New 2017 tax Laws - The Things to Note

2017 is the year of change in many ways. Although the Trump administration has pledged numerous tax changes, there are pre existing changes included in the law that can affect your 2017 tax returns (which you submit in April 2018). Also, there are other changes that affect your taxes for 2016, which come into force in 2017. These are the key changes to bear in mind:

Timing of tax credits -- The 2015 PATH (Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes) Act states that the IRS is forbidden from sending out refunds or credits for overpayments before February 15th, whenever the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) or ACTC (Additional Child Tax Credit) is claimed on returns. This policy comes into force on January 1st, 2017. It does not affect the amount of your 2016 return, however it might reduce your cash flow, in the event that you wanted a reasonably early return to settle bills.

Limited Stores, the well-known women's fashion retailer, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday of this week, and will be closing all of its stores. Based in New Albany, New York, the retailer will now be under the receivership of Sycamore Partners, a New York private-equity firm that is buying the store's intellectual property rights and other assets. The bankruptcy filing and sale are pending approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The chain announced a month ago that more than 240 employees would be laid off at its New Albany headquarters as a result of the sale, with both the CFO (John Buell) and Chief Executive Office (Diane Ellis) leaving in late 2016. The company also released a statement on January 6 stating that the site TheLimited.com, would continue to be in operation once the stores have closed. However, once the bankruptcy filing was made, a message was posted on the website indicting that it would be down temporarily.

The service segment of the Apple corporation could be a great stock to keep an eye on in the future. Some experts are saying that this part of the company is now worth over $240 billion. This is drawing many investors to buy it.

Apple Services is now the second largest segment of the company. The biggest is their consumer products division. The services segment has some promising other factors that make it attractive, though.

One promising feature of the services segment is that the number of iOS users is constantly increasing. As there are more users, they are going to need more services. This will increase even more as Apple develops and implements more hardware on the consumer level. There will a lot of service expansions in the future as the amount of different hardware is increased at the consumer level.

Love or hate the results of the 2016 election, both Donald J Trump supporters and those who are less than thrilled with the election's results, can join together to rejoice in at least one aspect of what the Trump administration will mean for America.

Business is projected to boom as Donald Trump comes into the Oval Office. Just released this week, the November reading for the small business optimism index in correlation with the National Federation of Independent Business catapulted from 94.9 percent to 98.4. This is the largest surge in percentages since 2009, a time when many were hopeful that President Obama would pave the way for profit.

However, the red tape that instead ensued and lingered both with Obamacare and other resulted shortcomings of the now-ending presidency of Barrack Obama, washed away much of the optimism for small businesses across the U.S.

Let's take a very close look at the Cedar Fair, L.P. stock to see if it is a successful choice for someone who is considering investing in it.

When you are considering a hedge fund, you have to consider more than just the popularity. You could have a hedge fund that is popular one day and misses the mark and drops in popularity later. What you want to do is examine some of the other variables that the fund may have.

The stock market is in a always in a position to create monetary rewards as long as your trades are solid and you have a good exit plan. Investors can see that they can gain quick cash profits right now if they make certain moves, but that sounds a lot like gambling. So what is the difference between gambling and investing? Make sure to watch Dave Ramsey’s video answer below.

The truth is that there is a fine line between investing in a something and gambling. The intentions that you have when you make your investment can make a huge difference between whether you are considered an investor or a gambler. Getting in and out of trades daily is the hardest way to trade and makes your investment style the closest to gambling.

When Is It Investing?

Investing uses a few strategies for its processes:

You are investing if you search for businesses that have a strong background of steady financial gain and reliable customers. Those are fundamental successes, and they can work well for you when you invest. Watch demand for the companies products over time and going forward.

You don't really have to understand the numbers that well. You can still make intelligent investments, and you can wait patiently to see if you have success with those investments. Investments sometimes need time to grow, but you don't mind. Get in slowly with additional purchases on dips. Watch the overall market to make sure something fundamental doesn’t change. Make sure the industry is sold and remains sold while you hold your position. And get out of the investment if things begin to break down in the ways we have discussed.

According to the latest released news from Goldman Sachs, the financial company's strategists have decided to veer away from stocks for three months. Global rates on stocks have been cut due to slow growth in earnings as well as expensive valuations. A lack of investor confidence has also influenced this decision.

Sachs strategists have also noted that risk aversion is another important reason for this avoidance of stocks for the short term this current year. Pick-ups in investor confidence are predicted to take time, according to the company experts' latest forecasting data. Over the rest of the year, neutral ratings on global stocks will be monitored closely at Goldman Sachs.

Today, US stocks have opened at a higher price, triggered by an unexpectedly good jobs report. The report from last month led to anxiety and fear in the market. However, the report today has eased investors' worries, offering further evidence that the economy has moved in the right direction.

Over the days of June, roughly 287,000 jobs were generated in America, exceeding economists' predictions of 175,000 jobs. Nonetheless, the rate of joblessness increased slightly to 4.9 percent, whereas economists predicted it would increase to 4.8 percent. The shooting in Dallas has had an effect on numerous stocks as well, a phenomena we will address below.

Today, Twilio announced that it would set the price of its' first offering to the public at fifteen dollars per share. This values the firm at about $1.23 billion, which is over its' prior one billion dollar valuation from the previous financing round.

The firm expects to make about 150 million dollars, with an additional 1.5 million shares available for sale. Also, this is a bigger price than the twelve to fourteen dollars per share amount that the firm targeted in the past.

The Twilio IPO is important, because tech IPOs have dried up considerably in 2016. Concern has spread among many small businesses that have run into problems, due to the dearth of tech IPOs this year (Twilio is just the third of 2016). Most startups hope that Twilio will revitalize the tech IPO industry, with a good showing once trading starts tomorrow.

The debate over the $15 dollar minimum wage has two sides, one that believes that the higher wages will mean less jobs and the side that wants to see better incomes for employees in low skill jobs in America. Currently 2 states and 4 cities have passed laws to increase the minimum wage to this level over the next couple of years. This higher wage will have negative impacts on businesses and the workers that currently are employed there, while limiting the number of available jobs for young workers.

Franchise locations of the popular fast food chain McDonalds are everywhere and employee millions of American workers. But the franchises only keep 6 cents of every dollar of revenue that they generate, the rest goes to staff, food, rent, etc. A typical franchise has income of $2.6 million a year or $156,000. With this new minimum wage, 15 employees will cost the franchise 75% of its profit for the year. The company will attempt to increase revenue through price increases but customers are sensitive to these increases and lower wage earnings will be most affected by the increase in their purchases.