Tax Planning - Building a Better Citizen

Every earning individual or a business enterprise needs to give back to the government  a share of the earnings. Termed as Taxes, this is deducted from  the salary, or any other source of income from the individual. For the business enterprises, irrespective of them being a small and medium one or a large corporate,  corporate taxes refers to income, capital, net worth, or other taxes imposed on them. Whatever may the case be, paying the taxes is a necessity and tax evasion a crime. However, to be on the safer side, enterprises and individuals need to be efficient in tax planning.

 

Tax planning is a process followed by individuals, businesses, and organizations evaluate their financial profile so as to reduce   the tax amount  that needs to be paid on income or profit generated. Effective tax planning involves  analyzing investment devices, expenditures, and other aspects which will showcase the individual's or enterprise's tax liability impact. The government on the other hand makes  exemptions so as to reduce cases of tax evasion and also provide taxpayers relief  in  paybacks. Tax incentives provided by the government can be availed by every citizen. However, to help enterprises and individuals reduce the tax liabilities requires prudent tax planning.

 

However, for taxpayers who fail to file their tax returns, the income tax departments have   developed various amnesty and voluntary disclosure programs to allow the tax defaulters  to  pay their taxes in full. Further,  with enterprises moving towards a global presence, and with a mobile workforce, tax evasion comes in as an easy option. Under the IRS regulations, the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure program is offered to individuals and corporate taxpayers  with offshore accounts or assets.

 

Nonetheless, the Internal Revenue Service and the US Government have worked out regulations making it necessary for these multinationals bring forth to the table all their income, immovable and movable properties  across various locations under the Overseas Voluntary disclosure program.  This will also bring to light any undisclosed foreign bank accounts either of  any individual or the enterprise  and will ensure that  these entities are compliant with the tax regulations of the US Government.

 

Effective tax planning, a crucial aspect  in the financial success of the business, depends on the ability to use the legal technicalities to one's advantage.  Availing the tax planning services of qualified tax consultants from  leading tax planning services can help businesses grow by proper calculation of  taxes and avoid any penalties.  Estimation of taxes beforehand will help enterprises to manage  finances in the best possible and also   look for solutions that will facilitate profitable business expansions across geographical boundaries.

 

Read More About: IRS Amnesty, FBAR

 

Engineering Services Outsourcing -Changing the Global Scenario

Defined as an iterative process of design and re-evaluation engineering involves the  stages of  planning, design, manufacturing or construction, and finalization or deployment. Engineering services is one of the largest industry sector with almost  all core engineering functions having an accompanying service activity.  With an estimated value close to a trillion dollars  the engineering services industry comprises of design and support services across  industry verticals ranging from the Automotive sector, Telecom, Aerospace, Consumer electronics, Semiconductor, as well as  Pharmaceuticals.


Though the vastness rules out outsourcing options the technological developments with  enhancements and globalization of the enterprises, has led to  various divisions and manufacturing  units to be set up in various locations beyond geographical boundaries. The increased pace of industrialization and globalization has resulted in large number of organizations emerging as  engineering outsourcing companies today.


By utilizing the best industry technologies and service functions related to core engineering processes such as computer aided manufacturing and design and auto design as outsourcing engineering services, these enterprises  provides   users with new age engineering products that  are not only cost-efficient but also gives the competitive edge. However, efficient delivery of engineering services revolves around technical skills, domain expertise and good engineering judgment.


Surveys have  shown that  nearly  30% of the enterprises outsource engineering services especially design services, most of which  are related to  patented products, design specifications or customized interiors as apart of total engineering solution. Estimates also show that another 40% enterprises will opt for outsourcing of  other engineering activities thus making the engineering services outsourcing as the fastest outsourcing markets.


Leading engineering services outsourcing providers with their  innovative  initiatives  brings about  cost-effectiveness in  the overall product development. With a team of engineering experts and delivery centers worldwide, these  engineering services provides the enterprises support across the complete product life cycle from design and detailing  through engineering analysis, prototyping, automation, data documentation, sustenance engineering  to embedded systems development, and even manufacturing services support besides vendor management.


The growing need for engineering services to be outsourced, has brought an increase in the engineering outsourcing services. Basically because of this provides the client enterprises benefits such as


* Outsourcing engineering services facilitates  enterprises to focus on their core activities

* Engineering services outsourcing brings about reduction in project time lines and lowers labor costs with flexibility on manpower leading to reduced costs .

* Facilitates better quality with support of a qualified and domain-focused vendor

* Provides for knowledge retention

* Enhances profitability with ability to move to a variable cost model


Further with the communication systems becoming more  reliable, globalization today refers not just to products that can be manufactured elsewhere but also includes services that can be  provided  anywhere.


Related links: engineering consultancy service, sez karnataka

Proficient Tax Consultants Simplify IRS Amnesty

Taxpayers that have undisclosed foreign accounts have a lot to gain from the IRS Amnesty program. The IRS amnesty provides comprehensive tax relief. While the goal is to collect as much tax revenue as possible,  the state will waive penalties if you file returns and pay your taxes during the amnesty period. Typically, the state is most likely to impose larger than normal penalties if you fail to take action during the amnesty period. By way of an amnesty program you can file late returns, revise returns to report additional income or improper deductions, and pay off an outstanding balance in full.

 

What is the IRX Amnesty?

 

To ensure compliance with United States tax laws the IRS reopened the Overseas Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) in 2012, and is working on a wide range of international tax issues and follows ongoing efforts with the Justice Department to pursue criminal prosecution of international tax evasion.    The IRS Amnesty program is the IRS' effort to collect the tax on previously undeclared income from various sources, with the payoff being that the taxpayer that discloses the account will not be prosecuted criminally, as well as potentially receive partial clemency on the taxes and penalties. This program saved taxpayers millions of dollars and alleviated unnecessary stress and headache from dealing with IRS collectors and more severe penalties. In some cases, the taxpayer may have to sign a settlement agreement in which the taxpayer agrees to file and to pay all taxes on time in the future.

 

A tax consultant can simplify the process

 

International tax specialists can help take the necessary opportunities, and reduce tax costs by minimizing the potential for paying extra taxes. With the right tax consultant, you can get a complete insight into the tax code that applies to Resident Individuals in the United States, including Green Card Holders and US Citizens.  You can enjoy total compliance, Consultation and Impact Analysis, Analysis and Planning to reduce FBAR Penalty, AMT Strategies, Foreign Tax Credit, Review of 2009, and 2010 OVDI cases, Mutual Fund or PFIC computations. One can get unlimited assistance in the preparation of forms required to participate in the OVDP  program, preparation of Tax Amendments and Delinquent FBAR.

 

Most people find handling taxes and filings overwhelming. You are more likely to spend less on the help than you would on interest and penalties if things go amiss. Taking the  help of a professional will give you the necessary support and guidance in all your tax issues.

 

Read More About: Foreign Bank Account

 

Increase Employee Phishing Awareness with Anti-Phishing Software

Though enterprises deploy state of the art network security systems to protect against threats, it serves no real purpose when it comes to social engineering. This is because a social engineering attack could bypass all defenses. Hence, social engineering is the greatest concern of the enterprises. Moreover, the social engineering attacks are so refined that it is hard to identify and avoid. One of the most popular social engineering techniques is phishing, which makes use of fraudulent means to obtain personal and corporate data.


According to a recent survey, almost half of enterprises have fallen victim to social engineering practices leading to security breaches and data loss. As per this survey, the primary motivation behind phishing attacks is financial gain followed by competitive advantage and revenge. What makes social engineering dangerous is the fact that it attacks the most valuable and the most vulnerable link in an organization and that is employees. Social engineers take advantage of human behavior and trick them into breaking normal security procedures.


Though there are many products and services that effectively address the "process and technology" aspect of security, only few solutions are available that adequately address 'people risk'. Since social engineering and phishing rely heavily on human interaction and appeal to the vanity, authority, and greed of the people, what enterprises need is an effective anti phishing tool. This helps to build the first line of defense by increasing an employee's awareness of phishing.


The anti phishing software assists organizations in evaluating the readiness of employees against phishing and social engineering attacks. By installing this software tailored with information about people, processes and technology within the organization, the enterprise can simulate either a simple phishing attack or a more targeted spear phishing attack. The tool then analyzes the social behaviors towards the attack and generates a detailed report. Based on the findings enterprises can design remedial measures to alleviate phishing risks, educate people and modify processes. This will help to reduce possible threats due to such attacks in the future.


A best of breed anti phishing tool provides statistics on user behavior, measures security awareness among employees, identifies data leakage, assesses Data Loss Prevention (DLP) programs, and tests the incident response program. Thus with such a tool a ‘teaching moment’ can be generated that provides a safe, customized learning experience for users – resulting in increased employee phishing awareness and knowledge that helps protect the sensitive information entrusted to them.


Read More About: protection from phishing, Simulated phishing attack, phishing protection

Ways to End Gray Market Sales & Its Effect

In today’s fast evolving global economy, gray market diversion is gradually becoming an acute concern that most brands encounter. Unlike black market practices, were refurbished, counterfeit or stolen products are sold as authentic brand products, gray market activities involve unauthorized movement of commerce across multiple territories by fake distributors and channel partners.

 

More commonly termed as “parallel importing”  or “product diversion” gray market activities can be considered as a fraudulent medium of inflating profits for participating distributors, simultaneously bringing down the brand owner’s revenue. It has been observed that gray marketers tend to capitalize on lower manufacturing expenses, surplus inventory, economic conditions, fluctuating distribution expenses and currency exchange rates by exporting products without the approval of the original brand owners.

 

The gray marketers undercut the prices of authentic domestic distributors by selling the products at reduced prices. This results in them attaining higher or similar profits that results from the lower procuring cost from the originating countries. Gray market product diversion can occur through multiple resellers and brokers, who look for lesser product prices round the globe. The ultimate impact of gray market sales is twofold.

 

  1. The local distributors are compelled to compete with the price reductions those results from the gray market activities, resulting in critical conflict and supply chain demand concerns within the approved sales channels.
  2. The product revenue streams for brand owners gradually become unbalanced, resulting in inflated sales metrics in certain regions, simultaneously incurring minimized revenues in other regions

 

However, today there are innovative solutions to combat gray market sales and the product counterfeiting that takes place in these markets. Solution providers have introduced advanced anti-counterfeiting solutions that offer brand protection and helps in counterfeit detection. It operates in the following way:

 

  • Apart from proactively searching the internet on an everyday basis for counterfeits, the solution also applies human intelligence to ensure complete data integrity
  • The solutions help companies to significantly reduce the amount of fake goods circulated in the market by recognizing the networks and syndicates high volume counterfeits

 

Going by its very nature, gray market practices disturbs the invisible competition present in a particular sales territory by attracting the consumers and purchasers away from the authentic channels. It also sets up a false but increased demand for products that are imported by unauthentic means and offered at discounted price. With high-end brand protection and anti-counterfeiting solutions today companies can implement enforcement efforts in the apt places and minimize the percentage of counterfeits prevalent in the market.

 

Read More About: brand managementMinimum advertised priceAnti-Fraud

 

Secure Your Company from Effects of Social Engineering

The main hazards of the IT world today is rising Phishing attacks, a byproduct of social engineering. Phishing can be best defined as a criminal strategy that is set up through a technical deception in the form of a mail, pop up ad or even a fictitious website with an objective to steal private data of employees, individuals and organizations. Whilst on the current state of social engineering and Phishing attacks the United State Federal Trade Commission has reported approximately 255,000 instances of identity theft and hacking, back in 2003 as a result of Phishing. With technological advancements and the advent of social web the numbers have increased since then.

Phishing attacks are not only harmful for an individual but also for the company that is being impersonated. Global names that have been affected by Phishing in the recent past includes names such as eBay, Barclays Bank, Wells Fargo, PayPal, Sony, LinkedIn, LaSalle Bank, Sky Financial and many more. Loss resulting from Phishing attacks has made companies and individual cautious. Therefore, most organizations today in order to ensure data security and unhindered performance have been looking for Phishing awareness programs that would educate the employees about Phishing attacks and the ways to identify and combat them.

Phishing protection solutions that are available sometimes do not get into the root of the problem. Certain solution addresses the “people risk” factor whilst others take on an “incident based reactive approach”. However, service providers today have come up with the innovative anti Phishing software with high-end inbuilt features that helps organizations to assess whether their employees are adequately educated about social engineering hazards. Some of the services offered by the software include the following:

* Helps enterprises in estimating the probable hazards associated with Phishing

* Offers elastic reporting and incorporate them back into the company’s chief performance-indicator framework

* Offers a “road map" solution concentrating on security awareness and training within an enterprise

* Helps to recognize weakness within people, method and technology links

* Helps in prioritizing remediation attempts through useful benchmarking and maturity analysis

* Helps in increasing employee awareness and expertise to safeguard crucial information

Thus we see that compact and effective Phishing protection software always allows a company to smoothly function without having any fear of encountering any social engineering attacks.

Read More About: protection from phishing, Simulated phishing attack

Protect Brand, Revenue and Customer Satisfaction with Brand Protection Software

In today’s competitive environment, companies need to be wary of counterfeiting, gray market, trademark infringement and much more in order to stay afloat. Hence, enterprises deploy brand protection software to protect their brand and trademark from exploitation. However, most brand protection solutions do not include product-counterfeiting features. All they do is scour the Internet for exploitation of trademark or brand and nothing beyond that. Though trademark infringement and brand name misuse are serious issues that cannot be downplayed, product counterfeiting is what that brings in great losses. From pharmaceutical, high tech to retail luxury goods companies, there is not a single industry that has not experienced the outcomes of counterfeiting. It has affected not just the brand, but also revenues and more importantly the profit margins.

 

The production and sale of counterfeit goods is a multimillion-dollar business with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimating the value of counterfeiting to be in the region of $250 billion per year. The love of bargain among customers is what that has paved the way for the exponential increase in the sale of counterfeit goods. The desire to buy a popular product at the lowest price is not at all a crime but it has created a market for those specializing in counterfeit products. Pharmaceutical medicines, apparel, footwear, jewelry, consumer electronics, handbags/wallets, watch, toys/electronic games, computers/hardware are some of the most counterfeited products.

 

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), drug counterfeiting is one of the most harmful forms of counterfeit goods with sales from Asia to South-East Asia and Africa alone amounting to some $1.6 billion per year. The reasons for this are the easy profits and relatively low risk of prosecution and penalties. Statistics show that the counterfeit drugs, which cause 100,000 deaths worldwide each year, provide approximately $75 billion in revenue for illegal operators.

 

Hence, all enterprises, irrespective of the industry that they belong to, require a reliable anti-counterfeiting solution that provides visibility into knowing which exact products are being counterfeited and how much they are being discounted for in order to cease this continuous revenue and brand erosion. A leading provider of cost-effective brand protection solutions uses advanced search technology to monitor activity for any number of products globally. It picks up pricing, discount percentages, and quantities for each product and helps to quickly identify the companies that cause loss of revenue, brand, and customer satisfaction.

 

Read More About: enterprise risk management, brand management, Minimum advertised price

 

Capture Ideas to Create Innovative Products and Services

In today's challenging business environment organizations are struggling to gain global foothold by using various methods to capture and nurture ideas that can help them solve problems, stimulate an innovative environment and see them through the everyday challenges.


Understanding the positive effects of creating and developing innovative products, the top management in enterprises today  adopt various methods to capture ideas.  Generating ideas can however be from both external and internal sources. This would mean that idea generation process can involve customers, employees, partners and others involved in the product development process. Such a platform for idea capturing not only helps in generating enthusiasm in employees to search for a solution but would also provide an enterprise with a repository of ideas.


The development of new technology based weather forecast system to precisely depict the snow level as compared to adjacent districts and  an Internet ready  Shopping Mall  enabling shoppers with a realistic


3D demonstrations  of products are some of the innovative products at IBM.   However, the  product development   brought with it the need for  faster ways  commercialize the product. The CEO at IBM then depended on his 346,000 strong workforce to ‘think out-of-box’ through the idea  “Jam” - a massively parallel conference uniting the entire workforce across the geographical locations facilitating   IBM to capture more than 52,000 ideas.   


Even when the Tata group of industries with a 117 year history, needed ideas for surviving the turbulent global recession, the Chairman made every employee an innovator. This helped the TATA’s   tocapture ideas that helped not only see through the recession but has resulted in the large conglomerate with 15 enterprises under its umbrella with TCS alone contributing to an annual turnover of around $6 billion.


To meet the growing need for idea inputs from the public, leading service providers have facilitated enterprises with crowdsourcing software to help them to capture ideas. Such efforts provide the enterprises with a platform that encourages participation of the people and brainstorming through building communities.  Following the footsteps of IBM and Tata, others such as Whirlpool, Starbucks, Microsoft and Dell have also deployed idea management systems to tap the collective wisdom of their employees and customers. Whirlpool collected and pooled large number of ideas through crowdsourcing which made them richer by 7,500 ideas worth over US$3. 3B. All the ideas generated are managed and covered under the larger umbrella of idea management solutions.


Every idea can be game changing, hence needs to be captured irrespective of it being small or large . The social media have also changed the way the new generation of consumer interests. Thus the social networking sites and the related professional sites are the effective zones to capture ideas. Further, the ability to collaborate is a critical element in collecting ideas. Such efforts on the part of the enterprise will facilitate new and viable products and services, enhancement of brand value and brand loyalty and provide a highly competitive edge.


Read More About: innovation products, idea management

Advanced Biometric Services Offered By Indian CRO’s

Biometrics, also termed as biometric authentication consists of processes for recognizing human behavioral traits. The biometric traits can be divided into two principal categories. They are:

 

* Behavioral – This refers to an individual’s behavior, such as typing speed, voice quality, gait and many more. Certain researchers have coined a term“behaviometrics” to denote this category.


* Physiological – This is associated with the body shape. For instance, we can include here face recognition, palmprint, fingerprint, DNA, hand geometry iris recognition, and many more.  


Eminent Clinical Research Organizations (CRO’s) in India have their own Biometrics team that is capable enough to help clients at multiple levels of clinical trials and studies. They assist clients with their technologies and know-how to come up with advanced study designs, analysis processes and provide help to the overall clinical development program. The expert teams are backed up by software application that comprises SAS and Winonline.


Leading CRO’s provide a comprehensive range of Data Management services in bioavailability and Phase 1 Studies. The aim is to convert raw data into reliable, accurate trial outputs in compliance to the regulatory guidelines. Furthermore, the clinical development programs in the CRO’s focus on ways to accelerate the regulatory submission process and lessen the timeline with the help of advanced thinking and service quality. The multiple sections of Biometrics services that the CRO’s provide include the following:


Data Management


* Data Acquisition

* Data Reconciliation

* Discrepancy Management

* Medical Coding (MeDRA & WHODD)

* Database Lock

* Data Extraction for Reporting


Database Programming


* CRF Design (paper & electronic)

* CRF Annotation

* Database Programming

* Validation Checks

* Metadata Repository Management


Biostatistics


* Randomization

* Sample size estimation

* Trial Design Inputs

* Statistical Analysis Plan

* Statistical Analysis

* Biostatistics Subject Matter Expert


Pharmacokinetic & Pharmacodynamic Studies


* Sampling Point Estimation

* Technical Document Review

* PK/PD Query Resolution

* PK/PD Subject Matter Expert

* Pharmacokinetic support across study engagement


PK/PD Reporting


* SDMS Data Extraction

* PK Data Analysis

* PK Summary Reporting


Statistical Reporting


* TLF Programming

* CDISC Data Mapping (SDTM & ADaM)

* Clinical Data Repository

* Pooled Data Analysis & Reporting

* Safety (ADR) Reporting

* Patient Profiles & Data Cleaning Reporting


Biometrics services offered by the CRO’s have the capacity to manage Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials for domestic and global needs in multiple therapeutic area. Furthermore, the Biometric portfolio is utilized by numerous pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device, diagnostic and research organizations.


Read More About: Bioequivalence, Clinical Pharmacokinetic

Streamline Your Enterprise Data With Data Center Solutions

Over the past four decades, business growth and technological development have goaded each other towards greater advancements. Any new business need, has made technology to step into the situation and provide an adequate remedy. Huge amounts of capital got invested in new software and hardware that in turn has resulted in an IT architecture that gave an organization a competitive edge over its competitors. Therefore, over the year’s organizations that have been successfully sustaining growth and expansion are the ones leveraging new innovations simultaneously minimizing expenses, over capacities and complexities.

 

Data centers have been present since the advent of computer technology. Specialized workspace and experts for its operation gave it its exclusivity. Back in the year 1989, Kodak was the first major corporation in the United States that outsourced a relevant part of its IT department. It outsourced its data center operations, network, desktop management and also voice networks. Then outsourcing a strategic asset, for instance the IT department to third party service providers was rare. In spite of criticisms and skepticism, the company became a role model for other companies to outsource data center solutions.

 

Today the scenario has changed, where service providers of data center solutions help companies in integrating hardware and software for reducing the chances of potential unwarranted threats, data thefts, security breaches and other operational hazards. Innovative data center solution fulfills all the cabinet, rack assembly and product level requirements. Simultaneously, they integrate software, hardware and other allied peripherals for a turn-key. It also offers the end users with racks for database servers, industrial applications, web servers, storage server, network that is appropriate for any laboratory, workshop and other commercial platforms.

 

Companies offering data center solutions ensure their clients and consumers with accurate warranties. Under this warranty period, every device must undergo a rigid level of inspection. After this it has to go through a set guideline that assures its service quality on every component, system and part. This apart, the solutions are unique and are characterized by advanced components, open-architecture that leads to future expansions and simple upgrades. When the solution is combined with extensive hardware and software integration services it helps the end users to reduce the expense and other operational difficulties. However, whilst joining hands with a data center solution provider it is essential to analyze your requirements, budget capacity and the solution provider's service portfolio.

 

Read More About: unified storage solution, high performance computing cluster, data centre solutions, custom computer systems