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Submitted by: Jerry Rodgers
You have probably heard that you should retain copies of your federal tax returns for 7 years. Is that true, or a just myth? How long should you keep those quarterly and annual statements you get about your investment accounts? And how long should you keep bank statements before throwing them away?
Tax returns? The Internal Revenue Service urges you to keep federal tax returns until the period of limitations runs out that is, the time frame you have to claim a credit or refund, or the time frame in which the IRS can levy additional taxes on you. (This is a good guideline for state returns as well.)
If you file a claim for a credit or refund after you file your tax return, the IRS would like you to keep the relevant tax records for 3 years from the date you filed your original return or 2 years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later. If you claim a loss from worthless securities or bad debt deduction, you are advised to hang onto those records for 7 years. If you uh filed a fraudulent return or no return, you should keep related/relevant documents for 7 years. The IRS also advises you to retain employment tax records for at least 4 years after the date that the tax becomes due or is paid again, whichever is later.
Some tax and financial consultants advise people to keep their tax returns forever, but concede that canceled checks, receipts and other documents supplemental to returns can usually be safely discarded after 3 years. (The standard IRS audit goes back three years.)
Tax records relating to real property or real assets should be kept for as long as you hold the asset (and for at least 7 years after you sell, exchange or liquidate the asset). These records can help you figure appreciation, depreciation, amortization, or depletion of assets with regard to the property.You also might want to keep receipts and tax records related to major home improvements if you sell your home, you can show tomorrow s buyer how much you put into the house.
Statements from other investments? The annual statement is the one that counts. When you get your yearly statement, you can toss quarterly or monthly statements (unless you really want to keep them). You might want to quickly glance and make sure your annual statement truly reflects changes of the past four quarters.
You want to keep any records showing your original investment in a fund or a stock, for capital gain or loss purposes. Your annual statement will tell you the dividend or capital gains distribution from your investment; as you may be reinvesting that money, you have a good reason to keep that statement.
IRA and 401(k) statements? You get a new one each month or quarter; how many do you really need? The annual statement is the most relevant. Additionally, you want to hang onto your Form 8606, your Form 5498, and your Form 1099-R.
Form 8606 is the one you use to report nondeductible contributions to traditional IRAs. Form 5498 is the one your IRA custodian sends to you it is sometimes called the IRA Contribution Information or Fair Market Value Information form, and it usually arrives in May. It details a) contributions to your traditional or Roth IRA and b) the fair-market value of that IRA at the end of the previous year. Form 1099-R, of course, is the one you get from your IRA custodian showing your withdrawals (income distributions).
If you are 59 or older and have owned a Roth IRA for 5 years or more, the assets in your account become tax-free, lessening your need to save these forms. However, you will want to keep a paper trail before then if you somehow need to make early or tax-free withdrawals or write off a loss, you need the documentation.
Bank statements? The rule of thumb is 3 years, just in case you are audited. But some people shred them after a year, or immediately, fearing that such information could be stolen. In certain cases, it may be wise to hang onto them longer – in case of a divorce, for example. If someone tries to take you to court in the future, or if a creditor comes knocking, you may want to refer to them. Your bank may provide you with archived statements online or on paper (but there is sometimes a fee for supplying you with hard copies).
Payroll documents? Most financial and tax consultants advise you to retain these for 7 years or longer if you are a small business owner or sole proprietor. The IRS would like you to keep them around at least that long. Again, should there be a lawsuit or a divorce or any kind of potential legal dispute involving your company or one of its employees, a detailed financial history can prove very useful.
Credit card statements? You don t need each and every monthly statement, but you may want to keep credit card statements that contain tax-related purchases for up to 7 years.
Mortgage statements? The really crucial records are most likely on file at the County Recorder s office, but it is recommended that you retain your statements for up to 7 years after you sell or pay off the mortgaged property.
Life insurance? Keep policy information for the life of the policy plus 3 years.
Medical records and medical insurance? The consensus is 5 years from the time treatment ends (or from the time medical services are rendered, with regards to insurance). If you think you can claim medical expenses on your tax return, then follow the IRS suggestion and retain records for 7 years following the end of the year in which they are claimed.
About the Author: Jerry M. Rodgers is freelance writer and loves to write about financial planning.He is quite impressed with the
twitter.com/#!/JJastremski
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Wednesday, September 5, 2012
London, England— Marta Makowska of Poland narrowly defeated Jingjing Zhou of China with a score of 15 to 14 in the women’s individual foil category B bronze medal bout Tuesday night at London’s ExCeL North Arena 2. This was amongst the first wheelchair fencing medal matches of the games.
The match was last of the four concurrent wheelchair fencing medals decided, with the crowd shouting in support of the Makowska fencer after the previous matches were concluded. Zhou had limited crowd support, with only one large Chinese flag visible in the spectator area. Makowska’s win came in a very closely-contested match; The score was first tied on eleven points, and again on 12, 13, and 14 points before the Pole finally won.
Following the match, Makowska raised her hands above her head in celebration before her coach ran up and gave the fencer a hug.
At the London Games, Paralympic wheelchair fencing features five medal events for women and seven for men, involving several weapons including the foil, epee and sabre. Wheelchairs used in competition are held in place using medal plates, with the fencer with shorter reach choosing the distance between the chairs. B-classified wheelchair fencers have, according to the International Paralympic Committee, “fair sitting balance and their fencing arm not or only minimally affected.”
London Paralympic fencing ends Saturday with medal bouts every day until then.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
North Korea’s 007, a currently very popular short movie by some Chinese netizens, mocks Kim Jong Il and his secret agent buying Hennessy XO wine from Chinese black market.
As of 3:27 AM, January 20, 2007, China Standard Time, the movie has been watched 1,993,567 times on a single site (6rooms.com) and received 1620 comments.
The talks between the North Koreans are in English; the talks between the agent and the Chinese are in Chinese (now featuring English subtitles). The story part situated in China is as follows:
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The agent first went to a grocery where he didn’t find XO, then to a wine store which sells XO, but he complained about the price being much more expensive than the price quoted on the Internet. His accent surprised a girl who recognized his North Korean identity and the saleswoman rejected his buying due to “resulting UN security council penalty.” The agent left the store and a white-coated fat man (a black market wine seller) and a black-coated man followed.
The agent checked in at a hotel and received 3 phone calls; one from his commander urging him forward on the mission, one from a whore offering “special service” (to whom the agent replied with “Yes, I need, I need a bottle of XO!”), and one from the fat man asking him to go to a disco bar for XO trading. He went to the bar and watched the fat man dancing to “We Were Forced to Be Gangs” (the music is Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”). The fat man found the agent’s money was fake (which the agent explained was because North Korea wanted to “ease the pressure that the hostile West put on China for currency appreciation”) and a fight ensued. The fat man was defeated and said “Your country is not based on honesty” while the agent said in his mind, “No honesty for your revisionist country.”
The agent is about to cross the China-North Korea border and the black-coated man caught up and defeated him by breaking his “Kim Jong Il medal” (which is a devastating psychological strike to North Koreans). The black-coated man revealed himself to be George W. Bush and some Chinese bystanders questioned him on why he hung Saddam (“One Saddam is down but a million Saddams will be up!”) and drove him away. The curious Chinese bystanders accidentally broke the agent’s XO which resulted in another devastating episode. The white-coated fat man reappeared and said he saw the whole event and was impressed by the agent and gave away another bottle of XO to him.
The agent returned to North Korea and presented the XO to Kim Jong Il (on their way to Kim’s residence their eyes were covered in order not to “give the Americans a chance to pinpoint Kim’s precise location”). Kim immediately died because the wine was faked and poisonous.
| This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details. |
| This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details. |
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
A Polish-Belarusian journalist accused of defaming Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been banned from leaving Belarus due to a suspended court sentence given to him earlier this year.
The Polish activist and journalist Andrzej Poczobut was convicted in July for alleged defamation in the Polish Press, and sentenced to three years, suspended.
Informed of the travel ban by the Belarusian Interior Ministry, he said he intends to continue reporting from within Belarus.
Police told the Gazeta Wyborcza journalist to report to police three times each month and not to travel, after inspecting and registering him. After three violations of the conditions, he would be jailed.
He had recently travelled to and from Warsaw just before the order came, because he anticipated some travel restrictions.
Skip hire and waste recycling is readily available to every business and individual within the UK and gets rid of all types of reasons regarding not getting rid of waste in the best responsible solution. Help are at hand so we are able advice businesses and individuals pick the appropriate dimensions of a skip hire for the rubbish even if the contents could be for waste recycling and/or dump, presuming its appropriate.Typically, skip and recycling hire businesses supply varying sizes of skips which range from all the classically-sized skips which sit out the front of properties which in most cases are being renovated, to roll on and roll off skips that provide for great mountains of commercial waste. Domestic-sized skips typically keep about 50 trash bags of materials and should it be situated on a main road, a permit has to be granted from the local council.Waste recycling is big money now a days that could be how so many roadside manhole covers are being stolen, cut up and sold on to iron mongers for reuse. It is ironic that the drive to recycle metals has now created a targeted market for Stealing metal manhole covers.Builders, whenever contemplating skip hire, often purchase a larger size than the average household-sized skip and recycling hire, however only if the skip may be situated on private property. To accommodate the wider skips, in tighter gaps, it’s usually not likely to obtain the council approval. In general, all these larger skips fit about eighty-five typical rubbish bags of waste though your next one up are huge enough to contain a enormous two hundred and thirty typicalsized bags of wsate. For very big waste management work, building companies when thinking about skip hire are way more likely to prefer to manage their waste management by utilising the vast roll on roll off skips.Waste recycling involves a number of fundamental fields and top of the list is typical dry waste recycling which includes paper, newspaper, cardboard, plastic bottles and aluminium drink cans. In general, these waste products can be collected altogether and then split for easy waste recycling.Offices that have big amounts of paper recycling, normally A4 are advised not to mix the waste business paper with other types of paper and card as waste business paper could be recycled into recycled paper.Properly taken care of, glass could be one of the waste recycling products that could be practically 100% recyclable. Attention in dividing the various varieties of glass bottles to ensure clear glass remains with clear glass and brown glass stays with brown glass and green glass stays with green glass.Waste recycling of metals remains big business now a days, as mentioned above, because the costs of most metals has now increased to such a level that it’s worth robbers taking copper from rooftops or even coils of copper wiring, steel from the highways such as manhold covers and lead from churches. Sadly, you’ll see those that work in waste recycling that don’t check carefully at the origin of the metals sold for recycling waste.Gold recycling has got a excellent deal of interest in recent months because gold has now elevated in value considerably. Nowadays, there’s quite a few tv commercials offering that individuals send their gold valuables to specialist gold waste recycling companies for cash in return. One thing is certain about this type of waste recycling is that the owner of the gold jewellery will receive a very small % of the gold’s real value and even then it is not likely to come close to the original retail buying cost. Any individual thinking about gold waste recycling to make a bit of money should think of other forms of selling first.It might be a clich? but the saying: “where there’s muck there’s brass” has never been a more relevant assessment. Since property slowing down, skip hire for the disposal of rubble,old kitchens and bathrooms might have decreased yet waste recycling of glass, paper and metal has now for sure been a growing trade.
Monday, June 30, 2014
State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB), two of the largest public sector banks of India, proposed on Saturday their gold deposits should be allowed to count toward their state-mandated cash reserve ratio (CRR) or statutory liquidity ratio (SLR).
Arundhati Bhattacharya, the chairperson of SBI, made the proposal at a Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council event held in Mumbai on Saturday. She said the need for gold deposits to become more liquid has increased because gold import is putting a strain on the country’s current account deficit. S. S. Mundra, Chairperson and managing director of BoB, agreed and said it would help bringing gold into the more productive sectors of the economy.
Bhattacharya added SBI has no longer any incentive to run its gold deposit scheme as it cannot fully deploy the assets, noting SBI is the party most involved with gold deposits in India. G. S. Sandhu, Union financial services secretary, also at the event, responded that the government is looking for ways to monetize the gold held by the public, as import of gold can strain the current account deficit and foreign exchange reserves.
Currently, the Reserve Bank of India has set the CRR at 4% and the SLR at 22.5%. SLR is the portion of deposits that must be invested in recognized safe securities and assets.
Saturday, September 3, 2005
Over twenty five nations have offered aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In particular, France has offered the use of its resources in the Caribbean sea, including 2 navy ships, 1 navy hospital, 8 planes, 600 tents, 1000 beds, and rescuers. President George W. Bush has refused such material aid to the hurricane’s victims, although cash donations will be accepted. He explained his reasons to ABC News:
A few of these nations, such as Venezuela and Cuba, are disliked by the administration, but the majority are considered allies of the United States. Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp. pledged a $1 million donation for hurricane aid. Cuba refused U.S. aid following Hurricane Dennis. In order to reduce the side effects of hurricane Katrina, Japan, Venezuela, and most EU countries offer to provide oil reserves to the U.S.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Wikinews has learned that the internet group known only as “Anonymous” has hacked the website of the No Cussing Club (NCC), nocussing.com, for at least two days in a row. On day one, the group hacked into the website, replacing the content with links to images of alleged e-mail conversations. The e-mails appear to be from the founder’s e-mail account, accusing organization members of forgery and using the site for their own personal financial gains. The website was also replaced with Anonymous’s logo and a message. On January 22, they again attacked the website, by means of a Distributed Denial-of-service attack (DDoS), bringing it offline periodically throughout the day. Anonymous attacked the Scientology website in 2008 with a DDoS attack, taking it off-line for at least two days.
“It has come to our attention that the creators of the no cussing club, McKay and Brent Hatch have done so at great personal gain. Their material promotes the organization as the brainchild of their 14-year-old son, when actually the material is written by his parents, who also manage his profitable career while using his speaking events to plug their own material,” said Anonymous on the hacked website. On Encyclopedia Dramatica, a satire Wiki, they claim further responsibility for the hack and exposition saying they managed to break into McKay and Brent Hatch’s email accounts. “[the accounts got] haxx0rd and via this astonishing development passwords were got and a certain website got its shit ruined.”
According to the NCC’s website, it has 20,000 members worldwide, was founded in 2007 by McKay Hatch, a 14-year-old boy, and aims at discouraging swearing in public places such as schools. In 2008, McKay even succeeded in making cussing illegal in his hometown of South Pasadena, California and has appeared on various talk shows such as that of Doctor Phil. However, according to e-mails leaked to Wikinews, allegedly written by the boy’s father Brent, a motivational speaker also owning Dawson Publishing, the parents are allegedly using the site and their son’s material for their own personal financial gain. Anonymous also claims that the parents have forged some of their son’s writings and claim it to be his.
The e-mails allege that Brent along with his publishing company, the name which “nocussing.com” is also registered under, were trying to set up assemblies in the No Cussing Club’s name at schools across the United States for US$1,500.00 per show and would then pocket the money, doing the same for postcards they created for churches and schools.
“McKay spoke last night to a group of 40 people, and at the end of his presentation, there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd. I know this is going to work because the message is so important. Thanks for all you do and I hope we can work together for a long time, and of course make money in the process,” said Brent in an alleged e-mail conversation on November 25, 2008. Earlier in August 2008, Brent spoke about hoping to reach a “goal” of “2.5 million dollars” by selling thousands of postcards to “schools and churches”.
On January 19, 2009, ABC News.com reported that McKay claimed Anonymous was sending him and his family hate e-mail and death threats, nearly 50,000 per day, “almost all of them filled with obscenities” and spam. On the NCC’s website, McKay calls himself the “most cyberbullied kid on the planet” because of Anonymous’s attacks.
“A lot of people were saying I was taking away their freedom of speech,” said McKay to ABC News on January 16. “All I was trying to do was raise awareness.” He says he formed the club because his schoolmates were sick of hearing people swear in public. Wikinews contacted the NCC to confirm or deny the reports, but would only say that “the FBI is [working] on it [the case]” including “our attorney and we will press charges” against those who are responsible for the crimes.
Anonymous is known to prank and hack websites and e-mail accounts. In September 2008, the group hacked into BillOreilly.com, the official website of Fox News Channel commentator Bill O’Reilly, exposing personal information of the site’s users in a document posted on the internet.
The NCC is located in South Pasadena. According to the California Penal Code §502 part C of the computer hacking laws, depending on the offense if caught, punishments could be a “fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or two or three years, or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment”.
On October 20, 2008, Dmitriy Guzner, aged 18 from New Jersey, admitted to the charges related to carrying out the DDoS attack on Scientology’s website. He was subsequently charged with computer hacking crimes and faces a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment.
Submitted by: Simon Harris
The canine distemper virus (CDV) causes a highly contagious disease in dogs known as distemper. Dogs who contract distemper suffer damage to their gastrointestinal, central nervous and respiratory systems. Distemper is incurable and often fatal.
Puppies between the ages of three and six months are most susceptible to the disease, although older dogs and other carnivorous mammals can also contract distemper. At one time, distemper was the leading cause of death among puppies that had not been vaccinated. Since the distemper vaccine was created in the early 60s, incidents of distemper and distemper related deaths have dropped considerably.
CDV is transmitted via airborne viral particles that dogs inhale. Infected dogs also shed the virus through bodily secretions and excretions. In this manner it is easy for an infected dog to cause the infection of another dog.
Distemper causes a multitude of symptoms that include various respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms to central nervous system disorders. In fact, dogs that die as a result of distemper actually die from central nervous complications caused by the disease or from secondary bacterial infections.
Diagnosing distemper is difficult for a veterinarian to diagnose as blood tests are not helpful in detecting the presence of CDV. Successful diagnosis often relies on the ruling out of comparative disorders whose symptoms can often suggest the presence of CDV.
Because there is no cure for distemper, treatment for the disease is supportive and a vet will attempt to treat the symptoms as best as possible. A clean, warm, and draft free environment should be created and maintained to ensure the dog is as comfortable as possible. The eyes and nose should be kept free of discharge, and medication to treat diarrhea should be administered. Dogs suffering from distemper must be given plenty of fluids to help reduce fever and prevent dehydration. Other symptoms are treated as they appear if possible.
Like any viral disease, prevention is a much better and more successful option than treatment and the best option is vaccination during the early weeks of life. The distemper vaccination creates a long lasting immunity to the virus, but it is not permanent. Annual inoculations are recommended to maintain the dog s immunity to distemper. Most puppies are given vaccinations that include distemper vaccine along with vaccines for several other diseases.
About the Author: This article courtesy of
dog-obedience-guide.com
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