The CARD Act - New Rules for Credit Cards

The CARD Act - New Rules for Credit Cards

The CARD Act, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act,signed into law on May 22, 2009, supposedly will provide increased consumers protection.Most of the changes go into effect after February 22, 2010. Already, many credit card issuers have increased rates, fees and have taken an immediate defensive posture. Probably, when CARD takes effect, the Banks will have worked around the so-called protections. Hopefully, not too many people will be shut out of credit cards.

Ronald J. Cappuccio, J.D., LL.M. (Tax)

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Selling your business? Defer — and possibly reduce — tax with an installment sale You’ve spent years building your company and now are ready to move on to something else, whether launching a new business, taking advantage of another career opportunity or retiring. Whatever your plans, you want to get the return from your business that you’ve earned from all of the time and money you’ve put into it. That means not only getting a good price, but also minimizing the tax hit on the proceeds. One option that can help you defer tax and perhaps even reduce it is an installment sale. Tax benefits With an installment sale, you don’t receive a lump sum payment when the deal closes. Instead, you receive installment payments over a period of time, spreading the gain over a number of years. This generally defers tax, because you pay most of the tax liability as you receive the payments. Usually tax deferral is beneficial, but it could be especially beneficial if it would allow you to stay...
Read more

European and State Governments Squeezing Businesses for tax Dollars!

European governments are attacking American businesses trying to get as much tax money as possible. The latest leader in this witchhunt is France. They are not only going after companies for large civil taxes but they are at going after the businesses and the employees of the business for criminal penalties and possibly jail. Leading the list are Google, McDonald's and Bookings.com. All these companies have some relationship to France by having services sold through subsidiaries, but the French do not care about legal structures of business. They just want their tax! This sounds a lot like many State governments. New Jersey is always trying to find "nexus" to pull in out-of-state businesses as being subject to New Jersey taxes. Also any business located in New Jersey is subject to grueling sales and use tax audits and lengthy appeals and court hearings. It is a real problem particularly when the company tries to handle it themselves or have an accountant represent them ...
Read more

Tax-Free Employee Benefits

Image
Tax-free fringe benefits help small businesses and their employees In today’s tightening job market, to attract and retain the best employees, small businesses need to offer not only competitive pay but also appealing fringe benefits. Benefits that are tax-free are especially attractive to employees. Let’s take a quick look at some popular options. Insurance Businesses can provide their employees with various types of insurance on a tax-free basis. Here are some of the most common: Health insurance. If you maintain a health care plan for employees, coverage under the plan isn’t taxable to them. Employee contributions are excluded from income if pretax coverage is elected under a cafeteria plan. Otherwise, such amounts are included in their wages but may be deductible on a limited basis as an itemized deduction. Disability insurance. Your premium payments aren’t included in employees’ income, nor are your contributions to a trust providing disability benefits. Employees’ pr...
Read more