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Brown's Plan for California: 4-Day Workweek

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:00:39 EDT

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

California Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a painful slate of budget cuts yesterday, including shifting all state employees to a four-day, 38-hour workweek, in an effort to reduce the state's yawning $15.7 billion budget gap.

The plan also includes cuts to courts, health services, and welfare in what Brown terms a stab at "real, increased austerity." The plan also assumes the public will in November pass a new tax initiative designed to raise $6 billion, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. ...

Loeb Sues Yahoo!, Wants Info on Thompson

Mon, 07 May 2012 14:07:08 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Dan Loeb is really sticking it to Yahoo!, as his proxy war with the Internet company turns ugly.

Loeb and his hedge fund Third Point are now suing Yahoo! and requesting information regarding CEO Scott Thompson's hiring process amid the controversy over Thompson's background.

Last week, Loeb said Thompson did not have the computer science degree from Stonehill College that he claimed on his resume to have. Yahoo! responded by saying it was an inadvertent error. Yahoo!'s board is now looking into the situation following the intense scrutiny over the situation. ...

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The Secrets Behind Apple's Super-Low Tax Rate

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:40:53 EDT

By Mark Russell, Newser Staff

Apple is one of the most profitable companies in the world--and also one of the most aggressive and creative at avoiding taxes, reports the New York Times, which outlines a number of the company's tax-avoidance strategies. Among them:

Despite its well-known Cupertino, California, headquarters, Apple partly avoids the state's 8.84% corporate tax rate by directing some of its profits to a subsidiary in Nevada, where there are no corporate state taxes. (Almost poetically, that subsidiary is named Braeburn Capital, after a tart yet sweet type of apple.) Apple's sales teams in high-tax countries sell on behalf of subsidiaries in low-tax countries, avoiding income taxes. It employs a handful of employees in Luxembourg, where sales of items downloaded by customers in Europe and Africa are recorded--and taxed at a discounted rate. It created the "Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich," a much-emulated tax-avoidance strategy of routing profits through the Netherlands to Ireland and then through the Caribbean. More from Newser Homeownership Falls to 15-Year Low Wall Street to Slash 21K Jobs Billionaire Building Titanic II ...

General Electric Financial Arm's Tax Rate Drove Earnings Beat

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 09:17:03 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- General Electric's financial unit paid just a 9.4% tax rate in the first quarter, making a key contribution to the conglomerate's positive first quarter earnings surprise on Friday.

General Electric management "set expectations for a 15% tax rate and it came in at 9.4% for the quarter," wrote Citigroup analyst Deane Dray in a report published Sunday, noting that the difference added a penny per share to earnings. General Electric earned 34 cents per share in the first quarter, beating consensus analyst expectations by a penny. General Electric's financial unit earned $1.99 billion from continuing operations in the first quarter, while paying $187 million in taxes.

"Taking a strict view even on just the tax rate, we could easily interpret the 'clean number' as more of a miss relative to our expectations," wrote Bernstein Research analyst Steven Winoker in as research note on Friday. ...

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More Americans Drop Citizenship Over Taxes

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:56:17 EDT

By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff

It's April again: time to add up receipts, find little-known tax breaks, and, in some cases, renounce U.S. citizenship altogether.

In fact, a record number of Americans abroad renounced their citizenship last year as complaints increased about IRS rules, Reuters reports. ...

3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: April 18

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:44:59 EDT

NEW YORK (MainStreet) - What's happening in small business today?

1. The White House is threatening to veto a small-business tax cut. A House Republican-led bill to extend a temporary tax cut to small businesses may be vetoed by The White House after calling it an "unproductive giveaway to many of the country's most profitable companies," according to the Associated Press.

The House is expected to vote on the bill Thursday, which Republicans say will fund job creation. However, even if the bill is passed in the House, it is unlikely to be passed in the Democratic-led Senate, the AP says. ...

Romney on Taxes: I'd Kill These Deductions

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:46:36 EDT

By Mark Russell, Newser Staff

Having pretty much wrapped up the GOP nomination for president, but still months away from the party convention, Mitt Romney used his "spring break" for fundraising -- pulling in a hefty $2 million in events Sunday alone, reports MSNBC.

Sunday afternoon, a reception at the $14 million home of investment company founder and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican Francis Rooney featured plenty of luxury cars, including Mercedes, Porsches, and at least one Maserati. Rooney gave the $2,500 limit to Romney's campaign last June, and his company has given a total of $1 million to two pro-Romney super PACs. ...

Haven't Filed Yet? IRS Site Best for Free Tax Tools

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:19:36 EDT

NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- Rejoice, comrades: The Internal Revenue Service is now the people's tax preparer. The government agency we all love to hate has quietly become the first choice for help with filing your taxes.

Time was -- say, last year -- that a decent buck was made on the software and tools used in preparing business and personal taxes. H&R Block, Intuit -- heck, even Microsoft, made big bucks helping firms and people stay on the right side of the tax boogey man. Forget QuickBooks or TurboTax. The government has all the tax tools and resources you need.

"I think we are up to $17 billion in market cap," Scott Cook, founder and chairman of the executive committee for Intuit, told me earlier this month. "And QuickBooks will be the foundation for further growth in other products as well." ...

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Get Ready for Free Tax-Prep Software That Actually Works

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:00:00 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- I will leave Intuit's fate to better minds. But considering how good free business accounting tools like Wave Accounting are becoming, it's a safe bet the company won't be bumping up prices for business ledger management software like QuickBooks.

The Web era's "everything-as-ad-supported-medium" business ethic has found an odd new niche: business accounting software. Never mind that excellent business ledger tools are cheap. Intuit and Outright, both based in Mountain View, Calif., and Vancouver's Kashoo offer powerful accounting tools for about $10 a month.

9 Stocks That Prove Dividends Make All the Difference ...

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Real Estate Accounting Must-Knows of New Tax Law

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:30:25 EDT

The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

By Marla Miller

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Capitalization tax law -- three words that have little meaning to most people, will become very important to real estate owners this year as the IRS just released the long-awaited changes to tangible property regulations. This new guidance will impact accounting for expenses incurred by real estate companies when an acquisition, remodel or disposition is made. ...

3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: March 28

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:56:46 EDT

NEW YORK (MainStreet) - What's happening in small business today?

1. Restrictions are being eased to make it easier to get capital. The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the final measure needed to get the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) onto President Barack Obama's desk to be signed into law. The JOBS Act makes it easier for companies to attract investors and comply with securities laws by easing Securities and Exchange Commission restrictions on soliciting new investors. It also permits so-called "crowdfunding" to allow entrepreneurs to raise equity from larger pools of smaller investors, according to the Washington Post.

The measure was first passed by the House earlier in March. The Senate passed its version of the bill last week, which included additional safeguards on crowdfunding. ...

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Last Minute Tax Tips

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:30:00 EDT

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1 in 3 Americans Will Spend Their Tax Refund (and That's a Bad Idea)

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:00:00 EDT

NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- Tens of millions of Americans will be getting tax refunds this year, but many won't be putting theirs in the bank. Instead, one study says they'll be cashing and spending it. That's good for the economy -- but is it good for consumers?

Americans got $318 billion in tax refunds last year -- down from $328 billion in 2010, according to the Internal Revenue Service. The average refund was $2,913 last year, again down slightly from 2010 when it was at $3,003, the IRS reports.

Getting a tax refund? Best to think of it as a paycheck rather than free money from the government. ...

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3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: March 21

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:26:58 EDT

NEW YORK (MainStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. An argument for using Yelp to get more business. "Kind of like an Angie's List gone viral, Yelp has become one of the premiere Web sites to offer user-generated reviews," says Noobpreneur.

Small businesses can use the site to get more business because Yelp ranks fairly high in Google search, and even if a business does rank on the first page for local search term, one more listing surely couldn't hurt. It also is a good way to get feedback from customers, because those who had a bad experience with a company are more likely to leave a review than those who had a good experience, the article says. ...

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Praise and Profit: How Religion Pays Off

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:30:00 EDT

BOSTON (MainStreet) -- Ask the devoted and they might say that their religion is priceless. Ledger sheets might say a different story. ...