Finance Portfolio

Book Review: Transfer Pricing Answer Book 2012

Louise Dickerson — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:51:46 +0000

I recently read the book: Transfer Pricing Answer Book 2012, and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn the U.S. transfer pricing rules.

Transfer pricing generally refers to the price charged by a company to a subsidiary or related company for goods, services, or intangible property. Transfer pricing typically comes up in international transactions, where the related parties are located in different countries.

The Transfer Pricing Answer Book 2012 has seven contributing authors including its editor, David Blair. Mr. Blair authors or co-authors 12 of the 22 chapters. Mr. Blair and the co-authors have skillfully explained transfer pricing in a plain-English way, at least as simple as you can get when dealing with a technical topic such as transfer pricing.

The book is in a Q&A format, with reasonably sized fonts, and the pages are not densely packed, which makes the reading easier. T

Greeks pull funds from banks over concerns of possible exit from euro

Lucy Alvarez — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:26:30 +0000

Greece’s president spoke of “fear that could develop into panic” at the country’s banks in the weeks before fresh elections that could precipitate Athens’ exit from the eurozone.

Greeks are withdrawing euros, afraid of the prospect of rapid devaluation if the country leaves the single currency, minutes of President Karolos Papoulias’s meetings with political leaders showed. Greece’s warring parties have refused to form a viable coalition, triggering new elections that could strengthen the hand of opponents of Greece’s EU bailout.

Central bank head George Provopoulos said savers withdrew at least 700 million euros on Monday, the president told party chiefs. “Mr. Provopoulos told me there was no panic, but there was great fear that could develop into a panic,” the minutes quoted the president as saying.

“Withdrawals and outflows by 4:00 p.m. when I called him exceeded 600 million euros and reached 700 million euros,” he said. “He expects

Help Protect Your Identity and Get Your 3 Free Scores

John Johnson — Sun, 13 May 2012 16:31:16 +0000

The Identity Protect service allows you to obtain your credit scores from the three credit bureaus — Experian, TransUnion and Equifax — and can help protect your credit.

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Help Protect Your Identity and Get Your 3 Free Scores

Doresa Banning is a freelance writer in Reno, Nevada.

First BanCorp to acquire FirstBank’s credit card portfolio

John Johnson — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:46:38 +0000

First BanCorp has inked a definitive agreement with FIA Card Services to acquire the FirstBank-branded credit card portfolio of nearly $400m.

Understanding How the Fair Credit Reporting Act Helps You

Louise Dickerson — Mon, 07 May 2012 21:14:51 +0000

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has been created to guard the rights of consumers. Are you mindful of the conditions and terms of the FCRA? Understanding your own privileges as well as limitations can help you prevent bad credit or improve your personal credit. In this informative article, let’s take a close look at some of these stipulations.

Free Annual Credit Report

Under the FCRA, all consumers are entitled to obtain one free of charge credit report through each credit reporting agency annually. The 3 main credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion) has set up an official website in which consumers may request for their own free annual credit report. You can get all your 3 reports simultaneously or order a single copy at a time throughout the year.

To obtain your own free of charge report, go to www.annualcreditreport.com or even print out the Annual Credit Report Request Service form in the FTC’s website (ftc.gov/credit) and send out it via post mail to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O.

Community Choice Financial – A Small Finance Company With Big IPO Plans

Lucy Alvarez — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:22:04 +0000

The financial services company is hoping to raise $149 million in a public offering set to debut on May 8th, 2012. The small but profitable lender will have a market cap of $261.1 million after the deal. The company initially set its price terms at $13 $15 per share. Community Choice Financial is now pricing 10.7 million shares at a price of $1

Videos Can easily Charter Online and offline

Lucy Alvarez — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 02:53:16 +0000

DVDs can be leased both online and offline, the top DVD rentals ever will be the old classics like Titanic, Oliver Twist and so forth. there are a few films in each and every movie sector which have been long lasting very best sellers, and this sort of top DVD rentals are responsible for profits generated by most of this internet websites in addition to offline rental stores.

There are a number of techniques to pick amongst these top DVD rentals, there are a variety of popular titles, a summary of which is offered on most of this internet sites which lease out DVDs. This list is updated at normal intervals retaining in thoughts the demand of particular titles.

The web sites that have this list of top DVD rentals are also generally in to DVD revenue. This listing of top DVD rentals is additionally at times used to raise the DVD sales at regular intervals as users are usually on the search for what exactly is the newest fad in the movie sector and web site proprietors help make great usage of this type of top DVD rentals to increase sales as well as to maximize how many individuals leasing in DVDs.

BVI company signs Licensing Agreement

Louise Dickerson — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:09:29 +0000

The British Virgin Islands-registered company Origin Agritech announced a licensing agreement with a multinational partner, with the purpose to develop high-yielding corn varieties incorporating the Origin Agritech glyphosate- resistant and Bt- traits.

These traits proved to be effective in both lab and field environments, their commercialization is novel to the Chinese market, and they are protected by patents granted separately by China and USA. The BVI company will license the traits to its partner and take the lead in the development and testing activities.

Origin Agritech is the owner of comprehensive worldwide rights to glyphosate- resistant and BT- genes developed by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS).

According to the Acting Chief Financial Officer of the BVI corporation, this agreement is a milestone for Origin Agritech to validate its GM technology.

U.S. Consumer Sentiment Index Upwardly Revised To 13-Month High

Lucy Alvarez — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:10:41 +0000

– While Reuters and the University of Michigan initially reported a drop in U.S. consumer sentiment in the month of March, a revised reported released on Friday showed that consumer sentiment actually improved during the month.

The report showed that the consumer sentiment index for March was upwardly revised to a reading of 76.2 from the preliminary reading of 74.3. With the upward revision, the March reading is up from 75.3 in February and above economists’ estimate of 75.0.

As a result of the upward revision, the consumer sentiment index is now at its highest level since February of 2011.

The upward revision to the headline index reflected higher than previously estimated readings for both the current economic conditions index and the consumer expectations index.

The current economic conditions index came in at 86.0, up from the preliminary reading of 84.2 and February’s 83.0.

International PLRs of the 12th week of 2012

Louise Dickerson — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:25:31 +0000

Last week the IRS published the following Chief Counsel Advice relating to international taxation.

CCA 201212008: Taxation of Green Card Holders at the Italian Embassy under the 1878 U.S.-Italy consular convention, the 1984 U.S.-Italy income tax treaty, and section 893.

CCA 201212020: Personal liability of the executor of an estate (fiduciary is liable only if it had notice of the claim of the United States before making the distribution). The only asset in the estate was a foreign trust.

Best College Courses for Return on Investment

John Johnson — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:04:42 +0000

While pursuing higher education in a specific field, you would have spent a lot of money towards college expenses. You would have also applied for various forms of student loans or financial aids. That is, you must have made a great investment towards your college degree. Before making that investment, it makes sense to see which degrees offer the greatest ROI.

According to the U.S. Census, there are some college degrees which offer better ROI than others, they are :

An associate’s degree can help you increase your salary by about 30 percent in about 2 years. As it is available both online and through traditional mode, it can be considered by working professionals as well. It offers general education as well as applied vocational training.
Bachelors degree is spread over duration of four years and can help you get about $23,300 more per year.
A master’s degree chosen in a specific field can help you get better career opportunities and higher salary as compared to bachelor degree. Thi

Can You Fix Your Credit Report?

Louise Dickerson — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:45:40 +0000

At any time of the year is a good time to check your credit report. And when your credit report requires repairing, you can do the required process immediately. On this particular post, we all present the important tips on ways to fix your personal credit:

Order your report. Start simply by ordering a copy of your annual credit report through each one of the three major credit agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian). Consumers need to be conscious that the three agencies keep track of credit reports independent from each other. Each institution also utilizes its own method to be able to determine credit score. This is the reason you may find an error in one report that’s not present in another.

Examine your report. It isn’t unusual for errors to take place in credit reports. There are different reasons why incorrect reporting occurs. Occasionally, lenders may possibly report incorrect information to the agencies and in many cases, the actual bureau itself may possibly commit error in keeping records.

Chase Freedom MasterCard

John Johnson — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:20:07 +0000

The Chase Freedom MasterCard offers three introductory deals. When you open an account, you’ll get a 0 percent APR on purchases for six months. Your interest rate will also be 0 percent on balance transfers for 12 months, but transfers must be made within the first 30 days. You’ll also receive a $100 bonus cash back after spending $500 in the first three months.

You’ll also earn cash back rewards with purchases, including up to 5 percent on bonus categories each quarter (up to $1,500) and 1 percent on everything else.

Features:

Fees:

Chase Freedom MasterCard Credit Card

China industry profits dip as slowdown takes toll

Lucy Alvarez — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:51:27 +0000

BEIJING — China’s industrial firms suffered a rare annual drop in profits in the first two months of 2012 mainly in petrochemicals, metals and auto firms, the latest signs of weakness in the world’s No. 2 economy and reinforcing the case for policy easing.

Profits fell 5.2 percent so far in 2012, according to the industrial profitability indicator, published by the National Bureau of Statistics every month.

Real Estate Best Hedge Against ‘Massive Inflation’

Louise Dickerson — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:46:00 +0000

“Massive inflation” is poised to strike the U.S. economy and the best hedge against galloping prices won’t be gold but real estate, says the sector’s mogul Donald Trump.

Gold, a fixed asset whose supply does anything but fluctuate, has long been used as a hedge against inflation, although real estate will do a better job going forward due to its availability and current pricing.

“The bottom line is I love real estate,” says Trump.

“I like it because I think you are going to have massive inflation at some point, and to me real estate is a much better hedge against inflation than gold, which you can’t touch.”

Inflation fears aside, fundamentally, real estate is a good play, even for the small investor.

“I think it’s a great time to buy a house whether you live in it or rent it out,” Trump says, adding investors should target homes banks own and want to divest.

“You should only buy a house from a bank that owns the house because the bank will give you financing for that one because they want to get rid of it.”

Turning to stocks, a rather new asset class for Trump, Procter & Gamble and Pepsi are good plays. Previous good bets included

Citi signs US retail card agreement with BrandSource

John Johnson — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:58:08 +0000

Citi Retail Services has signed a new multi-year card relationship with BrandSource, in an effort to expand its position to provide customer financing and loyalty solutions in the retail industry in US.

As part of the agreement, Citi in association BrandSource will offer a credit card program to provide customer financing for purchases at more than 4,500 locally-owned BrandSource retailers across the country.

In order to drive increased BrandSource sales and loyalty, Citi will provide customer value propositions and integrated marketing programs.

Citi Retail Services EVP Craig Vallorano said the partnership is the latest in a series of extensions and new agreements demonstrating the company’s commitment to provide loyalty and credit programs and a suite of services to partners.

BrandSource CEO Bob Lawrence said the new program delivers a significant competitive edge for the company and its network of dealers, and will ultimately benefit customers.

Using BrandSource Credit Card, cuatomers can avail special rebates and offers, no interest financing options and a simple application process, including in-store credit approval.

Google new search update may be investigated for privacy issues

Lucy Alvarez — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 15:23:21 +0000

A consumer protection government agency of the United States might soon launch a probe into Google’s latest search update which is believed to have issues with privacy and competition.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has said that it may file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (or FTC) to investigate the new search update by Google which apparently gives the search giant an unfair edge against its competitors and exposes the personal data of users on the Google Plus network.

On Thursday, Google launched a new search feature called Search Plus Your World which lets users search through the Google Plus network for information, and apparently brings up more results from Google Plus than any other social network.

Unfair advantage to Google:- According to EPIC, Google’s latest search innovation is unfair because it gives greater importance to information from Google Plus than any other social networking site. Als

ST – Ingram Micro Vietnam Retreat 2010 Day 1

John Johnson — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:01:25 +0000

Day 1 of the trip was pretty much free and easy. For business continuity reasons, we were divided into 2 groups – I was with the morning group.

One of the very first impressions you get upon arrival at a country would be immigration, and it went through pretty smoothly. The officer who attended to me entered my particulars really quickly – he must have been clocking 80 wpm or better, banging away at the keyboard.

On the way to the hotel from the international airport, just snapped some street scenes.

Interesting architectural features include the pagodas dotting the cityscape.

The Opera House is one of the distinguished landmarks in Ho Chi Minh City.

After arriving at the Duxton Hotel Saigon, I just did my setup and proceeded to start blogging as described here.