On today’s episode of the Serial Startups Podcast, we are talking all about debt. Debt is very prevelent in our society, and our guess is that you have some sort of debt. If you do, don’t be ashamed or discouraged. In our early twenties, we went from having no debt to over $200,000 in debt in a few short years.
In this show, we walk through a timeline of how we got into debt (and some lessons that we learned) as well as how we ended up paying off over $100,000 of that debt.
Episode Key Points
- How we got into over $200,000 worth of debt by 23
- The difference between good debt and bad debt
- How buying a house and quickly escalate your debt
- A tip to avoid salesmen selling you things you don’t need
- The strategies that we used to pay off $100,000+ in debt
- How going into more debt allowed us to pay off debt faster
- Why we recommend having more taxes taken out of your paycheck
- A free tool that can help understand and manage your finances
Links and Resources Mentioned in the Episode
- Serial Startups Podcast Show 2 – Why We Love Multiple Streams of Income
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Getting Into Debt Young and How to Work Your Way Out
- What $15,000 in Real Estate Training Looks Like
- Mark and Lauren G Podcast – The Simpler Happier Life
- Should You Pay Off Debt or Start a Business?
- The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
- Sylvester Enterprises
- Warsaw Wine and Spirits
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Serial Startup Podcast Show 3 Transcript
Tom: This is the Serial Startups Podcast Show 3. In this episode, we’re going to discuss how we got into over $200,000 worth of debt by the time we were 21 and how we’ve been able to pay off a significant portion of this. Alright, so welcome back to the show. This is our third show and this one, regardless of whether you’re going to start up a business or not, we wanted to talk about debt just because it impacts everyone. There’s personal debt that people get into. There’s obviously debt related to business but it seems like debt is such a huge part of our society and it causes a lot of challenges for people. You know, we’re going to go into our timeline, how we got into debt, and how that impacted us, but I mean off-hand, Ariana what are some of the challenges that we’ve had as a result of having debt at a young age?
Ariana: I mean it’s a huge challenge for a lot of people just in your relationship alone. I mean most people, they say that the number one thing that people fight about is money and if you’re fighting about money all the time, that’s going to impact your relationship and it’s going to impact a lot of the choices that you make and decisions that you as a couple have to make.
Tom: Yeah, you know there are some bloggers that we talked about that have a podcast too, Marc and Lauren Groupman and we’ll link to their show in the show notes at serialstartups.co/show3 and one of the things that they said in one of their podcasts was debt doesn’t just cost you money in terms of interest, but it also costs you time and experiences. And I loved when they said that because it really does. Because if you have debt, you’re going to have to make decisions based on that. So that might be taking another job or working longer hours which means you’re going to miss out on life experiences with your partner, with your family, or with others.
Ariana: Your friends.
Tom: Yeah, this is a topic that’s near and dear to our heart because we’ve spent a long time, many years getting into debt and also figuring out what strategies work and don’t work for getting out of debt.
Ariana: Yeah, and I mean, everyone starts with zero debt after high school or maybe not after high school I guess depending on your situation. Some people might start before that. But basically, everyone starts with no debt at some point. And then because of society and the way that things are, we have to…we might have to take a credit card out for this or you know, everyone says you need a credit card because you have to start getting your credit up so you can have a good credit score so you can buy a house and buy a car but all that comes back to is you have to start putting yourself in debt.
Tom: Yeah and in show 2 we talked a little bit about why people should have multiple income streams but in that show, we also talked about how money flows. And what gets most people into debt is having that mentality of your job makes you money and then that money pays for your expenses and your liabilities and that’s it. So out of this show today, what we’re hoping to do for you guys is really pull back the curtains and show you what did that look like for us because we got into debt pretty much by accident.
Tom: Some of because of we thought we were supposed to do it that way, some of mistakes that we made, so we want to show you really what it looks like to get into debt and how easy it can happen, and then just share some of the strategies and experiences we had of getting out of it and this may be relevant to you or it may actually be relevant to your children as they get into college and as they are starting out their careers or looking at what they’re going to do beyond high school, how do they do it the right way and how do they maybe minimize some of the debt they get into?
Ariana: So to bring this back, we’re going to reference a blog that we wrote back, oh gosh I don’t know when it was, but it’s getting into debt young and how to work your way out and we went through and made an actual timeline of all of the things that put us into debt. So I’ll start that out with our first debt would be student loans which is a pretty big one for everyone these days. I know Tom had to take out student loans to go to college.
Ariana: I also had to take out student loans and I didn’t get a lot of financial aid with mine because it goes based off of the income of your parents or guardians. So my parents made too much for me to even get any financial aid so I had to take student loans out and then because I was away at school and they wanted me to be able to live independently, we actually maxed out my student loans and took out the most that we could so that I had money for gas, and money for rent when I moved out off campus and lived in a house, money for food, and then I didn’t get a job in my field and even if I had, I wouldn’t have made enough money to start paying off that debt because it was just an exuberant amount that I didn’t necessarily need.
Tom: Yeah and I think that’s a key point is, Ariana and I have had a lot of conversations about this. Your next step after high school may or may not have to be college. If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably interested in starting a business.
Tom: So whether it’s you or whether it’s a friend you know or maybe it’s even your children, but there are alternate paths out there and even if you end up going to college, I mean we think college is great. We both went. I ended up going…
Ariana: Great experiences and it’s a definite important life experience.
Tom: Yeah I even went back and got my masters. But the key is being intentional with why you’re going to college and understanding how much money it’s going to cost and how much is going to come back.
Ariana: I mean an example for me, I definitely would have gone to college, but did I need a four year degree in Zoology? No. I could have gone and got my associate’s degree, taken some business class, learned how to use Microsoft Word and Excel and just different things that you would need out of in the business world and I would have been perfectly fine with just those.
Tom: But why did you do that? Because people told you to follow your passion right?
Ariana: Because you get out of high school and you’re supposed to go on to college and they tell you to find something that you like doing and that’s what your major should be because you should work and do something you like. And that’s not practical.
Tom: Well it’s good advice but we’ve got to look at how much is it going to cost us to do that and then how much we’re going to make afterwards. Because if the numbers make sense and you can follow your passion, awesome. But if you’re going to spend all this money on a degree that you’re never going to use, you may want to take a step back and look at something you can actually use.
Ariana: And next on the timeline, still in college, we both took out credit cards. Tom’s reason was a little less necessary than mine. He got a credit card because it came with a free Bill’s t-shirt.
Tom: Wait. When you’re in college and you can get a free Buffalo Bill’s t-shirt to show off your team that hasn’t made the playoffs in ten years, I mean that seems like a fantastic reason to get a credit card.
Ariana: And mine, I had a vehicle that I brought to school with me, and at one point it needed some…I think it needed an inspection and of course I went and they totally upsold me into your car needs all this done and you know, you can’t drive it without this and I, being a naïve college student, totally bought into that and got a credit card because I had $800 worth of repairs that I quote on quote needed for my vehicle.
Ariana: So bam. We both had credit cards.
Tom: After college we got an apartment and then if you listened to the first podcast, we actually went and bought a house a year after that. And you know a lot of people say, this goes back to whole rich dad, poor dad mentality. A lot of people say your house is an asset but in reality, buying a house is going to cost you money, not only upfront so you’ve got closing costs and you can put your down payment in, but then to pay your monthly mortgage payment, your insurance, your taxes every month, and then all the hidden costs of maintenance, buying a lawn mower, buying all these other things that come along with actually owning a house.
Ariana: And we actually have dates on this timeline. That was March 2007 and kind of an important part of the timeline was December 2006 he proposed.
Tom: So just going with the theme, I mean we both forgot our anniversary, so we’re doing good with this whole relationship thing.
Ariana: And that was definitely not even part of the plan, we did have a five year plan in college that everyone picked on us for but the plan was to graduate, get an apartment together, and then get married because going with the financials, we knew we would have to have time but he couldn’t wait so he proposed in December 2006 and then we got the house. Because you know when you get a house, you have to go and get a dog. And I worked at our local animal shelter on Lollipop Farm so on May 2007, a couple months after we got the house, we got a dog.
Tom: And then I had been driving a car I bought in college and it was falling apart so I had to buy a new car. It was actually a used car but it was still another expense.
Ariana: Yeah had to get a bank loan.
Tom: Had to get a car loan for that. That was shortly after we moved into the house in June 2007.
Ariana: July 2007 we did the naïve first home owners thing and fell for a couple of those home improvement sales that come knocking around the neighborhood. We bought brand new windows for our house because they scared us into the whole energy saver, and you need new windows.
Tom: And not just bought new windows…we spent $15,000 to buy new windows which to be honest, our existing windows were probably perfectly okay and if we wanted to actually get them replaced, we probably could have done it for a couple thousand dollars.
Ariana: Yeah and then we also bought a new smoke alarm system which I will say out of all the purchases we made, that one at least as a safety precaution and you know, the types of smoke alarms that we bought are top of the line and then we also got the heat alarms with them. So that one at least was for our safety, but did we need to do that four months after we bought the house? Probably not.
Tom: Yeah so let’s just recap that. So we bought a $100,000 house in March, a couple months later…
Ariana: We got a couple thousand dollar car.
Tom: We got a couple thousand dollar car. A couple months later we spent nearly $20,000 on buying windows and smoke alarms for our new house that we’d only been in for a couple of months.
Ariana: Yeah and then throughout that time, in 2007 and 2008, we…it was like the seasons of weddings for us. We were invited to probably I would say six to eight weddings each summer and then we were actually in a couple of those and they were in different cities so we were travelling on top of that so you know – not to say we weren’t grateful to be a part of all those people’s special days but when you add all that stuff together, the gifts, the travelling, being in the wedding and having to buy the suits or the dresses that stuff adds up very, very quickly.
Tom: And now for the icing on the cake…
Ariana: August 2007.
Tom: Tom spends $7500 on a credit card for real estate training.
Ariana: Yeah we did not need that. We were trying to plan the wedding this whole time. We did set our date a little further off. I think we were almost two years out from when we got engaged. We knew we would need some time to one, plan it, and to two, have the financial ability to pay for it, but yeah. We didn’t need that extra $7500.
Tom: Alright. So with that, now we’re going to get into some of this debt is actually business debt. So we’re going to talk a little bit later on whether you should actually pay off your personal debt first or whether you should start a business. But we’re going to show you the path we took. So we said that we spent the money on real estate training and we decided that we’re actually going to go and make that work because we had to pay off the $7500 credit card bill somehow. So in December of 2007, that same year we bought our house, we actually bought our first rental property.
Ariana: Yep and we named that Perry Housing, because it was in Perry.
Tom: As you guys can see and you’ll probably hear in the future, I have named one company and it was this one because it was easy. And every other company has been Ariana’s creativity because she does so much better.
Ariana: You did two: Perry Housing and Sylvester Enterprises. Really creative.
Ariana: Where he lived and his name. Anyways in May 2008, to join onto those home improvement sales and purchases, we signed up for an alarm system.
Tom: So we didn’t learn our lesson at that point.
Ariana: Nope, obviously did not learn our lesson. And I mean we do live in a suburb. There is not a whole lot of crime but you know, it is kind of a scary thought to think about what would happen if somebody broke into our house, what would we do? So they sold us on having the alarm system and this one had a monthly payment. It wasn’t a payment upfront so we were like oh, yeah. It’s not too bad. But you know, five years of $50 a month, that does come out to quite a bit. So yeah we didn’t need that one either.
Tom: And let me just take a step back at this point. Anyone that comes to your house or anyone that has a deal that sounds too good to be true, one, it probably is, two, these guys and whether it’s a real estate trainer, whether it’s some guru, whether it’s someone coming to your house to sell you something, they are experts in sales.
Tom: So they’re going to do all the strategies that are going to psychologically get you there. So like Ariana just talked about, it’s a little bit scary and they’re going to sell you on why you have to have an alarm system or why you have to do some of these things. The point is, they know what they’re doing and if something sounds like a good deal, my recommendation is take two days and think about it. They’re going to tell you that this offer expires and you’re not going to be able to get it outside of that day, but if it’s truly a good thing, after two days, it’s still going to be a good thing. They’re still going to offer you that deal, otherwise it wasn’t a good deal to start with, and it’s going to save you a lot of money just by thinking that way and actually taking some time before you start spending money on these things.
Ariana: Yep, so the next one on our list is pretty big. September 2008 we finally got married and went on our honeymoon. And although this is a great, great day, it was one of the best days of our lives, we probably spent more than we needed to which is in retrospect actually a lot less than everybody else spends.
Ariana: I think total with the honeymoon included we spent about $12,000 on our wedding which is pretty low.
Tom: That’s it?
Ariana: Yeah that was it. That’s all we spent.
Tom: Wow you are impressive.
Ariana: I was a super budgeting queen. I was DIY before Pinterest was around. So you know, it was a low amount but unfortunately we did pay for that ourselves so that was just more debt that we got into.
Tom: Yeah so then from there we ended up continuing in purchasing real estate which once again this is debt that we took on but it was business debt and it actually was good debt because it starting bringing us in money. So in October 2008, our second real estate business bought its first rental property and then over the next few years, we just continued to buy various rental properties, mostly residential but then we even got into some commercial real estate as well.
Ariana: Yeah and I think our number is…oh I just counted the other day. If you’re counting units, I think we have 23 units. But then we have eight duplexes, one house, and one commercial building so it all splits out. And February 2012, the next best day of our lives, we had our first child Alaina which we were able to keep our expenses pretty low for having a child because I did stay home so I mean pretty much with that, it was just diapers and diapers and wipes. I did breastfeeding so that was free. We didn’t have childcare expenses so it wasn’t too bad. And everyone was crazy buying kids clothes and stuff and so we did not buy a lot as well for having a baby which is kind of impressive.
Tom: And this goes back to what we had done during that time and we realized we got into all this debt, was we starting to talk about some of our goals and some of our plans, and when we had Alaina, you were actually able to leave your job. So I think that’s a great point as we go through this timeline really showing how we made some bad mistakes and then we started to realize that that wasn’t the path we wanted to go down.
Tom: We switched things up, that was our first major goal obviously it was great to have our first child but also great to have you staying home and replace your income with the business income.
Ariana: And then I mean the year of 2012 was kind of a crazy year because Tom had the idea of opening a wine and liquor store and to start off I kind of…I wasn’t sure how we were going to do that or if it was even going to happen because with New York State you have to apply for the liquor license before you can do anything and that was very long, I think like a six month process but in the meantime he was really serious, he said this is a long term retirement plan, let’s do it and we’re going to do it right. So within the, what is it, six, seven months, November 2012, he got approved for the license in I think October and we had been planning that whole summer, even just after having a baby, we had been planning that whole summer and doing the business plans and building everything out and we opened Warsaw Wine and Spirits in November 2012.
Ariana: And that was a very crazy time for us because Tom was working full time so guess who worked the store the whole first week we were open with a child? Yep, that would be me. Alaina was what? Nine months old.
Tom: I was going to say we have a picture of Elena actually sitting on wine racks.
Ariana: Oh, we have lots of pictures of Elena with me being at the store, sitting at the store.
Tom: We’ll put some of those up on the show notes which you can find at Show 3. But yeah parents of the year.
Ariana: Yeah, raising your child at a liquor store, that was us. But lucky for us, we were able to find a great employee; she works full time so after that first week, she worked full time Monday through Friday at the business. So I only had to be there that first week every day. Tom was working the late shift after work.
Ariana: So that first week was insane. But after that, we were able to find a great group of employees to run the store and I only had to travel there every once in a while.
Tom: Alright, so let me ask a question. So we have this real estate business, we have this liquor store – how often are you actually working at the liquor store?
Ariana: Now I go down once or twice a month.
Tom: Okay. So you don’t work in the liquor store?
Ariana: No I don’t work there.
Ariana: Isn’t that funny?
Tom: Do I work there?
Ariana: No. That has to be the number one most asked question when we tell people we own a wine and liquor store. Oh so do you work there? No, we don’t work there.
Tom: So we actually have an episode coming up in the future where we’re actually going to walk through our liquor store business and how that works.
Ariana: The process of opening it.
Tom: But the key thing here that I want to call out is part of building these businesses doesn’t mean that there’s going to take our time away in the future. As we build more income, that first like leading up to that first week, we spent a ton of time. I would work my full time job.
Tom: Ariana would go to the store with Elena and then I would leave my full time job, go work at the liquor store at 9 o’clock at night, and then finally get home and do that again. So it’s going to take some sacrifice to get our businesses going but the light at the end of the tunnel like we have now, we have employees that work at the store and then we spend a little bit of time just managing and overseeing it.
Ariana: And we have all of our processes written out. We’ll dive into how we did that and we’ll probably include a .pdf of how we’ve processed out those tasks that we have to do at the store and all that sort of stuff.
Tom: So over the next couple years we just kept taking the income that we made from the businesses, income from our…or my day job, and just kept putting those back into the businesses to pay off like we had paid off our personal debt but then being able to knock down some of that business debt too because as we knocked that down, that means that the income coming from those businesses just continues to increase.
Ariana: And then most recently, June 2015, we had our second child Ty and we are pretty close I think to completely out of debt although it’s kind of an evolving.
Tom: But a lot of our debt now is our business debt.
Ariana: Yeah it’s evolving because we keep putting money into the business and then we’re paying it back off so it’s good debt.
Tom: Yeah exactly and that’s a great point. There’s definitely good debt and bad debt and a quick definition of that, your bad debt is your debt that costs you money and your good debt is your debt that makes you money. So when we invest money into our businesses our when we’re buying equipment or whatever it is, if we spend a dollar, we’re going to get more than a dollar back which means that debt was a good thing to have. Alright, so that actually leads into the first point that I want to get into which is sometimes you have to actually take on debt to pay off debt. So what I mean by that is when we got to like our peak of our personal debt, there were really two routes we could have gone. One was really to cut back expenses, try to make more money at our jobs, and just pay that off.
Tom: And some people go that route and are very successful. The other option is to look for ways to bring in more income so that we could pay that off faster. And that was actually the route we went. We ended up starting our businesses so that we could bring in more income to be able to pay that off. So that meant that we actually put some of our money instead of paying off debt, we had to put it into a business and then we actually had to take on a mortgage to buy a rental property but then that rental property would give us cash flow and reduce our taxes so that we could take that money and put it onto the personal debt that we had.
Ariana: Well that takes us sort of into our debt snowball which I will let Tom explain.
Tom: So this is a concept that I believe Dave Ramsay has popularized. I don’t know if he came up with it but essentially the concept here is if you take all your debt out, you’re going to organize it by what is the highest interest rate.
Tom: So let’s keep it simple. Let’s say you had two credit cards, one had a 20% interest rate and one had a 10% interest rate. What you’re going to do is you’re going to focus all of your extra income to paying off the 20% interest rate credit card and then once that’s paid off, you’re going to take the money that you were paying onto that credit card and then put that onto the 10% credit card in addition to what you were already paying on that. So that means you’re going to be able to pay down that second credit card faster than you did the first and now if you have a third credit card or a fourth, you just keep doing that and over time you’re able to pay those credit cards or whatever debt that is off faster because you’re taking more money and just snowballing it into the next one.
Ariana: And we’ve done this. This is something that we practiced. We took all of our cards and we wrote everything down and we sat down and did goal planning. Okay, let’s figure out what income we have coming in every month, let’s figure out what we’re putting on onto all the cards, let’s figure out the excess that we have left over, and let’s figure out which card we’re going to start to pay down first. So we’ve done that and you know, we would take our yearly goals and go through our debt snowball.
Ariana: Okay, we paid off this card, now we’re putting all the income onto this card, after that we’re going to skip over to this card, and so on and so forth. So that really helped us with our plan to eventually pay down debt. The other thing that we want to talk about is cutting out unnecessary expenses. Now, this means different things to everybody because it’s all in what’s necessary for you. For us, one of the big ways that we cut out expenses, we do not buy presents for each other. We don’t do Christmas presents. We don’t do anniversary presents. We don’t do birthday presents. We would rather use that money to get us to a better place in our life and we just…we try to take the happy times that we have and just celebrate those instead of going out and spending a lot of money doing stuff. I mean we do out do dinner occasionally. We’ll go out to a movie or we’ll do something to stay in but it’s something special for us. But we really try not to spend any unnecessary money on ourselves because that’s just something that we don’t feel we need.
Ariana: It’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make at this time. Yes, at some point in the future we would love to be able to start buying gifts again for each other but we’d rather spend our time and money in other places. Another way we cut out expenses was getting rid of cable. We have Netflix, we have Hulu, we do other things for entertainment. We felt that cable was just not necessary. We were wasting a lot of time and definitely wasting a lot of money there because you pay for cable and we don’t want a large majority of the channels and most people only have cable so that they have DVR so that they can watch the shows that they don’t have time to sit down and watch. So, those were a couple ways that we’ve gotten rid of unnecessary expenses. We don’t go out to eat a lot. We don’t spend a lot of money on ourselves in general. We don’t go shopping. Typically the only thing I shop for is the kids.
Tom: Yeah, and this isn’t to say that you have to your spouse and say, hey we’re not going to buy gifts anymore.
Ariana: No, don’t do that. That works for us but we suggest you find a way for you to go out and try to cut some unnecessary expenses.
Tom: Yeah, because the key thing is we all think we need things but if you really sit back and look at how much money do you spend each month? Like we’ve gone through in detail about how much comes in each month, how much goes out each month, and are there things we can cut back? And that’s where we figured out we can cut back on things like cable and some of these other nice-to-haves but not need-to-haves, and the sacrifice in the past and now will then allow us to do bigger and better things in the future. So what you have to look for and what we coach our clients on is take a look at all of the time you spend, take a look at all of the money you spend, and see where you can cut some of that out, to get both time and money back because that’s what’s going to allow you to start your business and end up building more time and more money. So if you’re interested in learning more about that and kind of getting our step by step guide, head over to serialstartups.co and then click on the Startups Academy and that is the course and membership site where we have all of our content and then us guiding people on how to get on some of that and then actually start their first or additional income stream.
Tom: So with that, the final tip that we like to talk to people about is, you’re working so hard to make your money, make sure that you’re actually keeping as much of it as you can. So if you own a business, you can get quite a few tax deductions. If you haven’t started a business yet, you can still get some deductions for donations you make, your interest mortgage, your student loans…
Ariana: Having kids.
Tom: Yep, but far too many people end up missing out on a lot of that money because they don’t file their taxes right or they try to do it themselves. So I mean our accountant I think he charges us $100 or something.
Ariana: $150 I think.
Tom: Yep, but even going to like H&R Block or some of these places, they’re going to make sure that you’re getting these deductions which means that you keep more of the money without having to really do anything else. The other thing is not only keeping more of that money, but a lot of people try to minimize how much money the government is holding for them and which ultimately minimizes how much they get back at the end of the year. But one of the biggest things that helps us pay off debt if you can have more taxes taken off your paychecks, at the end of the year, you’re going to get a return and that return may be a thousand dollars, two thousand dollars, or more, and when you get that big chunk of money, you can then pay down a significant portion of debt. A lot of people go back and say; well I don’t want the government holding my money. I’d rather have that money now rather than later but the reality is, if you get an extra $5 per paycheck or whatever it is, you’re probably going to spend it. But if you get that big return at the end of the year, now you can have a much bigger impact and you’re not just going to spend it here or there on extra McDonalds or something else.
Ariana: Yeah, I know it’s hard for a lot of people to consistently save on a week to week or month to month basis. You know, some people are successful with it with the jar or I know I’ve seen some of those plans where you save a certain amount per day for 30 days and then you have this big chunk at the end, but a lot of people don’t have the willpower to do that consistently. So you know, tax returns is definitely one way that you can kind of save yourself the trouble and the time by filing correctly so that you get that big return and you can do something significant with it.
Tom: Absolutely. So we went through a lot of stuff here but we want to leave you with our final tip of the week and I’ll let Ariana go through with that.
Ariana: Yeah, we recently I think last year started using Mint.com which I don’t know why it took us so long to use it but it’s really helped us get a big picture view of our spending monthly. It allows you to sign in and then you sign in to each of your accounts, your bank accounts, your credit cards, your 401ks, your mortgage.
Ariana: Any kind of account that you have that has an online login and it’s a financial account, you can log in through Mint and it will automatically update so it gives you as your transactions are coming in, they’re showing up on Mint, you have the option to create budgets for yourselves; shopping budget, a grocery budget, a gas budget, dining out, it will tell you your medical expenses. It splits everything out by category and you can go in and obviously edit if you need to if it doesn’t pick the categories correctly. It shows you…it will give you warnings for when your payments are due, it will give you warnings for when your budget is close to goes over what you set for yourself per month. So it’s a really good tool for anybody and everybody to use but especially if you’re trying to pay down that debt and get to a better spot financially.
Tom: Yeah and if you haven’t started a business yet, this is going to give you some good discipline of looking at how much money comes in, how much goes out, and what some of your targets are because one of the key pieces of running a business is making sure that you have cash flow. And that means that the end of the month, after all of your expenses are paid, you’ve got money left over. And if you can start by doing that discipline with your personal finances, you’re going to have much more success when you start your first business by being able to do that.
Ariana: Yep. So if you missed any of our mentions or you want to see some of the links, head over to the show notes page serialstartups.co/show3. That is our show for this week I think. Thank you guys for listening again. And we’ll see you again next week.
Tom: Alright, see you guys.


Bringing biometric payments to the masses
13 November, 2014
category: Biometrics, Financial, NFC
As recently as this past spring, executives from telecommunication companies told me that Apple would never include near field communication in a handset, instead opting for the ubiquitous Bluetooth Low Energy.
Well, in September Apple proved them wrong and included NFC into the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, launching Apple Pay. Apple has agreements in place with Visa, MasterCard and American Express, along with numerous banks and dozens of retailers.
The service launched in late October and I decided to take it out for a test drive. Enrolling the cards was easy. I included the card associated with my iTunes account and then decided to add my debit card as well.
For that, I took a picture of the card and it was quickly added to my passbook. I also had to go through a process of confirming my iTunes card as well. After both were enrolled I received emails from my banks confirming the enrollment in Apple Pay.
Now it was time to make some purchases, and first on my list was at Walgreens. After the clerk rung up my purchases I placed my phone near the point of sale and the screen just lit up. It showed both of the cards I had enrolled, and by simply touching one or the other, I would be able to use that particular card.
For the first purchase I choose my debit card, touched my fingerprint on the Touch ID scanner and received the short vibration prompt back confirming the purchase was complete. But in this case that wasn’t entirely true. Since I used a debit card, the point of sale asked for my debit card’s PIN and then took me through the rest of the prompts – cash back and confirm amount – before finalizing my transaction.
The next couple of purchases I made I used my other credit card and it worked perfectly. I simply held my phone to the terminal, touched the fingerprint scanner and it worked. I was even able to pay for a cab that had a contactless terminal equipped.
I had previously tested a case that enabled me to make payments using my iPhone 4 and the biggest issue was activating the phone, launching the app and then making the payment. The fact that when you hold the phone up to the terminal it just works and enables you to choose which card to use makes Apple Pay very easy to use.
And then there’s the added bonus of these transactions being more secure. They’re authorized with a fingerprint, while on the backend all the Apple Pay transactions are tokenized and account numbers aren’t.
It will be interesting to see how Apple’s NFC technology evolves. They’re making money off of each payment and it will be interesting to see how they open up the NFC protocol to hopefully enable physical access control or other applications to take advantage of the new iPhone’s NFC chip. Apple will also be including NFC in the Apple Watch coming out in 2015.


Pre-Sales Manager, Banking, Americas
We are Earnix
We enable insurers and banks to provide faster, smarter, and safer prices and personalized products. With our products, insurers and banks can offer personalized value to every customer, every time, and in full alignment with their corporate business strategy, goals, and objectives.
With over 80 customers across the five continents, Earnix has been consistently innovating for Banks and Insurers around the globe. We have offices in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Israel.
We have the opportunity for an exceptional pre-sales manager to join our growing team. This person needs to be passionate about the mission we have to grow the banking business across the Americas, someone who understands both retail and commercial banks, understands how analytics can help them and has experience in the enterprise sales process to Tier 1 banks.
You will join a fast growing, cutting edge technology company that has a proven track record in providing software and customer analytics solutions that have transformed some of the world’s top financial institutions. This high-profile position reports to the Global Head of Sales, Banking and part of a growing team of high tier business professionals.
As part of the Global Banking Sales Team, you will be the solution lead during the sales process. Working alongside Sales Directors you will help uncover customer business goals, needs and pains that relate to the Earnix platform and demonstrate how the Earnix suite of products align with the bank’s vision. The role will require you to create personalized business-value based presentations and demos and where necessary, you will provide technical responses to (and overall management of) the RFPs and RFIs.
Added to this, you will stay on top of industry news, technology products, platforms and partners to ensure you and the wider team provide and maintain a deep industry and ecosystem expertise.
Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or related analytical field.
Experience working in the banking industry with deep knowledge of credit financial products, ability to talk on a peer-to-peer level with senior executives and business teams
3+ years’ practical experience with data analytical tools.
The ability to simplify complex technical problems – by getting into the weeds but always knowing how to summarize and simplify;
Prior experience in an environment selling to financial institutions an advantage.
You enjoy presentations. You feel comfortable leading presentations and demos of the Earnix platform to large groups, both technical and non-technical. In-person and virtually.
You can tie business problems to technical solutions and understand technology value propositions.
You have excellent communication skills. You can easily relate complicated concepts to non-technical people, while maintaining the ability to speak to highly technical people.


Mentioned in this article
Engines rev as car sponsors are announced across League of Legends, Activision Blizzard’s leadership reshuffle continues, and the Tokyo government will hold its first esports event.
Missed any of the biggest esports business news last week? The TEO Monday Morning Briefing recaps the top headlines from the last seven days!
Kia to Sponsor LEC, Audi Partners With Origen
Our top story last week: Just days after revealing its multi-regional partnership with Dell’s Alienware brand, Riot Games announced that Kia would be a major sponsor of its League of Legends European Championship. The Korean car brand will also be the presenting sponsor of the “Player of the Game” segment in league broadcasts, and will build a content series around LEC team Fnatic. Just days before that, Audi pledged its support for another team, Origen, and Mercedes-Benz had been confirmed as the top sponsor for China’s league for another year.
As well as sponsoring RFRSH Entertainment’s League of Legends team, Origen, Audi will also support a number of yet-to-be-announced esports and digital entertainment projects. While the BLAST Pro Series is one possibility, a source close to the deal told The Esports Observer that Audi’s involvement in German soccer—as both a sponsor and partial team owner—will play a part.
Mike Morhaime to Leave Advisory Position at Blizzard Entertainment
Former Blizzard Entertainment president and company co-founder Mike Morhaime, who has been serving as a strategic adviser since stepping down in October, will be leaving the company in April, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
This is just one part of a major restructuring in Activision Blizzard that continued last week with CFO Dennis Durkin also named president of the company’s emerging businesses, which includes the subsidiary overlooking esports properties, and naming Call of Duty executive vice president and general manager Rob Kostich president of Activision.
Blizzard and NetEase Extend Publishing Partnership Through 2022
Blizzard Entertainment has extended its partnership with Chinese publisher NetEase until January 2023. In addition to bringing the games themselves to China, NetEase also oversees Chinese esports programs for multiple Blizzard titles. Aside from Overwatch, these initiatives operate independently, even Heroes of the Storm, which will continue professional play in China, despite Blizzard shutting down the Heroes Global Championship late last year.
Tokyo Government to Host Esports Event in Fiscal 2019
The city of Tokyo will host its own esports event in fiscal 2019. The Tokyo Metropolitan government plans to allocate ¥50M ($460.9K USD) in its fiscal year 2019 budget (which begins in April) for the event. Dates, venues, and other details have not yet been determined. In just over a year, Japan has gone from a legally restricted esports market, to one of the strongest in terms of federal support.
Investments: ESL-led Project Wins UK funding, Super League Gaming Readies IPO
The Weavr Consortium, a project led by ESL UK, won the sports and technology grant of the Industry Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF). For context, a portion of this £18M ($22.9M) fund also went to projects designed for London’s Natural History Museum, and one led by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Weavr project is based around VR/AR, AI, and data-driven content production, and is designed to create UK-based revenue that could have application in traditional sports production.
Super League Gaming’s IPO will have a placeholder value of $25M. The company has found a niche in the industry with its amateur and youth focus, has previously received investment from aXiomatic and Nickelodeon, and saw triple-digit revenue growth in 2018.
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In the mid-90s, most people still had vivid memories of what a period of rising and persistent inflation looked like. For those of us who lived through the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, we can remember the impact that double digit inflation, double digit interest rates, and the accompanying recessions had on our families and our financial lives.
Financial advisor and author Nick Murray often used postage stamps as an easy illustration of rising prices. He would simply show the price of a postage stamp from some previous date, such as 1975, and then show the cost of the same stamp 20 years later. The rise in price of the stamps mirrored the inflation that we had ALL experienced over that time. This metaphor resonated with both advisors and financial institutions. Many of them created marketing pieces around this idea. Here is one that I have had in my briefcase for the last 27 years, created in 1995.
Source: SunAmerica and Jesse’s briefcase
It was a simple, yet vivid illustration of the impact of rising prices on everyday costs and goods. Remember, many retirees live on relatively fixed incomes. As prices rise, people are spending more of their limited resources on the same milk, eggs, gasoline, and yes, stamps. The leaves less cashflow to pursue other interests, hobbies, travel, and lifestyle goals that make life meaningful for our clients and their families.
As if on cue, the US Postal Service announced that it will increase the price of stamps from $.58 to $.60 in July. The Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said on May 5th that he expects that the Postal Service will continue to raise prices at “an uncomfortable rate” until the agency becomes self-sufficient.
A recent survey conducted by CNBC and Momentive finds that many American consumers are already cutting back on their spending due to the impact of rising inflation. As much as 60% of the US population lives paycheck to paycheck and has less than $1000 in savings. This means that many people are having to make difficult decisions about where to spend their finite resources. Lower income households are most at risk and are having to make unwelcome decisions and trade-offs about which necessary expenses to cut back on.
However, the study also finds that Americans with incomes of at least $100,000 are also cutting back their spending. This is extremely important from an economic standpoint, as higher income constituents make up nearly 3/4 of consumer spending. Remember that consumer spending makes up 70% of GDP. This will be an important indicator of if/when we have a recession.
None of this is fun to report. However, it is real, and it is important for all of us to be aware. The CFP’s of Impel Wealth Management will continue to track the impact of rising prices to the economy, the financial markets, and the families we strive to serve. We wanted to share this with you to help put some context and perspective around what you are hearing in the media and online. It is part of our mission to keep you informed as we continue “Moving Life Forward”.
© 2022 Jesse Hurst


Indonesian lenders are expected to attract more foreign investment as they prepare for tougher capital requirements by the end of 2022 and the country’s economic growth prospects improve.
Nearly half of the 83 Indonesian banks covered by S&P Global Market Intelligence will need to raise new capital from investors to meet more stringent capital requirements, based on their Tier 1 capital levels as of September 30, 2021. All lenders must have at least $3 trillion. rupees of Tier 1 capital by December 31, as part of the Financial Services Authority’s efforts to strengthen the country’s banking system. At least 32 banks had capital below Rs 2 trillion as of September 30, 2021.
More business activity is likely among smaller, less capitalized lenders in 2022, analysts said. These banks could turn to foreign investors who have long been attracted to Indonesia’s banking system for its above-average spreads and loan growth, said Yulinda Hartanto, analyst at CGS-CIMB Sekuritas Indonesia.
This year “will be the last year for banks to meet the requirement and some banks have not reached this level of capital; thus, this will continue into 2022,” Hartanto said.
Indonesian banking and payments companies offer exciting growth prospects for foreign investors looking to tap into the domestic market population of over 270 million. The overall return on average equity of Indonesian banks was 7.37%, 12.31% and 12.93%, respectively, over the past three years. Banks aggregate the net interest margin was 4.96% in 2020, well above most other jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region, according to data from Market Intelligence. Economic growth prospects are brightening for the country amid the ongoing recovery from a pandemic-induced slowdown, with the Asian Development Bank predicting GDP growth of 4.8% in 2022.
Since 2017, the Southeast Asian country has recorded 35 banking M&A deals and 9 deals in the payments industry, according to data compiled by Market Intelligence. Deal activity cooled after a busy 2019 when more than a dozen deals were announced, including Bangkok Bank PCL’s acquisition of PT Bank Permata Tbk for $2.40 billion.
Indonesian banks and payment companies could also see investment from tech companies as more such players turn to financial services. Ride-sharing service provider Grab Holdings Ltd. recently teams up with Singtel to buy a combined 32.52% stake in PT Bank Fama International. The acquisition follows foreign investments in mobile wallet PT Visionet Internasional and payment infrastructures iKaaz Software Pte. ltd. and KuDo Technology Indonesia LLC.
“[Indonesia] would be central to all tech companies entering the financial sector, especially the lending segment,” Hartanto said.
Investors from Japan, South Korea, Thailand and other Asian markets remained active in the Indonesian banking sectors over the past few years as they seek to scale up and earn higher returns outside of their home markets. Between 2014 and 2019, Japanese financial institutions paid or pledged at least US$9 billion for stakes in several Indonesian lenders. These investments included Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.the acquisition of several billion dollars by PT Bank Danamon Indonesia Tbk in 2017.
As of February 15, US$1 was equivalent to 14,263 Indonesian rupiahs.


Agricover Holding S.A. takes its first step on the Bucharest Stock Exchange by listing the largest bond issue of a Romanian entrepreneurial company on the BVB
Radu Hanga, President of Bucharest Stock Exchange:
"We are delighted with the success of the bond issue carried out by Agricover Holding S.A. both because we are talking about the largest bond issue carried out by an entrepreneurial company on the BVB, but especially because the money attracted from investors will be directed towards supporting the development of Romanian agriculture. The pandemic has shown us that, in times of tension and uncertainty, we have to rely first and foremost on our own strengths, so it is only natural that the capital market should also support Romanian companies."
Ioana Tănase, Director Investment Banking, BCR:
"Over the years, BCR has supported the group's development through financing and it is only natural that we should also support Agricover Group on the occasion of their first step into the capital market. Today we have clear proof that a solid company will always attract the interest of investors. We are proud that this model has been provided by Agricover, with whom we have a long history of partnership in business. Last but not least, Romania needs to move quickly towards sustainable development and BCR is ready to support its clients in these initiatives as well."
Irina Neacșu, Executive Director Corporate Finance, BRD Groupe Societe Generale:
"Agricover is undoubtedly one of the most representative entrepreneurial business groups in Romania, growing profitably at a fast pace and holding prominent positions in all its business segments. The attractiveness of the agricultural sector and the issuer was confirmed by institutional and private banking investors who oversubscribed the bond offer, thus becoming the new partners of Agricover Group's future growth. Also in view of our experience as an intermediary of the offer, we are convinced that the bond issue is only a first step for the Agricover Group on the Bucharest Stock Exchange."
Ștefan Bucătaru, Member of the Board of Directors of Agricover Holding S.A.:
"We are very pleased with the opportunity to create a bridge between as many and as diverse investors as possible on the capital market and Romanian agriculture. Agricover Group, through Agricover Credit IFN S.A., Agricover S.A. and Agricover Technology S.R.L., has made it a business strategy to facilitate the access of Romanian farmers both to the most advanced agricultural technologies and to financing solutions adapted to the specific agricultural sector, so that as many Romanian farmers as possible can develop successful businesses in optimal conditions. We want to offer Romanian investors the opportunity to join us in this endeavour, so that together we can effectively contribute to the modernisation of Romanian farms on a professional, competitive and sustainable basis."
Adrian Tănase, General Manager, Bucharest Stock Exchange:
"The successful financing rounds carried out at the BVB demonstrate that there are more financiers, individuals and institutional investors on the stock exchange. These resources can come from deposits, pension funds and mutual funds. In recent years we have seen companies from various sectors come to the stock exchange, agriculture, energy, medical, HoReCa, IT, banking and non-banking finance. At the same time, this year we will see new companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange from various sectors of the economy, with more than 20 companies in various stages of preparation, according to public information alone."
The bonds issued by Agricover Holding S.A. in the amount of €40 million are unsecured, with the nominal value of one bond being €50,000 and a coupon rate of 3.5%. The issue was conducted through a private placement on the BVB closed in January 2021, which was oversubscribed and enjoyed a diversified audience, both among institutional investors (open-ended investment funds, commercial banks, international financial institutions) as well as among private banking investors.
The capital raised through the bond issue is intended to finance the lending operations of Agricover Credit IFN SA, a subsidiary of Agricover Holding S.A., specialising exclusively in financing farmers in Romania. Including through the funds raised through the bond issue, the non-bank financial institution aims to maintain the fast pace of lending to Romanian farmers and to further contribute to the sustained, sustainable growth of local agricultural performance.
More information is available in the Prospectus prepared for admission to trading and published on the agricover.ro website or on the BVB website.
We invite you to watch the launch event tomorrow, 31 March 2021, at 10:00 a.m., on Agricover and BVB communication channels, at the BVB headquarters. The agenda is available here.
Agricover Holding S.A. is a holding company and represents the vehicle through which the four entities of the group are held, namely Agricover S.A. (specialized in the distribution of agricultural technologies), Agricover Credit IFN S.A. (non-banking financial institution specialized in financing farmers), Abatorul Periș S.A. (specialising in pig slaughtering and pork processing) and Agricover Technology S.R.L. (through which the Group intends, from 2022, to provide farmers with access to the latest innovations in global agriculture and, in practice, facilitate a transformation in the way they do business through access to digital technologies).
Since its establishment, Agricover Group has aimed to serve Romanian farmers and provide them with innovative solutions tailored to their needs, so that they can systematically and sustainably strengthen their productivity through access to high-performance agricultural technologies and financing solutions tailored to the specific agricultural sector. The Group has made a direct contribution to the very good performance of Romanian farmers, who, in the last decade, have steadily increased their average productivity per hectare for cereal and oilseed crops, recording in 2017-2019 a level that represents 93% of the European Union average, respectively 75% of the productivity recorded in France, 77% of the productivity recorded in Germany and exceeding by 19% the average yield of farmers in Poland.
Currently, more than 1,000 employees work in Agricover Holding S.A. subsidiaries. The Group serves a portfolio of more than 6,000 active farmer customers, who farm more than 2.2 million hectares of arable land nationwide.
The majority shareholder of Agricover Holding is Jabbar Kanani, with a stake of 87.269% of the subscribed and paid-up share capital. Another major shareholder is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which holds 12.727% of Agricover Holding's shares. Adama Agriculture B.V., a member of the Syngenta Group, one of the world's largest producers of plant protection products and certified seeds, holds 10.000% of the shares in Agricover S.A..
Agricover Holding S.A. ended 2019 with consolidated revenues of more than RON 1.65 billion (an increase of more than 25% compared to 2018), while the balance of net loans granted to farmers by its specialised subsidiary Agricover Credit IFN S.A. as at 30 June 2020 was RON 1.832 billion, 22% higher than the level recorded as at 31 December 2019.
The BUCHAREST STOCK EXCHANGE (BVB) administers markets for shares, bonds and other financial instruments through regulated platforms or multilateral trading facilities and provides a wide range of services to financial market participants. Bursa de Valori București has been listed on its own market since 2010. Global index provider FTSE Russell announced in September 2019 the promotion of the Romanian equity market to Emerging Secondary Market status. As of 21 September 2020, Romania is included in the FTSE Russell Emerging Markets Indexes. For more information about the Bucharest Stock Exchange, visit bvb.ro.
For more information, do not hesitate to contact:
Ștefan Musgociu, BVB Business Development and Marketing Specialist, +40.730.255.030, firstname.lastname@example.org
Carmen Chioțea, Marketing Director Agricover Group, +40.749.888.885, email@example.com
30 MARCH 2021, Bucharest


SPRINGFIELD, IL (AP) - The top Republican in the Illinois House says he won't go along with Gov. Pat Quinn's call for higher cigarette taxes to help the state's struggling Medicaid program.
Minority Leader Tom Cross says House Republicans oppose "any tax increase to solve our Medicaid crisis."
Cross noted that the Democratic governor said in his budget address that the state needs to reduce Medicaid expenditures and didn't mention a tax increase. Cross said he'll hold Quinn to his word.
Quinn on Thursday offered a plan for closing a $2.7 billion hole in Medicaid, which provides health care for the poor. His proposal includes removing 215,000 from the program, cutting many services, reducing payments to providers and raising cigarette taxes by $1 a pack.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


The prime brokerage business has evolved rapidly in recent years. It is now offering investors better ways to look at their fund managers' portfolios via the Internet. Some have been offering analysis reports. Others are exploring how to provide transparency, portfolio stress-testing and risk-measurement tools.
To take full advantage of these services, however, you need to be ready to give your prime broker clean data. Trading on spreadsheets may give you tremendous flexibility in viewing your trades, but it severely limits your connectivity to prime brokers. To make your success scalable, you need the strength of a proven trade order management system.
SS&C's Antares trading system has a robust, three-tiered architecture and established connectivity through the industry standard FIX message format. With Antares as your trading platform, you will not only be T+1 ready, but also be able to send your prime broker all the necessary data in real time without sacrificing the flexibility of spreadsheets.


The only way is up: The iron ore price boom that refuses to die
Four months ago, when iron ore prices were testing the $US150-a-tonne mark, alarm bells were warning that the forces that conspired to push the price to the stratosphere would abate.
Roll the clock forward and prices are now close to US$190 – nudging iron ore’s all-time high of US$193.
Shredding machines are bursting at the seams with discarded reports from economists and commodity experts, who have been on the wrong side of the iron ore forecasting game. Second-guessing the Chinese and the Brazilians is an occupational hazard.
For more information, please click on the link below:


White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC (“White Oak”), an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, LLC, announced its Government Contracting Finance Division provided $4.5 million in factor and ABL-based credit facilities to three aerospace businesses providing specialized services to US Defense agencies.
The first is a veteran owned, service-disabled startup located in Washington State that provides intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance services (ISR) to the global unmanned aircraft system (UAS) industry. It received a $1.5 million factoring facility to fund its working capital and payroll needs in support of its Federal Government contracts.
The second, a Virginia-based engineering firm providing specialized aerospace, communications and national-security solutions to US Department of Defense agencies, received a $2 million asset-based lending facility after outgrowing its existing financing with a community bank. The increased line of credit will allow them to compete for and service large contracts and increase its R&D efforts.
The third is a Virginia-based developer of autonomous, solar-powered perpetual flight vehicle systems that enhance government and commercial telecommunication and emergency efforts around the world. White Oak provided the firm with a $1 million factoring facility to fund its working capital needs and increase hiring in support of its Federal Government contracts.
“We’re honored to partner with these businesses dedicated to delivering groundbreaking aerospace systems to the US Department of Defense,” said White Oak Head of Government Contract Financing, Kysha Pierre-Louis. “Our ability to provide them with flexible financing essential to meeting contract demands, creating jobs and supporting their mission of keeping the country secure brings us great pride.”
ABOUT WHITE OAK COMMERCIAL FINANCE, LLC
White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC is a global financial products and services company providing credit facilities to companies across the economy. WOCF’s solutions include asset-based lending, full-service factoring, invoice discounting, government contract financing, supply chain financing, inventory financing, US import/export financing, trade credit risk management, account receivables management and credit and collections support. The firm has offices and personnel throughout the US, UK, and Australia, including San Francisco, Charlotte, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, London, Glasgow, and Sydney. WOCF is an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, LLC, and its institutional clients. More information can be found at www.whiteoaksf.com/commercialfinance.
About White Oak Global Advisors
White Oak Global Advisors, LLC is a leading global alternative asset manager specializing in originating and providing financing solutions to facilitate the growth, refinancing and recapitalization of small and medium enterprises. Since its inception in 2007, White Oak Global Advisors’ disciplined investment process focuses on delivering risk-adjusted investment returns and establishing long term partnerships with our borrowers. For more information, visit www.whiteoaksf.com.


The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has changed some of the rules for homeowners. Rest assured, however, your tax deductions when you file with the IRS can still be a sizable amount if you are planning to sell your home. Here are five things to consider.
These tax deductions are allowed as long as they are:
You can deduct any costs associated with selling the home, including
Remember, you can’t deduct these costs the same way you would mortgage interest. You subtract these tax deductions from the sales price of your home, instead. This will positively affect your capital gains tax.
Renovating a few rooms could fetch you a higher sales price. If you did renovate a few rooms to make your home, you could also deduct the upgrade costs. This includes:
You can deduct the expenses of any home improvements you needed to make in order to sell your home as selling costs. The catch, however, is that it all boils down to timing. These only count as tax deductions if they were made within 90 days of the closing.
Have dutifully been paying your property taxes up to the point when you sold your home? Then, you get to deduct the amount you paid in property taxes up to $10,000.
You can deduct the interest on your mortgage, just like property taxes, for the portion of the year you owned your home. Remember, under the new tax code, new homeowners, and home sellers, can deduct the interest on only up to $750,000 of mortgage debt. Homeowners that received their mortgage before Dec. 15, 2017 can keep deducting up to $1 million.
The mortgage interest and property taxes are itemized tax deductions. This means that all of your itemized deductions need to be greater than the new standard deduction for it to work in your favor. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has nearly doubled the standard deductions to:
Capital gains aren’t technically tax deductions. It’s an exclusion. You will still like it, however.
Capital gains are your profits from selling your home. The profit is any cash that is left after paying off your expenses and any outstanding mortgage debt. These profits are taxed as income. There’s good news, however. If you’re single, you can exclude up to $250,000 of the capital gains from the sale. It’s $500,000 if you are married. The catch is you need to have lived in your home for at least two of the past five years.
It is always best to consult with a real estate accountant to be sure that you understand the tax benefits and tax deductions of selling a Florida home. Feel free to contact us for more information.


All businesses have some sort of operating cycles. This is basically the time it takes from the purchase of the required materials or supplies and turns it into a finished product that can be sold.
A further operating cycle consists of selling products and collecting payment for all that effort. Once the products are sold and payment is collected, the cycle is complete.
For retail businesses (including online business), the cycle begins with the purchase of products for resale (inventory) and then displays the products on the shelves or on a web page, close the sale and collect payments.
People can check various online sources to get working capital finance for small businesses.
Image Source: Google
Even service providers, though their operational period may be much shorter, often see the time gap between delivering services (including purchasing materials or manpower to complete the work) and receiving customer payment.
This is due to the time lag is that the working capital financing comes into play.
All these businesses need some form of asset, whether it supplies, materials, equipment, labor, etc. (usually called: current assets) that can rapidly flow through the operating cycle and converted into cash (income). This is essentially what the business.
The organization will then use the operating cycle income (gross margin) to fund payroll costs such as wages, promotions, debt payments and interest, capital investments, or remain general, administrative or distribution charges until payment (revenue) has been approved.
The problem that arises for most businesses (mainly small and growing businesses) do not have the cash on hand to buy the materials needed to complete the cycle of their operations. Not only are some businesses do not have the cash or capital to purchase the necessary materials they might not fully cover the cost of other variables related to the operating cycle such as paying for the labor, landlords, utilities, etc.


Investment panel: AI investment trends
Within the discussion, leading industry specialists will discuss key trends of artificial intelligence investments, will give recommendations on using opportunities provided by venture foundations, will show how to present your own product properly and many other things.
Key topics of the expert panel:
The investment panel will involve representatives of venture foundations and startup accelerators: Galina Degtyareva (Maxfield Capital), Konstantin Vinogradov (Runa Capital), Denis Kalyshkin (I2BF Global Ventures), Lyubov Simonova, Arthur Nafikov (Target Global) and Daniil Kozlov (GVA).
Besides the expert discussion, AI Conference will include Speed Dealing business meeting, allowing startup founders to present their projects in the form of brief pitch sessions to big investors, business angels, representatives of venture foundations and accelerators.
Speed Dealing is a perfect chance for developers to present their projects, obtain objective feedback from market experts and, perhaps, raise funding. In turn, investors will be able to get acquainted with the latest developments in the artificial intelligence and big data sector.
Thus, Speed Dealing will help prospective developments to enter Russian and global markets.Become a visitor
Join our subscribers and receive a 1000 RUB discount on a ticket
April 25, 2017 | Moscow
Novotel Moscow City
Presnenskaya Naberezhnaya 2, Presnensky District


The latest Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) JobsOutlook shows employers feeling more positive about their business prospects – and slightly better about the wider economy.
In April-June 2023, employers’ confidence in making hiring and investment decisions for their own business continued to rally. A net balance of +7 showed more businesses growing in belief than those who were doubtful. This measure moved into positive in the Spring for the first time since early 2022. Businesses’ views on the wider economy also got better but remained negative overall at a balance of -41 (April-June 2023). A higher-than-normal number of businesses answered “don’t know” to questions on hiring plans – perhaps reflecting doubt over this contrast between firms’ view of their own prospects and the wider economic picture.
The headwinds of inflation, interest rates and low growth are certainly making employers cautious when forecasting demand for staff. JobsOutlook shows demand in the next three months for permanent workers unchanged at +18 and for temporary workers at +8. Medium-term (four to 12 months) forecast demand for permanent workers dropped to +16 from +20 during February-April 2023 and for temporary workers it is in negative territory at -8.6. The contrast of growing confidence in their own business but caution on hiring decision-making reflects the unpredictability of the wider economic picture.
Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the REC, said:
“Businesses across the country are clear that they believe in their business and its plans – and they are continuing to hire. But concerns about the wider economic picture are slowing some decisions or reducing them in scale. While the overall picture of demand from employers remains very robust, the more that can be done by government to articulate a clear plan for growth, the more likely it is that firms will be willing to back their belief in their own business over concerns about the wider economic weather. An effective industrial strategy designed to boost competitiveness, investment and employment should be a key part of this, including major issues like childcare, transport, immigration and welfare-to-work support. All of these have a significant effect on labour supply and growth potential.”
You can find out more here – http://bitly.ws/PqcT


There are 4 engines to choose from, with a brand new electrical one coming quickly. three. Capital – business owners ought to have a certain quantity of their very own private equity invested. This demonstrates confidence and provides banks the assurance that you’ll see the operation by a monetary issue.
Check on expiration dates. Some rewards programs discontinue after a particular amount of time or by on a predetermined date. * The mortgage that you’ve taken should be conforming and assured by Fanny Mae or Freddie Mac (both are government-sponsored establishments).
Your interests are actually not their objective generally.
Definitely there is no painless approach to resolve what financial institution is greatest. Most have several rewards equivalent to low mortgage charges and excessive rates of interest and low person fees. In lots of instances if one bank has a positive facet that you may find irresistible they may have one other half that may be much less attractive. What’s one of the best bank for you when you are studying the best way to manage cash? Let’s go through these tips about budgeting and picking a bank.
Short on cash, and have to stay at residence?
House mortgages which are to be paid over a long period of time can be quite a burden. If you intend to pay your own home mortgage in a shorter span of time and are willing to pay a larger month-to-month installment, then you may repay your current house mortgage with the help of a brand new refinanced loan. Be certain that the brand new mortgage you’re taking to refinance is one which spans over a shorter time period and this manner you will be able to complete paying the mortgage on your own home a lot sooner.
In the least doable length the money gets transferred into your bank account. Though it is helpful to have the ability to spot these individuals, you additionally want to concentrate on the truth that others can be motivated by utterly totally different points. These of you who preach and train, take these three words starting with the same letter and your individuals will remember what’s so central and vital. Present your people with the information about Jesus Christ.


According to experts, a good rule of thumb is to have the equivalent of your annual salary in savings by age 30. That means, if you earn $50,000 a year, you could aim to have $50,000 in savings by the time you hit 30.
That amount includes any retirement account contributions, matching funds from your company, cash savings or money you have invested elsewhere, in index funds or robo-advisors.
"While this can sound super daunting today, if you're putting that money to work starting in your 20s, it's not as difficult as it sounds," says Kimmie Greene, money expert at Intuit and spokeswoman for Mint.com.
Here are six strategies to start in your 20s that will help you reach that goal by 30.


Red Bank, NJ (PRWEB) March 28, 2013
Garden State Securities is pleased to announce that Karl Snyder has joined the firm as their new Chief Market Strategist. Karl comes to GSS with over 12 years of financial industry experience holding his series 66 and 7 licenses as well as being a series 86/87 licensed research analyst. Karl holds the Chartered Market Technician designation and is a member of the Market Technicians Association.
Karl started his financial career as a Registered Investment Advisor with American Express Financial Advisors. Prior to joining GSS, Mr. Snyder worked for several boutique firms as a Registered Investment Advisor; it is here where he began his study of technical analysis to oversee client portfolios within capital markets. He focuses on intermarket analysis with an emphasis on sector rotation and the impact on the financial markets.
Karl attended Rutgers University, he served four years in the United States Marine Corps. His USMC achievements include - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Expert Rifle Badge, National Defense Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Meritorious Mast (awarded three times), and the United Nations Medal.
Mr. Snyder lives in Easton, Pennsylvania with his wife and three children. He is an avid runner, having completed four marathons and is currently training for his fifth. Karl is an active member of the Marine Corps League and participates in the College Hill Neighborhood Association.


Choosing a career in actuary makes a real difference!
About accounting Jobs
Browse accounting jobs in West Medford, MA (02156) to the right. We are constantly updating our jobs database with various accounting opportunities near West Medford, MA.
Nearby zip codes:
accounting Jobs in Medford (02155)
Other accounting Jobs in West Medford:
accounting Jobs in West Medford
Auditor Accounting Work
Located in Concord, MA. Work for usajobs.gov. Work Details: The 24 Hours May Include Up To 6 Hours Of Credit In Business Law. (1) Twenty-four Semester Hours In Accounting Or Auditing Courses Of Appropriate Type And...
Part Time Bookkeeper Accounting Jobs
Located in Concord, MA. Work for Indeed. Jobs Details: Creating And Issuing Monthly Member Statements, Accounts Payable And Receivable, On-line Banking, Bank Deposits And Monthly Bank Statement Reconciliation,...
Accounting Assistant Accounting Job
Located in Concord, MA. Work for Indeed. Job Details: Perform Adjusting General Ledger Journal Entries. Process & Record Customer Credit Card Payments. Assist With AP & AR Transactions, Including Data Entry, Cash...
Internal Auditor Accounting Job
Located in Somerville, MA. Work for Indeed. Job Details: Thorough Knowledge Of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Promulgation’s Of UMAS, Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), And GAAP Accounting...
Staff Accountant, Lexia Learning Accounting Jobs
Located in Concord, MA. Work for Lexia. Jobs Details: This Person Will Be Responsible For A Combination Of Daily Accounts Receivable Functions Including The Auditing Of Purchase Orders, Reviewing, Creating Invoices...
Financial Analyst Accounting Position
Located in Boston, MA. Work for Amazon.com. Position Details: This Role Requires The Ability To Interact Confidently With Cross-functional Teams And Senior Leadership....
Accounting Manager Accounting Career Opportunity
Located in Concord, MA. Work for Indeed. Career Opportunity Details: Manage Day-to-day Accounting Activities To Ensure Timeliness, Accuracy, And Internal Controls, As Well As Month End Close Process (including Review Of Journal...
Accounting Associate Accounting Job Opportunity
Located in Burlington, MA. Work for Indeed. Job Opportunity Details: Process The Daily Journal Vouchers And Batch Entries For EasCorp And Its Subsidiary Company. Serving Hundreds Of Credit Union Members Throughout The United...
Accounting Technician Accounting Jobs
Located in Cambridge, MA. Work for usajobs.gov. Jobs Details: Verifies Accuracy Of Vendor Invoice, Reviews Supporting Documentation, Determines Whether Partial Or Full Payment Is Being Requested....
Accounts Receivable/revenue Accountant Accounting Job Availability
Located in Boston, MA. Work for Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Job Availability Details: Ideal Candidate Will Have Knowledge Of State Budgeting And Financial Accounting Systems. Review Of Accounting Practices To Ensure Conformance With Reporting And...
Employer: Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Accounts Payable Accountant I Accounting For Hire
Located in Andover, MA. Work for Indeed. For Hire Details: High Volume (500+ Invoices Weekly) Processing In A Manufacturing Environment Preferred. Understanding Of Full Cycle Accounts Payable Process(Vendor Creation To...
Staff Accountant Accounting Career Opportunity
Located in Bedford, MA. Work for Augmenix. Career Opportunity Details: Preserve Account Receivable And Account Payable Balances By Creating And Sending Invoices And Matching Purchase Orders, And Packing Slips To Invoices Prior To...
General Accountant Accounting Job Availability
Located in Lowell, MA. Work for University of Massachusetts Lowell. Job Availability Details: Analyze, Review And/or Prepare Entries And Enter To PeopleSoft General Ledger. Analyze Accounting Activity And Perform Account Reconciliations For Controller...
Employer: University of Massachusetts Lowell


If you feel ready to start a business in Iowa, there are a few steps you’ll need to follow. No matter what your idea is or whether you have any entrepreneurship experience in the past, you’ll need to make sure that your business is structured properly, and you have the right tax ID numbers to ensure your company is operating legally. Iowa is an unexpected hotbed of economic activity. There are more than 267,000 small businesses in the state, representing 99.3 percent of all Iowa businesses. Together, they employ nearly half of Iowa’s workforce, at a total number of employees more than 646,000. In 2018, those small businesses created nearly 18,000 net new jobs, and contributed more than 2,600 small business exporters.
Apply Online by Choosing Your Entity Type
Steps to Obtaining a Tax ID (EIN) Number and Registering an Iowa Business
- Forming a Business in Iowa
- Federal Tax ID (EIN) Number Obtainment
- Iowa State Tax ID Number
- Localized Licenses and Permits in Iowa
Choosing how to form your business is one of the most important early decisions you’ll make for your business. Getting started, there are many factors you’ll want to consider when choosing a business structure. For example, you’ll want to consider the requirements for starting and managing the business in question. Sole proprietorships and partnerships are among the simpler businesses to start, since they’re subject to fewer rules, regulations, restrictions, and annual requirements. Limited liability companies (LLCs) are slightly more complicated, and corporations can get messy. This is mostly because corporations come with a number of extra perks, including the ability to issue public shares to raise funds.
Taxes are another major consideration. Sole proprietorships and partnerships are taxed simply; you’ll owe taxes as an individual on any money you make from the business. LLCs and corporations are treated as separate entities, so they get more complicated. LLCs are generally considered pass-through entities; they won’t be taxed on the income they generate, but individuals in the LLC taking a salary or profits will be taxed on whatever they withdraw from the business. In Iowa, LLCs will be required to file a biennial report, along with paying a fee that ranges from $30 to $45, depending on how you file. Corporations will need to pay taxes on any revenue they generate, resulting in double taxation, since individual owners and shareholders will also need to pay taxes on money they make from the business. In Iowa, the corporate income tax rate is currently 12 percent, though it will be reduced to 9.8 percent in 2021. This makes it the highest corporate tax rate in the nation.
Business owners should also think about liability issues. In sole proprietorships and partnerships, owners will take on all debts personally, and could be held liable for any actions taken on behalf of the business. LLCs provide a bit of liability protection, but corporations provide much more protection. Both these separate legal entities can take on debts independently, and can be held liable (instead of an individual) for actions taken by the company.
Your Iowa business will probably need a federal tax ID number. This distinct, 9-digit number serves to uniquely identify your business, kind of like a social security number. It’s given to your business when you register with the federal government, and is sometimes called an employer identification number (EIN). You’ll need this number if you’re going to hire employees, if your business has multiple partners, if you’re going to open a business bank account, or if you’re applying for a loan, a business license, or a permit.
The most efficient way to get your federal tax ID is to make use of our federal tax ID number obtainment services. Through us, you can apply online, which makes the application process as quick and straightforward as possible. Simply answer a few questions about you and your company, and you’ll get your tax ID via email in an hour or less.Apply for an Iowa Tax ID Number
Your Iowa business may also need an Iowa state tax ID number. This number registers your business with the state government, rather than the federal government, but also serves as a unique identifier for various applications. You’ll need an Iowa state tax ID number if you’re selling taxable goods and services in the state, if you’re hiring Iowa employees, or if you’re going to owe excise taxes on regulated goods like gasoline, alcohol, or tobacco.
You’ll need a federal tax ID number before you get an Iowa state tax ID number, so make sure to get that first. When you’re ready, use our Iowa state tax ID number obtainment services to apply online. Answer a few quick questions about your business, and you’ll receive your Iowa state tax ID in a matter of 4 to 6 weeks.
When starting a business in Iowa, you may need specific business licenses, permits, or other kinds of certification. There is no generalized business “license” that you need; instead, you may need one or more of hundreds of licenses and permits that vary based on the size, location, and industry of your business. Because these requirements vary from city to city, there’s no one set of standards for you to follow. Instead, you’ll need to reach out to your local Chamber of Commerce to see which licenses and/or permits apply to you. Be sure to have your federal tax ID number ready if you’re going to submit an application.
Over the past 20 years, the state’s equivalent of gross domestic product (GDP) grew more than 50 percent, outpacing national growth. Some of the biggest contributors to that economic growth were businesses in industries like healthcare, social assistance, accommodation and food services, manufacturing, retail trade, and construction. However, due to the diverse selection of both rural and urban opportunities for development, there is an economic precedent for virtually any startup entrepreneur to choose Iowa as a home base.
With our federal tax ID number and Iowa state tax ID number obtainment services, you can get your tax ID numbers as quickly as possible. Make the process easy on yourself, and get started today!


By The Hospitable Team
Listing your vacation rental on Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo is a wonderful way of getting some income from a property that you don’t expect to use all the time. But one of the biggest responsibilities facing any host or property manager is vacation rental property maintenance.
If you have been struggling to meet all your maintenance responsibilities, this post is for you. It will help you understand the basic steps you need to take to avoid costly repairs and keep a pleasant living environment for your guests.
Repairs vs. Maintenance of a Rental Property
Planning for regular rental property maintenance allows you to set aside a portion of your rental income for upkeep. Then you can perform routine maintenance on time, and that’s important for keeping your rental in good condition.
If you neglect ongoing maintenance, it often results in bigger problems, which can be solved only with more extensive and costly repairs. For example, if you don’t fix that small leak in the roof, it can eventually lead to structural issues or extensive mold damage. So if you’re looking to save, don’t skimp on maintenance.
That also means that you might need to hire a co-host, a cleaner, a plumber, and an electrician to help you maintain your property. Then you can benefit from using short-term rental software like Hospitable.com that allows you to streamline your operations and automatically assign tasks to your team.
Team management taken to the next level.
Remember: if you don’t pay expenses for upkeep, waiting till the last minute may result in higher maintenance costs. And a little bit of regular maintenance can go a long way toward preventing many Airbnb problems. But how much should you plan to spend? Let’s find out.
Rental Property Maintenance Expenses
Maintenance expenses for vacation homes include plumbing, lawn care, electrical and roof repairs, painting and flooring, pest control, and replacement of worn-out appliances. Homeowners must also pay premiums for hazard insurance. That helps protect the property owner from damage to the home caused by natural events, such as fires, severe storms, tornados, and earthquakes.
Determining how much money you should allocate for rental property maintenance expenses can be tricky. There are different approaches to estimating the annual maintenance costs on rental properties, but each rule results in similar numbers, and the overall goal is the same. You should ensure that you have enough money for routine maintenance and unexpected emergencies.
Depending on the type of your vacation rental property, you may consider a few top rules:
- 1% Rule: Set aside 1% of the property value a year to address rental maintenance expenses. So, if your rental property is valued at $250,000, then maintenance will cost around $2,500.
- 50% Rule: Set aside half of your rental income each month for repairs, maintenance, taxes, insurance, and other costs related to your property.
- Square Footage Rule: Set aside $1 per square foot for annual maintenance costs. For example, if you own a 2,000 square-foot rental property, you will need $2,000 of maintenance costs a year.
A rental maintenance budget will also depend on whether you opt to do most maintenance yourself or hire a team. You should do an honest assessment of your skills and availability before making this decision. It may be tempting to save money and go the DIY route on rental maintenance, but you may find that your time is better spent on other aspects of the short-term rental business.
Why Do You Need Rental Property Maintenance Checklist?
Routine maintenance is necessary for several reasons. First, you can prevent larger issues from developing and minimize the need for emergency repairs, which are a hassle and a costly setback for any property owner. Preventative maintenance will prolong the life of your property and the appliances and reduce the overall maintenance cost.
Second, your guests want a pleasant stay in a perfect home. So you should keep your rental property in good working order. Then they will be happy that you are a responsible host who goes the extra mile to create a safe and pleasant environment for them. And they are more likely to give you 5-start reviews.
Besides, by law, rental property owners must maintain certain health and safety standards, including keeping major systems in working order. That means you need to perform regular property inspections to ensure that everything is okay.
A rental inspection checklist is the most effective way to prevent minor things from turning into more significant issues. Also, a routine rental property maintenance checklist can help ensure that you don’t forget an essential part of a regular inspection.
Airbnb Maintenance: What Are Host’s Responsibilities?
Building a successful Airbnb business requires a lot of effort, patience, and proper rental property maintenance. Here are some important tasks that you need to do regularly, although this checklist is not exhaustive:
- Inspect for pests quarterly, if not monthly, to keep your home pest-free.
- Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and regularly replace the batteries.
- Check for water damage or leaks to prevent mold.
- Inspect sink, shower, and bath caulking for deterioration.
- Service heating and cooling systems twice a year.
- Replace filters in ducts and air conditioning systems every three months.
- Flush the water heater twice a year.
- Inspect the roof and clean gutters.
- Ensure door and window locks are secure.
- Check common areas for potential hazards.
- Prune trees and shrubs.
- Clean your property before and after each booking.
You should also create rental maintenance schedules for bigger projects, such as repainting walls or replacing carpets. With proper Airbnb maintenance, you’ll make your guests happy and will be able to keep emergency maintenance requests to a minimum. But if maintenance issues happen, your guests will expect you to take action immediately.
You also need to be responsive and answer your guests’ questions as fast as possible. Airbnb messaging is one of the most important aspects of running a short-term rental business, which can involve questions around the clock.
Being available to your guests 24/7 can be challenging, especially if you manage multiple listings. But with Hospitable.com, you’ll be able to take advantage of the next-level messaging automation and automate many other aspects of your business.
All your STR business in one convenient window
Start now with a 14-day free trial.
It’s important to be prepared for any situation related to your vacation rental property maintenance. Don’t ignore maintenance issues. It’s always best to be one step ahead and set a planned rental property maintenance schedule. Otherwise, you may run the risk of having to fix more costly and time-consuming issues that may appear unexpectedly.
Co-hosts help Airbnb listing owners take care of their rental property and guests. They’re often a family member, neighbor, trusted friend, or someone the host has hired to help with the listing. Read this post to discover how to make Airbnb co-hosting effective and efficient.
It’s your responsibility as a host to make your place safer for guests and ensure they will access help in case of emergency as quickly and easily as possible. Read this article to learn what you can do to minimize safety risks to guests and provide them with the necessary information.
When you have back-to-back guests at your short-term rentals, it can be stressful to make sure your cleaners are at the ready at the right time. With hospitable, you can automatically notify your cleaners and avoid that stress altogether.


Milford is a boutique investment firm that provides a range of investment products and services designed to help clients meet their specific investment objectives. Milford was formed in 2003 by an experienced group of individuals who recognised the need for an investment company that New Zealanders can trust and which provides a premium service.
Today, the Milford team comprises more than 50 passionate and talented individuals across offices in Auckland and Sydney who are solely focused on helping their clients achieve their investment goals. Milford currently has over $4 billion of funds under management and offers a range of services and funds. Discover more about Milford on their homepage found here.
Please confirm that you have read our Product Disclosure Statement before entering your details into our online Application Form.


In 2010, 102 million smartphones were shipped. This year, manufacturers are eclipsing the number by more than 50 million, a gain of 40 percent. But who are the winners? Certainly, we can count on Apple considering their outstanding earnings as well as Android.
It’s no secret that smartphones are become more prevalent in the world since smartphone demand is rising and costs have been set low for the handhelds. Shipments advanced to 158 million units from 102 million a year earlier, exceeding IDC’s forecast for a gain of 40 per cent. So who are the winners?
- The iPhone 4S – Apple sold 37 million iPhones last quarter
- Apple’s share of the global smartphone market jumped to 24 per cent from 16 per cent a year earlier, regaining its top spot from Samsung, which had overtaken the iPhone-maker in the third quarter.
- Samsung’s share climbed to 23 per cent in the fourth quarter from 9.4 per cent a year earlier
- Nokia and RIM, both of which are struggling to reverse slumping sales with new phone operating systems, saw their respective share shrink.
- Nokia’s share fell by more than half to 12 per cent from 28 per cent a year earlier, and RIM’s dropped to 8.2 per cent from 14 per cent.


An Italian governor grabs for Amazon’s bulging swag-bag
Amazon and other huge on-line marketers have made out like the proverbial bandits since COVID more or less shut down their competition. Now, in Italy at least, the revenooers are coming to claw a little back, just in time for Christmas.
Actually, not so little. This morning Rome’s La repubblica reported that Alberto Cirio, the president of Italy’s heavily industrialized province Piedmont, has introduced a bill to introduce a supertax on the proceeds of web-based businesses grossing more than €5.5 million a year in Italy and €750 million worldwide. He called on governors of other Italian provinces to do the same. If four of them do, the tax could become law for the entire land.
Cirio’s basic proposal makes no direct reference to COVID, but its intended effect is spelled out clearly. By raising the base tax on gross revenues from 3% to 15%, he expects to raise the current tax bite of an annual €750 million to €5.5 billion (6.5 billion dollars).
But his “Step 2” goes on to levy another 15% on gross revenues as long as Italy’s current lockdown lasts, specifically to relieve the losses of commercial enterprises forced to close as the giants of on-line commerce have made hay while the plague reigns.
To immediate cries that he’s over-reaching the powers of his office, Cirio said:
“I am a liberal [in economic policy]; but to be one has to mean guaranteeing that everyone starts from the same point. Why has e-commerce increased its sales 31% since the beginning of the year? Not because it’s done such a good job[literally: “has been a good boy”] , but because the competition is kept from [competing], due to Government decisions made to look after the health of the public—in other words, due to a distortion [of the marketplace]. It is this distortion which our proposal is intended to correct.”