regime uncertainty

IRS FBAR forms no longer accepted by postal mail

"The IRS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Nework (FinCen) announced on Friday that paper FBARs will no longer be acceptedas of today, July 1, 2013. If you have not filed your 2012 FBAR yet and you intend to file it yourself, you will need to create an account at FinCen’s Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) e-filing website http://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/main.html to file your FBAR. Professional tax software programs are not yet capable of e-filing FBARs so professional tax preparers must manually enter your FBAR data into the FinCen website. Tax software companies are frantically working on a solution to allow professional tax preparers to e-file the FBARs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIRS FBAR forms no longer accepted by postal mail

Aereo could bring down broadcast TV

"Could it really turn out that a company with a seemingly loopy business model -- capturing over-the-air TV signals and streaming them to subscribers over the Internet -- will be the thing that finally brings down the American broadcasting industry? Quite possibly. Chase Carey, News Corp.'s (NWSA) chief operating officer, said Monday that if the company in question, Aereo, is allowed to continue, his company's Fox Broadcasting, and all its affiliate stations, will stop broadcasting over the air and go all-cable. Those other networks, though, along with PBS and Fox, are fighting hard to put Aereo out of business. But so far, they're losing their legal argument." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAereo could bring down broadcast TV

The Rocky Mountain Road to Legal Marijuana Commerce

"The clock is ticking in Colorado. The voters have already voted to legalize marijuana. Either the legislature passes regulations to implement it -- and quite possibly puts anticipated taxes on the ballot, as required by state law for any new taxes -- and Colorado has legal, taxed and regulated marijuana commerce, or it simply has legal marijuana possession with no taxes and no regulations. The threat of the latter should be enough to ensure the success of the former." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Rocky Mountain Road to Legal Marijuana Commerce

As Feds Suggest ‘Guidance,’ Bitcoin Foundation Pushes Back

"The Bitcoin Foundation, which is devoted to standardizing and promoting the currency, didn’t like FinCEN’s guidance. As Patric Murck, the organization’s general counsel, wrote in a March 19 blog posting: 'Simply put, under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), FinCEN can’t promulgate new rules without going through a notice and comment proceeding whereby the public may have their voices heard. If FinCEN would like to expand its statutory authority over ‘money transmitters’ to include brand new categories such as ‘administrators’ and ‘exchangers’ of digital currency it must do so through proper rulemaking proceedings and not by fiat.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAs Feds Suggest ‘Guidance,’ Bitcoin Foundation Pushes Back

Mounting Evidence: Obamacare Insurance Plans Will Be Bare Bones — and Expensive

"Health plans [...] health plans want to reduce uncertainty around how all the risk-sharing provisions in Obamacare will eventually play out. The legislation puts in place mechanisms that forces Washington to share with health plans some of the cost of the covering the sickest beneficiaries. But the regulations outlining these parameters were only released last Friday. Nobody yet trusts how they'll work.To mitigate uncertainty, plans will price their products high. Insurers know that any excess profits they earn will have to be paid back to the government, anyway. Health plans are better off aiming high, and owing money back, then getting underwater." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMounting Evidence: Obamacare Insurance Plans Will Be Bare Bones — and Expensive

CVS requires employees to report weight or pay a fine under new health care rules

"CVS pharmacy company is requiring all employees to submit detailed health profiles to their insurance company or pay a monthly fine to continue receiving health coverage. According to ABC News, all employees must submit their weight, body fat levels, blood glucose levels and other vital statistics before May 1, 2014, or face a monthly $50 fine — $600 per year. Employees who comply with the testing, the company said, will see no change in their monthly insurance rate. Those who do not will pay the fine or risk being dropped from their health plan." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCVS requires employees to report weight or pay a fine under new health care rules

Supreme Court rules ‘first sale doctrine’ applies to lawful copies of a copyrighted work

"The US Supreme Court sided Tuesday with a former Thai student who made $90,000 reselling text books bought abroad and sparked a copyright row with a publisher. Supap Kirtsaeng, who arrived in the United States in 1997 to study math at the University of Southern California on a scholarship, had asked his friends and family to buy the books, published by John Wiley & Sons, which were cheaper back home. John Wiley & Sons filed a complaint in 2008 alleging illegal importation and resale without the payment of exclusive distribution rights protected by copyright. Lower courts had sided with the publisher, imposing a $600,000 fine on Kirtsaeng." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSupreme Court rules ‘first sale doctrine’ applies to lawful copies of a copyrighted work

Report: Obama officials issued $216 billion in regulations last year

"The Obama administration issued $236 billion worth of new regulations last year, according to a report from a conservative think tank. The analysis from the American Action Forum, led by former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, found that the administration added $216 billion in rules and more than $20 billion in regulatory proposals in 2012. Complying with those rules will require an additional 87 million hours of paperwork, the report said. The group put the total price tag from regulations during Obama’s first term at more than $518 billion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReport: Obama officials issued $216 billion in regulations last year

Stossel: No Regulation? No Problem

"Private companies found they could 'crowd-source' enforcement against fraud and low-quality products, in much the same way that Wikipedia discovered an encyclopedia could be created without a central organizer. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales tells me that method 'works far better than the top-down system that it replaced.' We almost always assume that top-down government regulation is necessary, even though history says otherwise." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStossel: No Regulation? No Problem