Archive for July, 2009

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Special Needs Care and Funding

Friday, July 31st, 2009

People, with all the budget cuts happening please stay on top of your legislatures and our leaders to insure that we can still rally whatever funding we can for care for special needs.  Our special needs children, siblings and parents are in need of support and let’s face it, if you are doing it yourself, it isn’t easy, is it?

There has been a concerted effort to cut support from government, business and any other sources of money due to a few reasons:

1.  We are an easy target at first glance.  People think that, oh, look at them, they can’t complain and they don’t have money to donate to us, so we can chop any funding to them.

That generally is a person’s frame of mind in government until they have a daughter with Rett Syndrome, Down, or autism.  All of a sudden they change their tune.  It makes sense because people tend to be selfish and it is a question though of being wisely selfish.

If you cut off funding for care for special needs, there will be more special needs people on the streets with the people who don’t have special needs.  What are you going to do with them?  Let them become prey for predators or let them die?

There is a lot of money still being moved around at the State level for things that we don’t need and we need to keep money in the coffers for people who can’t help themselves.  The same holds true at the Federal level.  Please write to the people in charge and let them know you aren’t happy.

Be ready to vote in people that are going to help get the funding to the people who need it and get jobs to all of us who are in need of employment.  The Depression stinks and it stinks even worse for people who can’t help themselves through no fault of their own.  It is one thing for somebody to live beyond their means intentionally and another for somebody who was working who has no intellectual capacity to understand what is going on to have to suffer as well.  Yeah, I may be talking fairy tale land here because of the real world economics but if I don’t speak up for the people who can’t speak for themselves, who will?  Everybody is fighting to keep what money they have in funding and Congress has to get things going and keep whatever programs are still around still salvaged and viable.

If you have any kind of extra money and can give it to groups like Rett Syndrome research or the charity of your choice, please do what you can to help out. 

2.  The lobby groups for special needs generally aren’t as strong as defense or automotive lobby groups.  Sure, some of the lobbyists may be the same but it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and we need to keep the cash coming and have well-oiled care in place for our family members who can’t take care of themselves.

3.   Keep programs in places that help people get employed – whether they are special needs or not.  We need more people working now so they will have money to live and help take care of people who can’t take of themselves.  We get it.  If people can’t take care of themselves first, they won’t want to take care of other people.

Just my general rant for the end of the month.

The stock market is continuing in a hover sideways mode where things are flat to slightly down( and I called it earlier in the week) so there shouldn’t be much of any kind of news barring a catastrophic event like storm, meteor or giant monster from space terrorizing some local cities.

For those who are interested, I am still working on some new books.  And, as I will get to later in, I am looking for clients who are sick of their tax pros and want somebody who can help them get the highest return possible.  I do corporate, personal, partnership, trust and multi-state returns among other things.  I also do international taxes.

Be safe people.

July 31 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Special Needs Care and Funding  July 31 2009

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It Generally Is Your Turn To Be Lucky

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Question from a reader:”You still playing poker?  You haven’t posted anything on it in a long time.  Love your column btw.”

My answer is yes, I still am playing Hold’em and even though I still don’t like poker and defintely don’t preach that people should treat it as a career or business I have been playing lately.  I was at a $40 NL table a few days ago and I was fortunate to have left the session up another $50 for a total cash out of ninety bucks (see?  I told you that you can’t quit any dayjobs to try to make money at this, certainly not at the low and ultra low limits).  My stack was something like $60 at this point in the session having one some small hands mostly from players beating themselves (going in with small pairs for who knows why and things like that).

I had been dealt this:

ckdk

 

So preflop I made a raise to $10 and a gentleman to my left went ahead and called me.  Another person called and it was three of us to see the flop.  The flop came down:

h7h2hj

 

I wasn’t thrilled about the flop but I figured what the heck and let me see what are the chances somebody has the flush – and the nuts no less – on the flop.  So I bet another $15 and the man to my left goes all in with his stack of $30.  The other player folds.  I matched his stack and was waiting for the gloat.  The guy turns over his cards to show me:

h10h1

“I have you beat,” he said with pride.  “I got the nuts and I win.”

I turned over my pocket kings and said, “Well, let’s see what happens.”  I was already beat but having been rivered to death (and turned to death as well) just like the rest of you, and considering I am into the game for what, $55, where am I going to go?

The turn and flop came down:

skhk

 

At this point, I figured that I had cashed in any and all Karma that I was “due” and the moral of the tale, or at least point of the post is that, It Generally Is Your Turn To Be Lucky If All Other Things Being Equal When It Doesn’t Really Change Your Lifestyle.  It was pretty exciting to get four of a kind and win with my hmmm 2 something percent chances out of a hundred and the losing player after cursing was able to congratulate me and I received an entry for some sort of drawing that I couldn’t attend anyways because of work.  I would have rather won the lottery but who knows maybe I should break down and buy a longshot and see if I am in the zone or not.

So, yes, I still am playing cards and the reason you generally don’t see too many posts one way or another because I hate poker stories more than i dislike playing poker.  I need to have a sign on my neck stating, “I will listen to your great beats, your bad beats, your stroke of whatever fortune” for $50 an bour.  I will nod my head appreciately and cluck my tongue and shake it side to side in sympathy with you for that kind of money as well.”

Rumor was that somebody at one tournament did this and made some money though I suspect it has more urban legend to it than reality check especially since most players don’t even have money for a chair or a chip.

I have been playing 200NL with average results.  By average I mean that I am currently slightly down $318- which isn’t bad for the swings that one can get playing at the higher level game.  I have found that the caliber of play ranges from slightly better to shark mode when players from the $400-500 NL drop down and some of them are quite good-or there is a lot more collusion going on.  I think it is the former and not the latter and that is interesting in of itself though I have seen some very bad signals from a husband and wife team once.  They didn’t end up winning.  So much for trying to beat the system through crime.

Same advice still holds – only play with money that isn’t scared money.  If you are sitting down with bread and egg money – shame on you.  There are better things to do with your money and we are in a Depression.  You shouldn’t be taking money from your family, your business and trying to go on bad investment ideas or gambles where you literally are at the mercy of the flip of some cards.  Ugh.

I also spend some time throwing bullies off balance and they generally leave the table after I get the other sharks on to them.  One guy for an hour was constantly raising and finally on the flop (which had nothing remarkable):

c1djs7

 

I called him with nothing but this:

c3s5

 

I went in and said, “I am tired of you bullying us.  Come on and if you can get me, get me.” 

He balked and folded and he left the table two hands later.  Some players said to me, “He was bullying us, how did you know?”

“Everybody can’t have a great hand every time, can they?”

Of course, he could have had any pair, trips or two pair with an ace, or even just a high card of a six and I would have been dead in the water.  It does take some effort to think sometimes at the $200NL though I think my reads of people, not always cards, are okay.  Now you have another idea why I hate poker, huh?  Too much like work.

Be safe, sane and healthy.  May you all be making money as well.

July 30 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

It Generally Is Your Turn To Be Lucky

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Keep Start Up Costs Ghetto Low

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Question from a reader:”Hey, Kim.  Great blog.  What is the absolute lowest I should lay out in cash to get my business going?  I am starting my own business.”

My answer is congrats and you should start off with spending whatever is reasonable enough to get yourself going and insure that you have expenses covered for three months.  I would say longer like two- three years but in this current economy I wouldn’t start up a business that would be a tough sell now even though eventually it might get better later on.  Example?  Yacht sales are supposedly great anytime because the rich always have money but let’s not kid ourselves.  A lot of wealthy and rich people have had their portfolios decimated in the current economic climate or just aren’t going to drop millions on an extra yacht if the one they have is working fine.  Make sense?

Also if you have enough cash saved up to last three years without work you should be taking your time and picking a business which isn’t going to cut deeper into your savings.  A person is asking for trouble if they start burning through cash to try and keep a business afloat that is losing money faster than it can make it.

If you are trying to raise money, keep your costs realistic and as low to the ground as possible.  Some investment bankers (if there are any still fronting cash) may have pie-in-the-sky ideas about returns on investment but low is the way to go.  Think ghetto low.

You remember the fad a few years ago, right?  When people would show “ghetto” chic and they would have very low cost or styling items and people would laugh ha-ha but the thought and sentiment applies to start up costs these days.  For now, if you can cover your expenses while you are getting started and actually make a living, you are not only doing well you are doing great.

People at first were giving me crap when I started my publishing company.  I am not getting rich off of it but as anybody who has any business sense will tell you – any income stream, if you are making money after expenses and taxes have been paid and it isn’t killing you physically, mentally or emotionally is a good income stream.

That leads me to the next point in keeping costs low.  Keep your cost of business in processing money low.  If you need to accept cash, great.  If you need to take credit card or debit card payments, think about low cost alternatives like paypal where you don’t need to deal with the hassle about processing  credit cards.  If you have a store front for your business, that is a different story.

Like my metal box as a cash register when I first started working swap meets selling comics and collectibles, look for ways to keep expenses low.  The IRS also treats you more like a business because you aren’t wasting money on things you don’t need and keep it looking like a hobby instead of a way to make it a professional gig.

A rule of thumb would be to always start working backwards when it comes to deciding if you have enough for business.  I always ask myself prior to any business deal, what do I want to make?  How much can I make?  What do I need to do to get the income stream that I want?

So, for starters sake, how much money do you need to net a month to meet your minimum monthly living expenses?  A thousand bucks a month?  Two – four thousand?  You need to figure it out and then reverse engineer back as to how much do you need to sell, or what do you need to produce to get that particular kind of money.

You also don’t want to sacrifice function for cost.  If you need to get a certain tool or piece of equipment, don’t skimp.  On the other hand you should always be asking yourself if you can find a more cost effective way of getting what you want done without hurting your production.

That is pretty much it.  If you are selling something that has flash and sizzle – like iPod stuff, image is everything and you can’t get around it, even if you are selling knock-off technology.  You can’t get away selling craptech.  People have a high standard of what they want to see when they buy a product.

On the other hand if you are selling home made pies, you don’t care what your kitchen looks like (well, you should for any health inspectors) as long as the pies are presentable and of course, super delicious.  There are a lot of bakers and cooks out there these days and keep in mind that people are fussier with what they are eating healthwise.

I hope my answer helped and keep us posted as to how you decide to make out with your business.  If you also need any tax advice, lemme know.  My rates are very reasonable.

Have a great day people.  Where did July 2009 go?  It seems like the month just started, er, 29 days ago.

July 29 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Keep Start Up Costs Ghetto Low

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Posted in Business | Comments Off

Markets Going Up But Taking a Breather

Monday, July 27th, 2009

E-mail from a reader:”Thoughts on the stock markets last week of July?  Thanks, Kim, you are doing God’s work.”

My answer is I hope I am at least doing my own work and God approves and I need to remind you that I am not a professional financial analyst though I am very good and very honest about my views and experiences on making money.  My analysis and gut feeling – the one two punch that really means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things despite what other pundits will tell you-tell me that we will see a brief pullback in the market in the coming week.

All the business earnings reports where companies have made or lost money that have been posted last week – well most of them, there are more coming down the pike – have had their brief blip reactions.  The stock market overall for the short term of the next few months barring any economic bad news of catastrophic proportions should be going up.  By catastrophic proportions I would state something like all the world’s oil is gone, or that all our money turns into air.  We’ve managed to wade through the loss of billions without blinking in terms of the stock markets going up and down and that is in relation to investor’s perceptions that the stocks and bonds will make movement in the future.

Let me see what is left to report with.  There are 184 of the S&P 500 companies having reported earnings through Friday, a total of 77 percent — or 142 companies — exceeded earnings forecasts, Thomson Reuters data showed.

In the coming week, our month end week, 146 companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report earnings, according to Thomson Reuters data. About 12 of the 30 Dow components are set to report.

In addition to earnings due on Thursday from Exxon Mobil and Disney, other major companies set to report results include Valero Energy Tuesday, ConocoPhillips on Wednesday and Chevron on Friday.  So, we need to ask ourselves based on market psychology, how likely is it that people will or even could be so happy when they have heard nothing but “good” news for the last few weeks.

 The last week of most months is generally a consolidation of resources for investment houses and people jockey their money around in funds to try make their portfolios look like the owned their star performers and sold their dog stocks.  I haven’t tracked charts to see over the last few years how the markets fare but I seem to recall with some of the larger Dow companies that there is some dipping and generally after the first of the month there is a rise in value for a few days.  Of course, do your own due diligence to see if I am full of baloney or not.

Especially on specific stocks that you are interested in.  The historical informaiton is freely available on search engine sites throughout the Internet and you need to remember that past performance doesn’t predict nor guarantee future earnings or performance.  That is the way the cookie crumbles.

For those of us out there who are on fixed incomes or out of work, be very cautious and stay away from anything that will negatively affect your principal.  You want to make sure that you have funds to weather the storm of being unemployed.  It may be some time until companies are hiring again.

If you are capable to research companies and they are local.  Go over in person and check out their business.  If they have a manufacturing plant or facility go inside and if you can, take some time and talk to the employees, the owners, managers or anybody who will listen to your questions.  If you can make arrangements with their public relations person (if they still have a p.r.dept after any downsizing) see if you can get the company tour that way.

Remember also that in summer time some industries do better than others.  This is the big time of the year for ice cream sales.  Chains like Baskins and Robbins, Coldstone and the like benefit from longer days with extended sunlight and that also means more heat and people wanting to cool off.  Frozen yogurt stores do well in the dog days of summer especially in places like California where we have temperatures over 100 degrees on more and more days.

So the take away from all of this is that yeah, the markets may dip for a bit this coming week, please do your own research and try to do it face-to-face if you have the time and resources for it.  There has been anecdotal evidence for example that KFC has had increased cars through their drive up windoes because of their new grilled chicken offerings.  I don’t have the statistics for that either and it might be fun to watch the restaurants at lunch or dinner each day for an hour and count cars.  Bear in mind that for some franchises, that one or two hours a day would have to have large enough orders to cover for the countless hours where there isn’t any traffic.  If you can find out what the rent is for the location you can have a decent idea if that particular unit is making revenue or not.

Stay cool and careful over the next few days folks.  Don’t play with any money either that you cannot afford to lose.

July 27 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Markets Going Up But Taking a Breather

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Posted in Business | Comments Off

If Harry Potter Were In Charge of the Federal Reserve

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

If Harry Potter were in charge of the Federal Reserve, I think that magically, everybody would have everything they want instantly or within a reasonable amount of time, with only a small amount of sacrifice for the purpose of keeping people interested in their lives.  We would have ministers of magic instead of different Fed district representatives.

People would say things like “Cashtous comehereus” and people would have money in their pockets.  Businesses would open up and start hiring again.  People would not need money then of course, since if you had magic, you could conjure out of thing air the things you need and bypass a need for a financial system all together in favor of a system of barter or some sort of collective trades or favors.  If Harry were running business, he definitely would be interested in fair play (he is a sportsman) and would want everybody to feel good about himself in the end.

Having had one’s parents killed when being a baby would probably make Harry insure that families had enough money so that they wouldn’t have to separate and work in some different time zones as a lot of people are doing now.  There are people who live in California, meaning they own their homes here, are unable to sell them or at least want to stay here because of the weather and both the man and woman are working in different cities.  It would be great to have some magic to change that wouldn’t it?

Harry of course would screw up our infrastructure in other ways because we have so many jobs dependent on our financial system – banks, service bureaus, credit card companies, etc. – we would have to embrace barter and other types of transactions as something to enter into willingly and faithfully.  After all, what makes the dollar sounds or any currency whether it is the yuan, euro or yen is the faith and support of people that believe in it and ability of the currency to be accepted or enforced throughout the places it is used in.  Durability is important as well which is why an otherwise useless thing like a mineral like gold has been so desirable throughout history.

Since we don’t have magic or Harry Potter in our Federal Reserve system we are in a position where we really need the heads of the different aspects to try working like an average person and get a feel for the day-to-day problems that those of us without magical owls and squirrels have to deal with.  If we don’t have the cash for the mortgage, we lose our homes not to the evil trolls or ogres but to the people that own the title to them who we cannot pay anymore.  If we can’t afford to buy food it isn’t a magic spell that is killing us but starvation.  The same holds true for lack of medical attention.

We need to get money directly in the hands of people and we need it through the implentation of infrastructure that gets the person at the lowest rung of the totem pole working.  People with the ability to vote themselves bonuses will continue to do so and at a certain point, even their considerable wealth won’t help them if everybody around them is out of work.  They will end up spending all their money on security systems and armies that will probably end up taking their wealth from them. 

I encourage the wealthier mages of industry to please do what they can to get manufacturing started in this country and support America in it’s recovery instead of bailing out of the place where you made your fortune in the first place.  You may find that other lands aren’t as friendly or embracing once you start running out of money or the political climate changes and even your best efforts in keeping people happy fail. 

The magic we need along with patience is our leaders to get money to the grass roots so we can get people employed again.  Workcometous Nowus!

July 25 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

If Harry Potter Were In Charge of the Federal Reserve

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Posted in Business | Comments Off

Tax Breaks Reminder About ARRA

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Hi, gang.  Are you striking out to start your own business and take your future in your own hands or concerned or neglectful about your taxes?

Here is your mid year information fix on the tax breaks that are out there thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  The business changes follow the general changes in the blog entry.  Have fun and as usual if you have any questions, please ask.

With 2009 now half over, the Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers to take advantage of the numerous tax breaks made available earlier this year in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The recovery law provides tax incentives for first-time homebuyers, people purchasing new cars, those interested in making their homes more energy efficient and parents and students paying for college. But all of these incentives have expiration dates so taxpayers should take advantage of them while they can.

First-Time Homebuyer Credit

The Recovery Act extended and expanded the first-time homebuyer tax credit for 2009.

Taxpayers who didn’t own a principal residence during the past three years and purchase a home this year before Dec. 1 can receive a credit of up to $8,000 on either an original or amended 2008 tax return, or a 2009 return. But the purchase must close before Dec. 1, 2009, and an eligible taxpayer cannot claim the credit until after the closing date. This credit phases out at higher income levels, and different rules apply to home purchases made in 2008.

New Vehicle Purchase Incentive

ARRA also provides a tax break to taxpayers who make qualified new vehicle purchases after Feb. 16, 2009, and before Jan. 1, 2010.

Qualifying taxpayers can deduct the state and local sales and excise taxes paid on the purchase of new cars, light trucks, motor homes and motorcycles. There is no limit on the number of vehicles that may be purchased, and you may claim the deduction for taxes paid on multiple purchases. But the deduction per vehicle is limited to the tax on up to $49,500 of the purchase price of each qualifying vehicle and phases out for taxpayers at higher income levels. This deduction is available regardless of whether a taxpayer itemizes deductions on Schedule A.

Energy-Efficient Home Improvements

The Recovery Act also encourages homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient. The credit for nonbusiness energy property is increased for homeowners who make qualified energy-efficient improvements to existing homes. The law increases the rate to 30 percent of the cost of all qualifying improvements and raises the maximum credit limit to a total of $1,500 for improvements placed in service in 2009 and 2010.
Qualifying improvements include the addition of insulation, energy-efficient exterior windows and energy-efficient heating and air conditioning systems.

Tax Credit for First Four Years of College

The American opportunity credit is designed to help parents and students pay part of the cost of the first four years of college. The new credit modifies the existing Hope credit for tax years 2009 and 2010, making it available to a broader range of taxpayers, including many with higher incomes and those who owe no tax. Tuition, related fees, books and other required course materials generally qualify. Many of those eligible will qualify for the maximum annual credit of $2,500 per student.

Certain Computer Technology Purchases Allowed for 529 Plans

ARRA adds computer technology to the list of college expenses (tuition, books, etc.) that can be paid for by a qualified tuition program (QTP), commonly referred to as a 529 plan. For 2009 and 2010, the law expands the definition of qualified higher education expenses to include expenses for computer technology and equipment or Internet access and related services to be used by the designated beneficiary of the QTP while enrolled at an eligible educational institution. Software designed for sports, games or hobbies does not qualify, unless it is predominantly educational in nature.

Making Work Pay and Withholding

The Making Work Pay Credit lowered tax withholding rates this year for 120 million American households. However, particular taxpayers who fall into any of the following groups should review their tax withholding rates to ensure enough tax is withheld, including multiple job holders, families in which both spouses work, workers who can be claimed as dependents by other taxpayers and pensioners. Failure to adjust your withholding could result in potentially smaller refunds or in limited instances may cause you to owe tax rather than receive a refund next year. So far in 2009, the average refund amount is $2,675, and 79 percent of all returns received a refund.

Related Information

For more on the Recovery provisions that may apply to individual taxpayers see the ARRA page on IRS.gov.

Here are the business changes.

Business Provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)

 

 

  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides a number of tax incentives for businesses. Most of the tax incentives for businesses are found in Subtitle C of Division B, Title I of ARRA. In addition, some of the energy incentives, contained in Subtitle B, [and a subsidy for premiums for COBRA health continuation coverage in Title III of Division B,] provide tax relief for businesses.Here is a summary of the key ARRA provisions, in numerical order, which may impact businesses, large and small:TAX INCENTIVES FOR BUSINESS (SUBTITLE C)

50-Percent Special Depreciation Allowance/Bonus Depreciation (Section 1201) – The new law extends the 50-percent special depreciation allowance that was available for 2008 acquisitions to acquisitions of qualifying property in 2009. This provision enables businesses to deduct half the adjusted basis of qualifying property in the year it is placed in service. The extension applies to qualifying property placed in service in 2009 (2010 for long production period property and certain transportation property).

Acceleration of Certain Business Credits (Section 1201): Corporations that acquire eligible business property have an additional year to accelerate certain tax credits in lieu of a bonus depreciation deduction. The extension applies to eligible business property placed in service in 2009 (2010 for long production period property and certain transportation property).

Section 179 Expensing (Section 1202): During 2009, small businesses can elect to expense up to $250,000 of the cost of qualifying property under section 179. Without the new law, the limit would have dropped to $133,000. The existing $25,000 limit still applies to sports utility vehicles. The $250,000 amount provided under the new law is reduced if the cost of all section 179 property placed in service by the taxpayer during the tax year exceeds $800,000.

Expanded Net Operating Loss Carryback (Section 1211): Many small businesses that had expenses exceeding their income for 2008 can choose to carry the loss back for up to five years, instead of the usual two years. For small businesses that were profitable in the past but lost money in 2008, this could mean a special tax refund. The option is available for a small business that has no more than an average of $15 million in gross receipts over a three-year period. This option is available for most eligible taxpayers for a limited time. A corporation that operates on a calendar-year basis, for example, must file a claim by Sept. 15, 2009. For eligible individuals, the deadline is Oct. 15, 2009.

Estimated Tax Requirement Modified (Section 1212): Many individual small business taxpayers may be able to defer until the end of the year paying a larger part of their 2009 tax obligation. For 2009, eligible individuals can make quarterly estimated tax payments equal to 90 percent of their 2009 tax or 90 percent of their 2008 tax, whichever is less. Individuals qualify if they received more than half of their gross income from their small business in 2008 and meet other requirements. For details, see Publication 505.

Discharge of Business Indebtedness (Section 1231): The act allows certain businesses that repurchase specific types of debt in 2009 and 2010 to pay taxes on cancellation of debt income over a five year period, starting with tax year 2014.

Exclusion of Gain on the Sale of Certain Small Business Stock (Section 1241): ARRA provides an extra incentive for investment in small businesses. The new law provides an increase in the Section 1202 exclusion from 50 percent (60 percent for enterprise zone qualified business entity stock) to 75 percent for any gain from the sale or exchange of qualified small business stock acquired after Feb. 17, 2009 and before Jan. 1, 2011, and held for more than five years. This provision is limited to individual investors and not available to corporations.
 
S-Corporation Built-in Gains Holding Period (Section 1251):  For tax years beginning in either 2009 or 2010, the new law eliminates the corporate level tax on the built-in gains of an S-Corporation that converted from C-corporation status at least seven tax years before the current tax year.

COBRA PREMIUM ASSISTANCE (TITLE III)

COBRA: Health Insurance Continuation Subsidy (Section 3001): Under the new law, employees who were involuntarily terminated after Aug. 31, 2008 and before Jan. 1, 2010, and who elect COBRA health continuation coverage, are entitled to receive a 65 percent subsidy on their COBRA premiums. For periods of COBRA coverage beginning after Feb. 16, 2009, the involuntarily terminated employee must be treated as having paid the required COBRA premium if the individual pays 35 percent of the premium amount. The employer (or, in some cases, multiemployer health plan or insurer) may recover the other 65 percent by taking the subsidy amount as a credit on their quarterly employment tax return.

ENERGY INCENTIVES (SUBTITLE B)

Extension of Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (Section 1101): The new law generally extends the “eligibility dates” of a tax credit for business facilities producing electricity from wind, closed-loop biomass, open-loop biomass, geothermal energy, municipal solid waste, qualified hydropower and marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy. The new law extends the “placed in service date” for wind facilities to Dec. 31, 2012.  For the other facilities, the placed-in-service date was extended from Dec. 31, 2010 (Dec. 31, 2011 in the case of marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy facilities) to Dec. 31, 2013.

Election of Investment Credit in Lieu of Production Credit (Section 1102): Businesses that place in service facilities that produce electricity from wind and some other renewable resources after Dec. 31, 2008 can choose either the energy investment tax credit, which generally provides a 30 percent tax credit for investments in energy projects or the production tax credit, which can provide a credit of up to 2.1 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity produced from renewable sources.  A business may not claim both credits for the same facility.

Repeal of Certain Limits on Business Credits for Renewable Energy Property (Section 1103): The new law repeals the $4,000 limit on the 30 percent tax credit for small wind energy property and the limitation on property financed by subsidized energy financing. The repeal applies to property placed in service after Dec. 31, 2008.

Coordination with Renewable Energy Grants (Section 1104): Business taxpayers also can apply for a grant instead of claiming either the energy investment tax credit or the renewable energy production tax credit for property placed in service in 2009 or 2010. In some cases, if construction begins in 2009 or 2010, the grant can be claimed for energy investment credit property placed in service through 2016, and for qualified renewable energy facilities, the grant is 30 percent of the investment in the facility and the property must be placed in service before 2014 (2013 for wind facilities). 

New Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (Section 1111): Certain State utilities, governmental entities and cooperatives that initiate projects to generate electricity from renewable sources (for example wind and solar) can finance those projects through qualified tax credit bonds. The new law increases the amount of funds available to issue new clean renewable energy bonds from the one-time national limit of $800 million to $2.4 billion.

Temporary Increase in Credit for Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property (Section 1123): The new law modifies the credit rate and limit amounts for property placed in service in 2009 and 2010. Qualified property (other than property relating to hydrogen) is now eligible for a 50 percent credit, and the per-location limit increases to $50,000 for business property (increases to $2,000 for other/residential locations). Property relating to hydrogen keeps the 30 percent rate as before, but the per-business location limit rises to $200,000.

Increased Exclusion Amount for Commuter Transit Benefits and Transit Passes (Section 1151): The new law increased to $230 the monthly tax exclusion for employer-provided commuter transportation and transit pass benefits, effective from March through the end of 2009.  Employers can generally deduct these qualified transportation fringe benefits as a business expense.  These benefits are also excluded from an employee’s wages for income tax and payroll tax purposes.  Because of this exclusion from employee wages, the employer can reduce the amount paid in employment taxes.July 24 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Tax Breaks Reminder About ARRA

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Posted in Business | 5 Comments »

IRS Wants Your Input For Tax Professionals

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

The Internal Revenue Service has started opening up talks to the public and to tax professionals specifically in  a series of public forums at which individuals and representatives of all the different constituent groups will be able to provide their own input on the development of tax preparer performance standards.  This is your chance to be part of something that will affect tax preparation procedures for the future so here is your chance to get things straight – or at least on record that you want it straightened out.

The public forums were planned and the implementation process was started back  in June by IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman to help ensure tax preparers are qualified, ethical and provide a high level of service.

The kick off for the program should be on July 30 in Washington, D.C. so you can look for more information there as well.

To quote Mr. Shulman:

“These public meetings will be an important part of the dialogue as we move toward a set of comprehensive recommendations by the end of this year,” Shulman said. “We want an open discussion on how to strengthen the overall integrity of our tax system.”

Two panels are scheduled for a forum on July 30. The first panel will give consumer groups an opportunity to provide recommendations. These groups include the AARP, Consumer Federation of America, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, National Community Tax Coalition and Low Income Tax Clinics.  The chances are that if you are a member of one of these groups that you might want to get your organization representative notification of the questions that you want to ask and what kind of standards that you are looking for in a tax pro.

The second panel will be made up of tax professional groups, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Association of Enrolled Agents, the National Association of Tax Professionals and the National Society of Accountants.  I can’t help but think that this group might make things limiting and make it an accountants only club but I suspect that since the IRS needs a lot of trained, ethical and talented tax professionals to replace the average bunch of tax guys out there there will be some great suggestions from this group as well.

The two panels will take place at the Ronald Reagan Building amphitheater in Washington starting at 9 a.m. on July 30. People interested in attending should confirm attendance by sending an e-mail message to: CL.NPL.Communications@irs.gov.

The IRS also plans to convene meetings with other constituent groups later this summer and fall. Input will be sought from:

Federal and state organizations
IRS advisory groups, including the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC), the Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee (IRPAC), the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC), the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP) and the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt and Government Entities (ACT)
Unaffiliated and individual tax preparers and groups
Private firms that support tax preparers
The dates and locations of these meetings will be announced as they become available. Small groups of tax preparers will also have the opportunity this summer to meet with IRS representatives to present their ideas at the IRS Nationwide Tax Forums.

The Nationwide Tax Forums this year include: Orlando, Aug. 4-6; New York, Aug. 25-27; Dallas, Sept. 8-10; and Atlanta, Sept. 22-24.

If there is anything else you are interested about the program, drop them an email.

So this is your chance to actually get some input into the tax system at a basic level, people.  Do yourself a favor and if you have the time please go out and be vocal about what you are looking for in a tax pro. 

Hope you are also current with your taxes and don’t forget that the next quarterly taxes are going to be coming due in a few months.  It also isn’t too late to adjust your taxes that are being withheld from work to correct for any changes that you may have in either having hours cut or hopefully making more money-in either case, you do want to review that you are having enough money taken out for taxes and in some cases, make sure that you aren’t having way too much dinged from your paycheck.

Have a great day, gang.

July 23 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

IRS Wants Your Input For Tax Professionals

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Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Keep Your Mouth Shut After A Court Settlement

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Question from a reader:”I won a lawsuit and I have to tell you about it.  What do you think about” – and then I deleted the e-mail.

My answer is stop right there.  Seriously.  WIthout knowing the details of the settlement, you may be in violation of the agreement and that is why I deleted the e-mail without reading any more or giving it any second thoughts.

This may be common knowledge for a lot of people but it bears repeating.  If you get a court settlement and the terms are that it is confidential, please respect it.  There is too much at risk to blab over it.

As a mediator and arbitrator for the Los Angeles and Santa Monica bar, I know first hand that silence is more than golden when it comes to legal agreements.  It is the law.  It is required.  That is why I couldn’t believe that I was in an elevator the some time ago with two strange men and one of them was telling the other the details of some court settlement he was in.  What if I was a from the courthouse and familiar with his case?  What if I were a junior (well, okay senior) partner of the law firm that was against him and overheard him?  I could march my overhearing butt back to court and get the judgment thrown out.

Folks, please respect the sanctity of the settlement.   It doesn’t matter if the settlement came from a trial, arbitration or a mediation.   If you think of the aggravation you have gone through to get it, the pain, the madness,  the anger, possibly the seemingly endless depositions, the soul-wrenching testimony in front of total strangers, it isn’t worth it just for bragging rights.

This is especially important when it comes to dealing with special needs clients that you are responsible for.  The person you are caring for may not understand what has happened and it would be horrible to get services removed, funds cancelled or worse because you had an attack of ego.

I am sure it won’t happen if you remember this post.  I suppose I shouldn’t be so shocked at human nature.  I think one of the first things that people like to do when they hear good ideas is tell it to the world.  In this specific situation, it is better to keep it from the world!  To do anything else just doesn’t make sense and isn’t profitable!

If you consider the amount of time, the issues and problems with dealing with making it to trial or even mediation, the costs of the attorney, the fees for any expert witnesses, it just goes on and on.  Why people would want to screw up something that they invested heavily into is beyond me.

Another question from a reader:”What do I do about financial planning?  It is boring.”

My answer is it sure is.  The problem with financial planning is that it is boring.  Everybody wants to hear the latest and greatest get rich schemes, how to start up a social engineering site that will make them millions in 8 months or blink your eyes and grow rich.  People who end up making money generally plan for it.

There is always an element of luck and risk and for those who are lucky in their risks their rewards can be astronomical.  The other side of the coin is that their risk can be financially devastating as the recent home loan meltdown has proven.  Banks and people are being punished for being greedy.

What about the rest of us?

If you have been saving money, paying off your mortgage, keeping your credit card bills down to zero or paying them off monthly, congratulations.  You are on the way to for financial success.  People who have money will be in a better position to scoop up realty in the current environment and make profitable investments.

There will always be some sort of opportunity to make money and as the cliche goes, opportunities are like Las Vegas casinos.  If you see one that is attractive and miss it, don’t fret, there will be another bright enticing one down the block.

Like the casinos, you need to have cash and the easiest way to have it ready is to have been saving for it.  If you are working your way out of debt, congratulations as well.  You will make it.  It may take some time but planning now for getting out of debt will be a lot easier with your eyes open than closing your eyes and hoping it will go away.  People are talking about a lot of jobs that are going away but there are also a lot of opportunities to make money in the financial Depression we are in.

It takes some work and effort but some people are doing it, so why not you?

July 23 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Keep Your Mouth Shut After A Court Settlement

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Posted in Business | Comments Off

Free Odds Aren’t Really Free

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Question from a reader:”Kim, I understand you wrote a book on craps.  I don’t know much about dice and have ordered your book but what can you tell me about free odds?  Thanks.”

 

My answer is an excerpt from my book, Practical Craps.   Best of luck to you and please don’t spend money you cannot afford to lose, and in this case, that means generally ANY money.  Ah well, for those who are interested and as an incentive to get my book, here is the gist of “free odds”:
First off, free odds aren’t really free.  It isn’t like the casino will pay you for nothing.  The expression “free odds” means that there are bets you can make that will pay you the true odds if the decision goes your way on the dice.

You don’t normally see them on the Craps layout because the casinos don’t encourage these bets.  They don’t make money for the casino.  Generally speaking dice play doesn’t offer the same return on investment as a bank of slot machines that don’t require human intervention on a regular basis (other than to fix jams or collect money).

Some casinos offer multiple odds (5x, 10x, etc) but that is usually to get players into their casinos.  You can also lose a lot of money playing large bets without a deep enough bankroll to handle the swings in the dice.

Basically, on a pass line or come point bet (once a bet has been moved to the point number on the top of the craps layout) you can make an odds bet.

You are paid even money on a pass line or come point, right?  On an odds bet, you place more money but that money (which can be removed any time before the dice are rolled) will be paid off at true odds.

The odds bet requires you to have a larger starting bankroll and you need to know what the odds are on the bets to make the appropriate sized bet.

You will also hear on come-out rolls the dealer yell “Odds off”.  That just means that on the come-out rolls, in case the shooter throws a 7 and you lose other bets that are up from the come bets, you won’t lose your odds bets. 

You can call the bet on or off and the dealer will throw a chip on your bet saying it is “WORKING” or not.

So how do we “take odds” when we are betting with the dice or “lay odds” if we are betting against the dice?

Simple, we just adjust our bet to the multiple that would give us a correct payoff.

So if we were betting $10 on the pass line.  On the come out roll the shooter threw a 10.  We could go ahead and place $10 behind the line as our “single odds” bet.  That means that if the shooter makes his point of ten.  We get paid $10 for our $10 pass line bet and since the odds are 2:1 against us, we would make $20 for the back line, free odds bet.  Our total winnings for both bets would be $30.

If we are playing with “double odds” that would mean we could go up to $20 behind the line.  We would be betting $30 ($10 on the Pass line and $20 free odds).  If the shooter throws a 10 we win $10 for the Pass line bet and then we get $40 for our double odds bet for a total winnings of $50.

Now the reality check is in either case if the shooter throws a 7 we lose both our pass line bet and our odds bet for a loss of either $20 or $30 respectively.

Getting it?  It really isn’t complicated once you start paying attention to the numbers.  You just have to be brutally honest with yourself that you are playing in a game where the odds are stacked against you.

LAYING ODDS

If you are planning on playing the Don’t Pass and Don’t Come, you can lay the odds.  It requires a very large bankroll but the law of averages is on your side if you have survived the come out roll.

In the example of the 10 – if you are betting on the Don’t Pass for $10 and you have a point of 10, you can lay $20 and the dealer will show you how to stack your chips.  If the 7 shows up, you win $10 for the pass line bet, plus $10 for your odds bet (remember you are covering the OPPOSITE of the 2:1 since the odds are in your favor).

If the shooter throws his 10, you lose your $10 bet and your $20 lay odds bet.

Same situation, just the other side of it.

Here is a table of what to bet for odds:

TAKING SINGLE ODDS

4 or 10  2:1
$10 bet   $10 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $20= $30

5 or 9  3:2
$10 bet   $10 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $15 = $25

6 or 8  6:5
$10 bet   $10 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $12 = $22

 

Remember that in all of our bets, if you win, you also get back all the money that you put up for the bet.  The reason I mention it is that you shouldn’t include it as winnings.

Because of the uneven payout ratios you should learn the odds and remember to make the appropriate size bets in order to get paid off correctly if you are playing odds bets.  Remember also that you can lower or take your odds bets down at any time.  You cannot do that with your pass line bets once established.  You can take down your don’t pass bets but why would you want to?  You work so hard to make it through the come out roll the odds are now in your favor!

LAYING SINGLE ODDS

4 or 10  1:2
$10 bet   $20 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $10 = $20

5 or 9  2:3
$10 bet   $15 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $10 = $20

6 or 8  5:6
$10 bet   $12 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $10 = $20
In the short run, you can win or lose a lot of money taking or laying odds.  It depends on how the shooter is throwing, the trend on the table and of course, what is your bankroll.

Don’t play beyond your means.  There will ALWAYS be another craps game.  It is very easy – easier than in poker – to get caught up in the energy and excitement of a craps game and throw all caution to the wind.  Please don’t do it. 
Notice how the odds table work?  The 4/10 numbers true odds are 2:1, the 5/9 numbers true odds are 3:2 and the 6/8 numbers true odds are 6:5.  I have adjusted the amounts based on $5 minimum bets for the tables to give you an idea of seeing how you get paid back.

When you lay odds you are just covering the bets by putting up what you would pay out if you were the house.  It is a lot of money to win a little bit of money, but remember, statistically, once you make it past the come out roll, the odds are in your favor (though as we discussed, in the long run, all things being equal, you will average out if you are betting the same way over thousands of dice rolls).

 

TAKING DOUBLE ODDS

4 or 10  2:1
$10 bet   $20 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $40 = $50

5 or 9  3:2
$10 bet   $20 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $30 = $40

6 or 8  6:5
$10 bet   $25 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $30 = $40

LAYING DOUBLE ODDS

4 or 10  1:2
$10 bet   $40 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $20 = $30

5 or 9  2:3
$10 bet   $30 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $20 = $30

6 or 8  5:6
$10 bet   $30 odds bet   payoff:  $10 + $25 = $35
Did you notice that the 6 or 8 bets were not correct?  I want to see if you are paying attention!
Some casinos will let you go up to $25 as a bet for 6:5 on the 6 or 8 if the table offers 2X odds.  On the 6 or 8 they may allow 2.5X odds since it is easy to pay off.  Ask the dealer before making the bet to see what they say.
Are you getting it?  Or is it still confusing?  It took me several trips to casinos and playing a bit till I understood it.  Please re-read whatever you aren’t getting and work the numbers yourself so you will see that it isn’t that complicated, it is simply a matter of familiarizing yourself with the numbers, their combinations and pay-offs.

Some players make bets on the Don’t Pass and Don’t Come in multiples of $6 in order to make their odds bets easier.  Whatever works for you.  My suggestion would be to start out small and go easy on the betting and read more about it in my book, Practical Craps.   Good luck and have fun.

And don’t gamble with bread and egg money!!!!!  It should be fun and not a business.

July 22 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Free Odds Aren’t Really Free

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Market Strategies Jul 22 2009 and Create More Jobs

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Question from a reader:”Market is recovering.  I don’t trust it.  Kim, what should I do? Also, what is this about more unemployment?  I can see the stimulus isn’t working as fast as people thought.”

My answer is do your own due diligence, keep your money in cash if you are unsure about the future and remember that you should be writing your Congressmen, Governor and President to create more jobs – now!  Aren’t you tired of them saying that there will be more unemployment next year?  Granted it takes time to get the economy to recover but all branches of government, all political parties and all players need to know that without the average man or woman spending their money, the economy isn’t going to move.  How about creating some more projects like they did in the Great Depression of the 1930s?

Organizations like the TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority, were created to build dams and work on the infrastructure.  We need lots of those organizations created and going now.  In order for the Fed and the respective State governments to collect taxes they need the general population to be making income so that it can be taxed.  With unemployment looking at around 20% realistically – and maybe even higher – it is a tough way to squeeze blood out of a stone.

Okay, so listen up political leaders and get more jobs created at the grass roots level.  We all need to work and keep working!  Hello?  Is anybody in office out there hearing me?

Ahem.  Okay, back to the other part of your question.  My take is that we are in more of a continued sideways movement.  I am not an investment specialist and I invite and suggest you take my advice with a grain of salt but I am thinking that things will be sideways for awhile.  The doom and gloom people are predicting the next big drop – I think we will get one but not for a few months at the earliest and the Fed is optimistic that we are going to recover in the last quarter – I don’t see that easily happening either with so many people in American and throughout the world out of work.

Suggestions for things to invest in?

I would say you may want to check here.  I always get leery when everybody – pundits, the Internet alleged gurus and people as a group say something is going one way.  Bells and whistles go off in my head and I tend to look at things moving the other way – a contrarian point of view to be sure but I really believe that once everybody else is jumping on the bandwagon, in this high speed electronic age, the information is staledated.  I love that word.

 

Staledated goes back to the days – and still applies – when you would write a check and the check would only be good for 90 days and then have to be reissued because the banks wouldn’t cash it.  More times than not, if a bank teller – a human one – didn’t check the date, it would go through and still be cashed.  The check would go stale like bad bread.  You would have to issue another.

Internet information and investing advice is pretty much the same story.  With the speed that things change it is pretty hard to stay current or give any kind of suggestion that is meaningful for something other than a very specific time period and a very specific topic.  That works for me – it just means that you and I have to be willing to do a lot of our own research and not rely on other people’s suggestions, right?

Just like we are constantly retraining ourselves so that we ourselves don’t become staledated, we need to be reviewing fresh information and making realistic assessments of the business community’s future and our own financial future and well-being.  Not an easy task these days to say the least.

I also want to really stress that we need to get manufacturing back in the United States and get it going.  If you are still reading this and want some more ranting, I also think we need to get more natural resournces and start storing them here because China certainly is going after raw materials and storing them.

Here in California they have opened up for the immediate future some offshore drilling again or at least that is proposed as of the California State Assembly and their plans to balance the budget.  I am for it and sorry if people’s views of the ocean is going to look a little blotchy but we need to get things going.  Also, more money for solar initiatives would be appreciated.

Kudos to the companies that are working to get things solar powered in climates that support the heat.  For the places with wind, I think despite some people’s protests that it isn’t energy efficient I think it is a great way to start taking some of the energy pain off of fossil fuels and our reliance on things that may be harder to get in the future.  For now and the immediate future, the sun and wind are freely available.

Best of luck to all of us and keep the posts coming.  I am still working on my next book and I have some other plans for subsequent tomes.  Anything you want me to write about?  Post me a note and please let me know.

July 22 2009

Also, please  don’t quite go anywhere yet.  Having some tax issues or tax questions?  Any problems with trying to make it through the financial Depression we are in that is making you depressed?  Please read on.

I am expanding  my practice and taking on new tax clients.  If you are interested in having somebody who is a successful businessman and tax professional with integrity review your returns discretely and see if your tax guy or gal is doing a good or goofy job, please drop me an email or post a comment with your contact information and time.

I have experience in international business, small businesses, partnerships, multi-state tax returns (they can get complicated) and anything else you can probably think of.

I also do business consulting and have ran several businesses (still running a few) myself so you are in good hands.

If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book, Practical Money Making, that is listed right after his paragraph in this very post. There are some great suggestions and ways to survive the Depression we are in.

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Interested in any of my books? You may want to make a stop over here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.

Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax Idea“? Please order it today. The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars! Tax planning should be done year round and not just two weeks into January or later.

Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book go to Rett Syndrome research. One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes. My daughter Arianna has Rett.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Market Strategies Jul 22 2009 and Create More Jobs

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