Bruce Bentley

Mark Chapman, director of tax communications at H&R Block, shares his top three tips for retailers looking to prepare for tax time. As the tax year ends, it's time to take steps to minimize the tax liability for your retail business. Here are my top tips for year-end tax planning: Take advantage of the temporary full allowance One of the best tax breaks for businesses is a temporary full expense allowance. This means you can get an instant tax deduction on the cost of capital assets. With many companies offering end of year specials, now is the ideal time of year for companies to take advantage of the benefits of acquiring some much-needed assets to build your business while lowering your taxable profits. The tax break offers an immediate deduction of all investments from your annual profits. There's no cap on the cost of assets you can purchase, and if your business has sales of less than $ 5 billion, you're included. The temporary full allowance runs until June 30...

Gary Sandler | Real estate connection According to the National Association of Realtors 2020 report on Down Payment Expectations and Homeownership Barriers, the median down payment in 2019 was 12 percent for all buyers, 6 percent for first-time buyers, and 16 percent for repeat buyers. The median is half above this percentage and half below this percentage. NAR also found that "over 70% of cashless first-time home buyers - and 54% of all buyers - have made down payments of less than 20% in the past five years". Twenty percent, or 20 percent equity in a property, is a benchmark that is often quoted by lenders and mortgage experts because from that point on mortgages must be insured against losses due to borrower defaults. While the borrowers are paying the mortgage insurance premiums, the lender is protected by the insurance. A good rule of thumb is that the lower the percentage of the deposit, the higher the premium. The premiums are usually between 0.5 and 1.5 perce...