My New Choice

After the emergency rate cut from the Federal Reserve just days ago, there is news of additional efforts to stimulate the economy with an announcement of a new deal that will give most tax filers a refund of $600 to $1,200, and more for those with children.

The $150 billion package would provide a rebate up to $600 to individuals who pay income taxes, with working couples receiving up to $1,200 and for those with children an additional $300 per child. If you make at least $3,000 but do not pay taxes, you would still receive a rebate of $300.

In addition to the tax rebates, which account for roughly $100 billion, there is also approximately $50 billion in business tax cuts.

Businesses would be permitted to immediately write off 50% of the purchase of plants and other capital equipment, while also allowing small businesses the chance to write off additional purchases of equipment.

According to the article, the rebates would phase out gradually for individuals whose income exceeds $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000. Individuals with incomes up to $87,000 and couples up to $174,000 would get partial rebates. The caps rise higher for individuals and couples with children.

The goal is to send the package to the White House by February 15th for President Bush’s signature, with the checks possibly being distributed as early as June.

As the year 2007 came to a close, I took a day to close my financial books and prepare for the upcoming year.

This involved the process of archiving the paperwork from 2007 and preparing my filing system for the new documents.

As I prepared my filing system, I came across a list of tax tips in my Pendaflex filing box and thought they would be helpful to keep in mind as we all begin the new year.

1. Create a Checklist.

Your checklist should consist of categories such as deductions, business expenses, receipts, W2 forms and any changes made in the tax code. It works well if you create a separate folder for each subject, as that will make everything easily accessible when it is time to sit down and do your taxes.

2. Begin Tax Preparation Early.

At the beginning of each year, begin your new filing system. Label your files and keep them all in one convenient location. By starting the process at the beginning of the year, you will not fall behind in your filing and will reduce the chance of misplacing important documents.

3. Filing System.

There are many filing systems to choose from and you will need to find one that works well with your personality and habits. The system that I have been using includes a file box for each year that contains color coded hanging folders. Within each hanging folder I have labeled folders for easy reference and retrieval.

4. Sort as You Go.

Sort and file your papers as you get them. By taking the time to put your papers in their respective folder instead of letting them pile up, you will know right where everything is located when you are ready to start your taxes.

5. Keep a Business Diary.

If you are operating your own business, keep written documentation of all your business costs. At the end of the year, file this documentation in the folder with your business receipts. This process should make the auditing of your business much easier and reduce the risk of misplacing information.

6. Record Home Office Expenses.

If you have a home office, be sure to record all expenses related to the use of your home office. This should be separate from your other business expenses, and should include items such as telephone, heat, and electricity costs.

7. Keep Track of Charitable Donations.

Keep all of your receipts together from any charitable contributions during the year. While it might not be too troublesome to keep tabs on your regular donations, there will likely be irregular donations that you make to support a special cause and these can easily be overlooked.

8. Take Advantage of Resources.

The IRS website provides a wealth of forms, instructions and other materials. This information is freely available and can make the process of filing your taxes much easier to understand.

9. Consider Filing Electronically.

Electronic filing is becoming more and more common as taxpayers become more comfortable with using the Internet and tax preparation software. Some of the advantages to electronic filing include a reduced risk of lost or misplaced paperwork and if you have overpaid your taxes you will likely receive your check much sooner.

10. Store for Future Reference.

After you have filed your taxes, keep a copy in the folder with your receipts, W2s and other supporting documents. Store the folder in a safe place and you will have the information readily available if you need to refer back to your tax returns for any reason.

While I was in Las Vegas on business, I received an email from a service that I use that indicated they were unable to reach this blog and it was simply returning a blank page.

With limited time to debug things while traveling, I noticed that a call to the WordPress hook for “wp_head” seemed to be causing the problem. As soon as I removed that line of code, I was able to load the entire page and thought everything was back to normal.

Unfortunately, I failed to spend an adequate amount of time researching the problem and didn’t realize that removing the call to “wp_head” also removed all of the JavaScript and CSS includes that my plugins use to initialize their functionality.

This problem was brought to my attention when I received an email from a reader, Gaida, that had tried to add a comment to a post and received an error message from the comment plugin that I am using on the blog. This was cause for concern and I began to investigate the true cause of the problem that I thought I had resolved earlier.

After adding the call to “wp_head” back into the header file, I was now able to spend the time to look into what was causing the page not to load properly. Since the call to “wp_head” is the hook for all of the plugins, I began by deactivating each of the plugins that I am using. Once all of the plugins were deactivated, I noticed that everything was working properly.

Now it was a simple matter of determining which plugin was the culprit of breaking the site.

One by one, I activated the plugins that I had been using until I found one that caused the site to break again. The first handful of plugins were all working properly but then I activated the Google Analytics plugin and the site broke again. I had found the cause of the problem.

The first thing I did once I had determined which plugin was causing the problem was to check if there was a more current version of the plugin available. There was a more current version of the plugin, which I downloaded and installed. With the new version of the plugin installed, I reactivated the plugin and tested to see if the site was working.

It was still working!

When I initially discovered that there was a problem with my site, I found a quick solution to the problem and thought that everything was working. Unfortunately I had only masked the problem while also introducing additional problems. With the help of Gaida, I realized that there were still problems and took the time to investigate the true cause of the problem.

Now that I have resolved this issue, I know that I need to do a better job of keeping current with the plugins that I am using in order to avoid future problems.

I’d like to thank Gaida for the assistance, as well thank all of you for your patience.

What is the largest denomination of money that you have ever seen?

How about a $1 million dollar bill?

I’m sure we would all love to have one or two of those, unfortunately there is no such thing as a $1 million dollar bill. But that didn’t stop a Georgia man from trying to open a bank account using one.

The man walked into a Georgia bank and attempted to open an account with a $1 million dollar bill, which the teller obviously refused to accept.

The teller called the police while the man began to curse at bank workers. The man, Alexander D. Smith, was charged with disorderly conduct and two counts of forgery.

The aspect of this story that I find amazing is that if someone is skilled enough to create a phony piece of money you would think they would be smart enough to know that nobody is ever going to believe that a $1 million dollar bill is legitimate. Although I guess one could argue that if the person was that smart that they wouldn’t be creating the funny money in the first place.