Debit Cards for Tax Returns

Here at Holland & Brown, we've been receiving offers to set up a debit card option for our clients getting tax refunds. We were offered a cut of our clients' refunds for participating. The idea doesn't pass the smell test so I've been ignoring those offers. Here is an article that shows how the debit card issuer (an insanely greedy one, anyway) makes huge amounts of money on the deal.

Proposed SOX 404(b) Changes Could Add to Investors’ Risks

The AICPA president, Barry C. Melancon, posted his concerns with proposed changes in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. I share his concerns. Read it here.

Education

"If we don't have a trainable work force, we're not going to be successful in economic development." -- Will Davis, Director of Econcomic Development, Chesterfield County.

That begs the question, what is a trainable work force? What attributes are necessary for a person to be trainable?

Trainable (or trainability) means a person is capable or learning a particular set of skills intended to fit that person for a particular role. Examples: computer programer, nurse's aid, doctor, lawyer, automobile repairman (or woman). [Adapted from the Free Online Dictionary .]

Of the things controllable by society, the most important characteristic of a trainable work force is possession of a quality education. In my opinion, if Virginia continues to short change its public education system from Pre-K through graduate school it will soon lose its status as one of the best places to do business because it will soon fail to create a "trainable work force."