Ashlee Vance reports in today’s NYTimes that one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data. Read More
Month: January 2010
Lent is Coming-Consider a Financial Fast
Michelle Singletary writes the nationally syndicated personal finance column, “The Color of Money,” which appears in The Post on Thursday and Sunday. Her award-winning column is also carried in more than 120 newspapers. Her third book, “The Power To Prosper,” is scheduled to be released in January 2010. In her spare time, Singletary is the director of a ministry she founded at her church, in which women and men volunteer to mentor others who are having financial challenges. She was recently selected to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from The Johns Hopkins University.
See her column on a financial fast. Good words here.
Dodged a Bullet
From WEBCPA: Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman has decided against coming up with rules on the taxation of employer-provided cell phones and said the IRS would instead wait for congressional legislation.
Savings Opportunities for 2009 from Tax Law Changes
IRS Fact Sheet FS 2010-4 provides a summary of new and expanded deductions and credits available for the 2009 filing season. Here are some topics that are covered:
- American Opportunity Credit helps pay for the first four years of college.
- Many energy improvements qualify for expanded tax credits.
- New vehicle purchase incentives.
- Tax credits for low and moderate income workers.
- Standard deduction increases for most taxpayers.
Read the full text at the link provided above.
Google’s New Phone
Debit or Credit?
How Visa, Using Card Fees, Dominates a Market
By ANDREW MARTIN
Visa says it does not care how consumers use their debit card, as long as it is a Visa. But for now at least, the company says the only way to ensure that a purchase is routed over the Visa network is to sign.
“When you use your Visa card, you have a chance to win a trip to the Olympic Winter Games,” a new Visa commercial promises.
The commercial does not explain the rules, but the fine print on Visa’s Web site does: nearly all Visa purchases are eligible — as long as the cardholder does not enter a PIN.
Read the whole article from the New York Times, January 5, 2010.
Extended Business Carryback Period
IRS Rev. Proc. 2009-52 provides guidance under Section 13 of the Worker, Homeownership, And Business Assistance Act 2009. Section 13 allows taxpayers to elect to carry back an applicable NOL for a period o 3, 4, or 5 years, to offset taxable income in those preceding taxable years. It applies to NOLs for a taxable year ending after December 31, 2007, and beginning before January 1, 2010. An election must be attached to the appropriate carryback form. Here is sample language from the IRS website:
ABC Company is electing to apply Section 172(b)(1)(H) under Rev. Proc. 2009-52. ABC Company is not a TARP recipient and was not an affiliate of a TARP recipient during 2008 or 2009. We are electing a 4 year carryback period.