For every business owner, when it comes to tax time, the dream is twofold. First, you want to know, with certainty and confidence that you've taken advantage of every single potential tax deduction and money-saving opportunity legally allowed. Second, you want the tax filing process to take as little time as possible, so you can focus on the real work of running a business . On Monday, the New York Times published a sneak peek of the new "postcard-sized" 1040 form . I immediately looked it over--and my first thought was that it's looking like neither of those wishes will come true in 2019. Here's what's changing, and how it will affect you as an entrepreneur or small business owner: The form's short length is a facade. President Trump's tax reform bill , the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, was widely pitched as a massive simplification of the U.S. tax system. That premise is heavily debated among tax practitioners, individuals and business owners alike. …
This May Be The Year To Become A Digital Nomad
Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin More than 10.9 million Americans described themselves as digital nomads in 2020, according to a recent study . That’s an increase of 49% from 2019, and it really shouldn’t come as a surprise as people realized, during the pandemic, that they could work from “home” anywhere in the world. ADVERTISEMENT If the idea of living in different cities around the world for a month or two at a time has been percolating in the back of your mind for the past year or so, the news that more and more companies are delaying returns to the office may be all the motivation you need to check out Blueground , a unique, user-friendly service that rents out luxury, move-in ready, professionally designed, fully furnished apartments in 15 cities, from Austin to Vienna, for stays of a month, a year or longer. Better than throwing out rent money on regular housing, Blueground lets you combine your everyday life with travel. Imagine spending …
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Not just COVID: Earthquakes, typhoons pose threat at Tokyo Olympics
Source: Reuters The coronavirus might top the risks at the Tokyo Olympics, but organisers in Japan have other deadly, unpredictable threats to contend with: natural disasters. Japan is regularly rattled by earthquakes and battered by typhoons, and experts warn that disaster preparation for a major event like the Games should not take a back seat because of the virus. "For organisers, infection measures are an urgent challenge," Hirotada Hirose, a specialist in disaster risk studies, told AFP. "But the risks of a major earthquake mustn't be forgotten when you have an Olympics hosted by Japan," added Hirose, professor emeritus at Tokyo Woman's Christian University. Japan sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches throughout southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin. Close COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural …
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Afghan pilots assassinated by Taliban as US withdraws: Report
A member of the Afghan air force marshals in an A-29 Super Tucano at Hamid Karzai International Airport near Kabul, Afghanistan, January 15, 2016. Picture taken January 15, 2016. Image source: Reuters. Afghan Air Force Major Dastagir Zamaray had grown so fearful of Taliban assassinations of off-duty forces in Kabul that he decided to sell his home to move to a safer pocket of Afghanistan's sprawling capital. Instead of being greeted by a prospective buyer at his realtor's office earlier this year, the 41-year-old pilot was confronted by a gunman who walked inside and, without a word, fatally shot the real estate agent in the mouth. Zamaray reached for his sidearm but the gunman shot him in the head. The father of seven collapsed dead on his 14-year-old son, who had tagged along. The boy was spared, but barely speaks anymore, his family says. Zamaray “only went there because he personally knew the realtor and thought it was safe," Samiullah Darman, his brother-in-law, told …
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COVID-19 didn’t kill cities. Why was that prophecy so alluring?
Guests enjoy outdoor dining in the Manhattan borough of New York City, United States on May 23, 2021 (Image: Reuters/Caitlin Ochs) From the moment US coronavirus cases emerged in the Seattle area and then devastated New York City last spring, sweeping predictions about the future of city life followed. Density was done for. An exodus to the suburbs and small towns would ensue. Transit would become obsolete. The appeal of a yard and a home office would trump demand for bustling urban spaces. And Zoom would replace the in-person connections that give big cities their economic might. The pandemic promised nothing short of the End of Cities, a prophecy foretold by pundits, tweets and headlines, at times with unveiled schadenfreude. If the past year has laid bare many underlying forces in society, this was another one: a deep-rooted discomfort — suspicion, even — about urban life in America. But now city sidewalks are returning to life, pandemic migration patterns have become …
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50 U.S. States Ranked in Order of Tax Burden (Guess Which 1 Is Worst)
Friday, March 15, is the deadline for filing corporate tax returns in the United States. Due to some big changes in the tax law President Trump passed in the waning days of 2017, a lot of small-business owners are facing this earlier deadline for the first time. Basically, if you're electing to be treated as a Subchapter S corporation for tax purposes, this means you. For personal tax returns of course, you've still got a month. With that in mind, and as I spent much of my Sunday combing through receipts and other data to hand off to my accountant (sorry for the last minute document dump), it's a good time to take a look at which states impose the biggest tax burdens on their residents. The financial site 247WallStreet.com came up with an interesting way of measuring this: calculate the total state tax burden, then divide it on a per capita basis. The results? Probably not a big surprise at the top of the list. Here are the five states with the biggest …
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How to Embrace Risk as an Entrepreneur
By Solomon Thimothy, founder of Clickx There is no shortness of risk in an entrepreneur’s life . When you’re trying to get a brand-new company off the ground, you need to put yourself out there like you’ve never done before -- and it’s scary! In my early days of starting my own business, I let the fear of those risks control my decisions. I was scared of failing, of making the wrong decisions and of losing everything I had worked so hard to create. However, I quickly learned that playing it safe meant I was suffocating my own business growth. I was making small gains, but they weren’t enough to bring my agency to the next level. So, I made it my goal to stop running from risk and to embrace it instead. And it paid off. As an entrepreneur, risk is inevitable. If you’re too scared to handle that risk, your entrepreneurial goals will never come true. Embracing risk is easier said than done, but once you get started you’ll see how natural it can feel. Here are …
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This Tax Strategy Can Save Entrepreneurs a Lot of Money and Build Their Confidence
Do you want more money ? If you answered yes, you probably could achieve this by working harder . But what if you could be smarter with the money you make now? Having more money by being smarter, rather than by working harder, is something you shouldn't overlook. Tax planning is one way to work smarter. Tax planning is not just implementing a strategy or two. It's putting together a plan that involves several legal strategies to meet your family and business goals. Over the past few years, my own business has begun to grow quite a bit, forcing me to ask questions about money that I previously ignored. As a result, I've begun seeking advice from experts. Recently, I interviewed Jim Dew, author of Beyond a Million and founder of Dew Wealth Management. Jim had some epic ideas I felt compelled to share here, since, though the number of motivational articles on the subject is high, practical articles are lacking. And to be clear, I have no …
5 Steps to Achieve Anything (From One of the Top Marketers in the World)
Roland Frasier recently shared a post about 5 steps to achieve anything . Now before you scoff at yet another listicle and ignore what this man has to say, take a look at Roland's credentials: He is the co-founder and/or principal of three current Inc. Magazine fastest growing companies. He has founded, scaled, or sold 24 different 7 to 9 figure businesses ranging from consumer products to industrial machine manufacturing companies with adjusted sales ranging from $3 million to $337 million. He is currently growing DigitalMarketer.com, RivalBrands.com, and Plattr.com while advising over 150 other companies on digitally centric customer acquisition, activation, referral, retention, and revenue strategies and plan implementation. Needless to say, when Roland says something, it's smart to listen. He is also one of the people behind the fabled WAR ROOM marketing mastermind, which according to Forbes : "Is filled with some legendary entrepreneurs and …
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Why I Had to Lose Everything to Finally Become Successful
On January 15, 2010, I lost $3 million. At the time, it was the worst day of my life. Now, its become one of the best days of my life--a transformation I wouldn't trade for anything. Don't get me wrong: It was so awful that I called it my "2x4 day," because it felt like I'd been hit by a 2x4. I'd started my sports tour business in 2001, selling tickets and sports packages to corporate clients for big sports events. The first year, we drove $1 million in revenue . The business evolved to a strong brand in the market. 2008 was our most lucrative year: Ticket sales for the Beijing Olympics alone netted us $1 million in profits . I did what any smart businessperson would do: I set my sights on the next big goal, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. I contracted for more than 17,000 Olympic tickets for $3 million. My previous success had made such a deal possible. But the tickets I'd paid for never showed up. Prepayment from 10,000 people, along with legal issues surrounding a …
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