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Tax continuing education is essential for accountants as tax laws change on a regular basis and with every Republican victory at the polls comes a new group of corporate giveaways.
With a tax code that spans some sixty thousand pages, somebody’s got to keep an eye on it all!
And those somebodies have a lot on their plate.
Hence all the frequent keeping up with industry developments – particularly, changes in the tax code.

So chalk it up to the wise bean-counters at General Electric and their tax continuing education classes for helping the company post its latest achievement in the annals of corproate notoriety: zero tax liability for the filing period ending in 2011.
That’s right: this year, one of the world’s richest multi-billion-dollar companies will pay
no taxes.
None whatsoever!
And that’s not all.
They may actually be owed some money instead!
That’s right – the government may truly have to pay G.E. some money.

How’s that for tax continuing education!

It’s amazing but all completely true.
Through the creative use of loss write-offs and the like, the accounting department at G.E. has managed to save its employer big money, with the possibility of getting money “back” from Uncle Sam in addition.
This is in addition to the use of unpaid labor throughout the business in the form of college interns, such as at its NBC subsidiary.

Of course, it isn’t just G.E. and NBC that’s benefiting from such unethical and even unlawful practices.
Viacom and subsidiary Paramount Pictures also makes use of such loopholes.
Most corporations of a particular size do.
’80s boogeyman Leona “Queen of Mean” Helmsley was only telling the truth when she scoffed that “only little people pay taxes.”
Under the right conditions – which are not as rare as one might imagine at first – it is entirely possible to keep all the money you earn while making use of public services.

When I was a personal fitness trainer, I wasn’t too delighted with the idea of a complete certification process just so as to help people exercise.
But that was nothing compared to my shock that certification had to be maintained via online CPE courses as well!
Now obviously the purpose of certification is to be publicly recognized as being skillfully competent, and since things are constantly changing in our fast-paced modern world being competent naturally means some sort of continuing education.
My shock, however, stemmed from the standard view of those outside the fitness industry that trainers are merely muscle-heads and nothing more.

Nevertheless, just because I was a muscle-head who happened to understand a little bit about the human body doesn’t mean that everyone else curious in becoming personal trainers also do.
But more to the point and very much to my chagrin, it turned out that as much as I actually knew there was so very much, much, much, much, much more that I did not – never mind online CPE courses; I barely had the basics covered!

My newfound respect for education based on the fitness industry now means that I no longer laugh at online CPE courses for personal trainers.
It isn’t going to be as hard as what lawyers, doctors, and accountants have to contend with, to be sure, but neither is it just a ruse, either.
Sure it is primarily memorization of facts at this point, nothing so academically rigorous that any high school student would find it not familiar, but still – it’s a good step in the right path for the industry as a whole and one which I now not only understand but in addition fully support myself.
My days as a trainer are no longer but I have retained a lot of respect for continuing education for anyone.

Going to a store like On Off Digital World really brings back memories for me. Never was all that into shopping, but I can see how some folks might like it if it involves personal memories. In my case, anyhow, it has to do with experiencing the kind of, well, retail experience I used to have long ago, with just this kind of store, one that was once common throughout The Big Apple but which has lost significant market share to the “big box” stores such as Best Buy and so forth. Yes, On Off is a throwback to the ’80s and even earlier, no doubt.

When I come across something like an On Off Digital World I think of the good ol’ days of personal computing, the golden age of the 1980s dominated by the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga. Now, actually, despite commanding a large share of the market, corporate problems back at headquarters resulted in the eventual demise of Commodore and so the Amiga ceded market share, practically overnight, to Apple Computer. But still, it’s a perfectly factual statement that the ’80s belonged to Commodore. Those were some good times, what with the medium still very new and many a talented programmer pushing the boundaries of what was possible. Indeed, it wasn’t until the middle part of the decade that a title required more than a programmer or two or three! And yet, even with less than 64KB to work with – or precisely because of it – among the most imaginative feats of programming excellence took place, such as a fully functional graphical WYSIWYG OS!

Do you know anything about guerrilla marketing? I stumbled upon it unwittingly a few near On Off Digital World in the middle of Manhattan. What guerrilla marketing is, is just undercover marketing. Consider it covert marketing! Such as what happened with me, for instance. I was approached by some charming young ladies who wanted me to take their photograph for them – a common enough request in the tourist mecca that is Times Square. In the process, however, they wound up demonstrating to me everything about their new digital camera – having me all curious about it in no time! That’s guerrilla marketing done right, advertising to me in a way that gets past my guard!

A concern with justice, with fairness, has always been at the center of Judaism, from the very moment when Abraham questioned G-d over the morality of destroying a whole city for its wickedness lest there should prove to be even just ten righteous men or women residing there. This passion for balanced dealings is what lead Talmudic scholars to sanction Jewish farmers from yoking oxen with horses for ploughing the field, for being stronger it is evident that an ox would always have to do most of the work. It is a similar sense of responsibility that informs Jewish notions of the tzedakah, or religiously prescribed donations to charity.

And actually, the Hebrew word “tzedakah” literally translates as “justice,” “righteousness,” but now refers to the cultural practice – indeed, the cultural institution – of putting away income for purposes of charitable contribution. Performing tzedakah is deemed a moral responsibility, such that tradition holds the act to be one of only three which may mitigate any divine decree. Thus it is that even criminals will give to charity in the hopes of actually annulling any heavenly judgment!

Such hopes and fears aside, at the heart of tzedakah lies a sense of social responsibility and social justice. Judaism teaches that all men are brothers – then asks, why should my brother not fare as well as me? From this simple yet not-easy-to-answer question comes the rabbis’ decree to provide for others as a natural part of everyday living. For this reason, performing tzedakah is so common in the Jewish community that two kinds of tzedakah have developed: the classic religiously inspired type and another conducted to herald special events like bar mitzvahs and high holy days like Pesach. This latter group returns a sense of individual choice to the act of giving, while the former continues to be an essential detail of the Jewish lifestyle – so critical, moreover, that even the poor themselves are instructed to give, as they are able, so that one need not be a Robert Toussie in order to be of assistance.

CPE requirements of late (relatively speaking) has emphasized ethics more and more, especially for lawyers and accountants.
Generally, continuing professional education courses contain self-study, whether online or by using traditional materials like workbooks and the like.
Nonetheless, credits may also be received through attending qualifying seminars, such as those well-liked talks given by those accountants, lawyers, and others guilty of so-called white-collar crimes.

Yes, listening to fraudsters and scammers can satisfy some CPE requirements, depending on the certifying body governing the occupation in each state!
Okay, so it’s quite an amusing concept, but then again, who else is there better qualified to teach of such things than those with close knowledge by virtue of their criminal activities?

One of the most well-liked of such speakers is Sam Antar, the former Chief Financial Officer for Crazy Eddie’s, his cousin’s eponymous business in consumer electronics.
Rising from a lowly stockboy back when the company was a very modest local neighborhood success, Sam Antar ended up very close to his cousin Eddie Antar because of his role as the pro enabler that greatly facilitated the business’s widespread accounting fraud.
Given such an insider’s role, it’s easy to see why his lectures today can command credits that meet CPE requirements: after all, it takes one to know one!

Indeed, Sam Antar, while acknowledging the depth of his violations, doesn’t flinch from the truth: he is only on the right side of the law these days because he was caught.
Had the whole Crazy Eddie’s saga never collapsed due to greed and in-fighting among some of the principals required, Sam Antar may be busy today enabling white-collar crime as he generally had, not fighting it himself as he is in a sense forced to do because of economic circumstances related to his now poisonous work history and professional notoriety.

Sam Antar was the former CFO of Crazy Eddie’s, his cousin’s electronics retail kingdom.
Sam is a much sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit currently, and his seminars may even earn CPE and CLE credits for the attendees.

That’s because he is a convicted fraudster.

Ethics continuing education courses are usually self-paced correspondence courses one takes at one’s own leisure as a part of maintaining one’s professional good standing.
Reading through Sam’s site on the worldwide web, however, is as educational as any structured academic account can be.

As the former CFO of Crazy Eddie’s, Sam presided over one of the most famous scandals in the chronicles of corporate crime.
He lays everything out, bare, raw, and unembellished by any of the usual self-serving rationaliziations often given to insiders’ accounts – all unadulterated on his website.

This is an ethics CPE program like none other – if it were accredited as such.
As it is, it’s just a website – but oh, what a website!

White-collar law-breaking never seemed so exciting.
That’s because the Crazy Eddie’s scandal was at heart a soap opera displaying all the familiar human foibles known to a Greek chorus – lust, greed, betrayal, as well as family.
Yes, family.

The familial element in this drama makes this demonstration of corporate offense so – if the pun will likely be pardoned – familiar to lay readers, grabbing and holding their attention where other accounts might lose them under a mountain / hill of technical details.
However, it isn’t that Sam offers no minutiae of his own; his very objective today is to combat criminal activity, after all; it’s that these details, which would be so boring otherwise with no benefit of a human drama in which to place them in the correct perspective, come to brilliant life against the context of a family power struggle that resonantes forcefully with everyone who’s actually underwent any semblance of sibling rivalry.

How’s that for an ethics CPE course!

You’re a web Marketer so you recognize just how much work should be done to make sure that your business is successful. You don’t just have to make items you need to market them and develop significant buzz for them. You must record the sales you make, the e-mail addresses you attain and client information. You have to work to take care of client relationships and talk on a regular basis with existing buyers and potential buyers. You will in addition really need to invest time on setting up a good reputation for yourself too. With merely so many hours in each day, how are you supposed to get everything completed? Keep reading to understand some time management suggestions that you can use to make every day a lot more productive.

You really need quick and lasting pursuits. That list should cover everything from the amount you want to generate by the end of the year to the office supplies you need to order that you forgot about yesterday. Write out precisely what you want to achieve and then break down your list: things that will take a massive amount time, things that will take only a little time and things that you can easily do right now. First do every one of the points on the “right now” list and then program out your long and short term goals.

Every day, create a to-do list. This can either be written at the conclusion of one work day for your upcoming work day or you can write it in the morning as you sit down to get to work. Write out every one of the items you need to get done before you quit work for the day. Then, after those, write down tasks you need to do for one of your short term projects and tasks for one of your long term projects. Only let yourself work on those last list items after you’ve finished all of the things that you need to do that day. When you finish everything on your list as well as the items for your short and long term goals, you can decide whether you want to do more work that day or if you’d like to have some free time for something fun.

Don’t forget to let yourself take breaks. Most people think that the key to productivity is dependent upon your ability to force yourself to stay at your desk for lots of hours every single day and not ever allow a break for anything but visiting the bathroom. The fact is that people are the most productive when they begin working. So allow yourself some time for a couple of breaks every day. A quick morning break, a quick afternoon break and a long lunch break are good breaks to make yourself take each day. Some people enjoy taking a couple of minutes just to relax after they finish bigger projects on their to-do lists.

There are lots of ways that you can use to help yourself get more done each day. The best way to ensure that you get enough done each day is to know what, exactly; it is that you need to do. When you know what needs to get done you’ll be more likely to stick to your list and actually accomplish the things you want to accomplish.

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