Wal-Mart is costing us over $3.5 BILLION in taxes
A new study has found Wal-Mart has at least 78 offshore
subsidiaries, more than 30 created since 2009 and none mentioned in U.S.
securities filings. Overseas operations have helped the company cut
more than $3.5 billion off its income tax bills in the past six years, its
annual reports show. It owns more than $76 billion of assets through its various
tax havens around the world. Americans for Tax Fairness, found 90
percent of Wal-Mart’s overseas assets are owned by subsidiaries in Luxembourg
and the Netherlands ,
where Walmart has no stores just tax havens. It uses the Luxembourg
“hybrid loan” trick, which permits companies’ offshore units to take tax
deductions for interest paid to their parents in the U.S.
The parent, however, doesn’t include that interest as taxable income. Wal-Mart
ran into trouble over strategies to avoid U.S.
state income taxes. It used a real
estate investment trust to effectively pay rent to itself, generating big tax deductions, even though the
rent payments never left the company.
Avoid paying
Wal-Mart’s taxes: http://www.amazon.com/Most-U-S-Corporations-Pay-No-Taxes/dp/1514274116
Our retirement fund managers are stealing us blind—will
Congress act?
We are trying to pay our bills AND invest for retirement yet
our fund balance doesn’t seem to grow as fast as the market indexes do. Our
employer or manager of the funds has put our money into a secret investment
that does not tell us what all our costs are. We are the owners of the money
but we don’t know how much we pay. So-called private equity funds receive
discounts on legal, accounting and other outside work while pension fund investors, like retired bus drivers,
librarians and teachers, pay
full freight or, in some cases, a premium. These funds may be stealing
up to HALF of our potential gains and we don’t even know it. Some pension
funds like CALPERS has dropped expensive managers. NJ
state union funds were used to pay off Christie’s political sponsors.
Your pension should be earning the average market rate of
11% not 3%: http://www.amazon.com/Tune-your-401k-EARN-Tax-FREE/dp/1490591028
Vanguard, which in 40 years became the biggest mutual fund
company by selling low-priced, market-matching funds, is eating the lunch of brokers
and advisers. Vanguard cut the price of its personalized investment service
to 0.30 percent of assets annually or less, compared with the 1 to 3 percent
common on Wall Street. Some advisers said they can't compete with Vanguard's
prices for investors starting with only $50,000. Vanguard said it expanded its
advisory service because most of its customers seek retirement advice but
aren't willing to pay the usual fees.
Investors may give up 63% of their portfolios to advisors over time with
various hidden charges.
Earn 11% not 3.69%: http://www.amazon.com/Vanguards-Top-Ten-mutual-funds/dp/150073909X
Would you add more money to your Social Security benefits?
We know that inflation adjusted SS benefits are the largest
part of income for many retirees since there are fewer paid pensions anymore.
Since many working people have trouble making an individual retirement plan on
their own AND an advisor can take up to 63% of our hard-earned contributions (Bogle
on PBS), it makes sense to have the employer take out more than the 6.2%
and treat the amount the same as wages for the benefit calculation later. We
could increase the average benefit of $1300/month to $1500 in today’s money.
Another solution could be let workers use the Fed’s Thrift
Plan with a low-cost stock fund. I don’t think there is a better mass market option
for most working people. https://www.tsp.gov/investmentfunds/fundsheets/fundPerformance_C_Perf.shtml
Performance is great and the fund is run by pros at cost.
This could be a future option for working Americans since the average person has
less than $100,000 saved for retirement. What do you think of these options?
Let me know at IANBooksEditor@yahoo.com
Top quality vehicles are Korean brands now
Hyundai and its Kia affiliate led the industry by the widest
margin ever, according to the J.D. Power initial vehicle quality study. Kia
led all non-premium brands in initial quality for the first time in the study's
history. Korean
brands had 90 problems per 100 vehicles, Europeans at 113, and the Japanese
and Americans each at 114. Lexus scored the highest for the fourth straight
year. Porsche's
top score was 80 problems per 100 vehicles, followed by Kia (86), Jaguar (93),
Hyundai (95) and Infiniti (97). Finishing at the bottom was Fiat Chrysler’s
Fiat brand with 161 problems per 100 vehicles. Entertainment and troublesome
electronics remain the most problem prone area for the third straight year,
with voice
recognition and Bluetooth pairing topping the problem list, J.D. Power
said. English is hard to learn for cars!
Do you need a new bag? https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/
Gun license law reduced killings by 40%--NRA is wrong—guns
kill people
In a study released Thursday
in the American Journal of Public Health, they estimate that the law reduced
gun homicides by 40 percent between 1996 and 2005. That’s 296 lives saved in 10
years.
Is ID theft “insurance” right for you?
ID theft policies are more like "expense reimbursement
programs" than insurance. ID insurance may cover expenses such as phone
bills, lost wages, notary and certified mailing costs, and even attorney fees,
but it doesn’t protect your data from theft. It does NOT fix your credit or
financial account history. It won't reduce the time and hassle required to
rectify the situation. Proving your ID theft claim will be just another task.
Plus you must pay the deductible first. Will you really spend over $500 of
“covered” expenses? You may already be protected from unauthorized card charges
if they steal your credit (NOT debit) cards. Avoid theft by eliminating all but
essential data on your person and smart phone. Carry driver’s license and
credit cards only. Check your credit reports and financial statements
immediately. Understand your coverage before signing.
GOP crazies
Christie to get tough with world leaders IF
elected. The editorial board of New Jersey 's
most important and largest newspaper, The Star Ledger, is questioning whether Christie will cause World War III if he's elected president.
Can't you just hear him telling Vladimir Putin to "sit down and shut
up"? Calling the Ayatollah "numb nuts"?
Christie is NOT the new Reagan (“Tear down this …”?).
Trump/Christie is the trump card for war?
Trump will trump all 15 GOPs. Hey, just ask him and he
will tell you how he has trumped countries and will take out ISIL in one
decisive blow (ultimate solution?). His is rich and rubs your nose in it. “I
have a store worth more than Romney.” He says Oprah is his “friend”
so he could win. He may have to pay
actors $50 to attend his campaign and vote. He will make America
great again because he makes deals he says: http://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/
GOP to cut corporate taxes even more—we lose all deductions;
pay more
Rand Paul’s plan to overhaul the U.S.
tax system calls for a 14.5 percent federal flat tax for consumers and
companies, the elimination of almost all deductions and levies. Wealthy pay
capital gains of 20% so get more to keep. Most of us will still pay 33% including sales, gas,
state, local, DI, UC, FL, health, pension, etc. With spending cuts and
economic growth, the federal budget would be balanced, Paul said.
GOP controls NV gov but can’t pass voter suppression law
Many states are trying to reduce DEM voters before election
next year. There is no proof of voter fraud and even PA legislator admits real
reason to suppress.
Fox News goes after Pope
Fox News personality Greg
Gutfeld accused Pope Francis of being “the most dangerous person
on the planet” because he is seeking “strange new respect” from adversaries on
climate change. Francis must be smiling!
GOP health plan called “flawed” by actuaries—GOP with blood
on their hands!
32 GOP reps propose keeping federal premium subsidies for Healthcare.gov
enrollees through August 2017 if the Supreme Court rules them
unconstitutional in King v. Burwell. It would simply bandage a festering wound,
according to the American Academy
DEMs crazies
Bernie draws crowds but has no money and no foundation and
no home server. Sanders and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) introduced legislation to overturn
GOP law that cuts certain pensions. He can’t win so why do people support
him? Is it the message? http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/bernie-sanders-believe-candidate-stands-10-issues/
Auto jobs moving south with or without treaty
In 2004, 74% of the 15.8 million cars built in US. Canada
built 17% and Mexico
contributed 9%. In 2014, Mexico's
production was 19% of the total. It came at the expense of the U.S. ,
which dipped to 11.4 million units, or 67%; and Canada ,
which was down to 2.4 million, or 14%.
Medical debt killing your credit score?
Feds are stopping the practices of some collectors of
medical debt hitting our credit scores. We may have recourse from fines of $5.4
million. http://www.consumerfinance.gov/newsroom/cfpb-study-finds-medical-debt-overly-penalizes-consumer-credit-scores/
Is a credit union right for you?
If you are eligible and you like personal banking
(face-to-face), the positives
far outweigh negatives. CU pays higher rates, charges less, and offers most
benefits you want. Find your local: http://www.culookup.com/
Morgan Stanley admits it is hard to beat an S&P 500 market
index.
The index adds businesses that outperform and drops the
losers. MS sees investors moving money to the index which charge less and give
more. Will Wall Street cut
fees?
Earn more: use Buffett’s strategy: http://www.amazon.com/Reset-Your-Retirement-Income-retirement/dp/1512304344
SCAMS Why
are we still paying $700 Billion a year for
WWII deployments? That is 27
cents of each dollar in taxes—the largest part of our money—and we
aren’t even at war. We could pay off our debts and fix our schools,
roads and bridges!
We are paying for 164,253 of our active-duty armed personnel
to be in 150 countries around the world. We have about 50,000 in Japan Germany
We are building another
military base for Japan at Henoko. Air Force Gen. Ronald Fogelman admitted
that the Marines “serve no military function there. They don’t
need to be in Okinawa to meet any time line in any war plan.”
Are we preparing for WWII again? There are 1,208,083[1] armed
personnel in the United States .
Our taxes pay for about HALF of the WORLD’s military expenditures every
year. We have wasted $398.6 billion so far on the
F-35 program—they can’t
fly safely.
We just can’t afford to pay for everyone else’s defenses
anymore.
Our gov is spending $8 million per HOUR on
our wars in Iraq/Afgan
The War
on Terror requires special forces attacks on top terrorists at their
homes like Obama’s
al-Amr May14 Abu kill. Iraq proved
converting a nation to Western-style republic doesn’t work. The
troops we trained ran away, left our stuff. Training and more stuff for
what? Former
Saddam army now ISIS. We are wasting
$4 billion a year on Afgan
tribal rivalries; paying ransom to Al Qaeda; supporting corruption with our
money.
Chase account owners—now you know where your fees go!
Jamie Dimon, who helped assemble Citigroup Inc. and then
improved on the experiment with JPMorgan Chase & Co., is responsible for
two of the biggest banks the world has ever seen. His life’s work also made him a billionaire! First of class
of bank managers. Backed by our tax
dollars so too big to jail or fail.
GM murdered 114 people but not even indicted
The official death toll from faulty ignition switches in
General Motors small cars has risen to 114. GM has made “compensation” offers
to 245 other victims’ families. NO ONE is going to jail despite the cover up!
IAN
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