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DETAILS OF THE PAYROLL TAX EXTENSION
On December 23rd 2011, the United States Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed into law a two month continuation (into January and February 2012) of the 2% 2011 Social Security Payroll Tax reduction for employees.
The dynamics that the tax cut is limited to two months inherently creates a potential tax strategy for sharp taxpayers, tax lawyers, tax attorneys, tax accountants and tax advisors. Had Congress not had the foresight to anticipate and close the opportunity for this tax strategy (tax loophole) taxpayers and tax professionals could have bunched their income into the first two months of 2012 to take advantage of the 2% reduction most or all of the year regardless of whether the Social Security Payroll Tax reduction is continued for the remainder of 2012. To forestall this strategy, Congress included a “recapture” provision which essentially limits the 2% reduction to two twelfths of the $110,100 2012 Social Security Wage Base. A parallel provision accomplishing the same result for self employment taxes is also included. For employers who use payroll service or payroll software the additional computations should be hardly noticeable. For employers who manually prepare their payroll this makes payroll preparation even exciting.
For information on payroll tax or other tax related legal concerns, contact the Chicago tax lawyers at Horowitz & Weinstein.
May Day 2012
The coming May Day bank holiday will be the 34th since it was introduced way back in in 1978. In those far-off days of Government incomes policies, the TUC had a series of meetings with the Government in 1977 to discuss introducing the new bank holiday as part of the quid pro quo (I have the minutes). This followed on our previous success in getting New Years Day established as a bank holiday (1974).
Lets get out there and enjoy this holiday, which we richly deserve. Perhaps the weather may not be the best ever, but if we are going to get depressed by the odd shower then we are probably living in the wrong country. There are plenty of things that we could this weekend indoors and outdoors, including visiting a number of local trade union festivals (this is not just being worthy, the one taking place in Dorchester on Sunday afternoon is basically a mini rock festival) and more traditional May Day events.
Turning back to those 1970s negotiations for a moment , one part of the May Day deal that has largely become lost in the mists of history was that 1978 was the first year when compensatory days were given when the Christmas and boxing day bank holidays fell at the weekend. This
Time to tax Elgin’s CO2 leakage
Each day, 400 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) are escaping free to air from the Total Elgin gas leak in the North Sea. There’s no carbon tax to be paid on Total’s gas leak, no charge for adding to the UK’s carbon emissions, or reduction in the company’s overall “carbon allowance”. Total claims that the leakage rate is 200,000 cubic metres a day. A cubic meter of natural gas generates 1.9 kilos of carbon dioxide, so the daily rate is just under 400 tonnes CO2. Total is reported that it did not yet know the capacity of the leaking reservoir, but in a dream scenario it could simply run itself out. Just like leaving your engine running, then.
Consumers are already pay a price. DECC says production from Elgin and the connected Franklin site, which has also been shut, account for about 3% of the UKs gas supply. So far, the leakage has prompted a 1.5% rise in wholesale gas prices. Its the most serious incident in the North Sea since Piper Alpha. RMT offshore org
How Young is Too Young to Teach Kids About Money?
Moms have been asking me this age-old question for years.
The short answer: Start when your child is old enough to say, “Gimme!”
The long answer: Research shows that kids as young as three years old can learn about money. If it’s hard to imagine your finger painting, peanut-butter eating little one calculating compound interest, fear not. Karen Holden, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that kids don’t need math skills to build good financial habits. They just need to understand basic, but critical, concepts like waiting, making choices and developing values.
In fact, this idea was a starting point for Sesame Street’s “For Me, for You, for Later,” a financial education initiative entirely for preschool-age kids and for which Karen and I were advisors. I even got to st
Roger Harris: Uncollected Internet Sales Tax Unfair
You may have noticed that the Internet is everywhere.
We bank, watch movies and read newspapers on the Web. We use smartphones to check stock prices and school schedules.
We can all agree that the Internet is not a fad.
We should also agree it’s now time for the Net to grow up. It’s time to end the free tax ride that online retailers enjoy.
Billions of dollars are at stake.
Support for a national solution to make it easier for states to require online retailers to collect sales taxes has grown in recent years. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Congress is inclined to tackle the issue anytime soon, judging from comments from some of Tennessee’s delegation.
U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville, is “still studying the issue and wants to look into it further,” a spokesman said.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., “is aware of the complex issues involved with state sales taxes and online commerce. He is current
Economy improving a little, but still pretty ghastly
The monthly Treasury round-up of independent Forecasts for the UK Economy is always worth reading and this months shows the independent (mainly City) economists responding to the rising business optimism of recent months. Theres an awful lot of economic indices and surveys floating around these days but two I always take seriously have suggested things are looking up. Yesterdays Industrial Trendssurvey from the CBI found 39 per cent of manufacturers expecting output to rise in the next three months, as against 15 per cent expecting it to fall; the net balance of + 24 per cent is the highest since this time last year.
The latest Purchasing Managers Index for services was robust, with confidence in the sector the highest for a year and the PMI for manufacturing was positive, with signs of greater confidence.
Finovate: 3 companies worth watching
The Finovate conference held last week in NYC brought together some of the most creative minds in finance and technology. Nerd alert, I know—but fascinating, too! Here’s a pre-launch sneak peek at some of the nifty new products you may hear buzz about in the next couple months. (And let me say up front that I’m not endorsing any of these products—just think they might be interesting to watch.)
- BankSimple. The name says it all—a new, simpler way to bank, courtesy of an Australian (CEO Josh Reich) who moved to the States and found American banking to be the baffling, customer-unfriendly ordeal we all know it to be. Enter BankSimple, a web- and app-only service that tracks and categorizes your expenses a la Mint.com, but partners with FDIC-insured banks and credit unions to keep your money safe and accessible. Why choose it over your standard, storefront bank? BankSi