Here is a great article that landed in my Inbox this morning. It really gives you a good overview of the gift tax return and what is required in order to properly complete it. When creating an estate plan, it is recommended to consider an array of tax strategies while surveying various expert opinions.
You can go here to estimate your 2011 income tax under three scenarios:
1. Bush tax cuts expire
2. Bush tax cuts extended
3. Obama’s budget: Congress passes the tax laws suggested in the president’s budget
Disclaimer: The results are estimates. For more details go to heritage.org.
What is taking place is perhaps best described as an economic vote of no confidence in a free market republic. By contrast in parliamentary forms of government, a political mechanism for putting the breaks on the fiscal policy comes from within the legislative branch by the use of a no confidence vote. However, as the influence of lobbyists in the US has steadily grown, the political playing field is skewed to the side of both political parties which delays fiscal corrections while deferring to the influence of those who are willing and able to pay the price.
The central bank is simply providing temporary shelter for parking high debt-to-equity assets, however, the public is aware of them through non-traditional sources. It is well documented that many of Dr. Paul’s following are largely those who share information about the intricacies of US fiscal and monetary policies. After all, Dr. Paul’s 2008 presidential bid was successful largely because of the Internet following he had and still has today.
An interesting phenomenon occurring today is how demographics in the information age count for an increasingly large part of the understanding of what drives economics. The traditional two-sided approach of monetary and fiscal policy have a new, influential partner, and the last vestiges of this alliance are becoming more and more apparent when one considers the greater fool theory.
Oh, if you are unsure as to precisely what the meaning of the multiplier effect is, then you can read about it here.
Read more at thedailycapitalist…
“I wonder if President Obama reads the same data as I do? Aside from the fact that the numbers the White House presented are false, the data are revealing the beginning of an economic slowdown which are clearly contra to the Administration’s claims that the economy is growing. The Fed is clearly worried as shown below in the minutes of its June meeting. In fact they expect years of slow growth. I wonder if Mrs. Romer talked to Chairman Bernanke before she boasted about her fake numbers?”
“I’ve been noticing that a lot of economists are now jumping on the slow growth bandwagon. As usual they look at yesterday’s data and guess what’s going to happen tomorrow. As most economists are either Keynesian, Monetarists, or Neo-Classicists, I don’t believe they have yet to grasp the negative implications of the inefficacy of government stimulus and the Fed’s attempt at quantitative easing.”
“I have been writing about the potential of a second half decline since last year and I believe the numbers are bearing me out and for the exact reasons I have been predicting. I don’t claim omniscience, I may be just confirming my own biases, or perhaps it is just luck, as Nassim Taleb would say, but it certainly fits into the framework of Austrian theory.”
Additionally, the August edition of Smithsonian magazine features this article on Shai Agassi, whose company Better Place is betting on the all-electric automobile in which batteries that power cars are envisioned as being an easily interchangeable unit of the car…
“Agassi’s business plan is unique among electric-car service providers. Others will make the vehicles. He will lease the batteries to car owners, and sell access to his switching and charging network. He expects to make his money selling miles, much as a cellphone-service provider sells minutes. Subscribers to Agassi’s plan would be entitled to pull into a roadside switching station for a battery change or to plug into a charging station, where dozens of other cars might also be hooked up, for an overnight or workday charge. Agassi estimates his customers will pay no more for battery power than they would spend on gasoline to travel the same distance. As business grows and costs fall, Agassi says, profits will soar. He says eventually he might give cars away, just as cellular-service providers offer free phones to customers with long-term contracts.”
With billions of taxpayer dollars being injected into battery technology, the short-term problem of increased fossil fuel usage may be curtailed, however, the larger problem of an across-the-board adaptation to the home and workplace is not solved. Nonetheless, we have featured Better Place on our blogroll for you to check out and form your own opinion. Whenever taxpayer dollars are spent, the question must be asked whether it is an efficient use of money. Are all available options being explored, or is this just another case of too little, too late?
There is nothing more American in the history of the world than thinking big. One day does not have to come if you are of a uniquely American mindset. One day can be tomorrow if only the right ideas were put forth. Tax credits for things like solar water heaters and hybrid automobiles only scratch the surface of the larger issue, the truly big American issue, which is the production of limitless clean energy. How is this done? Just ask the people at the European Space Agency, which is now working on SPS, or Solar Power Satellites. Capturing solar radiation, converting it into energy, and transmitting it either via a wireless transmitter to a receiver station on Earth or creating a “space elevator” made of carbon nanotubes, this technology is the quintessential American big idea, and it should be the focus of political leaders when crafting energy industry incentives, commonly referred-to as tax credits. Honda is already producing carbon nanotubes, and the European Space Agency is already investing heavily into SPS. It’s time for America to think big, that is, in a small way with carbon nanotube technology coupled with SPS.
California has always prided itself on being on the leading edge of innovation, at least in the computer technology sector. However, as a CPA who is duty-bound to serve the public and who feels the effects of the misdirection of government policy first-hand, i.e., on the client’s bottom line, it is beyond imagination as to why there are so few state initiatives to promote the implementation of solar and wind technology to widespread grid applications. There are practically no tax credits available right now for solar or wind in California, except if you consider a $1,500 rebate for a solar water heater and various incentives for those who meet certain low income tests as a matter of public policy as taxation is regarded.
Clearly, a much broader view of the economics of technology has to be taken by state leaders before development will take place. Frankly, the scenes of President Obama touring the solar plant in the East Bay city of Fremont was highly suspicious because of the union membership there. But then would-be governor and lieutenant governor Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom toured the same solar facility, which leaves one thinking whether there are more than just this one facility in the state that is engaged in alternative energy production. Or is it just this one solar plant that the politicians keep visiting over and over? Frankly, the moonbeam needs to come down to earth and enlighten us as to what exactly the plan is to return California to its innovative best, while simultaneously curing the plague of chronic unemployment. The way to do this is with alternative energy technology that is bursting onto the scene, especially now that the BP oil disaster has transpired and underscored the importance of this at this particular time when life and death are literally at stake.
One of these technologies is the production of ammonia at desalination plants which can be located alongside energy-generating wind turbines at sea. Where are the tax credits for the development of ammonia or wind turbines at sea? Certainly not in California, at least not now. It is literally breathtaking and heartbreaking to watch as Louisianans are so helplessly embedded with the old brick and mortar oil industry that they are calling on the administration to withdraw the offshore drilling moratorium. California has the opportunity to break out of the pack, say no to the oil lobby, and implement policies that develop alternative fuel industries.
Maybe what’s wrong with this picture is that it could change right now. Click on it to see what the web site at the California Energy Commission’s Solar and Wind Energy System Credits page says about tax credits for wind and solar: There are currently NO [underscored] California State Tax Credits or Deductions for solar or wind systems.
Soon, webtaxcpa will be linking over to a site that will help the entrepreneur, investor, and developer as well as the curious find alternative energy resources. We are committed to serving the public by promoting products and services that are on the leading edge of technology. As the political winds hopefully shift, and real change does come about in the form of tax policies in this field, we will bring them to you as soon as they are made available to us.
By Michelle C. Lerman
February 3, 2010
realestateinvestorlaw
Attorney Michelle Lerman discusses PLR 200742026, in which the IRS rules that decedent IRA’s must have a beneficiary designated prior to the date of death. Moreover, the ruling trumps state rulings to the contrary…
“An IRS private letter ruling highlights the importance of an updated estate plan. In Private Letter Ruling No. 200742026, the IRS ruled that even a state court order could not salvage the damage caused by an out-of-date beneficiary designation form.”
Read more here.
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