iPhone Personal Assistant… This Could Be Cool.

Imagine this

You just came out from the movies and its raining. Youre in a strange city and you dont know where to get a cab. Theres no need to fear Siri is here. Open up your iPhone click on Siri and say Siri I need a cab. Siri asks where you are and sends a cab directly to you. DONE

Sound too good to be true? Maybe not!

Siri is a new service which isnt even launched yet, but has the potential to be something huge. Your own Virtual Personal Assistant. Just the sound of it sounds amazing. Get dinner reservations, find out the weather, get a cab, and a variety of other uses not yet revealed yet.

Keep an eye on this, its supposed to launch this summer. Heree the offical website. http://www.Siri.com

Tax Hike News – Here Are The Details. Hold Your Breath…

Thanks to Mike Butler for having his accountant verify this and giving it to me so I could give it to you.

Partial Tax Law Update for Real Estate Professionals

In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.

They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:

First Wave:

Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.

These tax cuts are all scheduled to expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise.

The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.

All the rates in between will also rise.

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).

Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will be phased out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates.

The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%

- The 25% bracket rises to 28%

- The 28% bracket rises to 31%

- The 33% bracket rises to 36%

- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family.

The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.

The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax.

For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate.

Higher tax rates on RETIREES, Savers and Investors.

The capital gains tax on investment income will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011.

The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011.

These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave:

Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare.

Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011.

They include:

The ?Medicine Cabinet Tax?

Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The ?Special Needs Kids Tax?

This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Under tax rules, FSA dollars cannot be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike.

This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent.

Third Wave:

The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they?ll be in for a nasty surprise?many AMT tax relief provisions will have expired.

The major items include:

The AMT will now apply to over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.

These families will have to pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or depreciate?) equipment purchases up to $250,000.

This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be ?depreciated.?

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.

There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the ?research and experimentation tax credit,? but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.

The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.

Tax credits for education will be limited.

Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

Education Savings Accounts will be cut.

Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.

The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs are no longer allowed.

Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual ?required minimum distribution.? This ability will no longer be there.

PDF Version Read more:

http://www.atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171#%23ixzz0sY8waPq1

Now your insurance is INCOME on your W2’s……

One of the surprises we’ll find come next year, is what follows – - a little “surprise” that 99% of us had no idea was included in the “new and improved” healthcare legislation

Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company.

You will now be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen.

Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your Tax debt. That’s what you’ll pay next year. For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it’s even worse.

This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the 15% that don’t have insurance and it’s only part of the tax increases.

Mike Grinnan CPA with McCauley Nicolas and Co. has reviewed the above information at my request, and said all of this is TRUE.

I also asked him If I can disseminate this information to real estate professionals, his answer is YES.

PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT a complete Tax Update. Mike’s attorney reviewed and said it is true.

There are many other changes and updates in addition to these.

How Will This Affect You?? Leave a comment.

Locating Assets – Judgment Recovery

Without question, the biggest obstacle for most civil judgment holders will be their inability to locate the assets of the judgment debtor (the judgment debtor owes the money). It goes without saying: if you can’t find it, you can’t seize it!

I can imagine you’re thinking… “But what’s an asset?”

An ‘asset‘ is an item of value owned by an individual or business.

Assets that can be quickly converted into cash are considered ‘liquid assets.’ Other assets include real estate, personal property, and other items that can be sold. Before proceeding with the ‘where,’ we should probably cover the ‘what.’ That is, what assets can you seize? Don’t be afraid to get very creative when it comes to the ‘what.’

Here is a list of some of the assets that are usually not exempt; which means you can seize them through the court to satisfy a judgment:

• House/real estate, cash,
• rental income,
• business income/equipment/inventory,
• vehicles (cars, trucks, RVs, boats, snowmobiles, motorcycles, etc),
• money deposited into checking or savings accounts, wages (25% in most states),
• stocks/bonds/mutual funds, annuities/lottery payments,
• royalties, inheritances, personal property (jewelry, heirlooms, furniture, collections, firearms, etc),
• business accounts receivable,
• livestock,
• crops,
• security deposits,
• property belonging to the debtor held by someone else,
• judgments or other debts owed to your debtor,
• and – all of the above belonging to the debtor’s SPOUSE (in community property states).

Basically, if it’s not exempt – it’s fair game!

There are some assets that will be considered exempt, or at least a portion of those assets will be exempt from the enforcement of a civil judgment. Exemptions for certain types of assets are provided under state and federal law. These exemptions were created to protect debtors from losing so much that he or she can’t start over, or live with basic necessities. Each state’s civil code will specifically outline what is considered exempt from enforcement.

Typically, common exemptions include:

• Life insurance,
• health and disability income,
• welfare,
• social security income,
• 401(k) benefits,
• insurance benefits,
• unemployment insurance,
• workman’s compensation,
• retirement benefits,
• and child/spousal support.

Some assets, like an automobile or a house provide for a certain amount of the equity in that asset as exempt.

There are many ways to locate the judgment debtor and his/her assets. In judgment recovery circles this is called ‘skiptracing.’

Obviously, since this is just a newsletter article, I don’t have nearly enough room to elaborate on all the myriad sources of information at your disposal – particularly when it comes to public records. Suffice it to say that these days, most skiptracing can be conducted online using the information available in public records and online databases, but your most valuable asset location tools will be private consumer records.

Private consumer information would include full consumer credit reports, banking detail reports and other data that is not readily available to the general public. You’ll have access to private consumer information once you’ve obtained an assignment of judgment. Once the judgment is assigned, you will then legally become the judgment creditor and the owner of the judgment. You will have every right to obtain consumer credit history and other critical financial information about your judgment debtor.

Anyone who has ever applied for financing, opened an account for utilities, has a credit card, applied for or opened a checking or savings account, or has accumulated bad debt – essentially everyone – will leave a paper trail. These reports will reveal much about your debtor including current and former employers, bank accounts (sometimes even including check orders), driver’s license numbers, telephone numbers, current and former addresses, aliases, social security number, date of birth, bankruptcies, collection efforts, other creditors, as well as a list of anyone who’s inquired into the subject’s credit history.

Think about the last time you applied for credit. Did you notice the tiny disclaimer at the bottom of the application, the one just under your signature? When signing this application, you gave permission to your creditor to share information about you with other creditors. As a judgment creditor, you have a legal right to discuss your debtor with these other creditors.

Which brings me to the incredible power of court ordered subpoenas.

A subpoena can be issued from the court to legally compel judgment debtors – as well as other creditors listed on a credit report – to provide you with information and specific documents relevant to the disclosure of the debtor’s assets. Think: paycheck stubs, bank account statements – or coming from the other direction credit applications. You get the idea.

Aside from the obvious benefit of several free and fee-based databases that are available on the Internet, don’t discount the amount of information you may be able to obtain about your subject by using a search engine (like Google). Did your subject make the local news in the hometown paper lately? Maybe the new company they’re working for posted a press release about the new hire.

Perhaps they have a website for business or general family purposes. They may even be listed on the minutes of the local PTA meeting. Do they have a MySpace or Face Book page? It seems like everyone does these days, and it’s amazing how much personal information people share on those sites! Much of this information can be found on the Internet and sometimes it will help you locate a subject when nothing else works.

If you don’t have time to do your own asset location there are several companies that you can outsource the work to for a fee.

These fees will be reimbursable to you off the top of what you are able to collect. Outsourced searches for banking information and/or employment information are almost always provided on either a ‘no hit – no fee’ basis, meaning that if no information is found then there is no cost to you. A few of these companies will charge a nominal ‘no-hit’ fee if they’re unable to locate any information about your subject.

I have provided information about several of these companies and resources in my home study training and my quick start courses. You can check out the quick start guide by going here: htpp://misunviersity.com/newbooks

I hope that this has helped to paint a bigger picture into the scope and range of information at the disposal of a judgment recovery professional. As always, I welcome your questions.

Freddie and Fannie won’t pay down your mortgage

The two largest owners of mortgages will not lower the principal on the loans they back thats a clear message for all those troubled homeowners. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are controlled by the federal government, will not lower the principal on the loans they back, instead opting for interest rate reductions and term extensions when modifying loans. But their stance is out of synch with the Obama administration, which is seeking to expand the use of principal writedowns. In late March, it announced servicers will be required to consider lowering balances in loan modifications. Asked whether they will implement balance reductions, the companies and their regulator declined to comment.

The Treasury Department also declined to comment. What’s holding them back is the companies’ mandate to conserve their assets and limit their need for taxpayer-funded cash infusions, experts said. If Fannie and Freddie lower homeowners’ loan balances, they are locking in losses because they have to write down the value of those mortgages. Essentially, that means using tax dollars to pay people’s mortgages. Between them, they have received $127 billion — and recently requested another $19 billion — from the Treasury Department since they were placed into conservatorship in September 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. Treasury and the companies have already set aside $75 billion for foreclosure prevention, which can be spent on interest-rate reductions or principal write downs. Meanwhile, a growing number of loans backed by Fannie and Freddie are falling into default.

PLUS: Look what Diana Olick said:

Diana Olick Banks Ignore Delinquent Borrowers

Some encouraging signs on the foreclosure front may not be as rosy as some are reporting. RealtyTrac, the online foreclosure sale site, shows a 9 percent dip in the number of properties with foreclosure filings in April, month-to-month. The driver of that dip is a big drop in new notices of default. The final stage of foreclosure is bank repossessions (REO) shot up to a new record high, up 45 percent from a year ago. When I first read the report I thought, okay, we knew there was a big pipeline of loans that would not get modified and would have to come out the end at some point; now is that point. The fact that fewer loans are going into the pipeline should be our focus, and that’s a positive. That’s what I thought until I interviewed RealtyTrac’s Rick Sharga. “People are sitting in their houses not paying their mortgages, and the banks are letting those delinquencies extend longer and longer periods of time before they put them in foreclosure,” Sharga told me. That, he adds, is the main reason we’re seeing lower numbers of new defaults. The borrowers are in default, but the banks aren’t paying attention, so they don’t show up in the numbers.

“The fact that we have six to six and a half million loans that are either seriously delinquent or in foreclosure also suggests we are not nearly out of the woods. If we just started to absorb that inventory at the pace we’re currently seeing new foreclosure proceedings we have about a 50 to 55 month supply of loans that yet have yet to be processed, so we have a way to go before we are out of the mess,” he added. Sharga makes a compelling point. A lot of folks are either falling out of the trial modification period or not qualifying in the first place, and those loans are moving quickly to bank repossession. California-based mortgage analyst Mark Hanson adds perspective with a look at “cancelled foreclosures.” These are not tracked by RealtyTrac, but they “bite right out of Notices of Default and foreclosures, so to get a real idea of how ‘credit’ is doing, you have to add a certain percentage back.” That’s because Hanson believes the redefault rate on these modifications will be at the very least 50 percent 6-19 months out.

What are your thoughts about this?

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