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Congress recently passed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which President Bush signed on Feb. 13, 2008. If you normally file your income tax return, then there is nothing that you need to do, but for those that don’t normally file, especially our elders that receive social security payments, to be able to receive this payment of $600 they must file a 2007 Federal Income Tax Return. Most people will not know this, and If you know of anyone that would qualify, please pass this information to them. Below is information from IRS.gov.
Even if you aren’t normally required to file a federal income tax return, you must file one if you want to be among the 130 million individuals who will receive a check from Treasury beginning in May of this year. The IRS will use information on the 2007 tax return filed by the taxpayer to determine eligibility and calculate the amount of the stimulus payment.
In most cases, payments will range from $300 to $600 for individuals and $600 to $1200 for joint filers. Parents and anyone else eligible for a stimulus payment will also receive an additional $300 for each qualifying child (subject to income phase-outs).
“We want to make sure everyone who is eligible for these payments receives them,” says IRS Executive Julie Rushin. “Most eligible taxpayers do not need to take any extra steps to receive the payment. All they have to do is file a 2007 federal tax return and the IRS will automatically do the rest. No other action, extra form or call is necessary.”
You Must Have a Valid Social Security Number
Taxpayers must have a valid Social Security Number to qualify for the stimulus payment. If married filing jointly, both taxpayers must have a valid Social Security Number. Children must be eligible under the Child Tax Credit and must also have a valid Social Security Number to be eligible as qualifying children.
You Must File a 2007 Federal Income Tax Return, Even if You Normally Would Not
Low-income workers who had at least $3,000 in earned income (such as wages) and other qualifying income in 2007 but do not otherwise earn enough to be required to file a federal tax return need to file a return to qualify for the stimulus payment. Other qualifying income includes Social Security benefits, certain Railroad Retirement benefits, or certain veterans’ benefits.
Do you find yourself developing a business plan because someone else wants you to do so? Perhaps the bank is requiring it before giving you a loan, or an investor or venture capitalist needs one to decide whether to finance your business, maybe your attorney or accountant said you must have one, or your company president requires a strategic plan for your new division.
I guess these are good reasons enough, but entrepreneurs are self-motivated people, used to setting their own goals and determining their own tasks. They undertake endeavors not merely to please others, but because they understand the importance of an activity in reaching their overall objectives, but creating a business plan only as a response to someone’s request makes the process seem like a burden instead of an opportunity.
Meeting needs is the basis of all business. You can create a wonderful new machine, but if it doesn’t address some real and important need or desire people won’t buy it, and your business will fail. Even Thomas Edison recognized this fact when he said, “Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent.”
Typically, entrepreneurs get their original business inspiration from one of four sources, such as previous work experience; education or training; hobbies, talents, or other personal interests; or recognition of an unanswered need or market opportunity. Occasionally the motivation comes from the business experience of a relative or friends.
Virtual office is a new concept to me, but imagine if you want to invest in a foreign country, but just don’t feel 100% confident about the economy or business that you’re in; I guess this is an ideal situation for someone like me that don’t like to take too much risk, but expect huge return, and still want to have some level of comfort. Assuming that I’ve decided to open a business in Thailand, I obviously don’t want to set up an office, imagine having to buy all the office supplies, hiring employees, and having to pay rent. There is no need to do all that because there is a company that provide virtual office service, Regus is a company that service over 70 countries, and Thailand is one of the countries. I checked to see if Laos was one, sadly no, but you never know in the near future, they might because the company is expanding, I’ll be sure to check back at a later time.
What is a Virtual office?
I’ve always wondered how rich people live, more like what types of sofa they sit on. My GI Joe sister has a reupholstery business (this site explains what she does), which she works for a famous interior designer in NYC. The last furniture set that she delivered left her speechless, that people actually sat on such loveseat and sofa (covered with bed sheets), she told us stories such as this all the time, but we didn’t believe her so this time she took the before and after photos, which I was amazed. My GI Joe sister said that the owner is in her early 70s’, lives in a mansion in Granite, Connecticut. Does your sofa or loveseat looks anything like this?
This is what her husband drives…which also left my GI Joe sister speechless.
I’m sure we all heard the term ‘working hard or working smart’. I use to think that the only way that you’re going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it, I’m not so sure anymore. In this world, there’re people that work very little but make a lot of money, and there’re many people that work a lot, but make very little money; I’m sure we all want to be in the first category that work very little but make a lot…then again it’s easier said than done.
I’m not sure which category I belong to, if you’d ask, I’d say the later one, but at the same time like to think that I belong in the first category, if not now, maybe someday. If you ask me, what’s my job title? I’d say I’m the clean up crew at my work, a miscellaneous person because I’ve to do things that people can’t do (sometimes I fell like they don’t want to do); lately I’ve been asking myself, it is worth it? Is it worth my time because here I’ve to do their work, while they do other stuff that I won’t go into detail. Let us just say that many times I’m working hard, while others are working smart by delegating their work that they couldn’t do to me; sometimes-knowing more is not always a good thing.
Another thing is blogging, I blog because I love to write and not even thinking about putting Ads on my blog, which I’ve had offered but I’ve my mind set that I’ll never put Ads on my blog (sounds stupid, but that’s my philosophy). I’ve noticed lately that there are many blogs ( scraper sites) that set up with many Ads and linking to many of my posts that might have the key words of ‘Laos, Thai, 100 Vanh, Vietnamese family, Hmong, Thai tattoo, Ghost, Fashion…etc’ (Darly sites are exception that I’m happy for her to link, and also any bloggers such as myself). The owners of these blogs (scraper sites) don’t have to do any writing, just searching, obviously, I’m the one that have to work hard, but they’re working smart by taking my work, and also collecting Ads revenue for every hit that they get. Is that fair? It’s like farming on someone’s back which these (scraper sites) are set up solely for the purpose of earning revenue through advertising. I guess it’s somewhat annoying to me, but not enough for me to do something about it, if you’ve noticed, I’ve (cc) Creative Commons, which is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike, which I want to share my work with others. Did these blogs (scraper sites) violate my license, probably because they’re generating revenue from it, but not totally, because they’re linking back to my blog, but bottom line, I’m working hard, and they’re working smart.
Just reading the title sounds like someone real old that just gives up hope, or those that are defeated in the game of life, defeated in the game of love, but I think deep down inside, defeat is not a good word to use, more like change. The world revolves around, things are changing constantly, we can’t expect things to be the same, we have to change with the world, and change with society, change is good.
For those that have a steady income, are paid on a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly basis, we feel confident that we will always be paid. Then those that own a business, either in manufacturing, restaurant, or retail, some days things might seem to be going pretty good, money keeps pouring in, and other days, it’s so little that it might not even cover the basic cost, pretty scary. What about those that have lots of money in the bank just to earn interest, at one time the interest income might be growing steady, but at certain time, it’s very little. For those that have a job, sometimes we feel like we just can’t wait for the weekends, holidays, or vacations, and what about ‘TGIF’. Yet it’s depressing if we don’t have a job, can’t wait to find that job to go to, the job that we love. Some people are fortunate than others, some might find something that they love to do, even if they aren’t paid. For others, they might work at a job that they absolutely hate, just to get money. If what I’ve just mentioned is confusing, sounds more like I’m just ranting, then just look around you, things are constantly changing, nothing stays the same.
This is a story from Koosang Koosom, from a country girl, a bit backward but very interesting, written in Thai language, Photo by Peter Whittlesey.
The majority of manufacturer workers are from out of state, mostly from the Issan region of Thailand, which have very little education, but some have bachelor degree but still work as factory workers. As for my friends, and I, we’re from Issan region and don’t get pay a lot, average income are approximately a bit over 100 Baht per day ($3) depending on seniority, those that have been there longer would get paid more. I’ve been there for about 8 years, but I’m not bragging, I get pay almost 200 Baht per day ($6.12), if I have over time, then it’s plenty for me to cover my living expenses.
Did you get it right? It’s a coin. According to Manager Online, China Daily Bank gave a news press released on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 that they are offering coins for the year of the golden pig on February 1, 2007. The coin souvenir has 1 Yuan written on it, it can be used to make a purchase and has a monetary value of 1 Yuan.
The head side of the coin has the name of the bank, value, and year issued. The tail side of the coin has a picture of a girl sitting on a swing, playing with the pig. It has Chinese symbols, which mean year of the golden pig.
Some people spend more than what they make, pretend that they are rich.
Some people spend what they make, also pretend that they are rich.
Some people spend less than what they make, they are the rich one.
If you pay close attention to today’s economy, it’s not stable, certain industries are doing better than others are and many jobs are moving overseas. Seeing what’s on the news, sometimes it’s a bit depressing, big companies laying off employees, closed down plants, and buy out, following by lay off. Every year, you’ll hear different economist, financial analysis and any other type of specialist that you can think, have argued about today’s economy. They’ll project of what will happen in the near future and which direction our economy is heading. Sometimes I think it’s useless to follow this news so closely and it would only stress you out. The easiest way to see how the economy is doing is to look closer, look at yourself for instance, if you are in good financial standing, then you would say the economy is good and it’s getting better.
More and more people are filing for bankruptcy, especially those that purchased their home or refinanced several years back when the interest rate was at its lowest. The mistake that some people made back then was to lock in at fluctuating interest rate because it was a bit lower than fixed interest rate at the time, but little did they know that it does fluctuate up and up only and now the rate is high and I don’t anticipate for it to go down anytime soon. Things might seem so bad, especially for those that have to file for bankruptcy, but the twist to this is that there are other professions that benefit from this unfortunate group. You can probably guess that they are the Accountant and Attorney. The book has to be examined and creditors would be suing, trying to get their shares of what’s left. These two services will always be needed in a bankruptcy situation, great for those that are in these two professions. Therefore, how bad the economy depends on who is looking at it and from which perspective.
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