How to Categorize Your Tax Deductions

February 1st, 2012

It isn’t always happy thoughts and sunshine when Springs comes around each year because of the gloom that is tax season.  Each April people all over the country struggle on their taxes and are in dire need of free tax help.   Filing taxes might be easy for an individual who makes less than $45,000 a year, but for a small business owner, taxes can get really complicated.  Not only do you have a lot of deductions and write offs, but small business owners are more likely to get audited by the IRS then large corporations or middle class individuals.

The most important thing to consider when applying tax deductions is to keep a record of all receipts, either paper or electronically.  You will need this proof of purchase and expense if the governments decides to come knocking on your door.  It might be best to just print out copies of all your receipts and keep them in a tangible file then to store them in email or electronically.  Here is a list of steps that need to be taken to categorize your small business tax deductions:

1. Create a category for marketing.  Marketing expenses includes all promotions and outsourced marketing efforts. I would also create a subcategory here and label it Restaurant Client Meetings.  Throw in the amount you spend on client meetings over lunch/dinner every time you pick up the tab.

2. Next is transportation:  You will need to keep track of miles driven and airfare and any public transportation costs you might incur on business trips. Real simple stuff here.

3. Office Expenses:  Did you buy a new computer or desk for a new employee? Write it off in this section.  All office expenses from pens, paper, computers, chairs or anything that is used in your office should be deducted.

4.  Employee benefit costs:  If you have employees make sure to write off any benefits that you pay to them.

This is just a quick way to categorize your tax deductions so follow these simple guidelines and you should be fine. If not, go online and do more research and don’t hesitate to contact a local tax accountant because they are always there to help.

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Stock Market Crashes: A Volatile History

January 20th, 2012


The stock market can be a volatile game. We hear, regularly, about the unstable nature of stocks and stock markets, but what few people realize is that most of the time the stock market remains fairly stable. That, simply put, is why crashes of stock markets are considered big news. There have been several notable stock market crashes, but each has had a specific reason associated with the crash.

On October 29, 1929, now known as Black Tuesday, is one of the worst and earliest recorded stock market crashes. The New York Stock Exchange became artificial, over-inflated. People borrowed money from lenders to buy high-priced stocks in an attempt to sell them for a profit, repay the lenders and keep the difference. The stocks, however, fell sharply, sent people into a tailspin which crashed the market. It is consider the official start of the Great Depression.

On October 16, 1987 the market once again took a turn for the worse. News of a major, U.S., trade deficit broke on the 14th of that money and led to a massive selling of stocks which caused the market to crash. It lost over 100 points in October 16th and an additional 400 points on October 19th. The NYSE lost 22% of its value due to the news.

Following the attacks of September 11th, 2001 the global stock market took a nose dive that is considered one of the worst stock crashes in history. The attacks greatly affected global stocks, disrupted the U.S. dollar and caused significant rises in oil prices. The changes in the market led investors to head for saver commodities such as gold. The NYSE remained closed in the days following September 11th, but international markets took a significant hit.

On May 6th, 2010 the Dow Jones industrial experienced a “flash crash”. The market saw a 1,000 point drop in a single day, but recovered partially by the close of business. The concern regarding the debt crisis in Greece was partially to blame for the flash crash.

Each stock market crash has been attributed to specific instances, but it is safe to say that all news, regardless of what it entails, could potentially cause a problem within an economically unstable world. It is safe to say that the world of stock markets can be thrilling and volatile all that the same time.

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Biggest Publicly Traded Tobacco Companies

December 12th, 2011


A little research on large tobacco companies brings up some surprising results. Almost all are diversified to the point of becoming international conglomerates with solid business foundations, management, and profits. Here is a little information about seven of the biggest publicly traded tobacco companies in the world.

Phillip Morris International is based in New York City, USA. PMI is the largest publicly owned tobacco company in the world with a market cap of more than $105 Billion. It has 78 thousand full time employees and operates in 180 countries. A few popular PMI brands are Marlboro, L&M, Parliament, and Virginia Slims.

British American Tobacco has a market cap more than $59 billion. It is based in London, United Kingdom and trades around the world. The company has 60 thousand full time employees. Some popular BAT brands are Dunhill, Viceroy, Kent, Kool, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall.

Imperial Tobacco Group PLC is based in Bristol, United Kingdom. With 38 thousand employees and a market cap of $24 billion Imperial Tobacco is involved in marketing, production, and sales of tobacco products worldwide. They also provide logistics services for tobacco product manufacturers and other diverse industries.

Indian Tobacco Company Ltd is a publicly traded Indian conglomerate based in Kolkata, India. Through their FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) division ITC Ltd sells and exports finished tobacco products and leaf. A few popular brands are Armenteros cigars, and Lucky Strike, Players, and Bristol cigarettes.

Godfrey Phillips India Ltd is based out of New Delhi, India. GPI Ltd is the second largest cigarette producer in India with a strong presence in cigars. FS1 and Foursquare are their most popular brands.

VST Industries Ltd is another tobacco related company based in India, city of Hyderabad. The company sells cigarettes, tobacco leaf, and other tobacco products in India and internationally. Charms Smooth Virginia and Charms Virginia Filter are two of their brands.

Kothari Products Ltd is based in Kanpur, India. Among other items it produces tobacco products such as chewing and scented tobacco.

It is interesting to note the locations of the world’s biggest public tobacco companies. Four are based in India, two in the United Kingdom, with only one, the largest, in the United States. Japan Tobacco Company is the third largest publicly traded tobacco company though 50 percent of the company is held by the Japanese Ministry of Finance. The largest tobacco company in the world is the state owned China National Tobacco Corporation.

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Biggest Financial Gains in History of Stock Market

November 25th, 2011

The biggest financial gains in the history of the stock market, have not come when many people would expect. There are factors that effect the group thinking of stock market movements and how people moving through the stock trade act psychologically. In some sense, stock market buyers, sellers, and traders act more like gamblers than anything else that would be comparable. Here is the reasoning why this analogy is often made.

Examples of this are evident, if you observe stock exchange behavior just before the famous Black Monday crashes of 1929 and 1987. Both were preceded by some of the biggest financial gains in the history of the stock market, at each of those individuals periods. These crashes have raised any number of questions and speculations about how market fluctuation should be interpreted. Also these crashes were followed by mass liquidation of stock holdings by many fearful investors. So this did end up contributing to the crashes and their devastating results.

Another example of this is what are called the bubble years of the 1990s stock market. Many companies were setting records for stock pricing on the indexes, some almost monthly or more often. Quite a number of eventually money losing companies were worth billions of dollars, at least on paper. Because of this their holdings sold wildly and high priced on the day of their public auctions. Yet this was far from the truth once these huge one day markets would pass. One day spikes were a cause of much stock market confusion and losses during the middle to late 1990s. These are not considered safe.

So when examining the biggest financial gains in the history of the stock market, it must be looked at with perspective and clarity to gain any real insight. High stock values, races to purchase stocks, and sudden fluctuations in trades are not always an indicator of a good solid stock market. Investments are not generated in such short term profits for the most part. Wise investments are made with consistent profits in the long term, such are safer and more realistic. Profits should be steady and not fluctuating. Any wise investment adviser will tell their clients this and it is good advice to take to heart. The biggest financial gains cannot be assumed to guarantee a steady growth in the market, this is true today and it has been true in decades past.

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How to Invest in the Stock Market

October 22nd, 2011

Investing in the stock market is something that many people are interested in, but not everyone has the confidence to follow through with. Below, you will find out the steps you can take to start your own investment portfolio.

The first step to investing in stocks is to find a brokerage firm that you want to use. There are many firms online nowadays, and this is becoming the most common place to search for these companies. The convenience factor of investing online is incredibly tempting for most investors, since you can easily check on and trade stocks with just a few mouse clicks.

Once you have opened an account with a broker, you will need to decide which stocks you would like to buy. While you may have had all sorts of ideas about what companies to invest in before, it can be quite different when you are actually about to buy some shares of that business. When you see how much money all the shares cost, the fear of losing your hard-earned savings may be enough to second-guess your decision.

A way to overcome this fear when investing is to start small with stock purchases. Instead of risking a huge sum of money and looking for a short-term gain, try buying half the number of shares you originally planned to buy. You may need to hold onto them longer in order to make a decent profit, but at least you won’t be risking as much money.

You never really know which way the stock market is going to turn, but some find it fun to log in to their brokerage account daily and see what their investment status is. If you do research on the companies you’d like to invest in and don’t risk too much money in stocks, you will probably find that many of your stock transactions do well.

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How You Can Get Started Trading Stocks

September 17th, 2011


There are several ways to begin investing in the stock market to try and earn extra money. Some are easy while others are a bit more difficult, but often more rewarding. Most people tend to take the easy routes as they are quicker, easier, and open to more people. You can start investing in the stock market easily and quickly if you choose, or it could take you a while but you would get more out of it. Either way you decide to go the stock market is always a great investment idea for anyone who wants to learn more about business, trade, and get rich with stocks. It can lead to a career, business opportunities, or just wealth through smart investment. Anything is possible when you put your mind to it.

The easier ways to start investing in stock and making your potential millions is through all sorts of various stock market investing companies. This is by far the quickest and easiest route. There are plenty out there that offer a great interface and allow you to invest in stocks, view trends and charts to learn more about investing, and they even offer all kinds of advice, help, and training if you like. This is for the average person who just wants to dive right into stock market trading and see what it is all about. This is recommended for beginners, advanced, and even the experts. Although, generally only beginners use these techniques as they are good starters into the investing world, but don’t offer a great variety of options.

The harder way to enter into investing is to know people who already invest or are part of the stock market. Contacting directly to stock brokers and either joining their company or finding out how they do it is probably the best way because you can get direct and expert help from someone you know. However, this is the hardest way and isn’t readily available to everyone. It will also take a lot longer and won’t return as quickly. A very small percentage take this route, but they are generally the ones who make a complete living from the stock market. You could always locate a stock broker or company over the internet and set up an application or request information.

There are easy and hard ways to enter into the stock market, but just entering is the best part. Take initiative and you can start making a living by being a smart investor!

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The Safest Way to Invest in Stocks

August 9th, 2011

Any investment, whether large or small has its risks. This is a very important rule that is often forgotten. Even though, there is a popular saying there is nothing certain in this world, there is a certain risk in any investment. One way to lessen the risks of investment is to focus on diversifying the portfolio.

Often, energy companies have a way of establishing themselves in markets to become very stable and slow growing. An explanation can be the unlikely event a power company will have so many customers at once, An example would be that the amount of times an average person turns the lights in the house is not likely to change much.

A stable company that has been around for a long time is generally less risky than the start-ups. This reason can be explained by a stable base of investors looking for long term investment, while start-ups can be very volatile to invest in so there is generally highers risks and quicker returns.

To diversify the portfolio, one must simply refrain from investing all their money into one company or just one sector of the market. Simply allocating funds into various companies will most likely reduce risk. For example, investing in solar energy is not to be on one company. There are several companies that provide solar energy, therefore investing in a handful of companies can be safer than a single company. If one company fails, there can be other prospering companies that can hold up the portfolio.

If the solar industry is a business that is still new and developing business. An investor can just invest in the whole energy market if it seems promising. One method of investing in a sector would be to collect many companies grow rates and average them together from the same sector. Depending on the average percent growth of the whole, if it is desirable, then investment should be done. For example, investing in successful oil , natural gas, and solar energy companies covers a wide range of energy companies. That way, if an industry like solar energy goes bad, hopefully oil and natural gas industries can compensate.

Overall, risk reduction is an important tactic for investors. Risk reduction can exist in many ways such as company and industry investment diversification. Any investor should be aware that it is important not to keep their eggs in one basket.

 

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What Are Penny Stocks?

July 19th, 2011

Investing in stocks has been a profitable venture for many especially for those who have gone through thorough stock market research. They found a wise way where and how to invest the funds that they have. They know who to trust through different portfolios that they have seen and the market trends that they have studied. However, a growing hype on penny stocks is evident in the market today. For a small investment one can easily gain a lot of stocks of one company. However, the question is, how safe are penny stocks anyway?

Penny stocks are shares from small public companies which are offered to the market for less than a dollar. Some call it cent stocks and others call it penny shares. However, some compliance agencies and groups would treat $5 per share as the right standard in defining penny stocks. Nevertheless, some stocks are even traded for a fraction of a dollar. This makes a very interesting offer to many people who are looking for new investment options. Many are excited to invest on a few penny stocks to enjoy great fortune in the end. However, in the recent scandals in the stock market, many penny stocks have turned from treasures to trash

It is unfortunate that in an effort to gain more funds, many companies are pumping up the value of penny stocks by fabricating different false stories about the companies that trade them. With some online marketing strategies, advertising companies easily reach the global market and convince them to purchase penny stocks from a bogus company that is not existing or not as profitable. Through various online media sources, companies can easily gain the trust and confidence of the public by hiring advertising experts who know how to catch the attention of their audience online and move them into investing their hard earned money to a so call “shell” corporation. Corporations who have nothing but hallow promises promote themselves through various scammers who front themselves as stock brokers or agents and online marketing agencies to mislead petty stock investors. And as stock promotion campaigns dominate, the market blindly invests in a company that has nothing but good, positive but false promotions to offer.

Microcrap stock fraud is how they call this type of scandal pertaining to petty stocks. There have been many victims and the amount of lost funds can be very high. Nevertheless, some small public companies are legitimate. There are some who have profitably operated for years. They have real revenues to boast of. One can find a good investment opportunity by checking further the company’s portfolio. In the same way, one can also check the financial stability of publicly traded company through various online resources instead of simply believing in stock advertising campaigns and promotions.

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