Are You Ready For a Tax Audit?

The tax department may call you and send you a letter telling you that they are coming to do a tax audit. It is an examination of your tax returns, especially for those who are in business, to make sure that you have reported correctly your income and expenses and paid the correct amount of tax. Like fighting a legal case, whatever you have reported, it must be properly supported by documents.  Here are a few things you must observe and watch out for:

Income:

·         Proper numbered bills in running sequence: Any cancelled bills are intact and not to be destroyed. If your bills are without numbers it can be an indication that you are trying to hide some of your business income and report an amount lower than what you have actually collected. Throwing away cancelled bills is a no-no because it is subject to the same suspicion.

Expenses:

·         Documentary evidence: Like in a court of law, your reported expenses must be supported by invoices or bills. As an example you advertise for your business and you support your payment   with a bill. It would be even better if you could attach a copy of the advertisement.

 

·         Vouchers: Your must clearly state the full details of each and everyone when you make payments to individuals.   

Why the tax department call on you? These are  few of the  valid reasons:

  

•    Errors: One of the reasons cited by IRS is that some people are poor in mathematics and the figures do not add up.  So, they are subject to investigation.

[On filing for tax returns] This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher. ~ Albert Einstein

•      Red flag:  Earning a monthly income of $2000 but paying a mortgage of $1800. Do you mean you don’t have to eat and live? 

•          Income: Having income not reported or income under-declared is asking for trouble. Living a lifestyle beyond your reported income is a sure way to catch the attention of IRS.

So, are you read y for a tax audit? 

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Charles Chua C K

5 Ways to be Linspired by Linsanity

Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.

Jeremy Lin is the most popular person on earth right now. I have watched a few of his games and I am truly amazed, inspired and motivated.  There are a few important lessons to learn from this hottest personality:

1.      Courage: According to David Brooks of The New York Times, his primary virtue is courage - the ability to withstand pain, remain calm under pressure and rise from nowhere to topple the greats.  He was undrafted, a D-Leaguer, a bench warmer and a couch crasher. In life when you believe in yourself for what you can do, you will be successful eventually. The key is perseverance.

2.      Be prepared and be patient:  The first thing you can learn from him is to be patient, says Kelly Scaletta, one thing that people are forgetting throughout this Lin situation is that he didn't suddenly burst onto the scene. Lin is in his second season. He has prepared and worked for years perfecting his skills and waiting patiently for his chance to come. In life you have to be prepared and be ready for your lucky break.

3.      Seize the opportunity and show the world your best: Jeremy Lin got hold of the chance and captured the attention of the world by delivering 7 straights wins for Knicks. When you are given the opportunity, grab it and do your best like Jeremy Lin.

4.      Be humble: As a Christian, Lin is a humble person. He does not let success get over his head. He credits his teammates for his success. People love you more when you care more about them.

5.      Do things with your heart and soul: When he is playing, he is in the game with his heart and soul to win.  In life you work with your heart to get things done. When you feel good about yourself in what you do, you do it wholeheartedly.   

What have you learnt from Jeremy Lin?

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5 Benefits of Gratitude

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~ Marcel Proust

Appreciation and thankfulness are the ways to live with life. Because gratitude is the right way to live, it has many benefits: 

1.      Health: Grateful people boost their immune system, promote their brain function, alertness, energy, and manage their stress better. 

Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations. ~ Robert Emmons, University of California Davis psychologist,

2.      Happiness: Doing the right things makes you feel good. According to this article , as an example, writing letters of gratitude improves well-being  and happiness

Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude. ~ Joseph Wood Krutch

3.      An effective way to cope with life: Gratitude is the way to get peace of mind. Don’t be angry or jealous.  More than just calmness, thankfulness reduces aggression.  In the face of difficulties think of your strengths and you will be able to overcome them with resolve and determination.

Real life isn’t always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgement of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties. ~Sarah Ban Breathnach

4.      Better relationships: Thankfulness is the right way to treat people. People like to be acknowledged and appreciated. Express gratefulness to those who have helped you in one way or another. Say thank you to the counter staff who have served you. Simple gesture of smiling to people you meet is a wonderful way to lift the mood of another person.

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.
~ William James

5.      Contentment: Focus on what you have and you will be satisfied and contented. When you pay more attention on what you don’t have, you will never be happy.

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more. ~Brother David Steindl-Rast

Gratitude is the source of our strength to live a life of abundance.

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More Ways to be Happy at Work

There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
-- Henry Ford

You are employed because of what you can do for the company. So, work is about contributing and providing value. Happiness is what you get when you can give at work. The more you can give, the more valuable and happier you will be.  Here are the things that you can do at work to boost your happiness:

1.      Positive attitude: Happiness is from inside out. If you don’t go to work happily, will you be able to work happily? Start a new day and every day with a cheerful frame of mind.  Go to work with excitement and enthusiasm in the morning. Your positive thoughts will energize and kick start every new day at work.  

2.      Enthusiastic about your work: Do you like your work? Do you enjoy what you do at work? Happiness is to like what you do and enjoying it. Be passionate about your work and get into the flow of work. Make your life at work a pleasant one so that you can stay happy. 

3.      Take responsibility: You are happy when you are proud of your work. You work with care and aim for excellence. Your work represents you. People respect you when they respect your work.  Looking after your reputation is an effective way to be happy at work.

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.
-- Pearl S. Buck

4.      Sharpen your skills: Happy people are open-minded. They don’t rest on their laurels. They continue to learn and get to know more. They know that better skills produce better work. A valued and appreciated employee is a happy employee. 

5.      Getting organized: Happiness is planning your work and working your plan. It is a productive and less stressful way to get thing done in an orderly manner. When you are on top of things, you work confidently and happily.

6.      Building relationships: Knowing what to expect from your boss and working accordingly to look after his or her interests is the best policy to build a lasting working relationship. Keeping your boss posted at each stage of your progress is the way to get noticed. Building relationships is also building the trust of the boss in you. You can work happily knowing that your boss can count on you and without having to spy on you every now and then.   

Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.
-- Johnny Carson

Related article:

How to Be Happy at Work

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Top 3 Posts in Janaury 2012

1. How Safe is Your Money in the Bank

In Malaysia, there is a system established by the Government to protect depositors against the loss of their insured deposits placed with member institutions in the event the member institution fails. It is administered by Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia (PIDM) and brought into effect in September 2005.

All types of depositors, whether businesses or individuals, are protected. The maximum limit of coverage is RM250,000 per depositor per member institution.

Your deposit with member banks are covered automatically and it is free. When you have one million Ringgit you can deposit with four different banks and not four different branches of the same bank at RM250,000 each to get effective cover.  

Your money may be safe in the bank but is it productive? There are two factors to consider:

2. How Many Bank Accounts do You Need to Manage Your Personal Finance?

One of the aims of personal finance is to control your spending according to your budget. It is also part of your financial plan to save sufficiently.  An effective way to achieve your goals in these two areas is to maintain three separate bank accounts.

3. What Is the Difference Between a Journal and a Diary?

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, journal is a written record of the things you do, see, etc every day. Diary is a book in which you can write the experiences you have each day, your private thoughts, etc.  Both words come from the same Latin word dies ‘day’.

I have been writing diary ever since I was young. At the end of each year I will go to Popular Book Store and buy one. It is written on the cover    我的日记    (wo de ri ji – My Dairy). I write about the happenings of the day plus my personal thoughts and feelings on things which affect me.

I do not see any differences between the two:

How I Get Ideas to Write an Article Every Day

It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer. ~Gerald Brenan

Yes, I have the habit of writing every morning, but reading and writing go hand in hand. To improve writing is to read widely and write every day. Here are the main sources of my writing ideas:

1.      Reader’s Digest: It offers a wide ranch of articles from health, motivation, money to stories about random acts of kindness. The articles are amusing, inspiring and captivating. I get a lot of ideas from its article headlines. I am a loyal subscriber.  

2.      Productive! Magazine: It is free and you can download online. As the name implies, it is about work and productivity. Leo Babauta is a regular contributor of this magazine.  The latest issue (December 2011/January 2012) is about Gretchen Rubin and her Happiness Project. It is useful and informative. Articles are relating to my niche.

3.      China Press: It is a local Chinese newspaper in Malaysia. The trick is to spot news items and develop into thought- provoking articles.

4.      New Straits Times: It is another local English newspaper. The best part is that it features regularly articles similar to what I normally write about. Of course, news headlines are wonderful sources of article ideas.

5.      Email subscription to similar niche blogs and writing blogs: I subscribe to Copyblogger, Problogger, DailyWritingTips and other self-improvement blogs like Steve Pavilina. Zen habits. Pick the Brain, The Positivity Blog. These bloggers offer excellent sources of writing ideas.

6.      While doing something else: Ideas do occur while I am walking or driving. The most import thing is to capture the ideas and put them into writing.  I am an early riser. The first thing I do is to perform Tai Chi. The slow- motion exercise flashes out ideas too.

7.      Expand my old posts: Another effective way is to go back to my old popular posts and pick one and create a new post with new ideas and linking it to the old post. 

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot...reading is the creative center of a writer's life...you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you. ~Stephen King

How do you get your writing ideas? Share with us.

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Top 30 All-Time Happiness Posts (Part 1)

1. How to Be Happy At Work

Zappos is a company which believes in happiness at work. Workers are provided with free lunch, free ice cream and free massage. The company thinks that excellent customer services starts with a happy workforce. Even when you decide to leave the company, you are paid $4,000/=. It is better that you leave when you are not happy working there or the morale of the staff will be affected adversely. A happy environment can be created for you, but how do you create your own happiness at work?


2. 7 Characteristics of Happy People

What do happy people do? You can follow their footsteps and be happy too:


3. Slow Down to Live and Enjoy Life – 10 Joyful Tips 

In life we should seek quality instead of quantity, calmness instead of restlessness and be restful instead of stressful. The fast pace of living is detrimental to our life. Here are the 10 tips to a balanced life for greater enjoyment, better health and more peace of mind:


4. 10 Happiness Tips – An Appreciation of What You Have Got Out of Life

To be happy just take a moment to find out all that you have got out of life and you will be able to appreciate your abundance.


5. Positive Thinking - 10 Delightful Tips to Make You Happy

Are you feeling down most of the time? Are you bombarded by all the bad news in the papers? Is your mind filled with negative thoughts? Here are 10 positive tips to cheer you up:


6. Happiness and a more Satisfying Life - The 7 Ingredients

While true happiness is a state of mind, there are many who pursue fame and fortune. There are also others who follow a life without attachment to all material things. However, God is fair. All of us, rich and poor, can attain happiness and a more satisfying life. Here are the 7 ingredients:


7. Baby Boomers – The 7 Ingredients of Happiness

Baby boomers have special needs. However, it is still possible to have lasting happiness with the following ingredients:


8. 10 Happiness Quotes to Live By

Here are ten quotes that get you true and lasting happiness:  


9. Effective Ways to a Happy Family

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.” -Joyce Brothers

Success is not just measured by the position you occupy in a company or the wealth you have accumulated over the years. If you have a broken family, you are not successful. 

Success is a balanced life and family comes first. How do you promote a happy and united family?  Here are some useful tips: 

10. Happiness Checklist

Here is the daily checklist to be happy and stay happy:


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