by Leif Jensen | Dec 3, 2019 | Money Management |
How old were you when you were truly financially independent? I was married and we owned our own place at 24. But when we moved from the Townhouse to a house, we received some assistance. We received more assistance when I lost my job shortly after moving into the...
by Leif Jensen | Dec 2, 2019 | General, Running a Business |
I am always a sucker for an article that talks about side business, side hustles or ways to make extra money on the side. Especially since I believe that most people should have multiple streams of income to support themselves, their kids’ education, and their...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 26, 2019 | General, Retail, Running a Business |
eBay I was reading an article that was listing side-hustles to supplement a person’s income. I am all for side businesses or a side-hustle. I have a few businesses beyond my CPA practice myself. Hell, you get enough side businesses going and they call you a...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 25, 2019 | General, Investing, Running a Business, Taxes |
I have known people who get creative in having others cover their mortgage payments. I personally never had the opportunity or the courage to try what they did on my own. The first person bought his parents’ home from them in his freshman year of college. He then...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 20, 2019 | Investing |
Apparently, there are those thinking about buying a vacation home. At some point in time in the future, I will inherit half of one and have no interest in buying the other half. But second homes are now highly sought after now as Americans’ net wealth and disposable...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 19, 2019 | Taxes |
Did you at any time during 2019, receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency? Yes or no? Big brother wants to know. This is an important question for the 2019 tax filing in early 2020. The IRS has redesigned...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 18, 2019 | Taxes |
The Social Security wage base rises next year to $137,700, this is a $4,800 hike. The Social Security tax rate on employers and employees stays pat at 6.2%. Both will continue to pay the 1.45% Medicare tax on all compensation, with no cap. Individuals also pay the...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 13, 2019 | Tax Court |
IRS tax liens on real estate can follow the property when it is sold. A buyer learned this lesson the hard way after purchasing realty in a foreclosure sale. Four years earlier, the Service had recorded its notice of tax lien on the property after the former owner...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 12, 2019 | Tax Court |
A man who set his own hours and worked unsupervised is determined to be an employee; not an independent contractor, the Tax Court rules. After examining all of the facts, including the following: The man worked for the same company for many years. The company withheld...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 11, 2019 | Taxes |
If you have a child due towards the end of the year be sure your child has a Social Security number if claiming the child credit. Listing applied for is no longer an option. You must put the SSN on the Form 1040 to get the $2,000 credit. Eligible children without SSNs...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 6, 2019 | Taxes |
People who choose to go without health coverage will find it easier to fill out their 2019 tax returns. The 2017 tax reform law repealed the fines under Obamacare’s individual mandate for post-2018 years. So those taxpayers who chose to forgo getting health insurance...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 5, 2019 | Running a Business, Taxes |
A business manager called in a bit of a panic. It seems that their bookkeeper had quit four months before and they received a notice that they are now being audited by the Illinois Department or Revenue for their Sales Taxes for 2017 to 2019. I went to meet with the...
by Leif Jensen | Nov 4, 2019 | General, Rant, Running a Business, Taxes |
U.S. National Debt has risen to a record high exceeding $22 Trillion. To make matter worse according to the Treasury Department data comes as tax revenue has fallen and federal spending continues to rise. The new debt level reflects a rise of more than $2 trillion...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 30, 2019 | Rant, Running a Business |
I was working with a client that came to me after a worker’s comp audit. The owner and family were the only ones listed on the policy and drawing salary. The audit determined that their independent contractors were in fact employees and not independent contractors...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 29, 2019 | Advertising, General, Rant |
Imagine that you developed and refined a destructive force that changed the world of warfare and that you made of fortune doing so. But you never really thought about the consequences of your actions until you read an obituary about yourself that was run instead of...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 28, 2019 | General |
Student loans are typically extremely difficult, but not impossible, to discharge in bankruptcy. To do so, you must show that payment of the debt “will impose an undue hardship on you and your dependents.” If you can successfully prove undue hardship, your student...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 23, 2019 | Running a Business |
I did some reading and investigation on the financials of publishing; I always want to see how a business works. What I found startled me and I thought I had a good idea how the numbers played out. An author published through a small press that sells 100,000 ebooks at...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 22, 2019 | Advertising, General, Running a Business |
In 2017 a new record was set with more than 1 million books being Self-Published. Today the average U.S. nonfiction book is unfortunately now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over its lifetime. Very few titles are big sellers. Only 62...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 21, 2019 | General, Investing, Rant |
I recently traded in my Mercedes. Before I traded the car in, I needed to determine what I would drive next. I went back and forth on a number of makes and models. Then I sat back and thought about this from a different perspective. I thought about what is the most...
by Leif Jensen | Oct 16, 2019 | General, Rant |
I was surprised to find out that, as private organizations, political parties in the U.S. are under no legal obligation to democratically choose their nominees for general elections; parties could choose to select nominees by tennis match. I was aware that delegates...
