Federal law provides tax benefits for commuters who ride their bicycle to work

The federal government is responding as part of the Energy Act in 2009, to provide tax benefits for commuters who ride their bicycle to work. If your employer offers this benefit, you can receive $20/month for each month you use your bicycle as your primary source of transportation to work so long as you do not accept any other transit benefit. The difference between this tax benefit compared to the normal transit/parking benefits is that is is not a pre-tax benefit; rather, the $20 received is an employer paid benefit.

$8K First-time home buyer tax credit

First-time homebuyers in 2009 may qualify for the $8,000 tax credit that was proposed as part of the Govt stimulus plan. This is different from the 2008 $7,500 tax credit which had to be paid back over the course of 15 years.

Unemployment tax benefits

Unemployment benefits for the first $2,400 received in 2009, can be excluded from income.

Tax breaks for new car purchases

There are additional tax breaks for taxpayers this year. With the dreadful financial markets, the IRS has responded to stimulate consumer spending. The IRS has allowed taxpayers to be entitled to tax breaks for new car purchases on their 2009 returns. In addition, for states that do not have sales tax, there are tax breaks for those states as well.

Gamblers are not a sure bet for tax purposes

Can a gambler claim business activity for tax purposes? Maintain excellent records, be able to prove that's the trade of business and be ready.

GM to file for Chpt 11 bankruptcy tomorrow

On Thursday, April 30, 2009, Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Tomorrow, Monday, June 1, 2009, GM is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York. This marks the largest bankruptcy filing in the history for an industrial business. This can have catastrophic effects in our financial markets as GM employs 230K people and builds over 20K vehicles per day. Just as when investors thought the market was turning itself around, this can eventually end up testing new lows in our financial markets.
As mentioned in my earlier posts, the auto industry needs to re-structure themselves. It was only a matter of time until the "big" companies fall under. The theory of "too big to fail" no longer exists in today's global market.