Random Monday morning blatherings
Metrics are confusing things. Where I work, during the tax season, they call the clients after they've had their taxes done and ask them to rate the experience on a scale from 1 to 5. What's interesting about that is that any rating below a 5 means the same thing. A 4 is just as bad as a 1 in how you're evaluated. Some people go out of their way to tell their clients about this, so they know to rate them only 5. I did an experiment this year. I didn't mention this to any clients. I only saw a couple of my client experience scores, but they were all rated 5s in every category. Maybe focusing on the service given rather than rating the service given is the secret?
Then there is Yelp, which I've bitched about before. Now I have three filtered reviews, and it would be four except one reviewer was so pissed at having her review filtered, she pulled it down and deleted her account from Yelp. Now all three are from different people, from different IP addresses and their only sin is apparently to have rated me five out of five stars. Maybe I should be telling people to just rate me as four and make nice comments, so the reviews don't end up being filtered? I dunno. I only care because people do use Yelp to make choices. I don't want someone to go to Yelp and read that someone else is to be preferred, in my office. Call me selfish, I want clients.
Depending on where you live and your on-line shopping habits, you may be a tax scofflaw. 45 states and the District of Columbia require you to pay sales tax on your online purchases if the seller doesn't collect it. Whether or not the website has a physical (brick and mortar) presence in your state.
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2012/12_540.pdf
That's a Form 540, the CA tax form. Look at line 95. That is the line where the instruction booklet tells you to put down the proper sales tax for your online purchases in cases where websites don't collect it themselves. States can't do much about collecting it either, but that will change under a law working its way through Congress. But before you buy into the whining that small businesses can't keep up with the demands of serving all of the states aside from their own in terms of sales tax, bear in mind that businesses with less than $1 million from out of state sources would be exempt.
While I'm ranting about taxes, let me hit on the City of Los Angeles' Gross Receipts Tax. Small businesses with annual gross receipts of less than $100,000 are exempt. But if they don't turn in the form claiming the exemption on time, they lose it. And they have to pay interest and penalties on the total amount of gross receipts. They send people letters calculating an amount of gross receipts based solely on the business they think these people are in, and some just don't know any better and pay it. It's an out and out ripoff. If I lived within the city limits, I'd really raise hell about it.
My L.A. Dodgers went into San Francisco with high hopes and left with their tails between their legs, having been swept in the three game series. It is never too early to start winning in a 162 game season. They need to get busy.
Remember that old adage about a fool and his money will soon be parted? It's going on in Florida where a "seductress" in her late 20s is getting wealthy middle-aged men to take her home with them and then drugging/robbing them. In one case "Crystal" got away with cash and jewelry worth more than $100,000. I'm reminded of something someone told me once. "Seems that God has a sense of humor. He blessed men by giving them both a penis AND a brain, but then cursed men by giving them a blood supply sufficient to use only one of them at a time.
When men and women join the National Guard or the Reserve, they're told that their civilian jobs are safe. That they will be waiting for them when they get back. That the law requires employers to put them to work in the position they would have been in, had they not left for a six month or one year deployment. Yet there are a bunch of employers who are failing to do this. Who are the worst offenders? Government, at the federal, state and local level. This is a travesty. Now, some employers simply refuse to hire people who belong to the Guard or Reserve, which is illegal but very difficult to prove.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1527, Spanish and German troops attack and plunder Rome. 147 Swiss Guards die in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape.
On this date in 1536, King Henry VIII orders that English language bibles be put into all churches.
On this date in 1682, Louis XIV moves his court to the Palace at Versailles.
On this date in 1835, the first edition of the New York Herald is published.
On this date in 1861, Arkansas secedes from the Union.
On this date in 1861, Richmond, VA is selected as the capital of the Confederate States of America.
On this date in 1877, Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to U.S. troops in Nebraska.
On this date in 1882, Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
On this date in 1889, the Eiffel Tower is opened to the public.
On this date in 1937, the Hindenburg catches fire while trying to dock. 36 people are killed.
On this date in 1940, John Steinbeck wins a Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Grapes of Wrath".
On this date in 1941, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
On this date in 1942, the last U.S. troops on Corregidor surrender to the Japanese.
On this date in 1954, Roger Bannister runs the first sub-4 minute mile.
On this date in 1981, a jury of architects and sculptors select the design of Maya Ying Lin to become the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On this date in 1996, the body of former CIA director William Colby washed up on a riverbank in Maryland, eight days after he had disappeared.
Famous Folk Born Today:
Maximilien Robespierre
Sigmund Freud
Robert Peary
Rudolph Valentino
Toots Shor
Stewart Granger
Orson Welles
Patricia Kennedy Lawford
Willie Mays (no, he didn't say "hey" when the doctor smacked his bottom"
Rubin Carter
Bob Seger
Mary MacGregor
Tony Blair
Lynn Whitfield
Tom Bergeron
Roma Downey
George Clooney
Gabourey Sidibe
Movie quote of the day is from 1986's "St. Elmo's Fire" because I just heard on the news that reporter/anchor Mario Machado has died. I remember him playing a ruthless Korean businessman in this film even though he is half-Chinese, half-Portuguese.
Wendy: Yea... ya wanna know what's great? Last night I woke up in the middle of the night to make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich... and ya know, it was my kitchen, it was my refrigerator, it was my apartment... and it was the BEST peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I have had in my entire life.
Tax Tip of the Day:
If you own stocks and/or mutual funds, and they invest overseas, be mindful that there may be a line for "foreign tax paid" on your annual 1099-DIV form. That's an amount that you are entitled to a credit for on your tax return. If the amount is under $300 and you meet certain other tests, you do not need to fill out the Form 1116 to claim this credit.
Then there is Yelp, which I've bitched about before. Now I have three filtered reviews, and it would be four except one reviewer was so pissed at having her review filtered, she pulled it down and deleted her account from Yelp. Now all three are from different people, from different IP addresses and their only sin is apparently to have rated me five out of five stars. Maybe I should be telling people to just rate me as four and make nice comments, so the reviews don't end up being filtered? I dunno. I only care because people do use Yelp to make choices. I don't want someone to go to Yelp and read that someone else is to be preferred, in my office. Call me selfish, I want clients.
Depending on where you live and your on-line shopping habits, you may be a tax scofflaw. 45 states and the District of Columbia require you to pay sales tax on your online purchases if the seller doesn't collect it. Whether or not the website has a physical (brick and mortar) presence in your state.
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/2012/12_540.pdf
That's a Form 540, the CA tax form. Look at line 95. That is the line where the instruction booklet tells you to put down the proper sales tax for your online purchases in cases where websites don't collect it themselves. States can't do much about collecting it either, but that will change under a law working its way through Congress. But before you buy into the whining that small businesses can't keep up with the demands of serving all of the states aside from their own in terms of sales tax, bear in mind that businesses with less than $1 million from out of state sources would be exempt.
While I'm ranting about taxes, let me hit on the City of Los Angeles' Gross Receipts Tax. Small businesses with annual gross receipts of less than $100,000 are exempt. But if they don't turn in the form claiming the exemption on time, they lose it. And they have to pay interest and penalties on the total amount of gross receipts. They send people letters calculating an amount of gross receipts based solely on the business they think these people are in, and some just don't know any better and pay it. It's an out and out ripoff. If I lived within the city limits, I'd really raise hell about it.
My L.A. Dodgers went into San Francisco with high hopes and left with their tails between their legs, having been swept in the three game series. It is never too early to start winning in a 162 game season. They need to get busy.
Remember that old adage about a fool and his money will soon be parted? It's going on in Florida where a "seductress" in her late 20s is getting wealthy middle-aged men to take her home with them and then drugging/robbing them. In one case "Crystal" got away with cash and jewelry worth more than $100,000. I'm reminded of something someone told me once. "Seems that God has a sense of humor. He blessed men by giving them both a penis AND a brain, but then cursed men by giving them a blood supply sufficient to use only one of them at a time.
When men and women join the National Guard or the Reserve, they're told that their civilian jobs are safe. That they will be waiting for them when they get back. That the law requires employers to put them to work in the position they would have been in, had they not left for a six month or one year deployment. Yet there are a bunch of employers who are failing to do this. Who are the worst offenders? Government, at the federal, state and local level. This is a travesty. Now, some employers simply refuse to hire people who belong to the Guard or Reserve, which is illegal but very difficult to prove.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1527, Spanish and German troops attack and plunder Rome. 147 Swiss Guards die in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape.
On this date in 1536, King Henry VIII orders that English language bibles be put into all churches.
On this date in 1682, Louis XIV moves his court to the Palace at Versailles.
On this date in 1835, the first edition of the New York Herald is published.
On this date in 1861, Arkansas secedes from the Union.
On this date in 1861, Richmond, VA is selected as the capital of the Confederate States of America.
On this date in 1877, Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to U.S. troops in Nebraska.
On this date in 1882, Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.
On this date in 1889, the Eiffel Tower is opened to the public.
On this date in 1937, the Hindenburg catches fire while trying to dock. 36 people are killed.
On this date in 1940, John Steinbeck wins a Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Grapes of Wrath".
On this date in 1941, Bob Hope performs his first USO show.
On this date in 1942, the last U.S. troops on Corregidor surrender to the Japanese.
On this date in 1954, Roger Bannister runs the first sub-4 minute mile.
On this date in 1981, a jury of architects and sculptors select the design of Maya Ying Lin to become the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
On this date in 1996, the body of former CIA director William Colby washed up on a riverbank in Maryland, eight days after he had disappeared.
Famous Folk Born Today:
Maximilien Robespierre
Sigmund Freud
Robert Peary
Rudolph Valentino
Toots Shor
Stewart Granger
Orson Welles
Patricia Kennedy Lawford
Willie Mays (no, he didn't say "hey" when the doctor smacked his bottom"
Rubin Carter
Bob Seger
Mary MacGregor
Tony Blair
Lynn Whitfield
Tom Bergeron
Roma Downey
George Clooney
Gabourey Sidibe
Movie quote of the day is from 1986's "St. Elmo's Fire" because I just heard on the news that reporter/anchor Mario Machado has died. I remember him playing a ruthless Korean businessman in this film even though he is half-Chinese, half-Portuguese.
Wendy: Yea... ya wanna know what's great? Last night I woke up in the middle of the night to make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich... and ya know, it was my kitchen, it was my refrigerator, it was my apartment... and it was the BEST peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I have had in my entire life.
Tax Tip of the Day:
If you own stocks and/or mutual funds, and they invest overseas, be mindful that there may be a line for "foreign tax paid" on your annual 1099-DIV form. That's an amount that you are entitled to a credit for on your tax return. If the amount is under $300 and you meet certain other tests, you do not need to fill out the Form 1116 to claim this credit.
posted by me at 7:45 AM
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