Illinois Senior Freeze

We have had a number of clients upset because they don’t qualify for the Illinois Senior Freeze. As we know HOUSEHOLD income cannot be over $65,000.  Now this is not taxable income or adjusted gross income.  This is all income; most seniors have a portion of Social...

72-T calculation

The dreaded 72-T calculation, who is doing yours? I ask that question, because we picked up a new elderly client this past tax season and she expected me to do the calculation for her.  Having been compliance for a group of financial advisors in a past life I know...

Social Security Numbers

Years ago, the Social Security Administration when you reached a certain age used to send out statement just before people’s birthdays showing projections on how much Social Security they would be receiving at various levels. They stopped the practice of mailing out...

Cyber Insurance

The market for cyber insurance is booming. It apparently is the fastest-growing segment of property and casualty insurance market. Cyber insurance covers the losses relating to damage to, or loss of information from, IT systems and networks. Policies generally include...

Projects

In your business you have a number of projects that you need to accomplish, I was watching a webinar that broke out some details regarding “projects.  It got me thinking about mine in a slightly more organized fashion. A “Project” is an individual or collaborative...

1% investments

I was reading an article and in Pocket I found an article about what the 1% invest in their secrets should not be shared. The items are somewhat amusing. Famous art – like I had a shot at owning the auctioned DaVinci Corporate America’s Landlord – buy property that...

5 Things Wealthy People Invest Their Money Into

I came across this list when reading an article and it was advertised at the bottom: “Non-Investment” Investments Rich People Learn to Make. The thing is, these are areas where rich people really do invest time and time again. Accelerated Learning. …...

Cipolla’s five basic laws of human stupidity

Law 1: Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. Law 2: The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. Law 3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses...

Reuse Clothing issues

I knew the number was low, but I was surprised that only 15% of discarded textiles was recycled or reused, while the rest is sent to landfills or incinerators.  Which always makes taking a high value on donated goods difficult.  Shipping overstock overseas I knew...

Electric Cars

With the planned proliferation of electric vehicles coming onto the market by the end of the decade, how are they all going to be charged? Throughout the US we have electric grid reliability issues. Adverse weather conditions in the central U.S. will be 1.7% higher...

Public Ransomware

States are introducing bans on ransomware payments by public agencies that get hit by this increasingly common cyberattack.  This is an attempt to remove the low hanging fruit, typically municipalities have limited and poor security, which have made them easy targets....

Girlfriend’s Rent

We picked up a new client this year that will not be returning next year, he isn’t even a real client this year.  We did not submit his tax returns. This gentleman gave us his documents and we prepared financials for him.  He did not like the results, he made money, a...

Business envy

This last tax season we picked up a new client that is running an e-commerce business similar to my own.  I have to admit that I was jealous.  They run theirs better than I do mine. As business has picked up on the CPA side a couple of my side businesses have...

Missing 1099’s

This last tax season was unusual, but I expect it to be more of the norm moving forward.  We had clients who were missing 1099-R’s. They have been coming so regularly that people didn’t know who to call about the missing one.  The prior year’s report never has a phone...

Crypto and market ties

Cryptocurrencies are seemingly moving more closely with the other financial markets at this point. The correlation between bitcoin and the stock market is hitting multiyear highs. A measure of the correlation between bitcoin and the Nasdaq Composite suggests that the...

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