And because of losses in the US, they paid no taxes for 2009.

"GE had plenty of earnings last year — just not in the United States. For tax purposes, the company’s U.S. operations lost 8 million, while its international businesses netted a .8 billion profit.

That left GE (GE, Fortune 500) with no U.S. profit left for Uncle Sam to tax. Corporations typically face a 35% federal income tax on their earnings. Thanks to its deductions and adjustments, GE reported an actual U.S. federal income tax rate of negative 10.5%. It got to add a "tax benefit" of .1 billion back into its reported earnings."

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/ge_7000_tax_returns/index.htm?cnn=yes&hpt=T2

Regarding the GE Bailout: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062802955.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009062803183

I have been selling few items on ebay and thru craiglist, mostly re-selling items for a profit. I kept an xl sheet document of my costs and money received. I have not registered myself as a small business or self employed. I am (planning to report) the income on our tax returns. Does this qualify me as self employed (so that I can claim dependent care deductions, otherwise I cannot claim – spouse works, I have no w2 & turbo tax wont let me add ebay earnings as income for dep care purposes)

Assume I owned a business:
Ronda’s Crporation,( a calendar year, accrual basis taxpayer) had the following transactions during 2006, its second year of operation.
Taxable Incom-320,000
Federal Income Tax Liability-108,050
Interest Income from tax-exempt payors-4,000
Meals and Entertainment expenses-2,000
Premiums paid on key employee life insurance-2,500
Increase in cash surrender value attributable to life insurance-600
Proceeds from key employee life insurance policy-120,000
Cash surrender value of life insurance-15,000
Excess of capital losses over capital gains-11,000
MACRS deductions-24,000
Straight 179 expense elected during 2005-90,000
Organizational expenses incurred in 2005-12,000
Dividends received from domestic corporations(less than 20% owned)-20,000

I will use the LIFO inventory method and its LIFO recapture amount increased by
9,000 during 2006. I also sold property on installent during 2005.. The property was sold for 30,000 and had as adjusted basis at sale of 22,000. During 2006 , I received a 10,000
Payment on the installment sale. I elected to amoritize its qualified organizational expenses in 2005. Please help me to compute Ronda’s Corporation current Earnings and Profit.

I had about ,000 in freelance/1099 earnings last year, which is enough that I’m getting more serious about deductions so I can avoid paying as much of that tax as possible. I’m a programmer, so I purchased a laptop and plan to deduct that and any hardware I purchased. I feel like it’s a stretch, but was also wondering if home expenses (e.g. smoke detectors, new furnace, etc.) are deductible. Is there a way to characterize vacation as a business expense if I incidentally did business/work networking and someone from the trip ended up working with me as a direct result? And what are sort of the standard easy deductions — charity, donations, etc.? Is there anything else?

Hi,

Long story, but my wife agreed to sign up her brother in a Network Marketing company under her name. He earned approximately K for the year. The problem is that my wife and I file our taxes jointly, and I do not want his income to minimize our earnings for 2009. I understand that we can claim our phone bill, auto, home, etc. to the business, but wouldn’t that still negatively impact our returns? Please let me know what we can do if that is the case.

1. Individuals J and K form X Corporation. J contributes property for 95% of X stock while K contributes ,000 of services for 5% of X stock. K’s basis in D stock is?
A. 20,000
B. 40,000
C. 7,000
D. 14,000
E. 13,000

2. G corporation donates inventory having a FMV of 0,000 (adjusted basis ,000) to a qualified public charity. The inventory will be used by the charity for care of the ill. The maximum charitable deduction is?

3. X Corporation has accumulated E&P of 0,000 and current E&P of ,000. The corporation has reasonable business needs of ,000. If the corporation is not a service corporation, the amount of earnings subject to the accumulated earnings tax would be?

4. P Corporation owns all of the stock of S Corporation. P’s basis in S’s stock is 0,000. S Corporation becomes insolvent and has no assets to redeem any of P’s stock. P can recognize?
A. A 0,000 short-term capital loss
B. A 0,000 long term capital loss
C. No loss
D. A 0,000 bad debt

Millions and millions are beginning to find out that the pensions they worked for all their lives have just vanished! Under current law, if the employer goes out of business there is no recourse; if the union mishandles the pension funds there is no recourse; if the stock market takes a dive and pension funds are lost there is no recourse. American is aging; by 2020 over half the population will be over 65 years of age. Yet we allow the pensions of America’s workers to be placed in jeopardy. This makes no sense to me at all. The current set of laws allows employers and unions to play a shall game with pension funds. The employer gets a tax deduction merely for "earmarking" pension funds without having to actually part with the cash.

I think it’s time this country treated pension funds as employment taxes and had employers make deposits in to secure trusts, insured by part of the earnings. No more of this paying in to the union pension fund!

If I am self employed and allowed to earn approx 14k per year, also collecting early retirement social security benefits at 62yrs old. Are my business expenses , deductions, and exemptions added towards the 14k earnings or deucted from my gross? Trying to fugure out how much I can earn and still collect, and how this affects yearly taxes without committing fraud.

I have a BA in Music and plan to start part time employment working for myself (playing, teaching, etc.) I have reviewed IRS Publication 970 (http://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch13.html) and based on this am confident that I can get a Masters in Music, and treat it as a business expense, assuming that I am already working. (Reason: it further trains me in a job that I am already working at rather than preparing me for a new job.)

However, I am also planning to save up for the Masters Degree before I start. It seems reasonable to save for the degree in a 529 plan so I can avoid taxes on any gains or interest (and my state, Maryland, also provides a tax deduction for the contributions to the plan).

My question is: Can I both save for tuition using a 529 (and get those tax breaks while I am saving) and also claim the (part-time) educational expense as a business deduction (to get the tax breaks offsetting my earnings after I pay the tuition)?

Thanks
Dale

My S-Corp closed this year at a loss and I was not sure if I am REQUIRED to report this on my taxes. My husband and I had NO earnings from the business and about 00 from employment elsewhere. I don’t need the loss to help my deductions since we made so little this year. Can I just file the 1040 EZ?