As April is tax month, included here is a short quiz to see how well you know your Federal Income Taxes.Enjoy!

$1.2 trillion was collected by the Federal Government, however $358 million was then returned to some of us in the way of refunds.

8.4 million tax returns had 10.6 million math errors on them!

The Making Work Pay Credit accounted for over 60% of all the math errors.This tax credit expired at the end of 2010.

4 pages.This included a three-page form and one page of instructions.

141.1 million individual tax returns were filed n FY 2010.

The 1950's.Prior to this the department was called the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

While most income received from your employer quickly ends up on a W-2 tax form at the end of the year, here are some common employee benefits that often avoid the impact of Federal taxes.

Health Benefits. While now reported on W-2's employer provided health insurance premiums are currently not required to be reported as additional income by the employee.This includes premiums paid for the employee and qualified family members.In addition, the employee portion of premiums can be paid in "pre-tax" dollars.

Credit Card Airline "miles". Credit card benefits like miles are not generally deemed as taxable income.So those miles earned on corporate credit cards that go to you as an individual are not likely to increase your tax bill.

Employee tuition reimbursement. Up to $5,250 of tuition reimbursed to you by your employer are not deemed to be additional taxable income.

Commuting expenses.You can generally exclude the value of transportation benefits you receive up to the following limits.

	$120 per month for combined commuter highway vehicle transportation and transit passes.
	$230 per month for qualified parking
	For a calendar year, $20 multiplied by the number of months for qualified bicycle commuting expense reimbursement.

Company Health Savings Account (HSA) Contributions.Up to specified dollar limits, cash contributions to the HSA of a qualified individual (determined monthly) are exempt from federal income tax withholding, social security tax, Medicare tax, and FUTA tax.

Group Term Life Insurance.You can generally exclude the cost of up to $50,000 of group-term life insurance from your wages.

Small gifts.The IRS calls these"de minimis" benefits.Small-valued benefits are not included in income and could include things like the use of the company copy machine, occasional meals, small gifts, and tickets to a sporting event.

What is Crowdsourcing? Wikipedia defines "crowdsourcing" as:

"the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a "crowd"), through an open call."

Typically, crowdsourcing involves broadcasting a problem via the web and asking a large group of unknown individuals to solve the problem. Either the crowd or the asking individual can determine which solution is the best, and reward the winner either monetarily or via recognition. Crowdsourcing can also be used to do piecework; things that could take you hundreds to thousands of hours can be assigned to a "crowd" do be completed in days.

	Design work. Numerous web sites allow users to submit a design project and have designers bid on the work.In other cases, designs are pre-submitted from the "crowd" and the user then pays for the winning submission.
	Programming. The same concept is used for programming applications and designing websites.Web tools are available to have your program application done quickly and often cost effectively.
	Data Entry. Have a large collection of small parts that need to be sorted for your website?You can use crowdsourcing to have the parts cataloged and categorized for you on a price per piece basis.Each member of the crowd gets paid for the portion of the work they complete.
	Data Classification. Take a large set of data and have the "crowd" help you sort through it.NASA has used crowdsourcing to help document its library of photos and even help prioritize the images it takes from the Mars Orbiter.They did this by launching a tool and asking the public to participate in their organization project.

How can Crowdsourcing Help?

	Businesses. You can use crowdsourcing to develop a new business logo, design a website, evaluate/sort data, or get feedback on a new product or service. Essentially, crowdsourcing allows you to cost-effectively tap into a huge network of affordable freelancers.
	Freelancers.Crowdsourcing can be a great way to drum up new business.Websites exist to source new work from a wider geographic area than might otherwise be available to you. These crowdsourcing websites that connect businesses with freelancers generally collect a small one-time fee, although others take a percentage of the total transaction.

Sample websites:
www.99designs.com: allows customers to submit a call for identity, web, print, graphic, or merchandise designs, set a price, and select a winning design.

www.vWorker.com: allows customers to access thousands of computer programmers around the world

www.CloudCrowd.com: helps business owners or individuals access editing, translating, copywriting, and PR services

Is there a downside? Some of the issues that come up when discussing crowdsourcing include making confidential information public, out-sourcing local work to third world countries, and uncertainty about the quality of work done by the "crowd".While there are varied opinions about the value of crowdsourcing, the concept appears to be here to stay.