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Ted on Tech: Last-minute gift ideas

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OK, I admit it. I tend to procrastinate. I also tend to lose track of what the date is, or sometimes what year it is (just kidding on the last one). Nevertheless, I’ve been accumulating stuff for a gift guide column for a while, and it’s time to start actually writing about at least a few of them. One or all of these would be appropriate for staff, coworkers and clients, or to surprise yourself with on the gift-opening holiday (Oh! How did you know? It’s just what I wanted!)

I do a lot of reading. Physical books are my favorite, but so many books these days are available in Kindle or other electronic formats. I’ve been using a tablet for the past several years to do much of my reading, especially if I’m traveling. The tablet I’ve been using is a fairly decent one, but it’s several years old. It’s been replaced by a new TCL Tab 10 Nxtpaper. While the Nxtpaper is a very workable tablet, it’s also excellent when you want to relax with a book. The 10.4-inch screen has a resolution of 2,000 by 1,200 pixels and a brightness of 600 nits, similar to some laptops. The screen has a finish that cuts down on glare and reflection, though it’s a little hard to read outdoors in the sun. It offers several settings that change the appearance of color pages, which is great when you are reading a color book or magazine. The tablet offers 5G cellular connectivity, but right now Verizon is the only carrier supported.  What I like about the tablet is that it offers a really good reading experience. At the moment, it’s priced at $240 from Verizon, so if you (or the intended user) have service from another carrier, this might not be the best choice. I don’t use my tablets on cellular service (most of the airlines I fly offer internet connectivity, as do the hotel rooms) so the 5G connectivity feature is not a deal breaker for me, though it might be for you or the person you have in mind.

Another great gift item is a USB monitor to use as a second display for a laptop. With more people using a laptop for their main PC, being tied to a single screen can diminish productivity. My main productivity PC has a 35-inch main display and a 27-inch secondary display, so I used to feel really constrained when I’ve had to use my laptop. I’ve been using a second monitor for several years and I find it a must to get much work done when I’m at a conference. But monitor technology, like everything else, has progressed over the years, so I replaced my old USB monitor with a ViewSonic TD1656-2K. The TD1656-2K isn’t the least expensive solution, coming in at about $350, but the features make it worthwhile. It has a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 display and a touch screen. The screen offers auto-pivot, so if you want to use it in portrait mode rather than landscape, just turn the monitor and the display will flip. The cover does dual duty as a stand, and weighs 2.8 pounds with the stand, about the same as an extra laptop. The sound is actually pretty good from the two 2.5-watt speakers, and there are two USB-C ports at the left and right bottom of the display. Both of these ports support 65-watt pass-through if your laptop offers power delivery. Best of all, the 16-inch screen is larger than the one on my laptop.

Or how about a mini home theater?  Many of us, or our clients or children, don’t have room for a home theater. And gifting a large screen TV is usually not an option. Video projectors are a great way to get many of the benefits of an enhanced video experience without having to dedicate a large amount of room and wall space to a big screen TV. Or maybe you have a staff member who has to travel and make presentations. The $400 Nebula Capsule Air is one of the smallest projectors you can buy, about the size of a can of soda. It’s not tremendously bright (as is common for projectors this small and inexpensive). With a light output of 150 lumens, you’ll need to use it in a darkened room. It has Google TV built in, and an optional $140 Power Bank Tripod gives you an extra two hours of runtime, added to the two-hour run time of the Capsule Air itself.

If you have a teenager, staff member, or have a client who is into technology or the Maker movement, how about a 3D printer? A great printer for a beginner is the Bambu Lab A1 mini. The $200 price is pretty easy to handle, and at $349, you can get the Combo, which includes the printer and an accessory that provides four-color printed objects. The A1 mini is pretty much assembled out of the box. You just have to cut some zip ties and attach a few pieces. It shouldn’t take more than about 15 minutes until it’s up and running. The internet has thousands of models to print. 

Finally, if you are willing to go really overboard and have someone on your gift list who is an audiophile, a gift of a pair of in-ear monitors offers a really superior audio experience. In-ear monitors are like super bud earphones. They have a wider range than most earbuds and truer sound reproduction. When you watch a performer and notice they have ear buds while performing, they are wearing in-ear monitors. They are pretty expensive. The one I’m recommending is the $500 Sennheiser IE 600 model, but it’s far from the most expensive model available. In-ear-monitors, especially for performers, can run into the thousands.

That’s it for this time. I’ll dig further into the review pile in later blogs. Oh, and if you want to get in touch with me, you can DM me on Facebook.

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House passes tax administration bills

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The House unanimously passed four bipartisan bills Tuesday concerning taxes and the Internal Revenue Service that were all endorsed this week by the American Institute of CPAs, and passed two others as well.

  • H.R. 1152, the Electronic Filing and Payment Fairness Act, sponsored by Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Illinois, Suzan Delbene, D-Washington, Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, Brad Schneider, D-Illinois, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania and Jimmy Panetta, D-California. The bill would apply the “mailbox rule” to electronically submitted tax returns and payments to allow the IRS to record payments and documents submitted to the IRS electronically on the day the payments or documents are submitted instead of when they are received or reviewed at a later date. The AICPA believes this would offer clarity and simplification to the payment and document submission process while protecting taxpayers from undue penalties.
  • H.R. 998, the Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act, sponsored by Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Brad Schneider, D-Illinois, which would require notices describing a mathematical or clerical error to be made in plain language, and require the Treasury to provide additional procedures for requesting an abatement of a math or clerical error adjustment, including by telephone or in person, among other provisions.
  • H.R. 517, the Filing Relief for Natural Disasters Act, sponsored by Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tennessee, and Judy Chu, D-California. The process of receiving tax relief from the IRS following a natural disaster typically must follow a federal disaster declaration, which can often come weeks after a state disaster declaration. The bill would provide the IRS with authority to grant tax relief once the governor of a state declares either a disaster or a state of emergency and expand the mandatory federal filing extension under Section 7508(d) of the Tax Code from 60 days to 120 days, providing taxpayers with more time to file tax returns after a disaster.
  • H.R. 1491, the Disaster related Extension of Deadlines Act, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Murphy, R-North Carolina, and Jimmy Panetta, D-California, would extend the amount of time disaster victims would have to file for a tax refund or credit (i.e., the lookback period) by the amount of time afforded pursuant to a disaster relief postponement period for taxpayers affected by major disasters. This legislative solution would place taxpayers on equal footing as taxpayers not impacted by major disasters and would afford greater clarity and certainty to taxpayers and tax practitioners regarding this lookback period.

“The AICPA has long supported these proposals and will continue to work to advance comprehensive legislation that enhances IRS operations and improves the taxpayer experience,” said Melanie Lauridsen, vice president of tax policy and advocacy for the AICPA, in a statement Tuesday. “We are pleased to work closely with each of these Representatives on common-sense reforms that will benefit taxpayers, tax practitioners and tax administration and we’re encouraged by their passage in the House. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress to improve the taxpayer experience.”

The bills were also included in a recent Senate discussion draft aimed at improving tax administration at the IRS that are strongly supported by the AICPA.

The House also passed two other tax-related bills Tuesday that weren’t endorsed in the recent AICPA letter. 

  • H.R. 1155, Recovery of Stolen Checks Act, sponsored by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-New York, would require the IRS to create a process for taxpayers to request a replacement via direct deposit for a stolen paper check. If a check is determined to be stolen or lost, and not cashed, a taxpayer will receive a replacement check once the original check is cancelled, but many taxpayers are having their replacement checks stolen as well. Taxpayers who have a check stolen are then unable to request that the replacement check be sent via direct deposit. The bill would require the Treasury to establish processes and procedures under which taxpayers, who are otherwise eligible to receive an amount by paper check in replacement of a lost or stolen paper check, may elect to receive such amount by direct deposit.
  • H.R. 997, National Taxpayer Advocate Enhancement Act, sponsored by Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, would prevent IRS interference with National Taxpayer Advocate personnel by granting the NTA responsibility for its attorneys. In advocating for taxpayer rights, the National Taxpayer Advocate often requires independent legal advice. But currently, the staff members hired by the National Taxpayer Advocate are accountable to internal IRS counsel, not the Taxpayer Advocate, creating a potential conflict of interest to the detriment of taxpayers. The bill would authorize the National Taxpayer Advocate to hire attorneys who report directly to her, helping establish independence from the IRS. 

House  Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Missouri, applauded the bipartisan House passage of the various bills, which had been unanimously passed by the committee.

“President Trump was elected on the promise of finally making the government work better for working people,” Smith said in a statement Tuesday. “This bipartisan legislation helps fulfill that mandate and makes improvements to tax administration that will make it easier for the American people to file their taxes. Those who are rebuilding after a natural disaster particularly need help filing taxes, which is why this set of bills lightens the load for taxpayers in communities struck by a hurricane, tornado or some other disaster. With Tax Day just a few days away, we must look for common-sense, bipartisan ways to make filing taxes less of a hassle.”

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Accounting

In the blogs: Many hats

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Teaching fraud; easement settlement offers; new blog on the block; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Many hats

  • Taxbuzz (https://www.taxbuzz.com/blog): There’s sure an “I” in this “teamwork:” What to know about potential IRS and ICE collaboration.
  • Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): How IRS data would likely be unhelpful validating SNAP eligibility.
  • Yeo & Yeo (https://www.yeoandyeo.com/resources): How financial benchmarking (including involving taxes) can help business clients see trends, pinpoint areas for improvement and forecast future performance.
  • Integritas3 (https://www.integritas3.com/blog): One way to take a bite out of crime, according to this instructor blogger: Teach grad students how to detect, investigate and prevent financial fraud.
  • HBK (https://hbkcpa.com/insights/): Verifying income, fairly distributing property, digging the soon-to-be-ex’s assets out of the back of the dark, dark closet: How forensic accounting has emerged as a crucial element in divorces.

Standing out

Genuine intelligence

  • AICPA & CIMA Insights (https://www.aicpa-cima.com/blog): How artificial intelligence and other tech is “Reshaping Finance,” according to this podcast. Didem Un Ates, CEO of a U.K.-based company offering AI advisory services, tackles the topic.
  • Taxjar (https:/www.taxjar.com/resources/blog): How AI and automation can help even the knottiest sales tax obligations and problems.
  • Dean Dorton (https://deandorton.com/insights/): Favorite opening of the week: “The madness doesn’t just happen on college basketball courts — it also happens when your finance team is stuck using a legacy on-premises accounting system.”
  • Canopy (https://www.getcanopy.com/blog): Top client portals for accounting firms in 2025.
  • Mauled Again (https://mauledagain.blogspot.com/): Despite what Facebook claims, dependents have to be human.

New to us

  • Berkowitz Pollack Brant (https://www.bpbcpa.com/articles-press-releases/): This Florida firm offers a variety of services to many industries and has a good, wide-ranging blog. Recent topics include the BE-10, nexus and state and local tax obligations, IRS cuts and what to know about the possible bonus depreciation phase out. Welcome!

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Accounting

Is gen AI really a SOX gamechanger?

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By streamlining tasks such as risk assessment, control testing, and reporting, gen AI has the potential to increase efficiency across the entire SOX lifecycle.

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