US Financial News

Consumers plan to spend more on Christmas this year than they planned to spend at this time one year ago, Gallup said in a recent report.

Not only do American consumers plan to spend 7 percent more this year on Christmas than last – $764 compared with $714 – but they plan to spend more than $100 more than what they estimated at this time of year in both 2008 and 2009, Gallup said.

Gallup surveyed consumers from November 3-6, 2011 and reached the $764 average estimate. Just one month earlier, consumers estimated a $712 spend.

The $50 increase in estimated spend year-over-year could lead to a bump in holiday sales in the neighborhood of 3 to 4 percent, Gallup said, as the estimates recorded by this yearly survey often translate into similar results on the retail sales side.

For example, last year (November 2010), consumers estimated spending 12 percent more than the previous November (2009). These estimations coincided with a 5.2 percent jump in holiday retail sales.

On the flipside, Gallup recorded a huge 29 percent decrease in estimated spending from November 2007 to November 2008. The

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| Tags: Consumers Plan, Spend
Posted November 27, 2011 by Hanna Silver under Global Finance

A United Kingdom (UK) investigations team from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is set to begin a countrywide sweep to locate and fine or prosecute British citizens who own property overseas yet are not declaring it on their taxes. The firm is expected to exercise treaties between the UK and other European countries to obtain records, and anyone who owns property abroad is advised to come forward now to avoid more severe penalties. The HMRC has created a specialized team called the Offshore Coordination Unit that will be scouring public records and foreign paper trails in an effort to uncover tax cheats.  For more on this continue reading the following article from Property Wire. British people who own properties overseas which they have not yet disclosed to the UK taxman should put their affairs in order now, according to a tax specialist. The warning from tax expert Peter Howarth follows the launch of a new investigations team by HM Revenue & Customs to track down people who own land and property abroad by data mining publicly available records. Howarth, who advises many expats and overseas property owners, says this latest development is one of a number of trends conspiring to catch out those who have undisclosed assets. Read more…

| Tags: Property, Tough Property
Posted November 26, 2011 by Oliver Blake under Financial News

We never think that the very impressive man or woman describing a promising investment is really an investment criminal trying to steal our assets. Our brains are wired such that the thought doesn’t occur to us. But, even if you are fully aware of the very real danger from folks who don’t “seem” dangerous at all, you are prone to believe that the battle is a game of one-on-one; that you’d never get more than one person to agree to be part of something so dastardly.  Unfortunately, history has shown us otherwise, as has a recent story arising from the biggest investment fraud in history. According to a press release from the SEC:

The SEC alleges that David Kugel, who worked at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BMIS) for nearly four decades, was asked by Madoff to provide the firm’s investment advisory operations with backdated arbitrage trade information to be formulated into fictitious trading on investors’ account statements. Kugel’s own ac

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| Posted November 25, 2011 by John Wane under Financial Guru

Years ago, I found myself sitting in law school in Moot Court wearing an oversized itchy blue suit. It was a horrible experience. In a desperate attempt to avoid anything like that in the future I enrolled in a tax course. I loved it. I signed up for another. Before I knew it, in addition to my JD, I had a LL.M Taxation. I needed only to don my cape…. taxgirl® was born. Today, I live and work in Philadelphia, PA, one of the best cities in the world . I landed in the City of Brotherly Love by way of Temple University School of Law. While at law school, I interned at the estates attorney division of the IRS. At IRS, I participated in the review and audit of federal estate tax returns. I even took the lead on a successful audit. At audit, opposing counsel read my report, looked at his file and said, “Gentleman, she’s exactly right.” I nearly fainted. It was a short jump from there to practicing, teaching, writing and breathing tax.

| Posted November 19, 2011 by Hanna Silver under Global Finance

Have you become a victim of identity theft or identity fraud?  If so, you are not alone; nearly 1 in 10 Americans have felt the stab of identity victimization.  Even if you are fortunate enough to have escaped the first-hand knowledge of the consequences of having your bank accounts ripped off and your social security number compromised, you should still be concerned.

Identity theft and fraud is big business both at home and abroad.  If it was to be compared to legitimate business enterprises, you would rank it right up there with Microsoft and Amazon.  Identity theft is responsible for the ill-gotten transfer of monies from big corporations to the hands of small and big time crooks in the amount of $31 billion annually, and that’s just fraud scams that affect US companies.  If international business losses are taken into account as well, the number jumps up to over $221 billion dollars.

If you dismiss these huge numbers, as many consumers are apt to do, you could be setting yourself up for a huge mess. It is

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| Tags: America, Identity Theft
Posted November 17, 2011 by John Wane under Financial Guru

The end of the year is deal time as dealerships rush to clear old inventory and shift their bottom lines from red to black. So many would argue that buying a car, particularly a current year model, is best done nearing year-end. In addition to timing your auto purchase, here are even more great tips to save money when shopping for your next new or used vehicle:

1. Buy from a big dealership. They have the inventory and they make their money with volume. Small dealerships depend on higher profit per car – which doesn’t help you. This is especially the case with new cars. Further, larger dealerships can afford to negotiate more because they figure that what they lose in the base sale price, they can make up in extras and future servicing.

2. Consider the inventory. Following on from the above point, if the car you want has been sitting on their lot for a while, the dealership and the sales staff will want to sell it. After all, they are paying fees to the manufacturer until the car gets sold. So when crusin the dealership drives, do a visual check and pick the dealership that has a large stock of the car you want to buy.

3. Mon

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| Tags: Dealers, Dealers Beware
Posted November 14, 2011 by Oliver Blake under Financial News

Hello All,   The Italian budget vote passes, but the main concern is as to whether Berlesconi will be subject to a vote of confidence or will be subject to resign.  This next step may take days or even weeks, and if he were voted out the significance of change in the right direction may provide enough steam for the markets to rally.  Although the chances of this happening are very slim as he has lost majority in the lower house, but maintains majority in the Senate.  We will keep our eye on Italian bond yields as they’re teetering at 7%.    

| Tags: Budget Vote, Budget Vote Passes, Passes, Vote Passes
Posted November 11, 2011 by Oliver Blake under Financial News

“Thousands of people flooded into credit unions and small banks over the weekend as part of Bank Transfer Day, an effort to prod depositors to abandon giant banks. But at least some of the big banks wont mind losing those customers.”

“Credit card issuers are bumping up their rewards for the holiday shopping season as they seek to lure consumers away from debit cards and competitors. For shoppers with decent credit scores, this can provide the opportunity to pick up extra cash or miles while they do their gift shopping.”

“The $7.4 billion jump was more than forecast and followed a $9.7 billion decrease the previous month, Federal Reserve figures showed today in Washington. Credit was projected to rise $5.2 billion, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.”

| Tags: Credit, Credit 111111
Posted November 8, 2011 by John Wane under Financial Guru