60 Mile Long Trail of “Dispersed” Oil


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We found a toxic-smelling trail of "dispersed" oil straight south of the mouth of the Mississippi River … more than 60 miles west of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

By Barbara Weltman If you’re a small-business owner seeking more training for yourself or for your staff, now is the time to enroll for the fall term. Fortunately, Uncle Sam helps defray the costs of education by providing important tax breaks.Successful business owners often pursue higher education or take courses in sales, software or other specialized learning programs. What’s the best way to write-off the cost of education that the owner pays for personally? It depends on several factors, including the type of education, the entity used by the business (such as a sole proprietorship or C corporation) and the owner’s personal tax picture. Here’s a short list.
Tax credits for higher education. Tax credits are better than deductions because they reduce taxes dollar for dollar. There are two personal tax credits that may be used for higher education:—American Opportunity credit of up to ,500 per year for the first four years of higher education. This credit is set to run only through 2010 and thereafter revert to the Hope credit of up to ,800.—Lifetime Learning credit of up to ,000 per year for any higher education, including graduate courses.The credits are subject to income limitations that may bar an owner from claiming them. If so, then costs may be deductible, without regard to income.
Deductions for education. Work-related education, such as continuing education required to maintain professional licenses, is a deductible expense. This includes not only tuition and fees, but also books and travel. For example, if an owner attends a business seminar at a resort location, it may be possible to deduct not only attendance fees but also travel, room and board. The key to claiming a deduction for all of these costs is showing the course is work-related and the purpose of the travel is to take the course and not for some personal reason; substantiation of attendance at the course is required.Self-employed individuals can deduct these costs from business income even though they pay for them personally because the costs are viewed as business expenses (sole proprietors take the write-off directly on Schedule C of Form 1040; partners can subtract the expense on Schedule E of Form 1040). Owners with C or S corporations, however, are employees who can only deduct these costs as unreimbursed employee business expenses on Schedule A of their Form 1040; only amounts in excess of 2% of adjusted gross income actually become deductible.Not every type of course or learning is tax deductible. The courses must maintain or improve job skills and not qualify the owner for a new trade or business. For example, costs of a law degree are not deductible because they qualify the student for a new trade or business, even if the student never intends to practice. Whether the cost of obtaining an MBA is deductible depends on the situation.Businesses that pay for education for their staff can usually deduct all of their costs as ordinary and necessary business expenses. From the employee’s perspective, some or all of this fringe benefit may be tax free.—Up to ,250 is tax free if the education is provided under the company’s written education assistance plan, whether or not the courses are job-related. Because of certain rules, owners and their families generally can’t take advantage of this tax break for themselves.—All of the assistance is treated as a tax-free working condition fringe benefit if the courses are job-related. This break can be used by corporate owner-employees to obtain tax-free education paid by their corporations (although S corporation shareholders should work with their tax advisors to avoid problems that could threaten S status).Businesses can set certain standards that employees must attain in order to receive this education assistance. For example, an employee may be required to pay upfront for a course and will receive reimbursement only if he or she receives a grade of B or better.Owners who want to learn more about how to run a business need not spend a fortune on formal education. There are many free resources, and training can be done online at the owner’s convenience, including:—IRS offers virtual small business tax workshops at www.tax.gov/virtualworkshop and other online educational and learning products at www.irs.gov/businesses/small/content/0,,id=146331,00.html.
—SCORE offers online workshops at www.score.org/online_workshops.html. —Small Business Administration (SBA)’s Training Network at www.sba.gov/training/index.html provides self-paced courses that run about 30 minutes each.—Also find low-cost programs for business owners through Small Business Development Centers (www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc/sbdclocator/SBDC_LOCATOR.html) and local community colleges. —-Find more about deducting the costs of education in IRS Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education, at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf.
WSJ.com: Small Business

In other news:
Oil falls slightly to near in Asia as traders eye US crude supplies, dollar
SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell slightly from a three-month high above a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude inventories fell less than expected last week, suggesting demand in the U.S. remains sluggish.
Read more on Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

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60 Mile Long Trail of “Dispersed” Oil is a post from: squeezeApenny.com

ETFs for the Long Run: What They Are, How They Work, and Simple Strategies for Successful Long-Term Investing

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You may have heard of exchange-traded funds, ETF for short, which are investment vehicles that track an index. But did you know there are bond ETFs? ETFs work much like index mutual funds in that they hold assets in quantities mimicking an index. But, unlike mutual funds, ETFs trade on an exchange, like a stock. Bond ETFs are simply ETFs that track a bond index instead of a stock index. Some track broad bond indices, such as the Lehman US Aggregate Index. Others track narrower bond indices, such as the Lehman 1-3 Year Bond Index and the Lehman 7-10 Year Bond Index. This allows investors to obtain exposure to bonds of specific maturities. Bond ETFs are attractive because they offer easy diversification as well as low costs and tax efficiency. Because they aren’t actively managed, ETFs typically don’t have high fees. They also tend to have low turnover, to they generate relatively low capital gains.

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Best answer:

Answer by MVD34
“day trading” has a technical definition — your question suggests to me that you are missing some important points of the definition.

But directly to your question, think of “day-trading” more as “trading within the day” as opposed to “trading daily.” A 24 hour holding period for any stock…or more technically holding a stock through one closing bell…moves a trader outside the “day-trading” classification.

Most accounts will be classified pattern day trader with 4 or more round trips within 5 or less days.

Give your answer to this question below!

Q&A: How long do I have to hold on to a penny stock before I sell it and not consider “day-trading”? is a post from: squeezeApenny.com

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Question by Robert B: What are a few stocks that are old and have beaten the stock market?
AT&T is decades old but it’s history seems to be to do worse than the stock market.

I am interested in knowing one or more stocks that have traditionally beaten the market, especially if they are dividend stocks.

Best answer:

Answer by Mark L
IBM, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson and Walmart all come to mind, but even those stocks have had periods where they underperformed the market. Past performance is not necessarily a predictor of future stock performance. You mentioned just one company ATT that is no longer the leader that it once was, but there are several former great companies whose stocks no longer perform as well as the market as a whole.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

ali g talks to teh chief economics advisor to Ronald Reagan

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Question by recycle b: What stocks will be a wise investment to hold long term?
I am sick and tired of seeing my stock portfolio sometimes decreasing a few thousand dollars in one day. I am always looking for new stock investments. Which large corporate stocks are still available that have always made a profit and still have profit growth, have a low PE ratio, pay a dividend that will not be cut, have little or no debt on their balance sheet, and will be safe in this bad economy that we are facing. Provide the ticker symbols of these stocks and the reasons why the stock of these companies should be purchased.

Best answer:

Answer by Stockwillrise
Unfortunately you are not going to like my anwser to your question.
Long term investing=going broke in your account
short term investing=lots of profits in your account
I bought SHLD yesterday at 27.25 and sold today at 30.61
Thats a 3.36 profit per share on the 3000 shares i bought.
If I were to hold SHLD for the long term I would lose money.
Her is my advice buy CME ONLY if the stock drops tommorrow below
151 buy 700 shares and Monday if it drops below 146 buy 1400 shares
Sell for profit once the stock reaches back to 150-151 range on tuesday.
Send me an e-mail if u need to walk u through the trade.
DO NOT try to hold CME for the long term or u will lose.
This is all technical price movement.

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