Archive for the ‘Bookkeeping’ Category
Friday, March 14th, 2008 |
by Wayne Friedman | Source: Media Daily News
CROWN MEDIA HOLDINGS, OWNER OF the Hallmark Channel, widened its losses for the fourth quarter of 2007 some 24% to $37.5 million. The downward numbers were primarily attributed to selling expenses, which increased to $21.6 million, due to bonus and legal expenses. However, for the full year, Crown Media narrowed its net loss–now at $159 million versus $389 million in 2006.
Advertising sales continue to improve, growing 21% to $63 million. Subscriber fee revenues still lagged behind ad revenues in growth and total dollars, only inching up 3% during the period to $6.4 million. (more…)
Posted in Bookkeeping, Business Success, Statistics | No Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008 |
Source: IRS Newswire Issue Number: IR-2008-022
WASHINGTON — In addition to providing stimulus payments to individuals, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 provides incentives to businesses. These incentives include a special 50-percent depreciation allowance for 2008 purchases and an increase in the small business expensing limitation for tax years beginning in 2008.
50-Percent Special Depreciation Allowance
Depreciation is an income tax deduction that allows a taxpayer to recover the cost or other basis of certain property over several years. It is an annual allowance for the wear and tear, deterioration or obsolescence of the property.
Under the new law, a taxpayer is entitled to depreciate 50 percent of the adjusted basis of certain qualified property during the year that the property is placed in service. (more…)
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Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 |
By Jeremy Mullman | Source: Advertising Age
Shrinking newspapers forced to make cuts are increasingly regarding their stand-alone business sections as expendable.
The Denver Post — which folded its business section into other sections on every day but Sunday — this month became at least the eighth daily to cut its stand-alone daily business section since early 2007. The Orange County Register made a similar move just a week earlier.
While the cuts are a source of much consternation among business journalists — and also to public-relations executives at small local firms and agencies that may have trouble securing news coverage without them — analysts, advertisers and publishers say that the stand-alone sections were relatively poor sources of ad revenue that tended to be overmatched by national and online competition on anything beyond the most hyperlocal stories.
Said veteran newspaper-industry analyst Ed Atorino, of Benchmark Capital: “You do get a story once in awhile about a local storeowner or a closing or something, which you might miss, but most of what’s in those sections is rip and read [wireservice copy],” he said. “With all the business news on TV and the internet, the consumer is getting it someplace else.”
Read the full story at Advertising Age >>
Posted in Bookkeeping, Internet, Media Trends | No Comments »
Thursday, June 21st, 2007 |
By Gary McWilliams and Rachel Dodes | Source: The Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Wal-Mart’s struggles in fashion apparel appear to be worsening.
Stacks of unsold clothing are clogging store aisles and pressuring profits. Now, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s first designer line, by designer Mark Eisen, has been pulled from several hundred of the more than 3,000 U.S. stores that carried it, according to a person close to the situation. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman confirmed the line had been pulled from some stores but didn’t know how many.
Wal-Mart’s chief financial officer says clearing out stocks of unsold clothing is going to be a chore and could pressure margins all summer.
Posted in Bookkeeping, Business Success, Product | No Comments »
Thursday, June 21st, 2007 |
Prices have climbed 55 percent this year
By Alex Davis | Source: The Courier-Journal
A sharp rise in the cost of cheese this year is spreading concern in the pizza industry, from mom-and-pop operators to the nation’s biggest delivery chains.
Block cheddar cheese hit $2.06 a pound this week on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a 55 percent increase from the end of 2006 when it was $1.33 a pound. Cheddar is the benchmark for mozzarella and other types of cheese, which typically make up the largest single ingredient for pizza companies.
“It’s definitely a major concern,” said Rob Mooney, president of Louisville-based Bearno’s Inc., which has 16 restaurants in Indiana and Kentucky.
Full Story at Courier-Journal >>
Posted in Bookkeeping, Business Success, Product, Statistics | No Comments »
Monday, June 4th, 2007 |
By Gary McWilliams and Kris Hudson | Source: Wall Street Journal (Subscription Required)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to sharply curtail future U.S. store openings, amid disappointing results for the world’s largest retailer and growing investor pressure to curb its aggressive domestic expansion.
Last year, Wal-Mart accounted for more than a quarter of U.S. retail-store construction, and the pullback, announced at the company’s annual meeting here, is expected to ripple through the retailing, construction and labor markets.
Wal-Mart’s rapid growth rate has made it the nation’s largest private employer, with 1.3 million employees. Friday, it promised to cut more than a third of this year’s planned store additions, delay some openings … (Rest of story)
Posted in Bookkeeping, Niche Marketing | No Comments »
Sunday, May 27th, 2007 |
[SS NOTE] Rules changes which would affect the people who buy at your store, using the payment means they often use at your store! This is a huge issue that merchants should keep an eye on. If we can help our customers spend their money wisely while being better informed & protected, it helps stack the odds in our favor that those customers will be able to return to our shops & spend money over and over again. /ssÂ
By Sue Kirchhoff, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Lenders and retailers offering credit cards and other forms of open-ended credit would have to give consumers more straightforward information about interest rates and fees, and 45 days’ notice before raising rates under a new proposal.
In its first major rewrite of Truth in Lending rules in 26 years, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday laid out proposed changes for credit card advertising, billing and consumer updates. The Fed mantra: simpler, clearer.
“If information is put out, and it’s not consumer-friendly, it has absolutely no value,” Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin said at a meeting in the central bank’s ornate boardroom.
The proposals, based on extensive use of consumer focus groups, respond to the increasing complexity of credit products. The Fed also plans a new look at mortgage and home-equity financing.
Read the rest of they story at USA TODAY >>
Posted in Bookkeeping, Legal | No Comments »
Friday, May 11th, 2007 |
by Sarah Mahoney | Source: Marketing Daily
EVERYONE WAS EXPECTING APRIL SALES data to disappoint. After all, Easter fell in March this year. It was too chilly in much of the country, which hurt sales of spring apparel. Gas prices are up again. And some retailers, including Target Corp., had even issued mid-month warnings that sales were falling short of expectations. Still, not many had predicted that lousy would actually translate to wretched.
While Wal-Mart Stores’ nosedive of 4.6% in comparable-store sales is the most stunning, declines were widespread among most mass marketers, and even hot stores stumbled. Target’s sales fell 6.1%, for example–and Kohl’s, 10.5%. (more…)
Posted in Bookkeeping, Business Success, Statistics | No Comments »
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 |
As fuel costs continue to inch up toward $3 per gallon, stations without name-brand gasoline can charge less and profit more.
By Will Shanley | Source: The Denver Post
As gas at an increasing number of Colorado stations surpassed the $3-per-gallon mark on Tuesday, some local drivers sought out bargains in the form of non-name-brand gasoline.
Gas prices climbed nearly 2 cents to an average of $2.96 per gallon of regular unleaded on Tuesday.
Prices are up almost 12 cents per gallon from this time a year ago and are up about 33 cents from this time a month ago, according to AAA Colorado. Nationally, motorists are paying $2.965 per gallon of regular, up a penny from Monday.
Yet price-conscious motorists like Albert Mora said bargains can be had, as long as people are willing to look. (more…)
Posted in Bookkeeping, Product, Statistics | No Comments »
Thursday, April 26th, 2007 |
by Mickey Alam Khan | Source: DM News
While welcoming a national uniform standard for data breach notification, the nation’s leading lobby of retailers expressed worry over provisions including a credit freeze that are under consideration as part of a new identity theft bill in the Senate.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee voted yesterday on S. 1178, the Identity Theft Protection Act of 2007, sponsored by committee Ranking Member Ted Stevens, R-AL. That bill alarms the National Retail Federation in Washington.
“Disparate notification standards create significant compliance burdens for businesses that operate in many different states and may also lead to confusion for consumers,†Steve Pfister, NRF senior vice president for government relations, said in a letter to committee members, alluding to the 36 state-level notification laws enacted over the past four years. “NRF supports efforts to create a clear and uniform national standard for data breach notification.
“The current draft of S. 1178, while effectively dealing with the issue of preemption, contains an unworkable notice trigger which we believe could lead to the ineffective and cumbersome over-notification of consumers who are not at risk of identity theft,†the letter said. (more…)
Posted in Bookkeeping, Legal | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007 |
Source: IRS
WASHINGTON — Taxpayers who were unable to e-file their tax returns Tuesday using Intuit Inc. software products have until midnight on Thursday, April 19, to file their returns, the Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday.
Potentially up to several hundred thousand last-minute tax filers were affected by company server problems on Tuesday evening, and they or their accountants may have been unable to electronically file returns. Intuit confirmed Wednesday that those problems had been resolved, and it was successfully accepting e-file returns on Wednesday.
The company said affected taxpayers and tax professionals include those using “TurboTax,†“ProSeries,†“Lacerte†and Intuit’s Free File offering,“TurboTax Freedom.â€
Intuit product users who were unable to file their returns through the company’s servers Tuesday should e-file as soon as possible. The IRS will not apply late filing penalties to taxpayers who were affected by this problem.
Overall, the IRS has seen a strong year for e-filing. Taxpayers filed more than 75 million returns electronically through April 17, shattering last year’s record of 73.2 million. E-file and Free File will remain available through Oct. 15, 2007, to taxpayers who have requested a six-month filing extension.
Posted in Bookkeeping, Business Success, Internet | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 |
Credit card companies offer products to grab more of the trillions small businesses spend by checkbook.
by Cyndia Zwahlen | Source: LATimes.com
Credit card companies see big bucks in the small-business market.
Discover Financial Services, which launched its first small-business card last June, will unveil a card today designed to lure small-business owners by offering high frequent-flier miles rewards and few restrictions.
It is just the latest in a string of credit cards tailored for small-business owners.
The draw for card companies: Although small-business owners spent $4.9 trillion in 2006, less than 5% of that was with the aid of a credit or debit card, according to Visa USA research.
“Our competition is essentially checks. That’s what we are trying to dislodge from the small-business owner’s wallet,” said Raghav Lal, senior vice president of small-business products for San Francisco-based Visa USA. (more…)
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Friday, April 13th, 2007 |
Source: IRS Newswire
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service urges taxpayers who need additional time to complete their tax return to submit their request for an automatic extension electronically by April 17. E-filing an extension is convenient, safe and secure, and taxpayers receive confirmation to keep with their records.
The extension gives taxpayers until October 15 to file the tax return. An extension does not give the taxpayer an extension of time to pay. Those who owe taxes can make a payment when they file the extension either by mailing a check or by several electronic payment methods, such as electronic funds withdrawals from bank accounts and credit card payments.
IRS expects to receive 9.9 million extensions during 2007 compared with 9.5 million extensions in 2006. Of the extensions filed last year, 1.8 million were filed electronically.
Taxpayers can get an automatic six-month extension of time to file their tax returns by filing Form 4868, Automatic Extension of Time to File. Before last year, only a four-month extension was automatic and taxpayers who needed more time had to make a second request.
Taxpayers can e-file the extension from a home computer or through a tax professional who uses e-file. Taxpayers can e-file their extensions at no cost. Several companies offer free e-filing of extensions through the Free File Alliance; these companies are listed on IRS.gov.
Posted in Bookkeeping, Internet | No Comments »
