There have been numerous studies of small business failure rates resulting in almost as many different conclusions. I’ve seen figures as high as 50% within the first year and 95% within the first five years. Some of the studies counted such indicators as abandoned assumed names as failures. But there are many reasons for abandoning...Read More

I recently viewed a video called Forty-Five Days. It was about the short, hellish life of broiler chickens that have been genetically engineered to put on weight much faster than normal chickens. The poor creatures had trouble standing on their spindly little legs, whose growth does not keep up with their bloated bodies. During the...Read More

A couple of months ago, I completed an online driving course. Two days ago, as I was filling out an application for auto insurance, I realized I had misplaced the certificate I needed from the driving school to get a discount on my insurance. The school’s website advertised 24-7 support. Without a great deal of...Read More

The Tax Code does not provide concise definitions of “capital cost” as opposed to “expenses of a trade or business.” Broadly speaking, a capital cost is an investment that is expected to have value over a period of longer than one year. Business expenses are payments for goods that will be consumed over a short...Read More

DH asks: Being an independant contractor, do I have to show a profit in so many years, or can I still get the usual business write offs even if my expenses are more that income? You may be able to take business write-offs even if your business never has a profitable year. The 3 profitable...Read More

A reader asks: I have a two year old “C” corp. with a lot of deductions, but I do not [have] enough personal deductions. Is there a way to use some corp. deductions on my personal tax return? You can’t directly carry corporate deductions to your personal return, but in some cases there are things...Read More

The cost of health care in the United States is a frequent topic in the news and in conversations these days, and it’s generally not what you’d call upbeat. The subject  comes up in our household every time we have to pay bills for medical services on top of outrageously high medical insurance premiums (my...Read More