Nearly 1 million individuals and businesses filed bankruptcy in the 12 months ended June 30, according to U.S. Court data released August 27, 2008. There were 967,831 bankruptcy cases filed since July 1, 2007, up 28.9 percent from the prior 12 months, when cases totaled...
The Case-Shiller Home Price Index came out today, and it showed that home prices fell 15.4% in the second quarter nationwide, and this just puts more pressure on anyone falling behind in mortgage payments. A homeowner that has a loan worth more than their mortgage...
Due to rising gas prices, the IRS announced the mileage rate will increase by eight cents to 58.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2008. The new rate for computing deductible medical or moving expenses will also...
Manufacturing and Construction down!The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index for May showed its fourth straight monthly decline,. The Commerce Department reported construction spending dipped in April, for the sixth time in seven months, due to a drop in home building.see: http://www.TaxEsq.com...
IRS Drops Interest RatesThe Internal Revenue Service announced June 2, 2008 that interest rates for the calendar quarter beginning July 1, 2008, will drop by one percentage point. The new rates will be:five (5) percent for overpayments [four (4) percent in the case...
Remember all the experts reminding us the aggregate housing market had never declined since the Great Depression? That myth was shattered by today’s Case-Shiller 20-City Index showed a huge 14.4% decline in the March 2008 compared with March, 2007 prices. This is average of the...
Increasing Foreclosure Rates Foreclosures were up 57% from March of last year. Approximately 1 in 538 houses in the U.S. are in foreclosure. Nevada has the worst rate with 1 in 139 homes in foreclosure. California has a 1 in 204 foreclosure rate.Nevertheless, since the...
IRS is Increasing Audit RatesThe IRS is greatly increasing the rate of tax audits on higher income taxpayers and businesses. The audit rate started dropping in 1998 because of restructuring at the IRS. It bottomed in 2000, when just 0.5 percent of individual tax returns...
IRS Warns of Scams by Tax Return Preparers!The IRS Reports:"Dishonest tax return preparers can cause many problems for taxpayers who fall victim to their schemes. These scam artists make their money by skimming a portion of their clients’ refunds and charging inflated fees...
New Jersey Government at the BottomThe Pew Center reports that New Jersey has an extremely poorly run government. Except for Rhode Island and New Hampshire, New Jersey government scored among the worst in the US. That is no surprise to taxpayers who have suffered years...