MiraCosta College Business Department

MiraCosta accounting students helped more than 600 North County taxpayers get a collective $1.268 million in tax returns, according to representatives from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). At the July 13 meeting of the MiraCosta College Board of Trustees, IRS representatives acknowledged MiraCosta students and college accounting instructor Michael Deschamps for their participation in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program, which offers free tax help to low- to moderate-income families who cannot prepare their own tax returns.

More than twenty student volunteers from the college helped to prepare income tax returns for low-income taxpayers in the community at two locations in the district this past spring. This often resulted in community members receiving beneficial tax credits that they did not know they were entitled to, which were especially welcome in these trying economic times.

Sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service, the program is available to students who have successfully completed Individual Income Tax (ACCT 145). In order to become certified VITA volunteers, students must also successfully complete nine hours of software training administered by a local IRS coordinator and pass a certification test administered by the IRS. Once certified, students volunteer their time and expertise at tax-assistance sites typically located at community and neighborhood centers, libraries, schools and shopping malls. Most sites also offer free electronic filing.

For more information on the VITA training program at MiraCosta College, contact Deschamps by e-mail or call (760) 757-2121, ext. 6488.

Using a Weak Password

Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word “houses”: hO27usEs!

Leaving Your Full Birth Date in Your Profile

It’s an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you’ve already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.

Exceptions a thing of the past By ERIC WOLFF – ewolff@nctimes.com North County Times – Californian |

Where once getting a mortgage required little but a breath and a pulse, qualifying for a home loan in recent months has become an ordeal of paperwork and delay, as lenders hew ever more closely to application requirements, Realtors and some mortgage brokers said this week.

The 2000s achieved notoriety for “liar’s loans,” mortgages for which borrowers stated —- but weren’t required to prove —- their income to qualify for hundreds of thousands of dollars in home loans. In the wake of the foreclosures that followed, federal lending guidelines demanded more documentation of salaries and assets, but applicants with good credit could still get loans, even if they needed an exception to some requirements.

But in the first half of the year —- and some Realtors said just in the last few months —- lenders applied qualification rules more strictly than ever, delaying or even denying loans for seemingly the most arbitrary reasons. Mortgage brokers and lenders agree that the rules have been enforced more strictly in recent months, leading to long delays. MORE AT…http://www.nctimes.com/business/article_990a455a-5fe6-56b5-a5b7-41be1dcf25bb.html

By PETER SVENSSON – Associated Press
The seemingly recession-proof smart phone is suffering from a side effect of the rough economy: Manufacturers simply can’t build enough of the gadgets because chip-makers that rolled back production last year are now scrambling to play catch-up.

The chip shortage means Apple Inc.’s rivals are having trouble making enough phones to compete with the iPhone, a problem expected to persist through the holidays. It’s also affecting wireless carriers, some of which are seeing delays in improving their networks, and it could even raise computer prices.

There isn’t an across-the-board shortage of chips, but rather problems with certain components here and there. If just one of the 20 to 30 critical chips that go into a smart phone is unavailable, the whole production line screeches to a halt. MORE AT… http://www.nctimes.com/business/article_94017eb3-d15f-5369-bb39-595a5d1f07d2.html

By Deborah L. Jacobs, Forbes Magazine dated June 28, 2010

Families can stretch out the tax breaks of retirement accounts for decades if they know the rules.

Recent legislation now requires a “qualified purchaser” under Revenue and Taxation Code section 6225 to be registered with BOE to report and pay use tax owed. Under this new legislation, a “qualified purchaser” means a person that meets all of the following conditions:

Sales Tax vs. Use Tax: What’s the Difference?

Tax collected by the retailer here in California is called sales tax, and the retailer is responsible for reporting and paying the tax to the state. When an out-of-state or online retailer doesn’t collect the tax for an item delivered to California, the purchaser may owe “use tax,” which is simply a tax on the use, storage, or consumption of personal property in California.

Exempt Items

Items that are exempt from sales tax are exempt from use tax as well. Use tax liabilities are often created by internet or mail order purchases with out-of-state retailers not required to collect the tax. Be sure to review your receipts for internet and other out-of-state purchases to determine if tax was charged.

Why Is There a Use Tax?

The use tax, which was created in July 1935, is a companion to California’s sales tax that is designed to level the playing field between in-state retailers who are required to collect tax, and some out-of-state retailers who are not. Use tax, just like sales tax, goes to fund state and local services throughout California.

How to Report Use Tax

If you have a California seller’s permit, you must pay the use tax due on business related purchases with your sales and use tax return in the period when you first used, stored, or consumed the item in California. Report the amount of your purchase under “Purchases subject to use tax,” (line 2) on the return.

If you are a “qualified purchaser,” you must pay your use tax due by efiling your return for the previous calendar year by April 15. For the year ending 2008 and prior years, the use tax due date is January 31 of the following year.

If you are not required to have a seller’s permit or a use tax account and you have not already paid all use tax due to the Board of Equalization, you may report use tax in the following ways.

• The easiest way to report and pay the use tax is on your California state income tax return. Follow the instructions included with your income tax return. Complete the worksheet included in those instructions to determine the amount of your use tax liability.
• Download a copy of Publication 79-B, California Use Tax, or request that a copy be mailed to you by calling our Information Center. Simply complete the use tax return included in the publication and mail it along with your payment to the Board of Equalization address shown on the return. It is not necessary to complete this tax return to report zero use tax.

(CNNMoney.com) — Want to find America’s most successful entrepreneurs? Skip Silicon Valley and Manhattan; head to the rural Amish enclaves.

Amish businesses have an eye-popping 95% success rate at staying open at least five years, according to author Erik Wesner’s new book, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive.

It’s a statistic he backs up with a variety of academic surveys, drawing particularly on a 2009 report by Elizabethtown College sociology professor Donald Kraybill. Studying several Amish settlements, Kraybill found failure rates ranging from 2.6% and 4.2%; interviews with loan officers, accountants and industry professions in other Amish regions yielded additional anecdotal evidence of closure rates significantly south of 10%. Compare that to the average five-year survival rate for new businesses across the United States, which hovers just under 50%. So what’s the secret? MORE AT… http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/04/smallbusiness/amish_business_success/

1. Carry-on bag fees

 A few weeks ago, Spirit announced it would begin charging for carry-on bags, to the tune of up to $45 per bag. Since then, the industry has been in an uproar, with five other airlines pledging not to add similar fees on their respective flights. The pushback is obvious—not all travelers take baggage, but most travelers have at least one carry-on. Add a price tag to the carry-on and you challenge even the lightest of travelers. As for the argument that charging for a carry-on will reduce boarding and deplaning times, well, it remains to be seen if this new fee will result in increased efficiency at the airport. To me, it just sounds like creative justification for hitting travelers with a new (and nearly unavoidable) fee.

To avoid a carry-on bag fee, the strategy is simple: Don’t fly Spirit.

2. All other baggage fees

While we’re on the topic of bags, let’s consider the relatively new development of airlines charging for checked bags. American was the first carrier to do so in May 2008, and many carriers quickly followed suit. What started off as a seemingly bad idea (for customers, natch, not the airlines) unfortunately turned into an industry standard. Two years later, there remain just two lonely standouts that don’t charge customers for their baggage: Southwest (two checked bags free) and JetBlue (one checked bag free). MORE AT…http://www.usatoday.com/travel/deals/inside/2010-05-06-top-ten-rip-offs_N.htm?csp=Travel