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Small Business Tax Credit: Is Your Company Giving Up Free Money?

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Is the new small-business tax credit too complex to calculate and worth too little to claim? It isn’t often that a business owner will turn down a tax credit, but that’s exactly what’s happening with the Tax Credit for Employee Health Insurance Expenses of Small Employers, a key part of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. Many small-business owners have concluded that the credit isn’t worth enough money to justify the effort required to claim it. According to the most recent … [Read more...]

Virtual Money, the Bitcoin Joins the Currency Big Leagues

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Forget the dollar or euro. It's time to get paid in Bitcoin. Virtual money isn’t issued by any government; its value isn't controlled by any central bank. Instead, private companies or nonprofit organizations issue electronic codes that carry a value, and a market of buyers and sellers around the world sets the price relative to real currencies, like the dollar and euro. Over the last 15 years, virtual money has been playing an ever-increasing role in web-based transactions, accounting for … [Read more...]

How Does a Permanent $250,000 Small-Business Tax Deduction Sound?

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Uncle Sam bought over $80 billion in products and services from small businesses last year. Which door should you knock on to get  Small-Business Tax Deduction? According to data recently released in the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), federal government agencies award over $83 billion in small business contracts during 2012. This represents approximately 22 percent of the $376 billion in contracts for which small businesses were eligible. This is very close to the 23 percent which has … [Read more...]

Massive SBA Loan Fraudster Pleads Guilty

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Joon Park promised to help small businesses obtain SBA-backed loans. Instead he scammed banks and his clients. SBA Loan Fraudster Pleads Guilty Small-business owners have to work very hard to secure financing for their businesses. It is extremely disappointing when people who claim to help small businesses obtain loans turn out to be nothing more than scam artists. One such person, Joon Park, owner of Jade Capital & Investments, LLC, plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud … [Read more...]

Is The Tiny Island Of Cyprus About To Spark A Global Financial Crisis?

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Cyprus is on the verge of financial meltdown. It may take Europe and Russia with it. It's time to stop looking at the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s stellar comeback and start looking at what’s happening in Europe: there's a crisis happening in Cyprus that could have global repercussions. The tiny island-nation (with a population of just over 1 million people) is a full-fledged member of the European Union and the Eurozone, so its currency is the Euro. Like Greece, Portugal and Spain, it is one … [Read more...]

When Having Too Much Cash Is a Huge Problem

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Big companies have stashed away $1.5 trillion in cash. This isn't good; it's actually really bad. Here's why Having Too Much Cash Is a Huge Problem U.S. companies, especially large technology companies, have a huge problem: their balance sheets are jam-packed with cash—massive mountains of cash that add up to nearly $1.5 trillion nationwide. Large companies started out 2012 putting cash to use via acquisitions and share buybacks, but they slowed down this activity toward the end of the year. … [Read more...]

U.S. Patent System Undergoes Major Revision Affecting All Inventors

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office underwent a major revision which may hurt mom-and-pop inventors. Here's why. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office implemented a major revision on March 16 regarding how patents are evaluated. The U.S. was the first country in the world to implement intellectual property rights in 1790 when George Washington signed into law the first patent regulations. The modern patent system went into effect with the passage of the Patent Act in the 1830s. That law … [Read more...]

Tax Fraud: 5 Millionaires Busted for Cheating on Their Taxes

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Cheating on your taxes is not only illegal, it can ruin your life. Just ask one of these five tax evaders. Is it okay to cheat on your taxes? Even just a little bit? According to a recent poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications, a whopping 87 percent of respondents believe that it is never okay to cheat on your taxes, even “just a little bit.” It's hard to reconcile the survey results with the hundreds of billions of dollars the IRS claims it loses every year due … [Read more...]

Your Generation X Customers Will Be Financially Worse Off Than You

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Thirty-somethings (Generation X) are suffering the most from the aftermath of the financial crisis, with long-term consequences that small-business owners should keep in mind. The last seven years have been financially difficult for most of the country. Job insecurity, stagnant wages, declines in real asset prices and an overall feeling of uncertainty about the future have taken its toll across multiple generations. Looking at the economic data reveals that this misery hasn’t been shared … [Read more...]

Will Internet Cafes Soon Be Illegal?

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A $300 million fraud may lead to the banning of Internet cafes. Florida is reeling from a gambling scandal involving hundreds of millions of dollars, which has led to dozens of arrests and the resignation of the state’s lieutenant governor. In what has to be one of the largest, simplest and most clever frauds in recent memory, a large nonprofit organization turned a network of Internet cafes into virtual casinos. Now Florida’s legislature wants to make all Internet cafes illegal. If other state … [Read more...]