Sincerely,

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Apr 23 2012

It appears to be an artichoke

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X0WzZNJG5Y

Hope all is well.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt
Apr 22 2012

What is this growing in my backyard please?

Mar 28 2012

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Spring – Good Time For Emergency Response Training

Beginning with your 2012 California tax return (next year’s), the state reporting requirements for real estate tax deductions will change. This will include reporting your property parcel number, deductible, and nondeductible amounts. Parcel number should be on your property tax statement. You should keep a copy of your property tax bill(s) to report this information on your return.

I have some clients who do and others who don’t but you will need to have a copy of it to figure out what you can and can’t deduct.

Basically, the rules will be as follows as of now (according to our friends at the Franchise Tax Board):

California law conforms to federal law regarding real estate tax deductions. You should use the same real estate deduction amount(s) on both federal and state tax returns. Don’t guess or try to fudge the numbers.  Individuals who itemize deductions can claim deductions for real estate tax on Schedule A of their federal individual income tax return. You are allowed to deduct only the amount of real estate tax paid during the year that is based on the assessed value of your property and that is not for a local benefit that tends to increase
the value of your property.  Confusing?  Not really.

You cannot deduct any amounts shown on your property tax bill, including special assessments, special taxes, fees, or any charges that are not computed based on the assessed value of your property, regardless of their purpose.

Here are some steps to deduct your correct property tax:
1. Locate your current property tax bill sent by your county’s tax collector. You may need to locate the prior year property tax bill to determine the actual installment(s) paid during the year.

Do not use Federal Form 1098 “Mortgage Interest Statement” to determine the amounts of real estate taxes that are deductible. The amounts reported on Form 1098 reflect the total taxes paid, not the deductible portion.

Fashion tip: You may be able to look up your property tax bill online.

2. I would suggest that you review your property tax bill to determine the deductible and nondeductible amounts.

Deductible – Generally, only the amount based on the assessed value of the taxpayers’ property is deductible. These amounts are commonly referred to as ad valorem or general tax levy on property tax bills. For most counties, the deductible amount is identified on property tax bills as the assessed value multiplied by an associated tax rate percentage.
Note – A few county property tax bills do not show tax rate percentages for items that may be deductible. However, sample property tax bills located on the FTB webpage are enhanced to show the deductible and nondeductible amounts.

Nondeductible – Most property tax bills also include non-ad valorem special assessments, special taxes, Mello-Roos, direct
levies, fees, and charges that are nondeductible. For most counties, these amounts are identified on the tax bills as amounts
that do not include a tax rate percentage.
Fashion tip:  Go to the Franchise Tax Board website and see a sample bill.

3. Deduct the deductible amount as an itemized deduction.

Remember that itemized deductions go on Schedule A.

More to come during the year as it develops.

Stay happy, healthy wealthy and wise, friends.

March 27 2012

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Property Tax and Parcel Issues for 2012 for Californians and Other States

Bear in mind that these are the same people who always want to negotiate prices down – and I am not saying it is bad – but they get bent out of shape when people devalue their services.

If you go for example to a tax preparer and he says he will charge $300 for a tax return and you don’t want to pay it, there are a lot of self filing tax products out there that range in price from free to about $179. Just remember that you need to put your own sweat equity into it.

For the tax preparer who has spent his summer studying tax law changes, working to master his craft, you are paying for his time.

When you go to a doctor, do you say, “I won’t pay for the hospital stay for $10,000 for a night. I only want to pay $500.” No, you generally get the services and then the bill afterwards. For less drastic situations, remember that you are judged by the same yardstick that you are judging others. If you want to get paid for your worth, you need to respect others worth as well.

Have a glorious Feb 29 2012 – it only comes around every 4 years.

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Respecting Time as well as Money

While I am not for abandoning the dollar I wouldn’t mind an alternative coin currency that is actually made out of gold or silver for business transactions within the state or States.

Here is my proposal to add to the mix. Why not have a universal state coin where it is actually made of gold (or silver) in various currencies and that way there would be another inter-state currency along with the dollar that we can use for trade and business within the states? By virtue of the coins being made of gold or silver they would have more perceived value and worth than a piece of paper.

The coins would be minted similar to coins that are minted at different presses now under strict standards and supervision. I submit that it would also create more jobs with people accepting the coins, moving back to handling commerce face-to-face and locally versus the Internet.

I wouldn’t like to see it devolve into dozens of states with their own currencies – that would make us as messy as Europe or the early United States. The American dollar does work great as a tool for commerce, thanks, but it wouldn’t hurt to actually deal with gold and silver just in case.

Let me know your thoughts.

Stay healthy, happy, wise and get wealthy!

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Feb 03 2012

States Minting Their Own Gold and Silver

There was a lot of ground covered and the scenarios we covered were very interesting. Hoping all of you are having a great holiday and I will try to get back to posting more often.

If you are free on early Wed nights I can be heard checking in and sometimes taking check-ins with Steve-another of many people named Steve, KILOV, on the PAPA system from So Cal. That is Wed nights at 7 pm Pacific time. You can look for it as well at the radioreference.com website.

Stay healthy and happy.

Kim Greenblatt

November 24 2011
Passed the First Responder Training

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Thanks NASA for listening to me

My rationale for this is that we can create whatever money we need and if we go deeper into debt, the trade off is that there will be businesses in America employing people and getting their profits and people working again. This worked in the 1960s in the space race and in the 1980s it helped end the Cold War. Spending by government isn’t bad if it is done in a rational way and the money actually gets in the hands of the government’s citizens, right? Debt is also something that can be erased or added to with a stroke of computer key or brush of a finger on a touch screen depending on how it is done. The point is – are people working?

Companies along with their tax breaks could get limited use of any patents that they would create but the US govt would share in revenues as part of the incentive cash for building the spacecraft, the stations or whatever else we need to get people to Mars.

We can start a very early stage terraforming mandate where we get large companies to start researching what it would take to convert Mars into a viable planet that we could inhabit. Sure, my suggestions may be a little kooky but the time has come for some out there suggestions and my proposals aren’t that far out there. In hindsight was it a lot of money spent to get a person on the moon just so they could hit golf balls? Maybe if you didn’t factor in all the great accomplishments technologically that came out of the program.

Have a great day everybody and may you be happy, healthy, getting some cash and keeping your sanity.

Kim Greenblatt

How do I save America – We Go To Mars

If you watch any of the pawnshop or antique shows (and I’ve stated in the past that I am just as guilty as you are) you see people trying to wheel and deal over buying and selling collectible items. It is interesting but only to a point.

Maybe it is my attention span getting shorter or the fact that I wish the television producers would try to express a little more creativity. I am tired of seeing people at pawnshops getting snarky retorts about how their junk isn’t worth the full price and then they sell it for fifty percent of the value. I get it. It is entertainment and some of it is scripted but what next?

How about a tv show where paint drys and we watch that? Same holds true for antique road show collector types who go to people’s farms and try to lowball them out of their items and then they smirk and wink into the camera “look how much money I made”.

At least in the auction unclaimed storage shows some of them admit they are recreations. Wonder how much of them are scripted.

Then we get the tv shows about hoarding which are the other side of the coin. We have been brainwashed into thinking everything is collectible. It can be if there are markets but right now, people are tight on cash except for those who are very well off or have great income streams. Are we being groomed to be a nation of people now with no material goods and super low expectations but great bargaining skills? Let me know your thoughts.

Okay, I am done for now. Stay comfortable people and please write your Congressional leaders and the President and tell them we need jobs at a local level and fast!

Aug 25 2011

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

One Nation Under Junk Collecting