03/30/2025
Dear [RECIPIENT]
As Tax Season Opens, We Must Stay Alert to Rising Scam Threats
Tax and Financial News
March 2025
As tax filing season begins, scammers are ramping up efforts to steal taxpayers' personal information through increasingly sophisticated schemes. Below, we discuss the latest scam, what to look out for in general, and what to do if you suspect something malicious.
New Scam of the Season
The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) recently issued an alert about a prevalent scam involving Economic Impact Payments.
In this scheme, taxpayers receive texts claiming they're eligible for a $1,400 Economic Impact Payment, requesting personal information and bank details for deposit. While the IRS is indeed processing some legitimate Recovery Rebate Credit payments from 2021 tax returns, they will never request personal information via text or social media. These legitimate payments will be automatically distributed by late January 2025, either through direct deposit or paper check, with official notification letters sent separately.
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Defining Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
General Business News
March 2025
The subscription economy, according to Forbes, is expected to reach $1.5 trillion in revenue for businesses. With the potential likely realized this year, it's vital to understand how it is tracked – and more importantly, how it's able to be tracked on a separate basis.
Also known as net dollar retention (NDR), this metric calculates the proportion of recurring revenue kept from present clients, including upsells and churn, during a defined time frame. Net revenue retention (NRR) evaluates a business's potential to keep and increase sales from their present clients.
It looks at how well a company leverages existing customer relationships to increase sales through add-ons, complimentary services, etc. It focuses on the long-term growth of recurring revenue from these relationships. It's calculated as follows:
NRR = (Starting MRR + Expansion MRR - Churn MRR) ÷ Starting MRR
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Copyright and AI-Generated Images and Videos: What Businesses Need to
What's New in Technology
March 2025
Know to Stay Legal
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are reshaping content creation. It is now easier for businesses to produce images and videos for use on websites, social media, and other digital outlets. All this is possible without the traditional hurdles of expensive photoshoots, special design skills, or complex video production. However, as exciting as it is, business owners must pose and confront the question of whether these AI-generated images and videos are legally safe for commercial use from a copyright perspective.
Understanding AI-Generated Content and Copyright
AI-generated content is created by training algorithms with massive datasets of existing images, videos, and text. The AI models then analyze patterns from the training data to generate new content. However, issues arise concerning the ownership of the generated content. Without clear legal guidelines, the ownership of AI-generated images and videos remains a gray area that leaves businesses and individuals vulnerable to potential disputes.
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I am a fractional and interim CFO who helps small and medium-sized businesses in Maryville TN.
