2008 Best Tax Tips

By Lucky BizKit

Your Business? Or Your Hobby?

A scholar of “H & R Block Tax Preparation School” and a long time “Writer” I learned the difference, which if shared with others might save costly mistakes made by the innocent.

That small enterprise you have going in your guest bedroom could save you from paying quite a few dollars. That’s a happy thought by most of us this time of year.

Before you lower your pay table next Tuesday, April 15, beware taking a batch of deductions without knowing you have legitimate business deductions you are legally entitled to.

The key to claiming ‘small business deductions’ is to be assured your venture is an actual business.

Emailing “Send this to 18 friends before the moon rises to guarantee good fortune coming your way,” chain letters are not a business.

No pyramid scheme qualifies as a business anybody should be involved in.

That “Fruit of The Month” from the back yard that your family terms a “gifting club” isn’t a business.

Those quilts, no matter how beautiful, that don’t begin to measure up to some offered at Farmers Markets, the two you sold to your mother-in-law, a business? No. Sorry.

You are getting the idea now, right?

IRS rules are clear, they go like this:

* Was time and effort you put into the activity indicate that it was intended to make a profit?
* Did you the taxpayer in some way depend on income from the effort?
* Do you have knowledge and/or advisory skills to have a shot at making it a financially successful venture?
* Have you profited by similar ventures in the past?
* Will your activity make a profit during some years?
* Do you realistically anticipate a profit in the future from the use of assets acquired to perform this activity?

Across the board, in plain talk, the IRS expects you to make some profit during at least three of the past five tax years in order for them to consider your activity a “business” venture.
What does the IRS not like about iffy ventures?
Well, business loss write-offs, related to a taxpayer’s participation in multi-level marketing companies.
Research shows that more than 90% of people who participate in these ventures, lose.
If not today, you can bet future IRS deduction allowances of such ventures are seriously in question.

To stay on the safe side, be cautious you aren’t solicited by people who tell you wealth is almost at hand and trying to maintain it will be a “tax advantage”. These schemes turn up on the net every day.

More on the basics of “Is it a hobby or a business” can be found on the IRS website.
1. http://www.irs.gov/

For you who get too busy to file by Tuesday, automatic extension forms can also be acquired there.

Good Luck.

“Top 10 Hottest 2008 “Good Luck’ Symbols”

By Lucky BizKit

With the beginning of a New Year looming, many are already searching
for ways to make it better than 2007.

After giving up on New Year’s resolutions that fall short by noon on
Jan. 1, Americans now alter their one-day improvement plans to
include the charmed life of the Lucky.

TOP MOST POPULAR GOOD LUCK ICONS OF ALL (JW RESEARCH)

1. RABBIT FEET

2. ANGELS

3. FOUR LEAF CLOVERS

4. ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTIONS

5. NUMBER 7

6. SCARAB BEETLES

7. PET PHOTOS

8. LADY BUGS

9. CARVED JADE “LUCK AMULETS”

10. WISH BOXES

An ever larger number of us extend the better-life time line, across
the entire coming 365 days. By taking a page from the rest of the
world, Americans are, like never before, turning to the power of
Luck.

MOST FAVORED BY WOMEN

1. FOUR LEAF CLOVERS

2. LADY BUGS

3. ANGELS

4. CHARM BRACELETS

5. CATHOLIC SAINTS

6. PET MEMENTOES

7. CARVED “LUCK SYMBOL”

8. MEMORY/WISH BOXES

9. TRIP SOUVENIRS

10. LUCK OILS

It has long been a tradition to rely on Scottish New Year
celebrations dating back to ancient pagan times. Hogmanay is a
tradition that includes fireworks and torch-lit processions,
believed to be good luck, shortbread or whisky, after midnight
chimes, everyone sings “Auld Lang Syne.”

MEN’S CHOICES

1. LUCKY COINS

2. 4 LEAF CLOVERS

3. HORSE SHOES

4. BUDDHAS

5. TREASURE MAPS

6. NUMBER 13

7. SPECIAL WALLETS

8. JADE ELEPHANTS

9. COFFIN NAILS

10. EVIL EYE CURIOS

Usokae Japan has the Bullfinch Exchange Festival in Dazaifu, Fukuoka
Prefecture. “Good Luck” gilded wood bullfinches, mixed among many
plain ones, are sought after by the throngs as priests of the
Dazaifu Shrine pass them out in the dim light of a small bonfire.
(Bullfinch - two groups of passerine birds).

People who seek better luck for the next year exchange their old
wooden carved bullfinch, called Uso, for the luckier new year’s
model.

YES, EVEN CHILDREN BELIEVE IN LUCK, THEIR FAVS

1. FAVORITE TOYS

2. FRIENDS

3. An iPOD TUNE

4. CRAYOLA SET

5. ROCK

6. ANGELS

7. PETS

8. RAINBOWS

9. ART CLASS PROJECTS

10. FAVORITE AUNTS
Native American children of all ages prize the Medicine Wheel as
Good Luck. Native basic colors, Red, Yellow, Black, and White. It
has a plus-sign (+) center frame representing all nations, unity.

It’s a major player when Indian families smoke themselves at a New
Year ceremony. The family elder, ideally grandfather, places a
container of hot coals in the center of the family.

Then the elder sprinkles (round) cedar from his medicine bag on the
coal to create dark smoke. With an eagle-feather fan he forces smoke
over his family as he prays in the tribe’s traditional language,
often “Otoemissouria”. This is to cleanse the family of all bad,
allowing them to let go of the past, move on to make the best life
possible.

Newsblaze.com is interested in your New Year tradition to promote
Good Luck. Please share yours with us, the best of the New Year Wins
a terrific, official News Blaze T-shirt in the size of your choice.

Tell your friends. If they win, we’ll send you a shirt as well.

New Year Competition

Send details of your New Year tradition to promote Good Luck - to
NewsBlaze. The best three - as chosen by a panel will receive a
NewsBlaze T-shirt.

Send email to

NewsBlaze New Year Tradition

competition@newsblaze.com stating your name and city and Good
Luck tradition or idea.