by Leif Jensen | Oct 19, 2021 | Rant |
I heard this story on the radio and then I went in to look at the details a bit more. I believe this shift has been more dramatic occurred within the past ten years or so. At the close of the 2020-21 academic year, women made up 59.5% of college students, an all-time...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 18, 2021 | Banking |
Federal Financial regulators want more data on lending by banks to small firms. Forcing those same small firms to provide more and more information to get access to cash to grow their businesses. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a rule that it...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 13, 2021 | Rant |
I know I’m a thousand years old, but I don’t think technology has the boom we think it has been. Information is easier to access. Great A more violent society. Bad, but not completely attributable to technology Less interpersonal communication. Bad No down time. Bad...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 12, 2021 | General |
I have to admit I was unaware that upon the death of Forrest Mars Sr. (1999), he and his two sons were ranked No. 29, 30, and 31 by Forbes magazine’s list of richest Americans, and they each had a worth of approximately $4 billion. I never paid much attention to...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 11, 2021 | Taxes |
Do you contribute to a Traditional or a Roth IRA? The idea behind the investing in a Traditional IRA is that your tax rates will be less when you are retired. Most of our clients did not believe us when we explained that this is a fallacy, that they will be roughly...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 6, 2021 | Money Management, Taxes |
In Fiscal 2020 we had clients who sold their home and did not prepare for the tax consequences. What was the most surprising was the fact that two or maybe three clients all claimed that they rolled the funds into a bigger home and so the profits should not be...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 5, 2021 | Rant |
The proposal, announced earlier this year by the Food and Drug Administration, stems from the agency’s finding in 2013 that menthols are harder to quit than regular cigarettes and likely pose a greater health risk. The agency also found that menthols are likely...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 4, 2021 | Taxes |
The most recent IRS statistics are out and the analysis is in, who are paying our taxes? At least from 2018… IRS statistics from 2018 show that the top 1% of taxpayers (more than $540,000 in income) paid 40.1% of all individual income taxes; the top 5% (about...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 29, 2021 | Uncategorized |
Blockchain is a term you will be hearing more and more of if you haven’t already. The blockchain is bitcoin’s historical ledger of all transactions which is publicly viewable at all times by anyone, so that there can’t be any under-the-table cash transactions. This is...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 28, 2021 | Investing, Money Management, Taxes |
President Biden wants to increase the tax on dividends. I find this a bit shortsighted; since he apparently has never invested in the stock market throughout his life (can this be true?) The value of those dividends is then an unknown entity. Not all have federal...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 27, 2021 | Rant |
Since a client insisted I get a FOID card and since my son was in the military, I have become aware of a subculture within my client base and family. They are gun enthusiasts. I have been encouraged to get my Conceal Carry License from the Illinois State Police....
by Leif Jensen | Sep 22, 2021 | Rant |
I have to admit I was surprised to find that there are no parole hearings in Illinois. There is no place for the victims or family to make their pleas and pitches, to keep the incarcerated in prison. I am aware of a case where the prisoner perjured themselves...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 21, 2021 | Rant |
The Illinois Prison system has a program to get prisoners back into the work force once released; it is their work release program. Work release is a program in which non-violent offenders are allowed to maintain a full or part-time job in the community but spend the...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 20, 2021 | Taxes |
Many taxpayers have tried to assert a reasonable-cause defense to avoid a tax penalty. In doing so, they have to prove their position was based on a reasonable cause and they acted in good faith. They must show that they exercised the same care that a reasonably...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 15, 2021 | Taxes |
When I stumbled across this little bit of history I could do anything but think “tax and spend”. In April 1942, when we had only been at war for 5 months or less, President Roosevelt proposed a top individual tax rate of 100%, declaring that amid “grave national...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 14, 2021 | Banking |
Money laundering is the process of changing large amounts of money obtained from crimes, such as drug trafficking, into origination from a legitimate source. So with that in mind traditional currency poses problems of its own for investigators. Bank notes are...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 13, 2021 | Rant |
“Most career criminals were losers, lazy men and women who lacked impulse control and who sometimes got lucky. Criminal Masterminds were for tv and books. Movies to probably” -Reed Farrel Coleman – Hangman’s Sonnet I struggle with the validity of this...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 9, 2021 | Economy, General |
Bike prices shot up 10% to 15% last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic helped boost many homebound Americans’ appetite for outdoor recreation. Anything to get out of the house and not into a store to look for toilet paper. Industry watchers are expecting similar price...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 8, 2021 | Rant |
I have written in the past of my enjoyment of Terry O’Reilly’s podcasts “Under the Influence” and “Age of Persuasion”. One Under the Influence podcast dealt with the shape of the packaging where he quoted: “Fast Company Magazine cites University of Toronto research,...
by Leif Jensen | Sep 7, 2021 | Running a Business |
Shoddy recordkeeping costs a tax preparer a large chunk of money. She can’t deduct her vehicle expenses, even though she used her personal car in her business. She claimed she drove 34,560 miles for business during the year, and she took the standard mileage...
