Today’s financial planners have a tough job. More people than ever are without jobs, and are very worried about planning for their futures. But, this scenario also creates great opportunities for financial planners, since their services may be more needed than ever.

Here are 17 applications you can carry on your USB drive, so that you can use them on any computer you might work with. They’ll help you stay more productive whether you’re working from home, the office or you’re visiting a client’s site.

1. Fat Bits: This is a screen magnifier. You will use it over and over again if you are giving presentations via a computer to your clients.
2. PStart: This makes finding the apps on your USB drive faster and easier. PStart gives you a start menu so that you can see what’s on your drive quickly for faster access.
3. Restoration: This app lets you restore files that you delete by accident.
4. Tiny USB Office: This is a very small, portable productivity software suite.
5. FileZilla Portable: FileZilla is an FTP program. This is their portable version. It helps you transfer files between multiple places.
6. SIW: This is a system analysis tool that gathers information about a computer’s hardware and software. Use it to help diagnose issues. This is especially useful if you are using a new computer and having issues.
7. Portable Mozilla: A portable version of Mozilla’s Firefox. If Firefox is your favorite browser, you now have a way to take it with you everywhere, so that you can use it on another computer that does not have it installed.
8. Foxit Reader: This portable PDF reader is a lifesaver. No matter where you are, you can read PDFs with ease.
9. Open Office: Open Office is a portable version of Microsoft Office. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database.
10. Infra Portable Recorder: This is great portable CD/DVD burning software.
11. FSuite: This app offers plenty of tools for the MAC user. It includes Office, Graphic software, audio, video and developer tools.
12. Country Codes: This is a list of country codes very helpful for determining codes for sending packages or making phone calls when you do not have internet access.
13. Convert for Windows: This is a very hand conversion application. Convert distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, etc.
14. Keep Pass: This is a great password manager you can use on your USB drive. Storing all your passwords in one place is a great help when you use multiple computers.
15. Open Contacts: This is a client relationship management software you can add to your USB drive. It helps you manage your client relationships with ease, including letting you ensure you don’t miss follow up opportunities.
16. Portable Task Planner: Ensure that you don’t miss any of your appointments or neglect your tasks by using this great task planning software you can store right on your USB drive.
17. Money Manager EX: This is a great tool to pass along to your clients. It is free and it gets them started on some of the most basic aspects of managing their finances, like creating and monitoring a budget. By employing this tool at home, your clients will learn how to save more for retirement, which they can then get you to help them invest.

By using these applications, you’ll be able to work effectively from any location. You can keep track of your clients, manage your daily tasks and create presentations to go over with clients.

Today’s financial planner is required to be on the go. Applications that can go with you can mean the difference between getting everything done and leaving tasks incomplete, particularly on days when you may be visiting clients.

We’re certain that these applications will be ones you are happy to have on your USB drive so that you can maintain productivity and responsiveness to your clients even when you have to be out of your regular office for the day.

The old saying is that death and taxes are the only certainties. However, tax law is always changing. In fact, in some cases it takes a tax professional to help you understand the process. People go to school for years to learn the ins and outs of tax law — and then they have to If you are looking for some direction with your taxes, you can find some advice on the web. You need to be careful of where you get the information, but you can get a good start on learning some of the basics when you read these 50 blogs on taxes:

Income Taxes

You can get tax tips about preparing your income taxes and learn about regulations, as well as some of the latest tax breaks.

1. Tax Planning: About.com tax planning guide provides you with tips and helpful hints to help you better manage your income taxes.
2. Roni Deutch: The Tax Lady Blog: Helpful tax advice and tips from a respected tax professional.
3. Taxable Talk: Answers questions about common and uncommon tax situations.
4. The Wandering Tax Pro: Get information about taxes, and learn helpful tips about preparing your taxes.
5. Don’t Mess with Taxes: Tips, advice and insights related to income taxes.
6. Stacie’s More Tax Tips: Helpful tips that provide you with the information you need for your taxes.
7. Our Taxing Times: Get the perspective of a tax professional.
8. The Missouri “Taxguy”: Tax tips and helpful hints for tax preparation.
9. Tick Marks: Addresses issues related to taxes and tax prep, as well as touching on matters of personal finance and politics.
10. Rubin on Tax: The latest news on what affects your income taxes.
11. Tax Break: The official Turbo Tax blog offers plenty of tax tips and help.
12. Canadian Tax Resource Blog: If you are interested in tax tips and advice related to Canadian taxes, income and business.
13. Tax Brain: Get information on tax preparation, and more.

Business Taxes

If you have a business, you have special tax forms to fill out, and there are different tax credits and deductions.

14. Business Tax Advisor: This blog on AllBusiness.com offers helpful advice related to business taxes.
15. US Business Law/Taxes: Find out more about small business law and taxes.
16. Gina’s Tax Tips: Find out more about small business taxes, and get tips on preparing your small business returns, as well as get individual tax tips.
17. Tax Update Blog: Roth & Company offers information on business taxes and other tax related issues.
18. Tax 2.0: Find out more about corporate taxes, and how they might affect your business.
19. Portland Small Business Tax Blog: While this site focuses mainly on small business tax tips in Portland, it is still helpful for others as well on some subjects.
20. SalesTaxBuzz: A business tax blog that helps businesses with their transactions.

Property/Real Estate Taxes

Want to know more about real estate taxes, and how they work? You can make use of these blogs that share information about property taxes.

21. Taxing Issues – Property Tax Blog: Get news and information on property taxes, including information for specific states.
22. ValueAppeal Blog: Looks at property tax values. Additionally, this blog offers tips on how you can appeal your property taxes.
23. Property Tax Blog: Helpful information on real estate property taxes, and tips for appeals.
24. New York Property Tax: News, tips and advice relates to New York real estate taxes.
25. Death and Taxes: This blog focuses on real estate issues and taxes, with a special emphasis on estate planning in the Chicagoland area.
26. Estate Planning, Business, Real Estate, & Tax Law: Learn more about a variety of tax subjects, and get good advice and tips on a number of subjects.

Tax Law and Tax Jobs

Learn more about tax law, and how it is applied. Insights, advice and hints about taxes. You can also learn about tax jobs and the people that work in taxes.

27. Taxgirl: An attorney that really knows her tax stuff. New tax information, and how it affects you.
28. MauledAgain: Tax law news and commentary.
29. Tax Relief Blog: Tips and information on tax law that can help you find relief.
30. Tax Law Blog: A look at tax law, and tips on tax litigation.
31. Tax Law Forum: Find information about tax law, and tips for what you can do to stay on top of things, at this blog.
32. Nonprofit Law Prof Blog: This blog looks at law related to organizations with no-profit tax status.
33. Tax Controversy Lawyer Blog: Read about tax law and stay up to date on the latest developments.
34. International Tax Blog: News about international tax law, policy and more.
35. Tax Grotto — All About Tax Jobs: News and information about tax jobs, and the people that work in global taxes.
36. In-House Tax Blog: This U.K. blog offers information on tax technology, tax jobs and more.
37. Taxes.ca: Canadian tax law and information that can be of help and provide advice.

Tax Policy and News

How do we end up with the taxes we have? What are some of the theories that have to do with how taxes are figured — and how the money is spent? A look at tax policy, and how it might affect you.

38. Tax Policy Blog: The Tax Foundation offers analysis on tax policy.
39. TaxVox: The Tax Policy Center has its own policy blog.
40. A Taxing Matter: Learn more about tax policy, read the latest news about taxes, and find out how tax policy affects you.
41. TaxProf Blog: Latest news in tax policy, as well as some analysis.
42. Tax Lawyer’s Blog: Follow the latest tax policy headlines, and read analysis about how you can navigate the policy changes.
43. IRS Hitman: News about taxes, and the headlines that affect the ordinary taxpayer. Specialization is helping with tax debt.
44. Tax Rascal: Looks at the main issues of the day, and how they are affected by taxes — and then how they affect you.
45. Start Making Sense: Tax policy blog that offers insight, tips and advice on how different aspects of tax policy affect you.
46. Tax.com: Policy news and headlines, designed to help you know what’s coming so you can make better decisions about your tax planning.
47. The Tax CPA: This professional offers her perspective on taxes and policy.
48. 21st Century Taxation: A look at tax policy, and how the tax system can be moved into this century.
49. The Fair Tax Blog: A look at tax policy, and promotion of the idea of the fair tax.
50. taxprecision: An interesting look at international tax policy.

US taxes are very complex. If you’re considering a career in the tax accounting field, it is important that you understand how US tax laws work and that you stay up to date on changes as they occur. Check out these You Tube Videos that can give you some good insight into taxes and tax accounting for both individuals filing taxes and for business taxes.

1. Weird Tax Facts: Is it patriotic to pay taxes?
2. Three Great Reasons to Pay Your Taxes: A tongue in cheek look at how bad things happen when people don’t pay taxes.
3. IRS Tax Commissioner Dodges Question: See the Tax Commissioner dodge the question about whether or not there is a law that requires you to pay taxes.
4. 5 Income Tax Tips to Save You Money: Learn how to save money on your taxes. Make sure you’re not forgetting the deductions to which you’re entitled.
5. Tax Deduction Tips for Businesses: Learn about accrual accounting.
6. Tax Deduction Tips for Businesses: Cash basis tax. Learn the meaning of taxation on a cash basis, and how it impacts your business taxes.
7. How to Avoid an IRS Audit: Learn the mistakes that will automatically make you more likely to get audited.By avoiding these common pitfalls, you can help your return fly under the radar.
8. How to Avoid an IRS Audit: Learn how to deduct losses on your business without doing any of the things that trigger the IRS to audit you.
9. IRS Self Employed Tax Deductions: Get all the deductions your small business deserves in this video from Harbor Financial. This video helps business owners ensure that they haven’t missed any of the deductions to which they’re entitled.
10. Federal Tax Breaks for 2009/2010: Harbor Financial teaches you about the new tax breaks for 2009/10.Make sure that you understand the changes to the tax laws that happen every year.
11. Federal Tax Withholding Calculator: Here are the tables for calculating your federal tax withholding.
12. Child Tax Credit: Harbor Financial talks about the child income tax credit. The child tax credit applies to most families, but starts to taper off at a particular income. See how much credit you can get for each child.
13. Amending Your Tax Return: How to amend your return after you’ve filed. If you find a mistake on your tax return after you’ve filed it, you can correct it with an amended return.
14. Inheritance Tax Laws: Learn about the inheritance tax laws for 2010/2011. Inheritance tax usually only applies when a large amount of money is inherited. See how this tax law works.
15. The Gift Tax: Understand the Gift Tax and whether it applies to you. Understand how the gift tax allows people to give away some of their money without their being any tax.
16. Tax Tips: Are Hobby Expenses Deductible?: Discusses how you can deduct hobby expenses on your federal tax returns.
17. Tax Tips for Mileage: Learn how to claim a mileage deduction for your small business. Mileage deductions are a great way to save money on your taxes if you own a small business. See how to keep track of and calculate this deduction.
18. 10 Common Business Tax Deductions: Learn the most common deductions you can take for your business. There are some common deductions every business owner should be taking.
19. The Best Kept Secrets of the IRS: Learn the deductions the IRS doesn’t want you to know about. See some of the less common deductions and credits that are not widely talked about, but that can save you money.
20. Save Money with Frequently Missed Tax Deductions: Be sure you don’t miss any tax deductions. This video shows you the most commonly missed tax deductions so that you can ensure that you’re not missing them.

These videos should help you to have a better understanding of how taxes work, and some of the most recent changes to the tax laws. Tax accounting is definitely a field that requires you to stay on top of changes as they occur.

If you are thinking about relocating to Europe, be aware that some of the countries have extreme tax rates. These figures are based on the average tax rate on earnings, including income, social security and healthcare. Because of the European Union, many of these economies are intertwined and dependent on one another. The average income tax in Europe is 42%.

Belgium: Rate of taxes in Belgium is around 55.1% and it has one of the highest taxes in the world.  It is above all for sole earner in Belgium as in form of taxes. A person is exempted from taxes in Belgium, if he earns something below 6040 Euros but is charged in form of taxes anywhere in range of 25% to 55.1%. In Belgium there are taxes in form of communal and regional taxes at the rate of 6%.  There most of goods and services are taxed at 21%. Income taxes are deducted by employers on a pay as you earn basis. Belgium has a few natural resources and its economy is highly import based though there are certain industrial regions are also available there. The rate of unemployment there is around 6.5%.

France: Average taxation applied in France is around 50.2%, and it is the Parliament that examines which tax to be levied around and which tax is to be monitored through and around things. There are many collection institutions, taxes which are collected by the government and local collectivities and social deductions are collected by the manner of social security. Tax is even charged upon people if there a long list of existing taxes occurs there like professional tax, housing tax and corporate tax.

Hungary: In hungry, there is rate of taxation is about 41 %, that too is highest tax in Eastern Europe. In Hungry, there is system where taxes increases according to income as paid to a person. Even foreign nationals are not exempted to this rule and they are expected to register as taxpayers and there they receive income from abroad.  There income tax is levied into the range of 18-36%. If you are not recipients of health care in Hungry you are not expected to pay this tax.

Germany: The rate of Taxation in Germany is somewhere around to 52.5 %, and there very high level of taxes are being paid by both German Locals as well as expatriate throughout the year. Still there is a lower permissible limit to taxation. Income upto 52, 152 Euros pay taxes form 15-42% and 42% for anything even higher for rate and prices. There is also levied an additional “solidarity surcharge” of 5.5% of the tax that is therefore is being paid for integrating East German former states.   Other than income there are too around some 30 different types of taxes there. Germany is the strongest economy in Europe that has a social market economy that is vastly export-oriented and is the leading exporter of merchandise.

Poland: The rate of taxation in this country is 43.7%, and it is the country that is growing with a rate of about 6% per year. And this massive rate of growth in Poland there is occurring due to its separation from Poland in which it entered into world capitalist market. Though its agricultural market is not that much sufficient yet its workforce was rather involved in the industrial and service industries. The Expatriates there pay same amount of taxes as equivalent to the natives living in Poland. Special taxes, apart from income, lies there from owning a dog or from driving a car or bus.

Finland: With Taxation counting around 44.1%, Finland is a very developed industrial country which has a very higher level of concentration towards agriculture and it is entirely an agricultural city. Here it increases, the GDP that is equal to those in Western Europe and its citizens have a high GDP that is even equal to that of the Western Europe. With around a category of Finland like as timber and water. There too exists very high level and an upper rate of unemployment which is high employer-paid social security taxes.

Netherlands: With taxation around 44.4%, The Netherlands is a base member of European Union and World Trade Oganization. It is one of the most lassiez-faire economies in the world and  punitively low employment rate that is around 4% and most of its population is involved in low employment and other are involved into service industries. Their income tax ranges into category of 33-52%.

To taxation has emerged from imposing a financial charge or any other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state do that aligning to it may result into punishable by law. Taxes consist of direct tax or indirect tax, and may be paid in money or as its labor equivalent. However, below is provided a list of different resources where one can have more information about taxation.

1. IRS:  It is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury and one of the world’s most efficient tax administrators. In 2004, the IRS collected more than $2 trillion in revenue and processed more than 224 million tax returns. The mission of IRS to provide American taxpayer top quality service as making them to understand and meet their tax responsibility.
2. World Wide Tax: This is very comprehensive site that provide information about topics related to taxation and financial subjects. And soon would have database from nearly 70 countries. It is primarily developed for mangers and business people at every level.  Most of the info on the site is provided entirely free without any cost and price in easy to understand language.
3. WebTaxCenter.com: This is quite a helpful website for a good number of information about on topics and subjects like Corporate Tax, Individual Tax, International Tax, Expatriate Tax, and Sales Tax.
4. US Tax Network: With more than 100,000 visitors monthly, it is one of the Web’s largest and most authoritative business and investment information sources, on this site along with topical, daily news on worldwide tax developments, you can have weekly newswires or access up-to-date intelligence reports on a range of legal, tax and investment subjects like Corporate Tax, Individual Tax, International Tax, Expatriate Tax, and Sales Tax.
5. Tax-News.com: With the readership of about 50,000 qualified readers it is great source for tax related news updated by about team of nearly 20 international journalists.  It covers area like international tax-planning in depth, including banking secrecy, the EU’s savings tax directive, offshore funds, e-commerce, offshore gaming and transfer pricing.
6. Taxation News And Information: It is an independent information channel online   providing information related to the field of international taxation and tax legislation. It is published in two languages English and Russian and is planned to come out in other languages in near future.
7. Organization for economic cooperation and development: The OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration is at the premier institute for formulating international tax standards like as OECD Model Tax Convention and the Transfer Pricing Guidelines.  It is too involved in sorting out politically sensitive issues. It also deals into fiscal policies of its member countries with respect to macroeconomic projections.
8. American Accounting Association: The American Accounting Association promotes worldwide talent and excellence in field of accounting education, taxation, research and practice. Established in 1916 as the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting. The organization is a voluntary one and is for people who are interested in accounting education and research.
9. Codex Taxes: This site is developed in a form of an interactive forum for tax professionals. It provides opportunity to publish articles related to taxation and share other important and imperative information. After registration a user can publish any tax document into and through it.
10. No taxation Without Information:  This is a website that is a part of the Sam Adam Alliance’s transparency that is a Wikipedia like website and allows people to find out and share information with each other on whether state and local governments are effective and easy on using tax payer’s money. Many other information related to taxation is also provided over there.

Taxation is a career field that nations can not do without. It is of great demand hence the need to study it. Achieving a Degree or Diploma in taxation is not enough for you to be a complete professional in the world of taxation. It is important to Master in it so that you can be able to make a good professional survey. Tax collection and accounting skills are acquired as you take a course in Master of Taxation. Numerous schools offer online learning that leads to a Masters Degree in Taxation. Some of the online schools include: The Grand Valley State University based at Allendale, California State University based at Fullerton and Michigan.

The University of Tulsa is a well established online institution that has been developed to provide world class learning to individuals. It is also widely known for its provision of the Master Course in Taxation. It provides an advanced education on the understanding of tax issues, methods and strategies. This flexible educational masters program can be completed within a period of two years. All the tax courses at the online University of Tulsa are offered online. It is a highly recognized online institution that is accredited by the AACSB International. The tuition fee does not differ from the on-campus programs.

As you take a Masters Course in taxation, you will be introduced to some general virtual classroom tutorials that can enable you to access to your lectures, assignments and so on. They include:

• Application- Sharing Software
• CD ROM Multimedia Courseware
• Audio and Video
• The Electronic Bulletin Boards
• E mail accounting
• The Online Tax Research Library- Where you will  be able to access the recommended books for the study
• The Lecture Resources -which provide clear links that will enable you to access to the course materials and requirements.

With online Masters in Taxation, one can be able to study from any part of the world online. In fact, it is easier, cheaper and time saving. You do not have to worry about your social world as you take your online masters course. All you need to do is join a network that can enable you to access to your online classmates. After that, you can establish a good online relationship with them whereby you can share ideas and assist each other profesionally as you take your course.

A Masters in taxation suits the professionals who are aspiring to work within restraints of the concepts that operate under the local tax systems together with the federal. It helps these profesionals to make use of their knowledge as employees of large shareholders or corporations. The Masters in Taxation Program prepares the trainees to come up with tough decisions that concern estate taxes, income taxes for beneficiaries, gift taxes and grantors.