Zero Tax Account: Why Pay More Taxes than the Wealthy Do?
What is your fair share? The wealthy pay as little as 13%. 2/3 of corporations pay NOTHING even though the law says they pay 35%. We are paying for US troops in 150 countries so the countries don’t have to. We are still stockpiling missiles and fighters at
$80 Billions. We have already spent $3.7 Trillion on these two wars we did not have the money for.
Now they want to cut our Social Security and Medicare account benefits.
Yes, you probably are. They pay under 10% using legal tax avoidance tactics you can’t use. Over a four years period from 2008 to 2011, 26 companies managed to avoid paying any American income taxes, even though they earned $ billions during that time, according to research done by Citizens for Tax Justice.
IRS has $917 million in unclaimed 2009 tax refunds
You would think they could give me back my payroll tax hike with all this extra money sitting around. What about 2010 and 2011 refunds?
Is the IRS cutting audits like the White House is cutting visits?
You bet.
However the IRS computer searches out mismatches in various categories. See if you could be making it easier for them to find you.
Drinking may cost more than your drink
The price of car insurance for a Florida driver will almost double the first year after a driving under the influence conviction and will go up an average of $5,525 over seven years, according to a new study. Just in the first year, Floridians' insurance will jump 86 percent on average after a DUI conviction, with premiums spiraling to $3,072 a year, from $1,650, according to an insurance comparison website. Shopping may help you lower your premium:
http://www.amazon.com/Vehicle-Insurance-Beware-Double-Coverage/dp/1480027634
US lags other countries in average old age …. due to gun play!
Life expectancy in the United States is lower than in nearly every other developed country. "We die more at younger ages," says Jessica Y. Ho, whose study of the gap in mortality for those under age 50 was published this month in Health Affairs. For men, those younger deaths accounted for 67 percent of the shortfall in U.S.life expectancy compared with an average of 16 other high-income nations. For women, it was 41 percent. For men, nearly a fifth of the excess mortality was due to homicide. Transportation injuries, mainly car crashes, was close behind, followed by other injuries -- particularly drug overdoses. Perinatal mortality, such as pregnancy complications and birth trauma, accounted for 13 percent, cardiovascular diseases made up 8 percent, and other chronic conditions, 10 percent. Also contributing: suicide (4 percent), HIV (2 percent), and other communicable diseases (2 percent). Mortality per miles driven is no higher here than in 15 other wealthy countries. Americans simply drive more. Americans who made it through their younger years arrived at old age very, very healthy.
Will teachers help students understand using money?
The new financial literacy standards establish benchmarks for what kids should know by the end of grades 4, 8, and 12. They are broken into six personal finance categories:
- Earning income This includes collecting rent, stock dividends and interest on bonds. It also includes a discussion of the labor market and how education may lead to higher wages.
- Buying goods and services This includes planning, comparing, budgeting and making choices.
- Saving This includes near- and long-term goals and how time, interest rates and inflation affect savings.
- Using credit This includes borrowing options and how credit history helps determine availability of credit and the rate of interest that you pay.
- Investing This includes risk, rates of return and diversification.
- Protecting and insuring This includes potential loss of health, assets, income and identity, and how behavior affects the cost of insurance.
Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/03/12/coming-soon-new-standards-for-teaching-kids-about-money/#ixzz2Ntvaq7uB
USAA, State Farm Top in Customer Experience
Do women know more about car insurance than men?
Does your advisor get to keep more of your fees?
Advisers with Raymond James Financial Services who have at least $100 million in discretionary assets under management can choose to retain 100% of their advisory fees and pay a quarterly fee based on assets under management, instead of the traditional payout on fee revenues they produce. Raymond James will charge six basis points 0.06% on the first $100 million under management, three basis points on the next $100 million,one basis point (0.01%) on assets between $200 million and $300 million, and nothing after that, for a maximum of $100,000 per year.
So now we know what it really costs to manage your funds.
Are you in the crossfire of the ETF price wars?
Fidelity allows advisors to trade 65 iShares exchange-traded funds without paying a commission on the Fidelity platform, up from 30. However, in offering the 65, Fido took away the 10 most used by advisors. Another beef is a $7.95-per-trade exit fee Fidelity will charge investors who sell the commission-free ETFs within 30 days of buying them. For advisers, the fee kicks in if an ETF is sold within 60 days. When it says 'FREE' you must look at the mouse print for other fees to make up for it.
Young investors MORE wary of advisors, survey says
“Surprisingly, the millennial generation has emerged from two boom-and-bust cycles even more conservative about investing and more skeptical of financial advice than the generations that were hit hardest by the market,” said Alex Pigliucci, global managing director of Accenture Wealth and Asset Management Services.
“Generation D,” a swath of investors 75 million strong that cuts across so-called millennials, Generation Xers and the baby boomers, poses a “a fundamental challenge” for advisors who want a piece of what has often been called the largest wealth transfer in history, Pigliucci said.
How was your advisor trained?
Largest pension fund finds advisors are just not worth the expense?
In the latest sign of the apocalypse for active management, the largest pension fund in the
United States is mulling a move to an all-passive portfolio. The California Public Employees Retirement System's investment committee is evaluating whether the fees it pays its active managers are worth it or if paying less fees for passive management will lead to better long-term results. Experts say that at any given time,
half the managers are ahead of the market and half are behind. Net result is the average less the fees. Members have already discovered this trend:
http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Without-Wall-Street-Commissions/dp/1442168137
What does your retirement budget look like? ACT NOW
57% of U.S. workers have less than $25,000 in total household savings and investments, excluding their homes. 28% said they have no confidence that they will have enough money to retire in comfort, the highest level in the 23-year history of the EBRI study. Only 66% report having any retirement savings, compared to 75% of workers in 2009.
Many workers (41%) named cost of living and day-to-day expenses as their top reason for not contributing more to their employer’s retirement plans. Only 46% said they have calculated what they would need to save in order to live comfortably in retirement, EBRI says. Average worker incomes have fallen since the 1970s by 7% in real wages. Social Security benefits may last to 2033. “In 2033, incoming revenue and trust fund resources will be insufficient to maintain payment of full benefits,” . Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, said, referring to Social Security. “At that point there will only be enough money to cover about three-fourths of full benefits.”
Big Bang confirmed—the entire universe came from a speck—The First Miracle
New data says the visible portion of the universe was smaller than an atom when, in a split second, it exploded, cooled and expanded faster than the speed of light. The Planck space probe looked back at the afterglow of the Big Bang, and those results have now added about 80 million years to the universe's age, putting it at
13.81 billion years old.
The Second Miracle:
Even Mrs Bachmann was created from that tiny speck: "Let's repeal this failure [ObamaCare] before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens," Bachmann said on the House floor.
Even Rand Paul who thinks Obama would kill Americans with a drone was created by a Miracle
“Entitlements”—our Social Security and Medicare money—did not produce the deficits
Chaney/Bush wars cost $3.7 Trillion and counting
Another DANGER sign ignored—taxpayers set to bailout banks again!
U.S. House lawmakers advanced legislation that would ease Dodd-Frank Act derivatives rules and give banks greater ability to trade swaps overseas. It allows trading of almost all types of derivatives by units of banks that hold government-insured deposits. A separate bill would restrict U.S. regulators’ ability to apply rules to overseas transactions. “It is incredible that less than a week after new JPMorgan Whale hearings detailed how the bank’s London office piled up risk, hid losses, and dodged regulatory oversight, that some House members are again supporting the weakening of derivative safeguards.”
Chase lost $6.2 billion on derivatives but still does not know how
"There's a lot of evidence that they are maybe
too big to manage," Sen. Levin said in a press briefing Thursday morning. But "our focus," he said, "is on the danger of derivatives which are not regulated properly." Regulation may not be possible and we may be asked to bail out another disaster.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100553551
Big banks cannot be regulated and will cause another bailout—HOW?
The emails presented by the Senate report show that JPMorgan did not follow their own guidelines and limits to control their traders. There is no accountability. Banks can just lie to the regulators and pay a fine if they are caught. Meanwhile they are betting your money in risky ways most regulators don’t even understand. They know we will have to bail them out no matter what happens. No one wants the system to crash. Read and weep.
Investors 'aghast' as Cyprus to siphon cash from retail bank accounts
Levies of up to 12 percent part of bank rescue plan; citizens of divided nation united against scheme. Cyprusvoted down a controversial bank bailout deal.
U.S. Companies Stashing More Cash Abroad As Stockpiles Hit Record $1.45T
U.S. firms keep 58% of their cash, or $840 billion, overseas.
Companies are hording cash overseas to avoid paying taxes. They are not using the cash for development, hiring, expansion in the
US since it is more profitable to grow in global new markets. Of course they expect US forces to rescue them if their plants or executives are attacked around the world. However, they don’t want to pay their fair share to support
USpresence where they are expanding.
Wealthy moving to Puerto Rico—ZERO tax on capital gains
PR’s new tax system allows new residents to pay no local or US federal taxes on capital gains. Hedge fund managers are starting to house hunt in Condado and put their kids in private St. John’s School. We will need to pay for the 23.8% they would have paid here. They will still be protected as US citizens but don’t pay for USmilitary protection. We pay the taxes for them.
IAN
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