Saturday, February 14, 2015

Government Incentives for Low Income Retirement Contributions

Did you know that low income earners have an incentive to contribute to a retirement account?  That is right, the government will give qualified people a credit up to $50 for every $100 deposited in their personal IRA.

See Form 8880.

Other tax links include:

1040 Insructions - Form 1040

1040A Instructions - Form 1040 A

1040 EZ Instructions - Form 1040 EZ

540 Booklet - Form 540 Instructions - Form 540

Also, for those interested in Small Business expenses, see www.irs.gov for Topic 509, Business Use of Home.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

How the Online Poker Industry was a Threat to National Security

In 1971, the US came off the gold standard. What that meant was that banks no longer had to back paper money with gold. At that time, our money became fiat money.

In the 90's, Clinton helped to pass several laws allowing banks to perform investment and mortgage transactions inside the actual bank. What that meant was that banks no longer had to keep 60% of money on hand as collateral.  Not only that, banks went from helping people save to helping people borrow.

Although the FDIC now insures cash up to $250,000 per individual, the banks only have roughly 44 cents per hundred dollars. This means, the bank has roughly $1,100 on hand for the $250,000, in the event of a national crisis.

So what does this have to do with the online poker phenomena? Well, imagine 1 million online players depositing between $5 and $1,000. Imagine this money getting transferred to off shore accounts, then pulled out as cash.  On paper, inside the US, is not a threat.  However, someone pulling $4,400 out of the US, translates to $1 million of backed money.

Thoughts?