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| Outlook for 2012 After the Death of the Super Committee |
| Thursday, December 1, 2011 |
| On Monday, November 21, the Deficit Reduction Joint Committee of Congress officially threw in the towel and announced that it was unable to reach an agreement on the $1.2 trillion in cuts in the federal budget mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011. What does this failure mean to you and the typical American family as we move forward into 2012?
If the |
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| Can You Prove Your Tax Return Was Filed on Time? |
| Tuesday, November 1, 2011 |
| With the rise in electronic filing of tax returns –- nowadays, almost 80% of individual tax returns are filed electronically – it can be easy to forget that millions of tax returns, ranging from individual to corporate, are still prepared on paper and need to be mailed to the Internal Revenue Service for filing. And having to mail returns to the IRS can |
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| Overhaul of World Business Chicago is First Step on City's Road to Recovery |
| Monday, October 3, 2011 |
| Mayor Rahm Emanuel seems undeterred by naysayers as he invests his vast political capital in an agenda of fiscal responsibility, school reform and safe streets. No question the urgent issues Mr. Emanuel has targeted must be on the front burner if Chicago is to remain livable, let alone become the world-class city it could be.
But without real economic |
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| The L3C: A Boon to Illinois' Social-Purpose Businesses |
| Thursday, September 1, 2011 |
| The Low-profit Limited Liability Company, or "L3C," is a new, for-profit business form available to social entrepreneurs who seek the legal and tax flexibility of a traditional LLC, the social benefits of a non-profit organization, and the branding and market positioning advantages of a social enterprise. Moreover, the L3C presents a unique opportunity to |
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| 2011 Mid-Year Tax Update |
| Monday, August 1, 2011 |
| The Law Office of Marc J. Lane is now on Facebook! To follow the firm, please click here.
At the Law Offices of Marc J. Lane, P.C., we strive to keep you informed of helpful planning topics each month. Tax reform and budget reform are currently hot topics in Washington D.C., but as of the time of this writing, no clear consensus appears to be in |
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| Going Private: How Privatization and Social Enterprise Can Help the City's Double Bottom Line |
| Friday, July 1, 2011 |
| In the waning days of the Daley administration, the former mayor incurred the wrath of union leaders when he floated the possibility of outsourcing the city's curbside recycling initiative without first consulting labor. It was Richard M. Daley, everyone remembers, who struck the deal to sell Midway Airport that ultimately collapsed for lack of financing |
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| Tracking the Social Enterprise's Social Performance |
| Wednesday, June 1, 2011 |
| The final chapter of my new book, Social Enterprise: Empowering Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs, (American Bar Association, 2011) raises the provocative question: "To What End?" The demand for metrics to evaluate social impact has never been stronger, and that demand comes from all quarters. Donors and investors want to ensure that their gifts, grants and |
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| AT&T, Déjà Vu? |
| Monday, May 2, 2011 |
| AT&T’s recently proposed acquisition of T-Mobile has awakened not so distant memories of when, prior to its breakup 1984, AT&T enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the telecommunications industry. The combination of these companies presents a host of issues that range from antitrust implications to the questionable benefits and relative costs to consumers |
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| Time to Overcome Funding Disparity for K-12 Education |
| Friday, April 1, 2011 |
| Three years ago, the Chicago Urban League, a civil rights organization that encourages economic empowerment for African-Americans, sued the state of Illinois and the Illinois State Board of Education, alleging that the state's funding formula for education punishes minorities because it is based on property values. The Urban League, which hopes its case |
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| Do You Know What's In Your Marketing Materials? |
| Tuesday, March 1, 2011 |
| The Law Office of Marc J. Lane is now on Facebook! To follow the firm, please click here.
Yummy Dough, a fairly new product out of Germany, creates a compound that kids can mold into various shapes, bake, and eat. The company behind Yummy Dough, 123 Nahrmittel GmbH, received numerous awards for the product and has been expanding distribution to other |
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| Zero-based Budgeting Holds Much Promise for Illinois’ Fiscal Future |
| Tuesday, February 1, 2011 |
| An unheralded provision of last spring's budget legislation adds Illinois to the growing roster of states committed to performance-driven budgeting. “Budgeting for outcomes” was introduced by former Washington Gov. Gary Locke in 2002, when he faced a $2.5-billion budget shortfall. Mr. Locke reformed the way state officials prioritized and spent taxpayer |
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| The Estate Tax Is Back |
| Monday, January 3, 2011 |
| This past December, as the weather outside became increasingly colder, the debate in Washington over taxes and spending was heating up to a fever pitch. Politicians, pundits, and concerned citizens from the right to the left and everywhere in between expressed opinions about our nation’s economic policy and tax structure. One thing remained clear during |
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| Health Care Law Reform Brings Attention to Form 1099-MISC |
| Wednesday, December 1, 2010 |
| Every January, many Americans find a series of statements in their mailbox from banks and brokerages labeled "Form 1099." These statements are known to the Internal Revenue Service as "information returns." Besides the Form 1099-DIV (for dividends) and Form 1099-INT (for interest) which are widely familiar, the IRS also publishes a variety of other forms in |
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| A Window of Opportunity with the September 2010 "Small Business" Law: Why You Need to Take Action by December 31st |
| Monday, November 1, 2010 |
| Overview:
The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (“SBJA”) was signed into law on September 27, 2010. With the economy still struggling to recover, SBJA was enacted to provide significant tax benefits for a wide variety of tax-favored activities. This report will highlight some of the key provisions as well as focus on a few significant and intriguing tax |
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| McCormick Place Gets Reprieve from Losing Conventions, but Much Work Remains |
| Friday, October 1, 2010 |
| New work rules and pricing plans at McCormick Place will make Chicago a more competitive convention destination. The General Assembly's sweeping reform measure, which took effect on Aug. 1, will cut labor costs by reducing crew sizes and overtime pay, give exhibitors the right to set up their own booths and allow shows to select less expensive, outside |
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| Let Joe Ferguson Fix City’s Minority Business Program |
| Wednesday, September 1, 2010 |
| The late Harold Washington, the "people's mayor," was voted into office in 1983 after cobbling together a coalition of African-Americans and Hispanics yearning for the civil rights they had been denied, white liberals fed up with racially polarizing politics and labor unions incensed over mounting job losses. Mr. Washington's policies of inclusion gave |
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| Dividend Growth Still Rules |
| Monday, August 2, 2010 |
| As of this writing the Dow Jones Industrials average is 27% below its October 8, 2007 close of 14,093 and about 8% below its April 19, 2010 close of 11,204. The yield on the Dow stands at 2.7%. It used to be that a dividend yield below 3% signaled an oncoming bear market. The yield has not been that high since the fourth quarter of 1990, almost twenty |
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| Illinois Politicians' Refusal to Take on Pension Reform Jeopardizes Recovery |
| Thursday, July 1, 2010 |
| Pension crises in Chicago, in Illinois and in cities and states throughout the nation threaten the retirement security of public employees, investors' confidence in public securities and, ultimately, the economic recovery on which businesses, consumers, homeowners and workers are counting.
Illinois' General Assembly deserves all the heat it's feeling. |
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| Privacy, the Cost of Innovation? |
| Tuesday, June 1, 2010 |
| With the backlash against Facebook for privacy breaches, consumers, lawmakers and the media have made it clear that personal information is the hot new commodity that cannot be sold for free membership to social networking sites. The numerous news articles on Facebook's breach of its users' privacy have left Facebook backpedaling to address the seemingly |
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| Inspector General Has Potential to Crack City's Code of Silence |
| Saturday, May 1, 2010 |
| The city of Chicago's employees, shielded from retaliation by the city's whistle-blower ordinance, are under orders to report suspected misconduct by their fellow workers. Yet, too often, they don't. A recent survey commissioned by the Office of Compliance, created to oversee the city's court-ordered efforts to keep politics out of hiring, revealed that |
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| Conversion of a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA: A Simple Tradeoff of the Time Value of Money Versus an Option? |
| Thursday, April 1, 2010 |
| In 2010, tax laws governing the conversion of Traditional IRAs into Roth IRAs changed, making conversion a viable option for many high net worth individuals. As a result, many upper-income investors are currently debating whether or not they would benefit from converting some or all of their Traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs.
As an overview, funds deposited |
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| Illinois' Fiscal Crisis Demands Reform of Income Tax System |
| Monday, March 1, 2010 |
| No issue in Illinois' photo-finish primary election separated the Democratic candidates for governor from the Republicans more than the possibility of a state income tax hike. While Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes argued for higher income taxes, every Republican contender vowed to plug the state's massive budget deficit, somewhere north |
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| Tax Incentives for Donations Assisting Haiti Earthquake Victims |
| Monday, February 1, 2010 |
| By now, most of us have seen the horrific images broadcasted over the television and internet portraying the absolute devastation which has been brought upon the tiny island nation of Haiti as a result of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit the southern portion country on January 12, 2010. The earthquake has been reported as the most powerful to hit |
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| Is an Ultra-conservative Asset Mix Really the Answer to a "Fat-Tailed" World? |
| Friday, January 1, 2010 |
| In response to recent market volatility culminating with 2008's stock market debacle, many of Wall Street's top financial services firms are re-thinking the foundational mathematics upon which their risk models are based. This shift comes from the recognition that some of our most basic assumptions regarding market behavior and risk may somehow be flawed. |
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| Even Blagojevich Deserves Fair Trial on Fair Charges |
| Tuesday, December 1, 2009 |
| In three separate appeals, former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling, deposed Sun-Times boss Conrad Black and former Alaska legislator Bruce Weyhrauch, all white-collar convicts, persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of a federal statute that calls it fraud to "deprive another of the intangible right to honest services."
A ruling in |
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| NFL's Hail Mary in Antitrust Case Stands to Bruise Fans |
| Sunday, November 1, 2009 |
| After the National Football League teams' marketing affiliate awarded Reebok International Inc. the exclusive right to distribute headwear displaying the teams' names and logos, Buffalo Grove-based American Needle Inc. cried foul.
The company, which had designed and manufactured NFL-sanctioned apparel for a generation, soon will make its antitrust case |
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| Selling Your Home: New Tax Developments for 2009 |
| Thursday, October 1, 2009 |
| Most of us don't sell our homes more than once every few years. And, as it turns out, by the time you do sell your home, you may find that the tax laws relating to such sales have changed substantially from when you bought the home. While Congress hasn't done a major revision of the tax laws relating to home sales recently, there has been a recent change |
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| Higher Standards: Illinois Lowers Bar on Harassment Suits |
| Tuesday, September 1, 2009 |
| Dramatically expanding the reach of the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois Supreme Court has held that an employer is legally responsible for a supervisory employee's sexual harassment of a worker over whom the supervisor has no authority. Some employers may think the court overreached in holding them accountable for harassment by supervisors who can't |
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| Lessons to Be Learned from Canada's Banks |
| Monday, August 3, 2009 |
| Last fall it appeared as if the entire financial sector was imploding. Many of the icons of American finance either failed or had to be thrown a government lifeline just to keep from failing. The names all are familiar to us: Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, National City Corp., American International Group, Merrill Lynch, |
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| Stinginess Could Cost Non-profit Hospitals Millions in Tax Relief |
| Wednesday, July 1, 2009 |
| Non-profit hospitals across Illinois shuddered when the state's Department of Revenue rescinded the property tax exemption of Provena Covenant Medical Center in Downstate Champaign for failing to provide enough free care to the poor. The revenue department noted that Provena Covenant gave free care to only 196 of the 110,000 patients it admitted in 2002 and |
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| Estate Planning For Intellectual Property |
| Monday, June 1, 2009 |
| When planning your estate, you will probably give serious thought and consideration as to how you want your home, cars, jewelry, money and other valuable personal property transferred after your death. You may work closely with an attorney to draft sophisticated estate planning documents to ensure that your exact wishes will be carried out. However, |
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| Blago Indictment Should Spur Reform in City Government |
| Friday, May 1, 2009 |
| The reform commission recently launched by Gov. Pat Quinn has recommended sweeping legislative action to prevent future state officials from indulging in the corrupt practices with which former Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been charged. If Alderman Joe Moore (49th) gets his way, the Chicago City Council also will take a serious stand against political |
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| City Council Must Protect Chicago's Architectural Legacy |
| Wednesday, April 1, 2009 |
| Developer Albert Hanna and real estate agent Carol Mrowka, two of Chicago's most vocal property rights advocates, have won their fight on constitutional grounds to invalidate the city's 41-year-old landmark ordinance. But their victory should ultimately serve the cause of preservation.
The two argued that the ordinance's criteria for safeguarding a |
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| What's Next for Socially Responsible Investing? |
| Sunday, March 1, 2009 |
| Starting with the Quakers and other religious groups such as Wesley's Methodists in the 1700s, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) initially provided a way for investors to express their religious views. Today, SRI provides investors the opportunity to select investments for their portfolios that advance a wide range of environmental, social justice, |
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| Pension Reform a Step Toward Helping State Regain Public's Trust |
| Sunday, February 1, 2009 |
| Revelations about public corruption, government waste, official malfeasance and ballooning budget deficits have plunged Illinois into a crippling crisis of confidence.
To slash bureaucratic costs while warding off wrongdoing, state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is championing the merger of the investment duties of boards that manage retirement, survivor and |
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| Tax Planning Under the New President |
| Thursday, January 1, 2009 |
| With President-Elect Barrack Obama strolling into the New Year along the beaches of Hawaii, one has to wonder: will our own personal "tax picture" look as heavenly in 2009 and beyond? Mr. Obama campaigned on "change" and specific tax reforms. Additionally, several new tax laws have been enacted this year, the most recent one signed by President Bush on |
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| Mayor Daley's War on Climate Change Worth the Fight |
| Monday, December 1, 2008 |
| Mayor Richard M. Daley, the greenest of America's mayors, bested his peers once again when he recently unveiled a "Climate Action Plan," the first of its kind in the nation, to cut Chicago's greenhouse gases to 75% of 1990 levels between now and 2020.
The challenge is daunting: If fossil-fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions aren't significantly curbed, |
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| A Closer Look at Socially Responsible Investing? |
| Saturday, November 1, 2008 |
| Over the last year the Dow has declined about 40% with 25% of its drop occurring in October. Daily headlines have outlined concerns about how various companies were doing business and those concerns have created uncertainty in the marketplace. Investors are increasingly asking if they can trust the information they are receiving about companies and as a |
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| System of Electing Judges in Illinois Too Broke to Fix |
| Wednesday, October 1, 2008 |
| Illinois' embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his nemesis, House Speaker Michael Madigan, continue to earn voters' wrath for stymieing the legislative process. Now that newly seated American Bar Assn. President H. Thomas Wells Jr. has turned his attention to "big money and fiery rhetoric" in state judicial elections, some Illinois judges are soon likely to |
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| L3Cs Hold Key to Solving State's Social Woes |
| Monday, September 1, 2008 |
| While the State of Illinois' government is paralyzed by conflict and the City of Chicago faces a staggering $420-million budget shortfall, Illinois' infrastructure, education, pensions and health care are sadly neglected. But the social problems that challenge the state's ability to compete and sabotage its people's dreams can often find solutions outside |
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| Get Ready for the New Form 990 |
| Friday, August 1, 2008 |
| If you are an officer or director of a tax-exempt organization, or are involved in running one, get ready. The new Form 990 is coming, and it will be here sooner than you may realize.
Form 990 is the annual return which tax-exempt, not-for-profit organizations file annually to report their revenue, expenses, assets, and liabilities and describe their |
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| U of C Misguided in its Refusal to Divest from Sudan |
| Tuesday, July 1, 2008 |
| Clinging to a simplistic, Vietnam-era policy, the University of Chicago’s board of trustees is refusing to divest from companies doing business with the criminal government of Sudan. The board, stubbornly contending that divestment would stifle debate and freedom of inquiry, is dead wrong.
By some estimates, more than 400,000 people have died from violence |
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| Can You Keep a Secret? Discover the Value of Trade Secrets |
| Sunday, June 1, 2008 |
| Coca-Cola brought a federal lawsuit in 2006 against a former employee for trying to sell trade secrets to PepsiCo. The convictions of the two individuals that received an 8 year and 5 year sentence for trade secret theft were affirmed on appeal this month. According to surveys conducted for the ASIS International and Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, U.S. businesses |
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| Back Constitutional Convention to Reclaim State Government |
| Thursday, May 1, 2008 |
| The Democratic presidential candidates are one-upping each other in their promises to bring "change" to Washington. But the debate shouldn't stop there. Illinois' government is badly broken, and the power to mend it is within reach of the state's discontented voters.
The Illinois House, reflecting widespread disdain for Gov. Rod Blagojevich's |
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| Balancing the Rights of Users, Owners of Intellectual Property |
| Tuesday, April 1, 2008 |
| Federal judges in New York and Washington, D.C., will soon decide just how far intellectual property owners' rights stretch. A judicial misstep could threaten innovation both in Chicago's emerging tech sector and at its flagging media businesses.
This month, New York Federal District Judge Robert Patterson has schedulewd for tiral a shaky case filed by |
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| Tax Refunds Anyone? An Executive Summary of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 |
| Saturday, March 1, 2008 |
| With real estate prices falling and the economy pulling back, Congress wisely decided to pass legislation estimated to return $152 billion to individual and business taxpayers in the form of rebates and other tax incentives. With over 130 million Americans expected to benefit, please read on to see if you might qualify.
TAX REBATES
Sound familiar? They |
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| Court Should Side with Victim of 401(k) Mishandling |
| Friday, February 1, 2008 |
| James LaRue's nest egg is at risk not only because his retirement plan's administrator was apparently careless, but also because two courts strained the plain meaning of the federal law protecting plan participants to bar him from asserting a claim for restitution.
Along with tens of millions of private-sector employees, Mr. LaRue made regular |
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| High Court Securities Case a Threat to Shaky Capital Markets |
| Tuesday, January 1, 2008 |
| Stoneridge v. Scientific-Atlanta is the most explosive securities case to hit the U.S. Supreme Court in the last 10 years. The appeal will test the reach of federal securities laws and force the sharply divided court to decide whether corporate shareholders can sue lawyers, accountants, banks and vendors that dealt with companies alleged to have committed |
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| Putting Sub-prime Lending in Perspective |
| Saturday, December 1, 2007 |
| Without a doubt, the major financial story since this past summer has been the meltdown in the sub-prime lending market and the subsequent drop-off in housing sales and the impact on home builders and related industries. Standard & Poor's and Moody's fed the fears of a broader market sell-off by dropping the ratings of approximately $17 billion of |
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| U.S. Firms Ignore the Environment at Their Own Risk |
| Thursday, November 1, 2007 |
| The evidence is mounting that environmentally responsible companies are more profitable and deliver better investment returns. Yet most U.S. companies have been slow to adopt responsible environmental practices, yielding ground to Europe and Japan, where investor demand, competitive pressure and regulatory mandates have spurred companies to improve |
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| Policy Change Would Gut the Rights of Shareholders |
| Monday, October 1, 2007 |
| For no good reason, the Securities and Exchange Commission is mulling over a misguided change in regulatory policy that would hobble shareholders' right to file non-binding proposals on corporate governance, social and environmental issues with the companies they own.
Commissioner Paul Atkins is leading the charge against shareholders' advisory resolutions |
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| Chief Justice's Case Exposes Hidden Gap in Illinois Law |
| Saturday, September 1, 2007 |
| For the first time in the nation's history, a federal lawsuit has been filed to challenge the fairness of a personal legal action brought by a judge who controls his state's court system. The judge happens to be Illinois' highest judicial officer, and his dogged quest for vindication and recompense raises bigger questions than whether his grievance has |
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| New Legislation Includes Variety of Tax Changes |
| Wednesday, August 1, 2007 |
| Congress has sometimes been known to include in the laws it writes provisions which are not necessarily related to the main subject of the bill. This is particularly true when the bill is mainly for appropriations - the need to pay for essential government functions can help other, unrelated matters pass into law.
That's what happened in the case of the |
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| Isolationism Won't Create U.S. Jobs, Global Market Will |
| Sunday, July 1, 2007 |
| Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is under fire for attacking tariffs and quotas. He believes that curbing international trade will blunt our competitive edge in a global market, and he's right on the money. Yet Congress and President George W. Bush, a free-trader, face enormous political pressure to protect American manufacturers and workers from |
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| Pay Referendum Can Drive Value for Shareholders |
| Friday, June 1, 2007 |
| Corporate shareholders should soon have the legal right to weigh in on the compensation packages public companies award their top executives. "Say on pay" would tamp down executive greed and force directors to link pay to performance.
Although Mercer Human Resource Consulting's annual study of CEO compensation reported the encouraging news that more than |
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| Make Your Website an Asset and Not a Liability |
| Tuesday, May 1, 2007 |
| Web site templates and inexpensive domain names have allowed individuals and companies of all sizes to own web sites. The sites serve as creative outlets and advertising tools, and they provide access to an audience of virtually unlimited size. However, along with these benefits come significant legal risks. All web site owners should be aware of these |
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| Partisan Pandering Stifles Innovation, Entrepreneurship |
| Sunday, April 1, 2007 |
| Illinois should lead the nation in entrepreneurship and innovation. But it doesn't, and partisan bickering in Springfield and Washington helps explain why. The state is a great trading center, a master builder of financial markets, the site of federal research labs and a powerhouse of professional talent. Yet Illinois lags 20 states in the Small Business |
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| Smart Businesses See Value, and Profit, in Promoting Women |
| Thursday, March 1, 2007 |
| The pace at which women are invited into the city's boardrooms and executive suites remains sluggish at best. Until that changes, corporate Chicago is denying itself the talent pool it needs to compete effectively, role models who can lure and retain the best employees and the informed judgment that comes only from the airing of diverse perspectives.
My |
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| Dialing into Savings: Don't Miss a One-Time Refund On Your 2006 Tax Return |
| Thursday, February 1, 2007 |
| For over a century, the federal government has been collecting a tax designed to pay the cost of a war that lasted 113 days. However, this year individual and corporate taxpayers will have a one-time opportunity to receive a refund for payment of the federal telephone excise tax. Taxpayers will be able to claim a telephone tax credit on their 2006 federal |
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| Tax Exemptions for Religion Break Against Business |
| Monday, January 1, 2007 |
| In the Bill of Rights, James Madison and his brethren wisely proclaimed religious freedom and tolerance. Congress followed through by exempting religious organizations from federal income tax and delimiting the IRS' authority to audit religious congregations. But today, religious organizations escape tax charges other non-profits face, exploiting the |
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| Life Cycle Funds: A New Alternative for Retirement Planning |
| Friday, December 1, 2006 |
| One of the hottest new trends in asset allocation for retirement planning involves so-called "life cycle" funds. Basically, a life cycle fund is a mutual fund through which an investor plans for retirement by choosing a target retirement date and the asset allocation automatically changes annually based on that date.
For example, an investor might choose |
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| Shareholder Democracy Finally in Sight, if SEC Does the Right Thing |
| Wednesday, November 1, 2006 |
| Corporate shareholders are poised to reclaim their authority over the boardroom. Within months, they may be able to elect directors who are answerable to them, without bankrolling an expensive proxy contest against management's hand-picked candidates. And the spurious practice of permitting shareholders only to withhold support from incompetent or |
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| U.S. House Mulling State-Funded Corporate Tax Boondoggle |
| Sunday, October 1, 2006 |
| The U.S. House of Representatives will soon consider looting state government treasuries to enrich national businesses adept at dodging taxes.
If the Business Activity Tax Simplification Act is enacted, state and local governments would no longer collect corporate income taxes and other levies tied to sales from out-of-state businesses, or taxes on |
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| Pension Protection Act Creates New Opportunities |
| Friday, September 1, 2006 |
| A new Federal law, signed into law with little fanfare last month, has created new opportunities for retirement plan participants, individual retirement account owners, and their beneficiaries, while also having an impact on charitable organizations. The law, known as the Pension Protection Act of 2006, includes a variety of provisions, with some of the |
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| Give Shareholders Vote to Improve Returns, Board Performance |
| Tuesday, August 1, 2006 |
| As proxy season winds down, the shareholders of some of Chicago's biggest companies remain disenfranchised. Most directors are still retained or elected under an arcane "plurality" vote standard, grudgingly allowing shareholders to withhold their support from incompetent or even crooked directors — but never to oust them.
And most directors, often |
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| Realize and Maximize Your Trademarks and Copyrights |
| Saturday, July 1, 2006 |
| Trademarks and copyrights are making headlines. Dan Brown defended the copyright in his popular book The Da Vinci Code in United States and London courts. Owners of the small town ice cream shop "Krispy Kream" defended their trademark rights in their company name against donut giant Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. Owners of the Kentucky store "Victor's Little |
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| Corporate Boards Feel Shareholder Heat |
| Thursday, June 1, 2006 |
| The business textbooks say that shareholders control the company they own. Each share gets a vote and together the shareholders select directors who run the company for their benefit. But "one share, one vote" is a myth.
In most companies, shareholders can either vote for management's hand-picked slate of directors or withhold their votes. Either way, |
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| April 15, 2006 is the Time to Start Planning for Next Year's Tax Deadline. |
| Monday, May 1, 2006 |
| You have just finished filing your 2005 tax return. And, if you are like most people, you vow to be more prepared next year. The following is a summary of the most important tax developments that have occurred in the past three months of 2006 that may affect you, your family, your investments, and your livelihood.
Energy-efficient home improvements tax |
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| Why Choose a Professional to Manage Your Assets? The Answer - DISCIPLINE |
| Saturday, April 1, 2006 |
| In recent years, professional asset managers have enjoyed a renewed sense of credibility. Gone are the days when individual investors could simply buy any company’s stock with a dot-com suffix and the mere promise of “future” earnings, and expect double - or triple - digit gains. Add to that individual investors’ tendency to let emotions drive their |
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| Investors Advocating for a Change? |
| Wednesday, March 1, 2006 |
| Socially responsible individuals and institutions seeking to realize competitive profits on their investments need not sacrifice their core values to do so. And investment advisors who shrug off their fiduciary duty to give voice to their clients' values sell their clients short.
Both in the boardroom and in society at large, socially responsible investing |
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| Develop Your Invesment Game Plan |
| Wednesday, February 1, 2006 |
| The savvy investor doesn’t panic when markets inevitably correct. He’s not euphoric when a hot stock he owns delivers triple-digit returns. And, he’s never frozen with indecision.
The successful investor conquers emotions. As the stock market gains momentum, he checks his optimism before it turns to greed. And once the market peaks, he has no reason to |
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| Online Businesses vs. Storefront Retailers - Who Has to Collect Sales Tax From its Customers? |
| Sunday, January 1, 2006 |
| Thinking about selling your product online? Don’t forget to collect sales tax from your buyers. Online businesses are just as liable as storefront retailers for collection of local and state sales taxes as long as they have “nexus” in that state. Both storefront and Internet retailers generally have a nexus in states other than their home states if they |
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| Tax Relief Opportunities Have Been Created in Reaction to Hurricane |
| Thursday, December 1, 2005 |
| Individuals with a mind toward making charitable contributions to reduce their tax liability should be aware that Congress has made increased tax deductions available for the rest of the year 2005 only - and, depending on your income and the charitable contributions you are making, your potential tax deductions could be much higher than usual this year.
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| The Latest Twist in Retirement Planning |
| Tuesday, November 1, 2005 |
| How much money will I have in my retirement portfolio when I retire? Will I have enough money to maintain my desired lifestyle? When can I afford to retire? How much money will I get from Social Security? Will I need to work part-time? Can I retire and still send my children to college? How do I budget for unanticipated outlays, such as a major illness? As |
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| Profiting from Principled Investing |
| Saturday, October 1, 2005 |
| Socially responsible investors may salve their consciences by declining to buy tobacco stocks or to fund the war machine, or by steering clear of other businesses they find objectionable. Fearing that screening out whole industries might sabotage their investment returns, however, they may hold their noses and honor the guiding principle of Modern Portfolio |
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| Determining the True Value in Your Brokerage Account |
| Thursday, September 1, 2005 |
| There's an old quip that goes like this: "There's no product or service in this world that someone else can't make a little bit cheaper and at a lot lower quality and those who consider price as the only factor when they buy are this person's legitimate prey." This quote may be one hundred years old yet it is as valid today as it was years ago. We would |
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| Managing Risk in Bond Portfolios Through Laddering |
| Monday, August 1, 2005 |
| Bond investors have a lot to think about whether they are simply rolling over CDs at a local bank or trying to actively manage a bond portfolio. Inflation rates, the direction of interest rates, credit quality, maturity and its cousin, duration, as well as trading costs are the most obvious concerns.
The impact of rising interest rates and inflation on |
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| Life Settlements Can Provide You with Lifetime Benefits from Your Own Life Insurance Policy |
| Friday, July 1, 2005 |
| Despite the benefits of having life insurance, in some circumstances you may find that it would be better to receive a settlement of your insurance policy during your lifetime rather than leave the proceeds of your insurance to your beneficiaries after your death. You should consider receiving a settlement of your life insurance policy if any of the |
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| REPEAL OF THE ESTATE TAX - - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY |
| Wednesday, June 1, 2005 |
| On April 16, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 8, the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005. This bill would repeal the Federal estate tax permanently, effective in 2010. (Under current law, the estate tax is scheduled to be eliminated for one year only, as to decedents who die in the year 2010, but the tax is scheduled to be reinstated as to |
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| Supreme Court Ruling Confirms Greater Burden on Investor-Plantiffs in Fraud Suits |
| Sunday, May 1, 2005 |
| Recent Wall Street accounting scandals launched a wave of lawsuits by investors alleging corporate fraud as a result of purchasing stock at "inflated" prices. One appellate court decision significantly lowered the burden for plaintiffs to prove their cases by eliminating the need to show a causal link between the company's action and losses suffered by the |
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| Wishful Thinking: Do I Really Need a Power of Attorney? |
| Friday, April 1, 2005 |
| The Need Is Here, The Time Is Now The recent federal and state court battles concerning the controversial, gut-wrenching case of Terri Schiavo have many people thinking about the need for a living will and other advance directives. Yet some people are still wondering if they really need a power of attorney. Can't they just tell their spouse and family |
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| Delaware Series Limited Liability Companies: A New Approach To An Old Probblem |
| Tuesday, March 1, 2005 |
| Although the United States comprises only about five percent of the world's population, it has been estimated that the U.S. is home to nearly three-quarters of the globe's litigation. Over the years, entrepreneurs have sought ways to protect their personal assets from the risks associated with their business enterprises.
For more than a century, the |
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| ERISA Section 404(c): Shifting Liability in Participant-Directed Profit Retirement Plans |
| Tuesday, February 1, 2005 |
| Employer sponsors of defined contribution plans have traditionally created goodwill and improved employee morale by offering profit sharing and retirement savings programs. In the wake of some of the more recent stock market scandals, these plans have also created something more for employers; liability. However, some relief has arrived in the form of |
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| 'TIS THE SEASON: A Flurry of Recent Tax Developments |
| Saturday, January 1, 2005 |
| Beginning in October, 2004, and extending into 2005, new federal tax laws, regulations and rulings impact a broad variety of taxpayers.
The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 and the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004 contain comprehensive legislation affecting your personal and corporate tax concerns, including the following:
Selected Personal Tax |
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| Illinois Takes Another Look at Estate Taxes, But Many States Just Go with the Flow |
| Wednesday, December 1, 2004 |
| If one thing is certain about estate tax laws, it's that we can expect them to change frequently. We've seen this particularly since Congress passed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (the "2001 Tax Act").
The 2001 Tax Act not only reduced rates of tax imposed on decedents' estates, but also increased the exclusion amount (the |
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| Multiple Class Diversification May Be Just What Your Stock Portfolio Needs! |
| Monday, November 1, 2004 |
| Most high net-worth investors understand the virtues of strategic asset allocation. This process involves setting specific target ranges for general asset classes (stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents). Then, as market movement pushes sector exposure beyond target limits, sector exposure is either trimmed back or increased.
Doing so effectively reallocates |
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| Municipal Bond Investing Becomes User-Friendly |
| Friday, October 1, 2004 |
| Many investors are mystified by the difference between the way common stocks and bonds are traded.
Most are certainly aware of the two major stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ over-the-counter market. Orders for stocks are placed on a computer terminal and an execution usually happens within moments.
Placing an order for a bond, |
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| CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: IT'S NOT JUST FOR THE "FOR PROFIT SECTOR" ANYMORE |
| Wednesday, September 1, 2004 |
| Tax Exempt Organizations Come Under The Microscope
The movement towards instituting new organizational oversight and corporate governance to prevent abuses revealed by recent scandals has largely focused on the for-profit sector. However, attention has recently shifted in the direction of the not-for-profit corporate boardroom.
In June the Senate |
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| Introduction to Advocacy InvestingSM |
| Sunday, August 1, 2004 |
| The socially responsible (or perhaps more accurately --- "principle-focused" --- since who, after all, decides what is "responsible?") segment of the total U.S. investment pool is very significant: it is estimated that today it constitutes nearly $2 trillion of the entire $19.2 trillion in investment assets under professional management by major |
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| Corporate Governance and the 2004 Proxy Season |
| Thursday, July 1, 2004 |
| As the first half of the 2004 proxy season comes to an end, investors have noticed a recurring theme --- Corporate Governance.
With the Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and Martha Stewart scandals dominating business headlines over the past two years, investors are paying a significantly higher level of attention to corporate governance.
In past years, proxy |
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| See Spot Smile: Pet Trusts Gain in Popularity |
| Tuesday, June 1, 2004 |
| More than one-third of the states (and now including Illinois) allow pet owners to provide directly for their pets should they become unable to do so, either during the owner's lifetime or after the owner's death. For many pet owners, the legislation enacting "pet trusts" has been long-awaited. According to some estimates, more than 500,000 pets are |
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| Deduct Most Medical Care Costs with a Self-Insured Medical Plan |
| Saturday, May 1, 2004 |
| There's an enormous new tax opportunity employers ought to know about. It's called a "Healthcare Reimbursement Arrangement," or an "HRA," and it's an exciting - - and terrifically tax-advantaged - - self-insured medical reimbursement plan.
A self-insured medical reimbursement plan reimburses employees for "qualified health care expenses." Qualified health |
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| With More Audits Coming, Watch Out for Tax Scams |
| Thursday, April 1, 2004 |
| The number of audits that the IRS conducts varies from year to year. It's been reported that in the mid-1990s, 1.2 million audits were conducted each year. Under pressure from Congress to improve customer service, the IRS reduced the number of annual audits for a while. Now, however, enforcement activity is on the rise again. While just under 850,000 audits |
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| ICANN Governance Needs Overhaul |
| Monday, March 1, 2004 |
| Last fall, the U.S. Department of Commerce cut a controversial three-year, no-bid deal with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an oh-so-powerful nonprofit organization answerable to no one, to continue managing the domain name system for Web site addresses including the world's most popular extensions, .com, .net and .org. When |
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| Beware Bubble II |
| Sunday, February 1, 2004 |
| A line from a favorite old song by Don Henley goes, "We all know that crap is king, gimme dirty laundry." That song, which took direct aim at television news journalism and its personalities more than twenty years ago, could just as readily be applied to the lead performers of the stock market in 2003. The Nasdaq 100, heavily weighted in technology stocks |
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| It's Time for Your Financial Check-up! Physician, Heal Thyself |
| Thursday, January 1, 2004 |
| It's the start of a new year and an excellent time to reevaluate your financial objectives and strategy. With the Standard and Poors 500 Index up 28.7% in 2003, investors should take a few moments to tally up their holdings in each of the various asset classes and see where they stand relative to their sector targets and overall objectives. With stocks |
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| Mutual Fun in Mutual Funds? Fuhgeddaboudit!!!.....Some Thoughts at Year-end. |
| Monday, December 1, 2003 |
| The August 2003 Lane Report discussed the misdeeds of various players including Wall Street brokerage firms, banks, other corporations, and individuals. It also pointed out some constructive actions being taken to deal with those situations, including punishment of those involved.
However, in just the last two months, another entire scandal has broken, |
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| How Callable CDs Can Enhance Your Portfolio's Investment Yield |
| Saturday, November 1, 2003 |
| Last month's decline in the ten-year Treasury yield to 3.93% was self-limiting, because the drop ensures that the economic recovery will persist. Treasuries have been on a wild ride this year: yields melted to deeply overvalued levels (3.07%) this past June when deflation fears erupted, then suffered a record-breaking sell-off into August (4.66%) when the |
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| Why the Estate Tax Might Never Die |
| Wednesday, October 1, 2003 |
| The California budget debacle which precipitated the upcoming recall election of Governor Gray Davis accentuates the financial woes of other states without surf and sun. In 2001, the Federal government eliminated a large source of state revenue when it enacted the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act ("EGTRRA"). Specifically, the Feds reduced |
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| "Solo" 401(k) Plans Offer Big Tax Deductions: Tax-Deferred Investing to the Max |
| Monday, September 1, 2003 |
| Major changes to the tax laws now allow small business owners to establish 401(k) plans more easily than ever before, and benefit from bigger 401(k) plan deductions than they've ever seen.
These 401(k) plans have been dubbed "solo" 401(k) plans because of the new rules' popularity among single-owner businesses. Yet, it is possible to have more than one |
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