By: Lesley Fair | Oct 12, 2010 10:38AM
Owners of small businesses wrestling with tax obligations are sure to have seen the ads. American Tax Relief LLC promised to settle customers’ delinquent federal and state taxes for a fraction of what they owe, as well as put a stop to tax liens, bank levies, and property seizures. But according to a lawsuit filed by the FTC, the company charged up-front fees ranging from about $3,200 to $25,000 and offered little in return.
By: Lesley Fair | Oct 4, 2010 3:00PM
In the holiday classic "Miracle on 34th Street," optimists and skeptics debated the existence of Kris Kringle. Nobody would liken effective advertising self-regulation to Santa Claus, but the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (NAD) – located on 36th Street in New York – has made believers out of a lot of people. Kicking off its annual conference today, the NAD is a forum for monitoring and evaluating truth and accuracy in national advertising.
By: Lesley Fair | Sep 17, 2010 4:37PM
Many smaller companies want to extend health benefits to employees, but are concerned about keeping the price affordable. For people who own their own business or are looking for work, cost-effective coverage can be tough to find. If you’re in the market for health insurance, make sure that’s what you’re buying. Some programs pitched to small businesses, the self-employed, and the uninsured sound like affordable health insurance, but actually are medical discount plans. Although some plans may offer legitimate savings, others take people’s money and provide very little in return.
By: Lesley Fair | Sep 13, 2010 4:20PM
No, not the doowop song by Gene Chandler, but a form of fraud aimed at small businesses and non-profits. Here’s how the scam works: Con artists send fake invoices to businesses, listing the domain name or URL of the company’s website or a slight variation – like substituting ".org" for ".com." The bills, designed to look like they come from a domain name registrar, say the company owes money for its annual "website address listing" and "search optimization" service. Busy entrepreneurs are led to believe they have to pay to keep the company URL up and running.
BCP Business Center: Your Link to the Law
By: David Vladeck, Director, BCP | Sep 2, 2010 9:56AM
Welcome to the BCP Business Center: Your Link to the Law. Explore and you’ll find practical compliance guidance on advertising, telemarketing, credit, data security, and other need-to-know topics for business owners and marketing professionals. What else will you find? The latest word on upcoming workshops, hot-off-the-presses staff reports, and new compliance videos. We’ll do our best to keep things to the point with a minimum of ho-hum, a maximum of how-to, and as little yadda yadda yadda as a legal website can manage.
