Personal Finance and Investing

Statistics suggest that in the United States, over 37% of the household have a minimum of one dog and over 32% have a cat. Going by the tax rules set in 2010, residents of USA will no more be eligible for tax benefits for owning a pet. However, still there can be some ways through which you can manage to have tax breaks for having a pet. If you can show the expenses related to the pet as business expenses, you will be eligible to get tax breaks. However, not all pets can be used for claiming such tax breaks. For instance, you will have to own species of guard dogs or wild cats for keeping your business safe.

Possibly, all the deduction involving pets get thoroughly scrutinized by the IRS.

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I spent a fair share of my mid-twenties lugging around a two-volume set of the Internal Revenue Code to class every day (picture a small woman with two encyclopedia-sized bricks on the subway), so I know first hand just how overwhelming our tax laws can seem. Every tax season, people ask me about the same mythical deductions — stuff they feel they ought to be able to deduct on their tax returns, even though the government doesn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with them. While it may be freezing in some parts of the country, tax season is right around the corner, and it pays to take a look at these three common points of confusion before filing this spring.

Nope, unfortunately not. W

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Doug: Stating that the US is turning into a police state when you started this conversation was quite accurate. You can see more and more videos spreading over the Internet, not just of police brutality, but demonstrating the militarization and federalization of police, who are being inculcated with both disdain for and paranoia about ordinary citizens.

In the old days, if you were stopped for speeding, the peace officer was polite — you could get out of your car, meet the cop on neutral ground, and chat with him. Y

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Interesting news report that JP Morgan Chase is apparently stopping its collection lawsuits. I have not verified this in Alabama as Chase is not a huge filer of collection lawsuits here but will do so when I have a moment.

Here are some interesting quotes from the excellent article:

A sampling of court records in the major cities in five states shows that Chase collection suits have virtually disappeared. In a sixth state, Illinois, contract attorneys continue to file small-dollar cases, though at a reduced rate.

It is unclear whether Chase has stopped pursuing collection on many claims nationwide, or if intends to pursue the debts in some other fashion.

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