Archive for April, 2009

Audits Here’s How to Avoid Them

Monday, April 13th, 2009

The IRS doesn’t send birthday cards. When they invite you to a party, it’s an invitation to headaches and worry. Nobody meets the news of an IRS tax audit with a smile.

Yet IRS tax audits are a reality, especially for high-income earners, the self-employed or those who claim a large number of deductions. Keep in mind that the IRS only audits 1 percent of all tax returns under $100,000, but 2 percent of all tax returns over $100,000. The IRS considers that the more money you make, the more likely they are to find discrepancies in your return that results in more money for the government.

There are things you can do from the beginning to avoid ever being audited in the first place. An income tax audit, sales tax audit is no picnic, and you’ll save yourself a lot of headache if you can avoid them in the first place.

For obvious reasons, avoid math discrepancies. The IRS will check your figures to see if they add up. The easiest way for them to look more closely at your return is fuzzy math. Making sure the numbers are right will keep your return from attracting attention.

The IRS uses a formula to see find the income tax audit, sales tax audit that may bring in the most discrepancies and get the government the most money for the cost of the audit. The IRS uses a secret equation to determine the DIF score in order to select returns with the highest probability of having discrepancies that will earn the government more money.

Therefore, if you have deductions for unusually large amounts, you’ll need to be prepared to prove it. If you make sizable contributions to a charity, claim those deductions by all means, but have the paperwork in case the government decides to ask.

It’s very important to be able to substantiate every write-off. Keep receipts for every deduction, and be specific about numbers. Avoid reporting round numbers like $500 or $200 that sound more like estimations or guesses than specific amounts. Even if you’ve lost the receipt, some tax attorneys can provide the paperwork to legally document the expense.

Unless your tax return attracts attention, you’ll probably never be audited. The best way to avoid an audit is to avoid giving the IRS any red flags. It can save you considerable stress and worry in the end.

3D Scanning

Monday, April 13th, 2009

Few technologies are as useful to engineers looking to bring a part or product to market as 3D scanning. Scanning objects for precise dimensions and specifications makes two aspects of design possible that aren’t really possible without it. First, scanning makes it possible to create a CAD object with which other CAD objects can interact –perfect when you need to design a part that will fit with an existing one. Second, 3d scanning makes it easier than ever to reverse engineer or to build specs from a prototype made by hand. And third, it makes quality inspection virtually thoughtless, since products can be checked for specifications with laser precision.

Engineers of any multi-part machine or object are inevitably familiar with the struggle of having to design parts that interact without a three dimensional CAD drawing to support the design process. Indeed, designing blindly like this is usually an exercise in futility unless the specs of the parts are easily replicable in the CAD environment – anything more complicated than a 2×4 and things start to get fuzzy. By employing 3D scanning technology, engineers can map out the cogs in a 3d environment to play with and design around.

For many inventors, product developers, and engineers, building a part or product for a certain project is often an exercise in “build now, ask questions later.” In other words, hands-on building takes precedence over design because it is the fastest way to get things to market. Yet standardized manufacturing practices don’t really allow for the arbitrary construction of parts on a line, and machines are not yet smart enough to design and create parts on their own with an engineer’s intuition. Once a prototype is built, three dimensional scanning facilitates reverse engineering by implementing specifications into standard models: CAD and other 3D environments that can interact with production machinery to create the perfect widget every time.

Once the specs are completed to satisfaction – and a scanning will reveal any minor design flaws that might inhibit proper functioning – 3d scanning can be used to evaluate finished products for construction flaws. The precision of measurement will ensure that each manufactured part is within a set margin of error from the model – even if that margin of error is 0.

By employing three-dimensional scanning throughout the design, engineering, manufacturing, and QA process, manufacturers have assurances that the product they market is not only up to snuff but also that it is engineered (or reverse engineered, as the case often is) in the most efficient way possible, so that it gets to market faster.