Category: Finance

Tax help tips from services? If you have business income and expenses to report on Schedule C, you will need to share your books and records (for example, QuickBooks or any other accounting system you use, receipts for expenses, and relevant bank and credit card statements).16? The better organized your records are, the less time it will take a preparer to process your taxes, which translates into lower fees for their service.

The more money you make, the more complicated your taxes are going to be. So, if you have a higher income than most people, it’s important to work with a skilled accountant to figure out how to reduce the amount of income taxes you pay. In addition to taking your standard deduction and other deductions, there are many things you can do to lower the amount you pay. Let’s start with an overview of tax rules for high income earners. For the sake of this post, we’ll consider anybody in the top three tax brackets as a high income earner. That means that if you earn more than $163,301 in gross income as a single earner and $326,601 if you’re married filing jointly, you are a high income earner.

Pick Up Capital Gains if You’re in a Low Tax Bracket: The end of the year is also a good time for some people to sell stocks that have appreciated significantly in value. This can be a particularly good strategy for those who are in the 10% and 12% tax brackets since their capital gains tax may be zero. The stocks can then be repurchased, which resets the basis and minimizes the amount of tax to be paid on future gains. Even if you’re not in the lowest tax brackets, you may want to sell winning stocks to reset the basis if you’re also harvesting losses. “What you want to do is balance (gains) with stocks that have losses,” Barlin says.

Tax credits are the federal government’s way of encouraging businesses and individuals to do things—or not do things—that affect the greater good. For example, you can take tax credits for hiring employees, going green, providing access to disabled employees and the public, and providing health coverage for employees. Most are part of the General Business Credit, which is quite extensive so it’s quite possible that you qualify under some of its terms. Check with your accountant. Find more information at https://greentree.tax/best-bookkeeping-service-in-houston-texas/.

Avoid Confrontation and Manipulation. Attempt to find out if the debtor’s excuse for not paying is legitimate. For example, if the person blames the non-payment on someone else, confirm this is true or false by contacting the other person. Listen carefully to what the person is telling you, and get a sense of whether the person is being honest with you. Often, your gut feeling will be right on.

Carving out a few minutes every January to make sure you’re making things easy for your accountant can help reduce the risk of a mistake come April or an audit later. But we recommend talking to your tax accountant more often than twice a year. In fact, we recommend chatting regularly — even monthly. You’ll have a better handle on your business and can plan for any tax law changes. Recording income and expenses in real-time allows you and your accountant to catch any mistakes early. And your accountant will know your business better and be more empowered to offer proactive, consultative advice. According to the OnPay 2019 Small Business Finance and HR Report, small business owners who have a strong relationship with their accountant are 32% more likely to expect a significant increase in revenue over the next year.

EMV Level 2 testing and certifications services? Don’t go another day without an EMV certified terminal simply because your provider or payment application isn’t EMV certified. Take advantage of the quick solutions PayJunction offers and start accepting EMV today. Get a free EMV certified terminal today! Has your business struggled to accept EMV chip cards? Were you unaware of these EMV certification details? Contribute to the discussion below, we’d love to hear from you!

EMV cards were never designed to prevent fraud when credit card numbers are stolen and used online (“card-not-present”). However, they were intended to be more secure than fraudulent magnetic stripe cards. Credit card data can be illegally captured at point-of-sale terminals and easily copied onto blank stripe cards with an encoder (see skimming).

Chip and PIN Definition. These transactions are often referred to as “Chip and PIN” because PIN entry is required to verify the customer is the genuine cardholder. This is a simplification since the EMV specifications include other cardholder verification methods as well.

Set your strategic payment decisions — leverage Fairbit Research insights and proprietary data assets. Achieve exceptional results — against mission-critical priorities with independent advice and support from our payment industry and solution experts. Embrace digital payment — harness payment knowledge to fuel business growth. Discover additional details on EMV payment firm.

Cryptocurrency wallet recommendations and crypto transactions? At least in the United States and Canada. Most people think that they only owe taxes on profits that were sold back to USD/CAD, when in fact, you owe taxes on every single trade you make – even crypto to crypto. The IRS and CRA view every trade as a realized gain or loss. Put simply, if you buy Ether with Bitcoin, they consider this a taxable event on a realized gain or loss. They assume that you sold Ethereum to USD, then purchased Bitcoin with USD, even though this is not what happened. Ignoring both tax implications and exchange fees will severely impact your overall cryptocurrency investment strategy.

Online: wallets run on the cloud and are accessible from any computing device in any location. While they are more convenient to access, online wallets store your private keys online and are controlled by a third party which makes them more vulnerable to hacking attacks and theft. Mobile: wallets run on an app on your phone and are useful because they can be used anywhere including retail stores. Mobile wallets are usually much smaller and simpler than desktop wallets because of the limited space available on mobile.

There’s a need for one to be more than cautious when looking to invest in any ICO. Knowing when to or not to invest in an ICO is not about science; rather, it’s about paying close attention to those details that most people seem to overlook while only focusing on the promised returns. Conduct a background check on the team behind the project and analyze their ability to deliver on their promise. In addition, you should also look at the viability of the idea behind the ICO, poke holes in the project’s white paper and seek answers where necessary. That will ensure that no stone is left unturned and, if by the end of it you still have doubts about the project, you’re better of passing than chance it investing in that ICO.

We could say that cryptocurrencies were born in 2008 when the domain name bitcoin.org was registered on August 18. Then, on October 31, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, who designed Bitcoin, publishes an article that launches the ball: “Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.” The first Bitcoin transaction occurs when Nakamoto sends Hal Finney, a computer programmer, 10 Bitcoin (BTC) on January 12. Bitcoin is the first digital currency created without the intervention of any government, central bank or organization. Under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, a person or a group of people proposed and created a completely free digital currency, supported by its users through a P2P network. Until today the identity of its creator remains a mystery. Find extra info at Fairbit.

Now, I know this may sound obvious but it’s important for you to have a clear purpose for getting into cryptocurrency trade. Whether your purpose is to day trade or to scalp, you need to have a purpose for starting to trade cryptos. Trading digital currencies is a zero-sum game; you need to realize that for every win, there is a corresponding loss:. Someone wins; someone else loses. The cryptocurrency market is controlled by the large ‘whales’, pretty much like the ones that place thousands of Bitcoins in the market order books. And can you guess what these whales do best? They have patience; they wait for innocent traders like you and me to make a single mistake that lands our money to their hands due to avoidable mistakes.

So here we have the European offshoot of Binance, Binance Jersey. This is the second exchange launched by Binance. And it was launched to help European users get into Binance depositing funds from their bank accounts. So Binance Jersey is a perfect option for anyone that wants to buy Bitcoin with a bank transfer. But they are only open for European users. So Americans have to use Binance US and the rest should use traditional Binance. Discover additional information at Fair-bit.

ISO cash discount program by Shaw Merchant Group? With the EDGE cash discount program, merchants won’t have to worry about these fees because they will be passed on to the consumer instead. This is a great selling point for your merchants because it eliminates a cost that they would otherwise have to pay and saves their business money. There is no cost to enroll for the program, so they only have money to gain from enrolling in the program.

Subscriptions are all about relationships. Customers are buying something once and then forgetting about; they are spending money on your product on a recurring basis. Whether it’s the beginning of the customer cycle, or throughout, you must build trust with your customers in order to successfully sell them your product/service, and to ensure retention and renewal. But how do you build trust? It begins with developing a rapport, asking questions and truly listening. You can connect with prospects on business-centric social media sites like LinkedIn. Make sure to follow-up and stay engaged. Show the customer you genuinely care.

How Merchants Benefit from the Cash Discount Program? It may seem strange to advertise that you offer discounts for cash buyers, but it has its benefits: You’ll reduce your fees. The fewer credit cards you process, the less you fees you pay. You’ll have access to your funds faster. With more incentive to pay cash, more customers will do so, giving you instant access to your revenue. Fewer credit card purchases means a lower risk of chargebacks. Find even more information on Cash Discounting Program.

Lead with value: When reaching out to your network and potential buyers, don’t lead with a capabilities pitch. Instead, lead with an offer of something valuable. Offer to evaluate their current portfolio and make suggestions. Offer to share research you or your company recently conducted. Offer to share best practices in asset allocation you’ve discovered from your work with others in similar situations. Whatever your offer, make sure it adds value to the buyer in the initial meeting itself. Do this and you’ll generate far more conversations.

It can be a bit tricky to determine when a senior discount applies. Most establishments determine this on their own. There is no technical definition of when a senior is actually qualified. However, most organizations have a policy, and that information can apply to your case. For example, many auto insurance companies will provide a senior discount to those who are over 50. Many restaurants offer these discounts for those over the age of 55. And, some retailers begin offering discounts to those who are over the age of 60. The key here is that you do need to ask to get these savings options. United Airlines: United offers discounted prices for flights for seniors over 65. Seniors need to select the Over 65 category when purchasing tickets online or with a customer service agent. Discounts vary depending on the flight and location. Delta: Senior discounts are available for limited itineraries with Delta Air Lines. However, you must call 1-800-221-1212 to find out if your flight is eligible for the discounted fare. You will not be able to purchase your tickets online and receive the senior discount. Jetblue: Does not offer senior discounts due to the already discounted ticket prices for all ages. The airline does state it supports the military including retired military veterans, so you can contact 1-800-538-2583 (JETBLUE) to request information about possible discounts. Greyhound: Seniors over 62 can receive 5 percent off of Greyhound bus tickets. You do need to provide a photo ID for eligibility.

Let’s Make Things Easier With an Example: A store sells baseball gloves at the price of $10 each. There’s a signage on the door that says, ‘We have a discount on cash payment while all credit card payments will be made on full price”. Now, if the payment is made via credit card, you will charge $10.5, which the customer will assume is the actual non-discounted cost of the gloves. Now let’s put this example in our previous 7 Eleven kind of store scenario. Here, we will have a 4% surcharge on credit card payment instead of $0.50 from the example because we are allowed to have a 4% charge max. So if the baseball gloves seller is doing $10k a month in credit card payments, we will tell him that instead of paying a $300 fee from your pocket, you put a 4% fee on credit card payments. Discover additional info on here.

Types of Cryptocurrency wallets and crypto transactions Take your time to educate yourself and understand what you’re investing in. Cryptocurrencies are not shares like stocks. You have no ownership in the company and receive no dividends. If a company issues a cryptocurrency, then it is very possible for the company to profit or get acquired, with no benefit to you. A company can be doing very well, yet their coin can drop. The only exception here may be security tokens which can grant ownership to their investors. But even then, it’s up to the guidelines of the offering.

Online: wallets run on the cloud and are accessible from any computing device in any location. While they are more convenient to access, online wallets store your private keys online and are controlled by a third party which makes them more vulnerable to hacking attacks and theft. Mobile: wallets run on an app on your phone and are useful because they can be used anywhere including retail stores. Mobile wallets are usually much smaller and simpler than desktop wallets because of the limited space available on mobile.

FOMO is an abbreviation for the fear of missing out. This is one of the most notorious reasons as to why many traders fail in the art. From an outside point of view, it is never a good scene seeing people make massive profits within minutes from pumped-up coins. Honestly, I never like such situations any more than you do. But I’ll tell you one thing that’s for sure, Beware of that moment when the green candles seem to be screaming at you and telling to you to jump in. It is at this point that the whales I mentioned earlier will be smiling and watching you buy the coins they bought earlier at very low prices. Guess what normally follows? These coins usually end up in the hands of small traders and the next thing that happens is for the red candles to start popping up due to an oversupply and, voila, losses start trickling in.

Cryptocurrencies, sometimes called virtual currencies, digital money/cash, or chips, are not exactly like US Dollars, Euros, Venezuelan Bolivars or Peruvian Soles. They exist “online” and are not usually backed by a government (there are exceptions). They are backed by the respective user networks that keep them as Bitcoin. See extra details on buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

The prices of most altcoins depend on the current market price of Bitcoin. It is vital to understand that Bitcoin is relative to fiat currencies and is quite volatile. The simpler version of this is that when the value of Bitcoin goes up, the value of altcoins goes down and vice versa. The market is normally foggy when the Bitcoin price is volatile and, as you would imagine, this prevents most traders from gaining a clear understanding of what goes on in the market. At this point, it is advisable to either have close targets for our trades or simply not trade at all.

Kraken is another reliable exchange, they are based in the US and you can buy different cryptocurrencies with ACH transfers, SEPA transfers (great news for our European readers). Kraken is one of the oldest still remaining Bitcoin exchanges. And it is one of the most trusted sites still around. Coinmama buy Bitcoins with credit card or debit card And last on our list is Coinmama. It is a broker site similar to Coinbase and Bitpanda. Here you can buy BTC with a bank transfer or credit/debit card. Coinmama specialises in making it easy for anyone to buy Bitcoins or other cryptos. Both with a card or bank account. It’s an easy to use site and with a good customer support to help you on the way. You need your own Bitcoin wallet before buying BTC at Coinmama.

Coinipop has been structured to make it quicker for people to venture into the cryptocurrency world. Hence, if you want to get your hands on cryptocurrencies to trade, you can consider purchasing them from Coinipop. You can start using Coinipop for crypto transactions with just a few clicks. Here are the ways to get started. Discover even more information on buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

The ascent of a finance entrepreneur : Jack Brown from Invest Islands : A born entrepreneur, Jack founded his first company at 19. His self-starter attitude paired with invaluable experience as a sales and marketing professional for brands like OCS Cannon Hygiene and Marriott made him the perfect business partner for Kevin Deisser at Invest Islands. Impressed by the substantial returns Kevin was seeing with Invest Islands, he foresaw the potential of the business and what he could bring, and that is how Kevin Deisser and Jack Brown’s Invest Islands project came to life.

Discover Some of the Personal Benefits of Investing in Indonesia: The islands of Indonesia account for some of the most stunning and breathtaking beautiful places on earth, featuring unique flora and fauna and undeveloped abundant landscapes. Owning or investing in land and real estate in this environment offers one an exclusive opportunity to take advantage of the rapid growth and development currently taking place in the country. Here at Invest Islands, we work hand-in-hand with a wide range of developers as end users of the land. Our trusted expertise in the industry makes construction simple and hassle-free.

Invest Islands about investment opportunities in Hong Kong : Indonesia’s economy is on the rise, helping the country take its rightful position as a major destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). Indonesia is entering a “sweet spot” as a convergence of its young, working population with that of relatively stable inflation and sustained economic growth which in turn is fuelling overall consumer spending. Finally, the country’s resilience during the global financial crisis illustrates the merits of its immense population and economic self-reliance, demonstrating how these factors buck the trend of most other G20 economies.

Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world and the largest economy in Southeast Asia with a 2014 nominal GDP of $888.6 billion. With strong economic growth and a young population, many economists have argued that it should be added to the so-called BRIC economies as an up-and-coming emerging market. Those looking to invest in Indonesia should start with the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI). While the rest of the world was in a recession between 2009 and 2012, the country’s primary equity index jumped from a low of around 1140 to a high of around 4100. And it was one of the only emerging markets in the world to come out of 2011 with any real economic growth.

“Operating across the Asia Pacific region, Invest Islands is a land brokerage company based in Lombok Indonesia, with strategic offices in Hong Kong under Asian Island Group. I currently oversee all of the aspects of the Asian Island Group. I also travel to the development sites and visit the Invest Islands Foundation Charity projects. Additionally, I frequently travel to the plantation field at the foot of Mount Rinjani that supplies fresh fruits and vegetables to the Invest Islands Resort in Torok Bay.”

Indonesia is one of 5 countries that grew its GDP at or over 5% last year, of the 47 countries listed on The Economist magazine’s weekly country indicators chart. In fact Indonesia has had the most consistent economic growth of any economy since the second world war. Although 5% growth is far below the growth target of the current government, it is still growing faster and more consistently than most. The stable growth of the Indonesian economy is, like the USA, China and India, thanks to the huge domestic market of 267 million people, the 4th largest country in the world by population. Indonesia’s economy is set to move from 9th largest economy today to 4th largest by 2050.

Going about his work with an infectious smile, Jack fills rare moments of downtime exploring his interest in art as well as travelling to Barcelona, where he invested in property in 2016, and back to Scotland to see friends and family. See more details at Islands Invest.