Mediaboss Marketing

BALTIMORE The federal tax deadline is Monday, April 18, and if you need to file there are ways to do it for free.

Millions of people are missing out on this opportunity. A Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report in 2020 found that of the 104 million taxpayers eligible for free-filing, only 2.5 million people used the IRSs program. In contrast, more than 34.5 million taxpayers who met the program criteria, used commercial software to file their tax return.

In Maryland, anyone can file their state returns at no cost, regardless of income.

And while different tax preparers advertise free filing, the Federal Trade Commission said that's not the full truth.

The agency filed a complaint in federal court calling Intuits commercials for free filing with their Turbo Tax software misleading and requested the company be ordered to immediately end its deceptive advertising.

The consumer protection agency argued most tax filers don't qualify like gig workers with 1099 forms or those who earn farm income, and in 2020, around two-thirds of tax filers could not use Turbo Taxs free product.

Intuit is challenging the complaint.

The FTCs arguments are simply not credible. Far from steering taxpayers away from free tax preparation offerings, our free advertising campaigns have led to more Americans filing their taxes for free than ever before and have been central to raising awareness of free tax prep, said Kerry McLean, executive vice president and general counsel of Intuit.

In its response to the complaint, the company also wrote that its ads clearly state Turbo Tax free edition is for simple U.S. returns only, and customers are referred to its website to check if they qualify.

While this dispute plays out in court, taxpayers who made less than $73,000 can use the IRS program to file at no cost.

Ours is free and free means free, said Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot.

The Comptroller of Maryland provides free income tax preparation for state returns at its 12 tax service locations. Customers will need to have a copy of their completed federal tax return.

I think it gives the taxpayer piece of mind knowing that weve done their return or we prepare the return, and hand them a copy or we mail the return for them, said Jeannette Smith, manager of the Towson branch office for the Comptroller of Maryland.

Taxpayers can also use the states internet tax filing system to file returns online.

Actually, all of our services are free. So, whether youre coming to the branch office to file or go online, everything is free, Smith said.

And in Maryland, youll have an extra three months to file. The Comptroller pushed back the deadline for state returns for the third year in a row. The deadline is now July 15, 2022.

Thats in effect. Its 90 days, interest-free, penalty-free, no application necessary loan of between $1.5 billion and $2 billion to Maryland small businesses and Maryland families, said Comptroller Franchot.

If you taxpayers make more than $73,000, they can still file a free federal return by filling out forms on the IRSs website.

And if you want to visit the Comptrollers office for assistance with your state return, youll need to make an appointment online. If one isnt available, give them a call. Certain locations are also accepting walk-ins.

Click here for additional tax assistance resources in Maryland.

AARP offers free tax preparation for seniors who have low-to-moderate income. If youre over age 50, you can schedule an in-person or virtual tax preparation appointment with a Tax-Aide volunteer. You can find a local site by calling 2-1-1 or searching the database. You can also find one through AARP.

Continue reading here:
Taxes are due: How to find free help and the company accused of falsely advertising free services - wmar2news.com

Just over a year ago, it was announced that Native Instruments and iZotope were coming together to form a music technology alliance with the financial backing of investment firms Francisco Partners and EMH Partners. Now, two more companies - Plugin Alliance and Brainworx - have joined the party, with the parent company being named as Soundwide.

Soundwide says that its aim is to make music-making a more joyful and inspiring experience for creators everywhere by helping them to find, and stay in, their creative flow.

The two new members of the Soundwide family will both be familiar to hi-tech music makers. Plugin Alliance is a software sales, marketing and delivery platform with more than a million account holders, while Brainworx specialises in creating plugin emulations of analogue hardware.

Theres also an all-new brand, Sound Stacks, which is the brainchild of Cesare Ferrari and Julian Storer, creator of the open-source audio application framework JUCE. Sound Stacks aims to drive development of new audio platform technologies for improving productivity and performance for developers.

Soundwide also has a new Artist Board, which features some big names. These include singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, musician/producer/composer Jacob Collier, recording and mix engineer Ann Mincieli, producer and rapper EL-P of Run the Jewels, composer Ludwig Gransson, producer and engineer Noah 40 Shebib, production duo Take A Daytrip, singer-songwriter Tayla Parx, and producer and engineer Young Guru.

The board will advise the Soundwide team on a regular basis, discussing creator needs, product roadmaps, community development and new methods of fostering inclusivity.

To celebrate the foundation of Soundwide, its giving away Native Instruments Ethereal Earth, iZotopes Neutron Elements and Plugin Alliance and Brainworxs six plug-in Welcome Bundle for free. This offer is available until 26 April, and you can find out how to claim your free software on the Native Instruments (opens in new tab) and iZotope (opens in new tab) websites.

Excerpt from:
Plugin Alliance and Brainworx join Native Instruments and iZotope in a new company called Soundwide - MusicRadar

When you talk to folks about what they have missed most about the office since we moved to work from home in 2020, people often point to whiteboarding in a conference room with colleagues, something they have said was hard to do in a digital context. Many companies have tried to fill that void including startups Mural and Miro, the latter of which had a fat $17.5 billion valuation in its most recent round.

Today, Box is entering the fray with the announcement of Box Canvas, a tool that lets you do virtual whiteboard-style brainstorming, but also gives you a place to collaborate on various types of visual content such as a product workflow or a brick and mortar merchandising plan.

Box CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie says that his company integrates with the Microsoft and Google office suites for structured document collaboration, and it also has its own native tooling with Box Notes, but the idea is to bring that ability to collaborate from the realm of structured documents to more visual kinds of content.

With Canvas, were bringing that same kind of experience, but more to visual collaboration, so that kind of virtual whiteboard type experience. I think even though its a space that has seen great innovation from many companies, I still believe its actually extremely early in this market. And I think were only just starting to see the kind of potential of what work is going to look like in this hybrid way of working.

Image Credits: Box

While Box will bundle Canvas into its new suite offering at no additional charge, it also intends to make it available for free as a stand-alone offering for anyone who wants to use it with no limits. He said the intention is to never charge for this capability moving forward.

There are a bunch of core activities that we think every user on the planet is going to want to do with their content. Youre going to want to store it, share it, collaborate around it, get it signed. And so we want to make as many of those core capabilities available to the widest number of people and then well have advanced features based on your ability to govern that data or make it compliant for a specific industry. Those will be very advanced capabilities that we continue to have more and more of over time [and we will charge companies for those capabilities], he said.

Product-led growth has worked for the company from its earliest days when it began offering a free tier of Box, and Levie sees offering Canvas for free as an extension of that thinking, something the company intends to fully embrace moving forward.

As for those other companies producing similar software, Levie says this isnt about competing with them because its a free add-on. I dont really think about it as having to compete with anyone, frankly, because its for our customers. So if youre a Box customer and youre using a Box for managing your most important content, this is just another really valuable way to get your work done.

Box Canvas will be available in the fall, according to the company.

See more here:
Box is adding free whiteboarding tool for collaborating on visual content - TechCrunch

AARP

Check the task or tasks that you need Boot Camp to help you with.

Onthe next Select Tasks screen, check off the appropriate box or boxes toCreate a Windows 10 or later install disk, Download the latest Windows support software from Apple, andInstall Windows 10 or later version. ClickContinue.

Absent any hang-ups, you will be taken to a Create Bootable USB Drive for Windows Installation screen, where you are asked to choose the Windows ISO image and USB drive. ClickContinueto copy the requisite files to the USB drive orStopto interrupt the drill. All this can take a lot of time.

Next, choose your partition sizes, or the amount of space youre devoting on the drive to Windows and the amount for macOS. Drag the divider between the Mac and Windows partitions and when satisfied clickInstall. As you choose, carefully consider the demands and programs you expect to put on each operating system, because you cannot change the partition size later.

From here youre brought to a Windows installer. Choose theBOOTCAMPpartition when asked where to install Windows. Apple warns you not to create or delete a partition that can wipe out the contents of your macOS partition.

Follow the onscreen Windows instructions to complete the installation in Windows. Youre asked to enter a valid Windows activation product key, which you may have received via email after purchasing a digital copy of Windows. Youll need to restart the computer.

Even after you install Windows, you have to install Apples Boot Camp drivers to ensure the hardware works properly. Follow the onscreen prompts, clickFinishand clickYesto restart the Mac again.

Read the rest here:
How to Run Windows on Your Mac - AARP

ATLANTA, April 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern Company today announced a significant step in electric transportation solutions for companies looking to transition commercial fleets to electric vehicles (EV). Having worked with Volta Inc. previously on optimizing EV siting analytics, Southern and Volta today announce PredictEV Fleet a product that will allow Southern Company to inform and advise customers on the right fleet electrification strategy to meet their needs in the most efficient and thorough way.

PredictEV Fleet analyzes data on existing vehicle fleets and premises to identify key planning components such as:

"Nearly one in every five vehicles in the U.S. is owned by a company, making fleet electrification an important business opportunity and a critical component to a carbon-free transportation future for all," said Drew Bennett, Executive Vice President of Network Operations at Volta. "Our fleet product enables data-driven electrification planning for both fleet operators and the utilities that serve them to ensure strategies are future-proof and efficient."

Southern Company expects to use the product to guide its plans to meet rising EV demand and to create new EV product offerings for its customers.

"We're talking to customers everyday about future electric transportation needs and the 'why' is usually clear customers see electric transportation as a way to lower costs and achieve their sustainability objectives. But there's still some uncertainty around the 'how, what, and when.' We see PredictEV Fleet, and our partnership with Volta, as a tool for our customers to start answering those questions." said Chris Cummiskey, chief commercial and customer solutions officer at Southern Company. "This is one of several investments in innovation we are making to bring sustainability solutions to our customers and to our own businesses."

In 2020, Southern Company announced an internal fleet electrification goal to convert 50 percent of its electric companies' light-duty vehicles and equipment to electric by 2030. Southern Company is a founding partner of the venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners (EIP) and collaborates with EIP portfolio companies to bring technology and business model innovation, like PredictEV Fleet, to life for the benefit of our customers, communities, and family of businesses.

About Southern Company

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is a leading energy company serving 9 million customers through its subsidiaries. The company provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy through electric operating companies in three states, natural gas distribution companies in four states, a competitive generation company serving wholesale customers across America, a leading distributed energy infrastructure company, a fiber optics network and telecommunications services. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and affordable prices below the national average. For more than a century, we have been building the future of energy and developing the full portfolio of energy resources, including carbon-free nuclear, advanced carbon capture technologies, natural gas, renewables, energy efficiency and storage technology. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation and a low-carbon future, Southern Company and its subsidiaries develop the customized energy solutions our customers and communities require to drive growth and prosperity. Our uncompromising values ensure we put the needs of those we serve at the center of everything we do and govern our business to the benefit of our world. Our corporate culture and hiring practices have been recognized nationally by the U.S. Department of Defense, G.I. Jobs magazine, DiversityInc, Black Enterprise, Forbes and the Women's Choice Award. To learn more, visit http://www.southerncompany.com.

About Volta

Volta Inc. (NYSE: VLTA) is an industry-leading, global electric vehicle ("EV") charging network, powering vehicles and commerce. Volta's vision is to build EV charging networks that capitalize on and catalyze the shift from combustion-powered miles to electric miles by placing stations where consumers live, work, shop, and play. By leveraging a data-driven understanding of driver behavior to deliver EV charging solutions that fit seamlessly into people's daily routines, Volta's goal is to benefit consumers, brands, and real-estate locations while helping to build the infrastructure of the future. As part of Volta's unique EV charging offering, its stations allow it to enhance its site hosts' and strategic partners' core commercial interests, creating a new means for them to benefit from the transformative shift to electric mobility. To learn more, visit http://www.voltacharging.com.

SOURCE Southern Company

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Southern Company, in partnership with Volta, now offering sustainable software solutions to companies transitioning from commercial fleets to electric...