【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, December4, 2022】As an ongoing effort to enhance our valuable service to We Chinese in America website readers, We Chinese in America website posts English and Chinese versions of “IRS News Release” ， “IRS Fact Sheets”， and “tax tips” directly received from IRS Media Relations Office in Washington, D.C.. We are pleased to take on this important role partnering with IRS to better inform the public.
IRS, Security Summit partners wrap up National Tax Security Awareness Week with steps businesses should take to prevent data loss, fraud
To wrap up National Tax Security Awareness Week, the Internal Revenue Service and the Security Summit partners today urged businesses to remain vigilant against cyberattacks aimed at stealing their customer’s personal information and other business data.
The IRS continues to see instances where small businesses and others face a variety of identity-theft related schemes that try to obtain information that can be used to file fake business tax returns. For example, phishing schemes continue to target businesses as well as tax professionals and individual taxpayers.
“Just like individuals and tax professionals, businesses of all types need to be on the lookout for attempts to steal information and data,” said IRS Acting Commissioner Doug O’Donnell. “Businesses are especially attractive to cyberthieves because there is a potential to steal a lot of data. They may use the information to file a business tax return or use customer data for identity theft.”
The IRS, state tax agencies and the nation’s tax software and tax professional industries operate cooperatively as the Security Summit to highlight data security and fight identity theft. Today marks the final day of the seventh annual week dedicated to information security and helpful tips for individuals, businesses and tax professionals.
Cyber criminals target businesses of all sizes; knowing some cybersecurity basics and putting them in practice will help business owners protect their business and reduce the risk of a cyber-attack. Criminals can target a business’s credit card or payment information, business identity information or employee identity information.
Businesses are encouraged to follow best practices from the Federal Trade Commission, including:
- Use multi-factor authentication.
- Set security software to update automatically.
- Back up important files.
- Require strong passwords for all devices.
- Encrypt devices.
More information is available at FTC’s Cybersecurity for Small Businesses.
Businesses should especially be alert to phishing email scams that attempt to trick employees into opening embedded links or attachments. IRS related scams may be sent to 该Email地址已收到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它您需要在浏览器中启用JavaScript。 so the IRS can try to track, stop or disrupt scams.
To improve security, the IRS now masks sensitive information from business tax transcripts, which summarizes tax return information, to help prevent thieves from obtaining identifiable information that would allow them to file fake business tax returns. Only financial entries are fully visible. Other information has varying masking rules. For example, only the first four letters of each first and last name will display for individuals and businesses. Also, only the last four digits of the Employer Identification Number will be visible.
The IRS also has the Form 14039-B, Business Identity Theft Affidavit, that will allow companies to proactively report possible identity theft to the IRS when, for example, an e-filed tax return is rejected.
Businesses should file the Form 14039-B if it receives a:
- Rejection notice for an electronically filed return because a return is already on file for that same period.
- Notice about a tax return that the entity didn't file.
- Notice about Forms W-2 filed with the Social Security Administration that the entity didn't file.
- Notice of a balance due that is not owed.
This form will enable the IRS to respond to the business and work to resolve issues created by a fraudulent tax return. Businesses should not use the form if they experience a data breach but see no tax-related impact. For more information, see Identity Theft Central’s business section.
In addition to phishing and other scams, all employers should remain alert to Form W-2 theft schemes. For example, a thief may pose as a company executive who emails payroll employees and asks for a list of employees and their W-2s. Businesses often don’t know they’ve been scammed until an employee reports that a fraudulent tax return has been filed.
There’s a special reporting procedure for employers who experience the W-2 scam. It’s available in the Identity Theft Central’s business section on IRS.gov.
Finally, Security Summit partners urge businesses to keep their EIN application information current. Changes of address or responsible party information may be reported using Form 8822-B. Changes in the responsible party must be reported to the IRS within 60 days. Current information can help the IRS find a point of contact to resolve identity theft and other issues.
Internal Resource Service
Media Relation Office
Washington, D. C
Media Contact: 202 317 4000
Public Contact: 800 829 1040
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For more details and to learn more about this year’s National Tax Security Awareness Week’s efforts, visit IRS.gov/securitysummit.
【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, December 3, 2022】Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, updates were made to the titles and duties of members of the royal family. Perhaps one that caught the public's attention the most was that of Queen Consort Camilla, and what to call her once King Charles III assumed the throne. (Photo Credit: Wonderwall.com)
The queen said before her death that it was her "sincere wish" that Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, be called Queen Consort. Now, she's updating the royal tradition in her own way.
Buckingham Palace said Sunday that Queen Consort Camilla is giving up the antique tradition of appointing "ladies-in-waiting" and has picked five of her close friends to be "Queen's Companions," a new title with slightly different duties, in a modest sign of updating in the new reign of King Charles III.
What is a 'Queen's Companion'?
It's a refashioning of the job of royal personal assistant, accompanying Her Majesty on her engagements and foreign travels, keeping her company and assisting her by, for example, collecting the armfuls of flowers royals typically get when meeting people in public.
The companions will trade off supporting the queen consort in her official and state duties, along with the queen's private secretary or deputy private secretary. On some occasions, a companion may attend an engagement instead of a private secretary.
Some of the companions will be in attendance for the first time Tuesday when Camilla, 75, hosts a reception at Buckingham Palace to raise awareness of violence against women and girls as part of the UN 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
How does a queen's companion differ from a lady-in-waiting?
Not that much; the new title mostly reflects the slight changes in the job description.
The job of lady-in-waiting to a queen, reigning or consort, dates back hundreds of years to the Middle Ages when ladies helped the queen with such tasks as bathing and dressing.
By contrast, there's no record of a "Queen's Companion" job, according to records (the palace checked).
Under the late Queen Elizabeth II, who kept the tradition when she became reigning queen in 1952, her ladies-in-waiting, known affectionately as "Head Girls," accompanied her on engagements, helped her with her voluminous correspondence, and sometimes just sat with her and watched TV.
Also, the late queen always had a lady in attendance, so the job was full time. By contrast, the companions will only be on duty during engagements and they won't be helping with correspondence.
Will Queen Consort Camilla's companions get paid?
Yes, but only nominal amounts, to cover their expenses. Because they will be on duty less time than the ladies, they won't be as costly in the royal budget, but the difference is minimal.
The pay issue is mostly irrelevant anyway. Ladies-in-waiting (and now companions) usually were picked from the aristocratic, titled and wealthy classes of the United Kingdom.
Who are Queen Consort Camilla's companions?
According to the palace, Camilla's companions are: Fiona, the Marchioness of Lansdowne; Mrs. Jane von Westenholz; the Hon. Lady Katharine Brooke; Mrs. Peter Troughton (Sarah); and Lady Sarah Keswick.
They are all close friends of the new king and queen and are well known in posh circles in the United Kingdom. Troughton is related to the king through his Scottish grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Lansdowne has been an interior designer with her own studio, Fiona Shelburne, for more than three decades. Brooke is the daughter of one of the late queen's former ladies-in-waiting, Lady Susan Hussey, who was with Queen Elizabeth for six decades and is also a godparent to Prince William, the Prince of Wales.
(Source: USA Today)
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【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, December 1, 2022】As an ongoing effort to enhance our valuable service to We Chinese in America website readers, We Chinese in America website posts English and Chinese versions of “IRS News Release” ， “IRS Fact Sheets”， and “tax tips” directly received from IRS Media Relations Office in Washington, D.C.. We are pleased to take on this important role partnering with IRS to better inform the public.
Interest rates increase for the first quarter of 2023
The Internal Revenue Service today announced that interest rates will increase for the calendar quarter beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
For individuals, the rate for overpayments and underpayments will be 7% per year, compounded daily, up from 6% for the quarter that began on October 1. Here is a complete list of the new rates:
- 7% for overpayments (payments made in excess of the amount owed), 6% for corporations.
- 4.5% for the portion of a corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000.
- 7% for underpayments. (taxes owed but not fully paid)
- 9% for large corporate underpayments.
Under the Internal Revenue Code, the rate of interest is determined on a quarterly basis. For taxpayers other than corporations, the overpayment and underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points.
Generally, in the case of a corporation, the underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points and the overpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 2 percentage points. The rate for large corporate underpayments is the federal short-term rate plus 5 percentage points. The rate on the portion of a corporate overpayment of tax exceeding $10,000 for a taxable period is the federal short-term rate plus one-half (0.5) of a percentage point.
The interest rates announced today are computed from the federal short-term rate determined during October 2022. See the revenue ruling for details.
Internal Resource Service
Media Relation Office
Washington, D. C
Media Contact: 202 317 4000
Public Contact: 800 829 1040
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Jewels of the Season
IN-PERSON ORNAMENT-MAKING WORKSHOP
Monday, December 5, 2022
Doors will open at 10:15 and 2:15
To register : https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E81193&id=180
【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, November 30, 2022】Barney Graham, a former scientist at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was thrilled yesterday when Pfizer announced encouraging results from an experimental vaccine that could protect against a major childhood killer. In a press release, the company said immunizing pregnant women* with its vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) protected their babies from severe disease for 6 months. If the full results of its clinical trial bear out that promise, the vaccine could spare millions of infants worldwide from RSV-related hospitalization, reduce lasting lung damage from the virus, and help prevent some of the estimated 120,000 childhood deaths the viruses cause annually. The Pfizer news represents a personal milestone for Graham because his NIAID team made a fundamental discovery about vaccine design that’s used in its RSV shot, as well as in approved or potential vaccines for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.(Photo Courtesy: news.rice.edu)
Vaccine development for RSV was derailed after a trial of a candidate in 1966 led to two deaths and the hospitalization of 80% of the infants who received the product, which contained an inactivated version of the entire virus. But Graham, who began working on RSV in 1985 when he was a 32-year-old clinician, created a safer, more potent vaccine that only contains the RSV surface protein known as F.
The F protein rearranges its structure when the virus infects and fuses with a cell. Graham, who is now at the Morehouse School of Medicine, led an NIAID team that designed a molecular strategy to lock F into its original, “prefusion” configuration, stimulating the most powerful antibody responses. Graham’s NIAID group made a similar modification to the SARS-CoV-2 surface protein, spike, which was adopted by Moderna, Pfizer, and other companies in their designs of COVID-19 vaccines.
(Source: Science)
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About the author: Dr. Ronald G. Jan who specializes in Vascular Surgery is a Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine. He has been serving as the Director of Paul Hom’s Asian (Free) Clinic since 2005. As a hobby, he holds WSET level 3 certification in wines and has been writing and publishing wine commentaries attracting lots of readers.
