Intaxication: The Red Moon Solutions Tax Blog

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Your Survey Says “WHAT?!”

Posted by Kelley Lear on Feb 7, 2012 in Empowerment Series, Innovation, Process Improvement, Tax | 6 comments

I just recently shared a post called “Going Undercover – Do you Really Need To?”. The gist of the article touched on the fact that you shouldn’t need to ‘go undercover” like the CEO’s in “Undercover Boss” on CBS’s popular television show. You should be able to employ some simple techniques and tools to be able to keep your pulse on what is going on your team, in your department or within your organization. If you are a tax professional within an organization, it is easy to get caught up in the daily grind of tax compliance cycles, tax and regulatory updates, and audits. Often times, we know that we should be able to make marked improvements in our processes, however we rarely have the time to dedicate to this effort. Further, we may not know what key areas we should focus on, and are not exactly sure where and how to get started.

Going Undercover? Do you Really Need To?

Posted by Kelley Lear on Jan 31, 2012 in Empowerment Series, Innovation, Process Improvement | 2 comments

How many of you have watched “Undercover Boss” on CBS? There has been a lot of press on this show lately. I can’t seem to turn on the T.V. without seeing sound bytes attempting to draw more viewers into the drama. I mean who wouldn’t like to see their boss have to try doing their job for a day? I confess that I actually caught one of the earlier episodes of the program and was mildly interested (if not fairly amused), to see what one CEO experienced on a day of hard labor, interacting with his regular employees and gaining insight on what was going on within his company. Although positioned to depict hopefulness and change, I actually find this premise sad in way.

Tax Related Material Weaknesses – They Just Aren’t Going Away….

Posted by Kelley Lear on Jan 25, 2012 in Audit, Compliance, Process Improvement, Tax | 0 comments

Tax related material weaknesses are unfortunately still very often topics for conversation amongst tax professionals. In fact, I was just talking to a colleague who was hiring a tax risk coordinator, whose first task was going to be to conduct a thorough risk assessment within their organization. Another was discussing the lack of tax expertise on their current Board and how that is affecting them with their arguments for employing important process changes within finance and tax.

Every year I try to read the latest and greatest surveys, results and proactive thinking on tax related material weaknesses to keep abreast of what is going on out there.

5 Tips to Shorten Meeting Time!

Posted by Kelley Lear on Jan 18, 2012 in Empowerment Series, Leadership, Motivation, Process Improvement | 2 comments

For all you business professionals out there, how many times have you sat in the meeting thinking one or more of the following:

1. Who called this meeting?
2. What is this the purpose of this meeting?
3. Are we going to accomplish something in this meeting or are we here to hear Joe/Sally talk on in tangents with no apparent end?
4. Who is in charge of this craziness?
5. I want to stick a pen in my eye just so that I can have an excuse to escape this meeting!

How Did I Get Stuck with this Job?

Posted by Kelley Lear on Jan 12, 2012 in Compliance, Empowerment Series, Fixed Assets, Process Improvement, Tax, Tax Planning | 0 comments

Over the years, I have been to many different tax and industry conferences across the country, and have worked with small to large global corporate tax departments…and it is interesting how many times I have heard the phrase, “I don’t know how I got stuck with this job, but I have been doing it for years”. Typically, this is related to one aspect of their job such as exemption certificate management, 1031 exchanges, property taxes, or fixed assets management and compliance. Sometimes however, the tax professional may even have that tax function as their full time job! Yikes. I am sure that is not what every budding starry-eyed college student dreams of doing while toiling away at their studies and attending college frat parties.

Which Tax Departments Want an Alternative to the New Year’s Resolution?

Posted by Traci Wheeler on Jan 11, 2012 in January, Motivation, Process Improvement, Tax | 0 comments

So, the New Year has come and passed. As has been the case for the last several years, I felt uninspired to come up with any New Year’s resolutions. It is not because I am lazy. And, it is certainly not because there isn’t a long laundry list of things I can do to improve my personal life, my career or my contribution to society.

I haven’t always been like this. I used to make resolutions, like “I’m going to exercise for an hour every day”, or “I’m going to ignore my e-mail for two hours every day, so I can be more productive”. These sound good, right? The problem is they felt like they lasted a lifetime.

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Blog Authors

Jim Shedivy

Jim focuses on the long term strategy and the alliance opportunities for Red Moon Solutions, a privately held family business. He has over twenty years of experience in managing tax technology projects and businesses.

Kelley Lear

Kelley is a member of the executive leadership team and leads our sales and marketing efforts at Red Moon Solutions. Kelley’s extensive experience in project management, product management, and consulting with Fortune 500 and Global 1000 clients is extremely important in this role.

Susan Sabatini

Susan Sabatini is the Client Services Manager at Red Moon Solutions. She uses her project management experience and a client focus to ensure Red Moon Solutions’ clients have successful implementations. Susan also leads our client support team.

Traci Wheeler

Traci is a member of the executive leadership team and leads our sales and marketing efforts at Red Moon Solutions. She has over ten years of software business experience serving small and large clients in a variety of industries.