Bonus depreciation is a tax incentive that encourages businesses to invest in equipment and property by deducting a more significant percentage of the cost of certain types of property in the year they are purchased. Alternate name: Bonus percentage It was created to help businesses invest in new equipment and property, increasing economic activity. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) describes bonus depreciation as an additional first-year depreciation deduction of the cost of certain tangible property, such as machinery and equipment....

Alternate name: The wage earner’s plan For example, someone who is having trouble staying on top of all their bills every month might skip the car bill one month, and the mortgage the next, and juggle between them in order to avoid defaulting on any loan. Rather than fall into full Chapter 7 bankruptcy and damage their credit, they may be able to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy to consolidate their bills and continue making payments toward all their debts in a more manageable and consistent fashion....

As individuals, workers typically do not hold a lot of power compared to their employers. Economists attribute this to several factors, including declining union enrollment, increased outsourcing, and decreasing real wages (the value of workers’ pay with inflation taken into account).  Even when the unemployment rate is low, workers often need a paycheck more urgently—or at least, more immediately—than employers need staff. This gives employers the advantage in one-on-one negotiations with employees....

Examples of consumer credit include: Credit cardsStudent loansMortgagesAuto loans Federal and state laws govern consumer credit to protect consumers from unfair lending practices and prevent businesses from discriminating against them based on non-financial factors. How Consumer Credit Works Banks, credit card issuers, and some businesses extend credit to consumers through products like credit cards and loans. These credit products provide consumers the flexibility to pay for purchases over time, typically with monthly payments that are significantly smaller than the purchase price....

When you invest in stocks or bonds, your cost basis often will be the price you paid for the asset. However, it’s not always that simple. You’ll need to calculate your adjusted cost basis, which may be higher or lower than what you paid, if certain events occurred. Paying investment fees and commissions, although increasingly rare, would increase your adjusted cost basis. If you earned dividends or capital gains and you reinvested them, your cost basis also would increase by the amount you reinvested....

Buyers might want the right to inspect the property or goods they are buying before paying.Sellers might want some assurance that they’ll get paid (or have the opportunity to move on if the deal isn’t happening quickly enough).The asset being sold might be a service instead of a product. In complicated arrangements like these, one party may feel unsure that the other will meet their end of the bargain, creating the need for a third party to act as a “referee....

Individual taxpayers are not required to fill out the form or file it with their tax returns. That responsibility lies with the employer. As far as employees are concerned, Form 1095-C is a reference document that should be kept for their personal records. The information provided by Form 1095-C helps determine a taxpayer’s eligibility for credits, such as the premium tax credit. Alternate name: Form 1095-C Who Needs To File Form 1095-C?...

The purpose of issuing this letter is to confirm that the person named on the tax return is the same person who filed the return, in an effort to prevent identity theft. If you receive the letter, you have 30 days to respond, although the IRS can still process this form after the 30-day mark. You have the option to verify online or by phone. You can also set up an appointment to verify in person with an IRS representative....

Here’s what you should know about hazard insurance, including how it works, what it covers, and when you might need it. Definition of Hazard Insurance Hazard insurance is one of the coverages that your homeowners insurance policy provides. It covers the structure of your dwelling if it sustains losses or damage from certain natural disasters, sometimes known as hazards or perils. It’s the same as your policy’s dwelling coverage. You’ll often see damage from storms, fires, and vehicle crashes listed as covered risks....

Learn what IRS Publication 550 covers, how it treats income and expenses from income, and how it can help you file your tax returns. How IRS Publication 550 Works IRS publications are written in easily understandable language and format, but it’s important for taxpayers to understand that they’re not the ultimate authority when it comes to tax matters. They’re the IRS’s application and plain-English explanation of the tax law. That said, Publication 550 is designed to give you a fundamental understanding of taxable investment income and expenses so you’ll be armed with this knowledge if you decide to seek professional help with your tax return or even prepare your tax return yourself....

Many workers may experience job insecurity at some point in their careers by having spent a significant amount of their professional lives in less-than-stable employment situations. However, it’s not all bad news. Here’s what you need to know about job insecurity, and how it relates to your career and the workforce as a whole. Definition and Examples of Job Insecurity Job insecurity occurs when a worker’s employment is less than stable—or the worker feels like it is....

Alternate name: Peer-to-peer lendingAcronym: P2P lending For example, if a small business owner in El Salvador needed $1,500 for repairs on equipment necessary to run their business, that owner could sign up with a local organization contracted by a P2P loan service platform to look for a lender. The platform matches up an investor or lender with the business owner. Both parties agree to the terms of the microloan, and the funds are transferred to the local organization, and then to the business owner....

Here’s a closer look at what the net interest rate spread is, including how it works, how it’s calculated, and more about the factors that can affect it. Definition and Examples of Net Interest Rate Spread The net interest rate spread measures the difference between what a bank earns in interest on its assets (i.e. mortgages, loans, and other investment-related securities) and what it pays out to depositors or other creditors (i....

Learn about different types of online marketing and how you can use them for your business. What Is Online Marketing? Online marketing is the art and science of selling products and services over the internet. The art involves finding marketing strategies that appeal to your target market and translate into sales, while the science is the research and analysis necessary to measure the success of those strategies. Alternate name: Digital marketing, internet marketing...

You won’t reduce or eliminate your original loan balance. You could, in fact, take on more debt when refinancing. This might occur if you do a cash-out refinance where you take cash for the difference between the refinanced loan and what you owe on the original loan, or when you roll your closing costs into your new loan rather than pay them upfront. Your property might still be required as collateral for the loan, so you could still lose your home in foreclosure if you refinance a home loan but don’t make payments....

Alternate names: professional liability insurance, errors and omissions insurance, professional indemnity insuranceAcronym: E&O Some examples of self-employed liability insurance claims include: A patient suing a doctor or medical professional for misdiagnosing their illnessA client suing a lawyer for neglecting to file legal paperwork by an established deadlineA business owner suing a partner for not fulfilling their part of a contractA client suing an accountant for making a costly mistake on the client’s tax filing...

Making an honest mistake on your taxes (like miscalculating) or being negligent (like failing to keep records) could potentially just incur a penalty. Still, tax fraud differs, as it is intentionally done by the taxpayer to illegally pay less money than they actually owe. Normally, you owe income taxes on the money you earn, aside from adjustments like credits and deductions. But someone committing tax fraud might knowingly try to hide some of their income or assets in an effort to pay less tax....

The LFPR shows how many people over the age of 16, aside from those living in institutions, are working or looking for work. How To Calculate the Labor Force Participation Rate The labor force participation rate formula works like this: Take the total labor force (employed plus unemployed) and divide it by the total civilian noninstitutionalized population. How the Labor Force Participation Rate Works To calculate the formula correctly, you must understand how the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines “labor force” and other key terms....

MIB matters if you’re thinking of buying insurance. Before offering you coverage, insurers want to know about any health issues you may have, problems in your motor vehicle history, your prescription drug use, and more. This lets them decide how much risk it will be to insure you. One of the tools insurers use to research those topics is MIB. For example, when you apply for life insurance, the insurance company might check with MIB to see if you have any health conditions that you did not put on your application....

The graph was developed by A.W. Phillips, an economist who looked at UK unemployment and wage data collected from 1861 to 1957 and noticed the inverse relationship between the two factors. It has since been widely adopted as a framework for economic research and for central-bank policies. In October 2008, at the start of the financial crisis, unemployment in the United States was 6.5%, and inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index was 3....