At least I didn't vote for him....

If you enjoyed the previous day's BLOG entry, showing the trailer for the new motion picture, I Want Your Money, this will be a real gut punch. It's a piece written by Joan Pryde, senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters. This is an excerpt from an article about 13 tax changes that could affect you. Of those 13 items, this is Number 3. It is very important that you read all the way to the end, the part about how insurance will now be considered income on your W-2s:

On January 1, 2011, 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, here’s what happens... (PLEASE read it to the end, so you see all three waves AND the special little surprise):



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 will all expire on January 1, 2011.



Personal income tax rates will 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). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. 



The full list of marginal rate hikes (you are in here somewhere):
• 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 "marriage penalty" (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. 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 only, there is no death tax. (It’s a quirk!) For those dying on or after January 1, 2011 , there is a 55 percent
top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes, a business, a retirement account, could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones. Think of the farmers who don’t make much money, but their land, which they purchased years ago with after-tax dollars, is now worth a lot of money. Their children will have to sell the farm, which may be their livelihood, just to pay the estate tax if they don’t have the cash sitting around to pay the tax. Think about your own family’s assets. Maybe your family owns real estate, or a business that doesn’t make much money, but the building and equipment are worth $1 million. Upon their death, you can inherit the $1 million business tax free, but if they own a home, stock, cash worth $500K on top of the $1 million business, then you will owe the government $275,000 cash! That’s 55% of the value of the assets over $1 million! Do you have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to pay the estate tax?





Higher tax rates on savers and investors -- The capital gains tax 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....



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. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special needs education.




The HSA (Health Savings Account) Withdrawal Tax Hike -- This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.







Third Wave:



The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Employer Tax Hikes -- When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they'll be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT won't be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.



The major items include -- The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center , Congress' failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and 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 currently 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:



1. Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.


2. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.


3. Tax credits for education will be limited.
4. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. 


5. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. 


6. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. 


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


8. Charitable Contributions from IRAs 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.





Want to read more? CLICK HERE for the PDF file.




And worse yet (here is the REALLY GOOD part):




Now, your insurance will be 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 . . . those who backed this administration will be astonished!



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. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort. If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get. You will 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 the15% that don't have insurance? And this is only part of the tax increases.



Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....



On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001,
 as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."



HOLY COW!



I hope you forward this blog entry to every single person in your address book. Everyone has the right to know the truth, because an election is coming in November! In the "Axis of Taxes" it would be nice to be rid of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for a start.

Not a big fan of the adminstration

I recall several months ago that I heard, I think it was Glenn Beck quote Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as saying: "We have to pass the bill [Obamacare] so you can find out what is in it." Quite honestly, I didn't believe that anything that STUPID could be uttered by someone in elective office. Well, it turns out I was wrong, doesn't it.

In July, our President appointed (during a congressional recess) Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This governmental office ... there are a LOT of them now, aren't there ... has a larger budget than the Pentagon. And Dr. Berwick is a firm believer in "redistribution of wealth."

After Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, it's about time that there is a movie about how utterly out of touch the current administration is with anything approaching reality. So here is the trailer for the motion picture, "I Want Your Money."

Watch it and weep.

My (current) greatest (silly) fear

I have this one nagging fear, and for some reason, it has really come after me in the past three or four months:

I am deathly afraid of my eventual obituary being listed in a local newspaper under "Other Deaths."

Pretty silly, eh? But after 29 years in radio and TV [I retired in 1993], 34 years in the airshow industry [I have not retired just yet] and 45 years of performing voice-over work in radio and TV, I just don't want to be listed as, "oh, yeah, and this guy died, too."

I still get calls and email from people referring to me as a "radio living legend". That's nice, but although I was honored to have worked at some pretty good radio stations with some pretty heavy talents, I view it as guilt by association. In Philadelphia in 1966-67, I was one of the original "Super Six" bringing to life the Pop Oldies Explosion. Chuck Browning, Jay Cook, Jim Nettleton, "King" George Michael, Dave Parks and me. Dave and I are the only survivors of that crew, and neither of us are in radio any more.

In Providence, RI, on WICE I worked with Bob DeCarlo, a fine air talent and PD. In Boston at WRKO, I was re-named "Bobby Mitchell" (not my idea), and I worked under the direction of Mel Phillips. I was the first hire after Bill Drake took over the consultancy of the RKO General stations. What a great place! The what used to be WIBG Philadelphia with Joey Reynolds, John Records Landecker, and Bill Gardner. At WABC New York I struck gold working next to, and sometimes for, Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram, Cuzzin Bruce Morrow, Chuck Leonard, and Jay Reynolds. Back in Boston I worked with Jess Caine, The Magic Christian, EVERYBODY on WBZ, Charlie Van Dyke, and the list continues. THESE are (were) living legends. I just got lucky enough to have the mike, the station and the signal.

The airshow industry? An interesting business where nobody knows your name except those on 1,000 acres in one town for one weekend. Three of my friends in airshows are HUGE names: Bob Hoover, Patty Wagstaff and Sean D. Tucker. But as much as we'd like it to be, airshows will never be like NASCAR. Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, Snowbirds, sure. Most people have at least heard of them, but the rest of us… I don't think so.

In the world of radio and TV voice-overs, there are some real stars, but not that many. I was fortunate to have earned quite a bit over the years, standing behind a mike in an air-conditioned studio. But I was never a "star". I'm proud to say I have been union all the way; Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. On a couple of occasions they were solidly behind me when someone tried to screw with me, and I thank them for that.

So I don't really know what an obit writer could say, other than: "He had a fear of being listed in here alphabetically."

Make a Trade Show Exhibit worth the Time and Money

We attend a bunch of trade shows each year, not only for promotional products, but for embroidery and for clothing apparel of all descriptions. We also attend and exhibit at the International Council of Air Shows in Las Vegas each December. I have been a performing member since 1978, and recently we have begun devoting our time to promotional gifts and giveaways.

In the 400-odd pieces of email we receive each workday, I came upon a valuable, informative piece from Skyline Exhibits. May I urge you to take few minutes and read it:

"10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Exhibiting At Trade Shows"

September 20, 2009 | by Mike Thimmesch, Skyline Exhibits' Director of Lead Generation and Industry Relations: Skyline Trade Show Tips

1. You won’t succeed at trade shows if you just show up. A trade show first-timer may think that because they’ve paid a couple of grand to rent a 10 x 10 space for a few days, they automatically will reap the whirlwind of leads and sales from the show’s attendees. If only. Surprise: you’ve actually only paid for access to this great audience of buyers. Now you have to do your part, such as train your staffers, create a promotion that attracts qualified prospects, and design your trade show display to entice the right visitors to your booth.

2. Trade shows are not as glamorous as they looked from the outside. To the uninitiated, this is what trade show marketing looks like from the ouside: Flying around the country to sunny or metropolitan locations, staying in top-tier hotels and meals on the company dime, and access to top-level company execs. But seen from the inside, trade shows are not so glamorous. Trade shows themselves are very hard work with a lot of stressful moments before, during, and after exhibit hours. There are so many details to master, and so many vendors you are depending on. You can sweat more during exhibit set-up than a month of work outs. And while travel can be exciting, it gets old fast when you are repeatedly away from home and your family.

3. Inertia determined much of your company’s show schedule. In the many years before you were handed the reins to your company’s trade show marketing, your company cobbled together quite a list of shows. But are they all still worth it? Were some trade shows chosen because your target market was there, or because your competitors were? Has your client base evolved away from the demographics of some of the shows you exhibit at? Have some shows eroded their attendee base by not reinvesting in strong marketing and educational content? Are there new vertical markets that you have yet to find good shows to market to? It’s up to you to break the inertia — and create some new momentum

4. Trade show labor is way more expensive than you think, and sometimes it’s even worth it. It’s a eye-opener to find out how much you will pay someone else to set up your booth, hook up your lights, or rig that hanging sign, especially if it’s on a weekend, or God forbid, on a Sunday. The union rules in most venues require that you pay labor a wage that adds up in a hurry, even if they don’t. You can minimize labor costs by getting easier to set up trade show displays, trying to schedule your set up for straight-time labor, and by lining up dependable contractors. I’ve found some Exhibitor Appointed Contractors are worth it, as they work hard to earn you business, show after show.

5. You will blow your trade show budget if you don’t plan well. You can never plan too far ahead, especially for overseas shows. Your budget was likely set with the best-case scenario for your trade show expenses, without room to pay for late fees and rush charges. That’s powerful incentive to quickly master the show book. Fortunately, after several shows you learn what you really need to order (electrical, leads machine, carpet) and what form pages you will likely skip (plumbing, signage, security). A pad of Post-It Notes or a good electronic scheduling software helps you flag your most pressing deadlines.

6. Everybody wants to help you pick the trade show exhibit color. No one wants to help you track the leads. When it comes to exhibit design, everyone has an opinion. And in the time leading up to the show, they will all clamor to offer their ideas, making it harder to get the booth built on time without rush charges. Yet after the show, you will have a harder time getting similar participation in tracking the leads from the show – ostensibly the reason you designed your exhibit in the first place. Remind your colleagues that if you can’t prove the results from this year’s show, you won’t be exhibiting at the show next year.

7. The 10 minutes after the show closes is when most damage happens to your trade show exhibit. The show ends with a voice booming over the loudspeakers saying, “The show is closed, see you next year.” But to impatient booth staffers, it’s as if they had actually shouted, “Drivers, start your engines!” Booth staffers hurry to win the race to the taxi stand, hotel, bar, restaurant, or parking lot. And if you have a portable trade show display that your booth staffers pack up, this is when they break it, by shoving it in its case as fast as they can. Close that expensive window of time by getting a more durable display, getting better packaging, or just by having a frank conversation with your staffers before the closing bell. Or, if you’re the one who wants to win the race, take a deep breath and slow down before you make a costly mistake.

8. Drayage is the most expensive way to move your exhibit the shortest distance. As a trade show newbie, one of the biggest surprises is that you have to pay to have your exhibit moved from the shipping dock to your booth space. Even more shocking is just how much you’ll have to pay — about the same to move something across a convention center as it does to ship it across country. Drayage rates have risen by double-digit percentages in some of the last few years, probably because more exhibitors switched to lighter weight trade show booths like Skyline’s. To offset the lower weight of exhibit properties, drayage charges per pound have increased. If your exhibit is still made the old-fashioned way, it’s a double-whammy.

9. It’s hard for booth staffers to take their very first lead at a trade show. In our lives we go though various, potentially scary rites of passage: learning to ride a bike, going to your first day of school, asking for a date to the prom. While all of these have been immortalized in film, no movie has yet to bring to the silver screen the epic tale of a first-time booth staffer engaging and writing up their first trade show lead. What would yours have been, a horror film? A comedy? A tragedy? Whatever kind of movie it would be, it would also be a drama, because it’s you’re likely filled with nervous energy as you go out and ask a perfect stranger face to face if they’d like to do business with your company. Just remember that your booth visitors actually paid to visit the show, and many are shopping for solutions to their problems that your products can solve. Practice the process of engage, qualify, present, and close, and you’ll be more comfortable taking your first lead.

10. Trade shows can be addictive. With the hard work, long hours, and time away from home, some people can’t wait to return from their trade show. But for others, trade shows are a calling. They get jazzed by the performance aspect, the blitz of direct client contact, and the relationships built before and during the show. They like the ability to create a successful marketing program in a medium built upon the value of face-to-face interactions. And that’s when trade shows really become addictive: when you master the medium and drive serious revenue to your company’s bottom line.


Before you begin your planning as an exhibitor, determine your purpose for exhibiting. Is it to give flyers away? Or to collect email addresses?

Immediately after the show, follow up by email, that night if possible, just to say, "Hi, thanks for stopping by." It is surprising how few business do this after putting all the effort and money into their exhibit!

We put our names in for 30 to 40 prize drawings when we go to tradeshows and hear back from four or five, and perhaps one within 48 hours of the show. The iron gets cold very quickly.

By the way, at a terrific trade show two years ago, we won an Apple iPod, a $300 AmEx gift card and a high-end Garmin GPS. Entering those booth contests can be very worthwhile.

Identity Theft: "Surprise! I'm You!"

It doesn't take much smarts for someone to become you, to swipe your identity either with a credit card or a check or both. That ought to scare you. It certainly scares me.

You know all those credit card bills you pay off, then tear the bill up and throw away? Or the credit card offers you get in the mail which you toss without opening? Or ANY old checks which you don't need any more which go into the trash can next to your desk? Any one of those thing can lead to some unscrupulous person cleaning your financial clock.

I am leading up to a link to my friend Kim Komando's website. Kim, known worldwide in print and in broadcasting as "The Digital Goddess", sends out three newsletters each day, plus an extra on the weekend. In one newsletter from Labor Day, she has a link to a service which she hosts called "Protect My ID."

We got involved with identity theft through contact with Frank Abignale, who most people know as "The Great Imposter." Two things which he suggests anyone do to help prevent identity theft are (1) buy and use a shredder for ANYTHING with your name and/or any information on it, and (2) only write checks with a gel pen rather than with a typical ballpoint; the gel ink imbeds itself into the paper on a check so what you write cannot be removed.

We actually became involved with the art of "check washing", and we were amazed at how easy it is to do. Using a simple household chemical, all ballpoint information on a check can be lifted, removed and dissolved in a matter of minutes. The check can then be dried and it ready for reuse. The person(s) who steal the check and wash it may not be the ones who reuse it, either. "Clean" checks are sold for a lot of money to others who can write themselves enormous amounts, even above what's available in the account.

For that reason never leave outgoing checks in your mailbox. Post them in a big blue iron box which notes that it is property of the USPS. And write all those checks with a gel pen; if someone DOES get ahold of a check, unless his name is City of Scottsdale - Water and Sewer it will do him no good.

Yes, SHOWLINE does handle gel pens as well as some of the newer pens with non-erasable ink. But that is for another time.

Those Special Deals Just Keep On Comin'

There are times when I wish I were traveling more. Since cutting back on announcing airshows [see an earlier blog entry] to Spring and Autumn, I am seeing MANY special travel deals I just can't use. JET BLUE has a special flash-sale Fall fare of $29 and up (each way) via Travelzoo. I read about Jet Blue and Airtrans specials, but from Phoenix, most are red-eyes and are not real appealing to me.

In Las Vegas the 4-Diamond hotel, Monte Carlo Resort and Casino is currently running a special at $40 - $49 per night. Not bad.

Another special from Travelzoo is $137 for a Paris 4-Star hotel with breakfast and Seine Boat Tour. The Hotel Concorde La Fayette. Yes, the "Paris" in France, not Las Vegas.

I just this moment received an outstanding offer from the Harrah's Hotels. This has to be one of the best offers I have found if you want to get away from everything this summer and return in the cooler weather for more riotous fun. Book a quickie vacation NOW and get a free night or two from November through January. The hotels include Bally's and Rio from $49 a night, Harrah's from $39 a night, the Flamingo from $45 a night, Caesar's from $110 a night, Imperial Palace from $25 a night, and Paris [Las Vegas] from $69 a night. The deal is book two nights summer, get one free winter; book three nights summer, get two free winter. If you deserve a few days off, you can't beat this deal with a large stick!

Flash Sales on Cotton

It's the time of the season when cotton growers and cotton clothing manufacturers want to move a bunch of product out, quickly.

In the past two weeks, we have received short notice of three day sales from seven different T-shirt and fleece manufacturers. WHITE T-shirt blanks (unimprinted) are selling for as little as $2.25 for the 5.3 ounce promotional weight and two dollars more for the 6.1 ounce heavyweight, in white. Gildan, Hanes, and Fruit of the Loom. It's hard to think about fleece in mid-July but special offers are coming through for shorts, pants, long and short sleeve jackets, pullovers, hoods, caps and BLANKETS. Most of these are available in a variety of colors; last year in the colder climes, high schools and colleges were buying these things for football games and other outdoor activities.

We got this one special offer for large quantity Ts, 5.4 ounce (promotional weight), sizes Large and Extra-Large, WITH 4-color imprints. $2.78 each, a one-time setup of $185, and a minimum of 2,000 pieces. And this is FULL COLOR! This is ideal for a mob! One of our suppliers is offering free freight on orders over $200; that's like seven dozen T-shirts.

If your group, school, college, fraternity, sorority, civic organization or club is planning anything in the cooler weather, now would be a good time to consider fleece. As for T-shirts, they can be stored until next spring, if you don't have an immediate need for them. But like airfares, these flash sales happen with little notice and are gone in the blink of an eye.