Covering the week’s most noteworthy business news impacting the Filipino-American and Global Filipino community.
“ Even though the debtor was not employed, she was willing to liquidate a part of her retirement account to pay for the settlement to keep her house.” WHEN I say the client is a young senior, I mean 60. She’s a single mom with two adult daughters who are over the age of 21….
IF you are searching for debt reduction solutions, no doubt you’ve been inundated with advertisements for various debt management programs, companies and solutions. The choices seem confusing to the average consumer. The truth is that every situation is different and what may work perfectly for others is not necessarily going to work the same way…
SOME IRS forms attract audits. Merely filing them causes the Agency to look at your tax returns. Here are some of them. Form 1099: You may have had a side job that paid you more than $400 but you missed to report or did not receive because you moved. Failure to report 1099s activates IRS…
IN February 2018, the IRS will start certification of individuals with delinquent tax debt to the State Department. How will the IRS certification impacts you? • Upon receipt of certification. The State Department will either deny application or revoke current passport or both. • You are overseas. Limited validity passport for direct return to the…
LG Philippines and Grand Hyatt hotel have teamed up to give football fans the ultimate World Cup viewing experience. Follow the action as it happens in Russia as Pool House at Grand Hyatt hosts daily viewing events on a giant 86-inch UHD TV from June 11 to July 15. Hotel guests and locals alike can pop into the…
“So why even assume this kind of risk by filing an incomplete petition?” THE client is 59 and single. He has a decent job where he makes $4,000 a month gross. He doesn’t owe any credit card debt. He only owes three secured debts. He owes a mortgage on his house for $400,000 plus he…
WHEN Otisha Woolbright became pregnant, her doctor instructed her to stop lifting 50-pound trays of chickens at Walmart. Ms. Woolbright informed her boss about this and her boss said she had seen Demi Moore do a flip on TV while pregnant so being pregnant was “no excuse.” Her boss also told her if she couldn’t…
OUR tax laws give you choices of filing status to prepare your income tax returns. Which one is appropriate for a married person petitioning (or being petitioned by) your spouse? I’m a tax professional, not a lawyer, so let’s discuss this case from a tax standpoint. Case in point: I had a new tax client…
AMIDST a busy schedule, wrestling magnate turned Cabinet member Linda McMahon made way through an also busy Porto’s Bakery & Cafe in Glendale, California — her last stop in visiting small businesses in Los Angeles. McMahon has been making her way across the United States as part of her Small Business Association (SBA) Ignite Tour…
THE solar investment tax credit is available to both commercial under section 48 and to residential under section 25D for both solar water heating systems and photovoltaics property to generate electricity from sunlight. To benefit from the credit, you must have a federal tax liability. You may be able to carry forward or carry back…
“Do not sign personal guarantees for business loans because you will be on the hook if the business cannot pay the loan.” THE client is 45. He is actually a medical professional in his country of origin. It would have been great for him if he could practice his profession here in the U.S. Unfortunately,…
Real-time remittance service made available between Hong Kong and the Philippines HONG KONG and MANILA, 25 June 2018 – AlipayHK and GCash today announced the launch of a cross-border remittance service through their e-wallet platforms, powered by cutting-edge blockchain technology developed by Alipay, the online payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group (“Ant Financial”,…
YES, you can be. It’s terrible, but it happens. In a landmark case, the Supreme Court held that a conviction for willfully filing a false tax return is a deportable offense under our immigration laws. It reached the same conclusion with respect to a conviction for aiding and abetting in the preparation of a false…
“Do not sign personal guarantees for business loans because you will be on the hook if the business cannot pay the loan.” THE client is 45. He is actually a medical professional in his country of origin. It would have been great for him if he could practice his profession here in the U.S. Unfortunately,…
(“Independent contractors” lose employment rights) EDUARDO Garcia worked 15-hour days as a port truck driver for Tradelink Transport. Even after working 15 hours, his boss would wave him back to work. If he said no, he would not be given work the next day. So he went back to work. Jovanni Castillo worked 20 hours…
MEDICARE, Medicaid, Medi-Cal. If your 65th birthday is on the horizon, then these terms may have begun to appear on your radar. Unfortunately, because the three are so similar in name, people tend to confuse one program with another. So what exactly are the differences? Medicare is a federally funded program that provides basic healthcare…
A LOT of people in debt often already know what they need to do once they realize that bankruptcy is their only way out. But they usually delay the decision to file because they try their best to avoid it if at all possible and will only rush to act when they face an immediate…
Manila, June 20, 2018: If you plan to buy an investment condo anytime soon, better choose one from the country’s top property developers and those located in prime locations to ensure good high resale value years from now. This is according to data gathered by global real estate brokerage RE/MAX Philippines during their business roundtable…
A SOLAR electric residential property to be qualified for the credit must meet the following requirements: 1. Costs paid must be for qualified for solar electric property. 2. Qualified solar electric property costs: These costs must be for use of solar energy to generate electricity. You may rely on the manufacturer’s certification in writing that…
“One contributing factor to the gender wage gap is pay secrecy.” Q: I AM a single mom and I have worked for my employer for several years. While talking with another newly hired male co-worker whose responsibilities are similar to mine, I discovered he was making 50 cents more per hour than I am. I…
THE seniors are husband and wife aged 70 and 65. The wife is a young and healthy 65, while the husband is a healthy 70 who still looks strong. Both are still working with good income. The husband grosses about $100,000 a year and the wife grosses about $70,000 a year. With $170,000 gross for…
ARE you constantly worried about your finances because of debts that you can no longer afford to pay? If you are in more debt that you can repay, you may be overwhelmed and don’t know what to do. If you’ve tried to solve your debt problems on your own but nothing has worked up to…
SOME undocumented workers use other people’s Social Security numbers (SSN). That creates a problem. Then they use another number to file their income tax returns – their own Individual Identification Numbers (TIN). Using two numbers creates another problem, actually two problems: 1. To the IRS system – Unmatched W-2s, 1099s and 1040 tax returns take…
THE tax laws refer only to two controlling principles whether you are a resident alien or nonresident alien while the immigration laws of the US refer to aliens as immigrant, nonimmigrant, and undocumented or illegal aliens. Who are resident aliens and nonresident aliens or both? For tax purposes unless you are an exempt individual, you…
PHARMACISTS employed by Albertson’s LLC in California sued their employer for missed meal and rest periods. The employees alleged that the employer did not provide them off-duty meal breaks and off-duty rest breaks. The employer argued that it did not have to provide off-duty meal breaks to the pharmacists because each of them signed an…
“So the pressure on the client due to debt burden has been steadily ramping up and taking it’s deadly toll on client’s well being.” THE client is 50 and single but has a cousin who lives with him. The cousin has been employed on and off and has lived with him for 10 years. The cousin is also…
SLEEPLESS nights… Stressed out… Worried about the future… Always broke no matter how hard they work…Feeling hopeless about their situation. This is what most people are going through when they are considering bankruptcy in order to get out of debt. The word “bankruptcy” often produces negative feelings because some people equate it with…
U.S. taxpayers file millions of individual tax returns each year. Some of these tax returns contain W-2s with fake Social Security numbers. Some belong to people who get married and never report changing their names. Others merely submit erroneous tax forms. But a huge number of these forms are filed by employers for a group…
The sustainability-driven New Clark City will be the answer to Metro Manila’s escalating pollution problem Anyone who has been to the Philippines has experienced the country’s crowded population and its overwhelming pollution. Like many other global countries battling low air quality and intense population density, the Philippines is becoming increasingly at risk for both natural…
U.S. citizens are generally taxed on their worldwide income regardless of where the income is earned or received. A U.S. citizen who earns income in a foreign country may also be taxed on that income by a foreign host country thereby leading to double taxation. Below are the three tax provisions alleviating potential inequity: •…
