out “30 Seconds over Tokyo,” a classic movie that is frequently broadcast on TCM.