Archive for the ‘News / Events’ Category
Had a Car Show Here Today . . .
. . . and I learned something new.
There were some magnificent machines dating as far back as the 1920s in a variety of vibrant shades, but what I learned is that
I really don’t get much of a kick looking at cars owned by somebody else.
IRS Audit Needn’t be a Four-Letter word
If you’ve been audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), you know it’s a pain in the neck.
If you haven’t been, there are some simple steps to take to alleviate as much of the pain and panic as possible. This is as good a time a year as any to begin.
The first thing is to make certain you have documentation supporting all income and expenses — receipts, canceled checks, and bank, credit-card and dividend statements, for example. Keep these records for at least three years. The IRS has three years from the date you file a tax return to audit it, according to the Financial Planners Association.
The IRS has up to six years to challenge your return if it thinks you have under reported your income substantially. You need the documentation to prove them wrong.
However, if you didn’t file a return or filed a fraudulent one, you’re subject to an audit at any time.
Your state (and your city, if it has an income tax) have time-expiration dates that may differ. If you file tax returns in another country, add those expiration dates to your calendar and make certain you keep tax records long enough so that you don’t get caught without documentation if your return is questioned.
The IRS treats everyone equally: you’re guilty until you prove your innocence.
That’s why a letter from the IRS can send shivers through anybody who receives one. The first rule here is, don’t ignore it.
Most notices include a deadline for responses and the IRS will expect to hear from you by that date.
If you have a tax-preparer, take the IRS notification to him or her immediately.
If you don’t have a tax preparer and the IRS is requesting additional information, make copies of the necessary documents and send them to the agency right away.
Even after all challenge limits expires, it’s a good idea to keep your tax returns for a few years extra, along with such documents as your year-end mortgage and investment- portfolio statements. It’s also a good idea to keep on file all records for assets you still own, ranging from your house to automobile to major appliances and jewelry.
If you don’t maintain your records and if the IRS asks for more information than you have kept, the agency is going to assume that you tossed them out for a reason — that you may be hiding something.
Wars Are Started by Mistakes.
If the U.S. decides to go ahead with its plan
to protect the Ukraine
by launching cyberattacks against Russia,
that’s a mistake.
Aquamation Gaining Support
A global awareness of a totally new approach to funeral practice was unleashed when it was announced that Archbishop Desmond Tutu had died and was laid to rest behind his pulpit in Cape Town.
The 90-year-old cleric gained renown for denouncing bigotry and racial tyranny as well as giving speeches and writing articles about the need to take action to combat climate change and protecting the environment.
To cap his environmental crusade, he requested that his body be aquamated, described as a greener alternative to cremation.
Few folks knew what that meant.
Aquamation is a cremation method using water that funeral parlors are touting as environmentally friendly.
The process, known more scientifically as “alkaline hydrolysis,” is simply cremation by water rather than fire.
The body of the deceased is immersed for three to four hours in a mixture of water and strong alkali-like potassium hydroxide in a pressurized metal cylinder that is heated to around 150 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
Everything is liquefied but the bones, which are then dried in an oven, reduced to dust and placed in an urn. The water can be processed through normal wastewater-treatment facilities.
This method of body disposal was developed in the early 1990s to discard the carcasses of animals used in experiments. It was used later to dispose of cows during the mad cow disease epidemic that lasted until the turn of the century.
Then U.S. medical schools began using aquamation to dispose of donated human cadavers and the practice slowly made its way into the funeral industry, according to a 2014 research paper.
The process also is used to dispose of animal carcasses in slaughterhouses, where it is considered to be more efficient and hygienic.
With burial space in urban areas worldwide becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, aquamation has obvious attractions.
However, the practice has not been legalized in every country and about half of the U.S. states have yet to authorize it.
Advocates claim a liquid cremation consumes less energy than a conventional one and emits fewer greenhouse gases.
According to UK-based firm Resomation, aquamation uses five times less energy than fire and reduces a funeral’s emissions of greenhouse gases by around 35 per cent.
Environmentally Friendly Cremations based in Australia claims water cremation “produces less than 10 per cent of the carbon emissions” of fire cremation, and a firm based in the U.S. said the process “uses 90 per cent less energy than flame cremation.”
The Longer I Live . . .
. . . and the more I see, hear and read about the doings of mankind,
the more I appreciate Noah’s wisdom of letting only animals climb aboard his ark.
Picture a Home Inventory
Having a handy reference should fire, water or burglar disrupt or destroy your home will make it much easier to deal with any agencies involved in recouping damaged or lost property.
Any camera, including your cell phone, can produce a visual record of what you have that you can show police or insurance company what you’ve lost.
Start by shooting your yard and the exterior of your home, garage, patio, and all the plants and yardwork equipment, swimming pool, vehicles, tools and “stuff” you have. Everything, including your pets.
Then do the same inside the house with every room and every piece of furniture with the drawers closed and opened to show their contents. Don’t forget your liquor cabinet. And all that’s hanging and stuffed into your closets. If you some special pieces, you can set them in the middle of the living room floor and shoot them separately.
Whether you’ve shot video or still photos, copy the contents in your computer and onto two or three thumb drives. Store those drives off premises, such as a safety deposit box and with a member of your family.
Shortage of Medical Staff
The aging population not only is creating more demand for medical services, it’s also accelerating the shortage of doctors and nurses as they approach retirement age.
As the 65-and-over population grows by almost 50 percent over the next decade, almost the same percentage of doctors will join that phalanx during the same period.
We expect to be almost 140,000 physician short of what we need by 2033, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, reports Bottom Line.
To protect yourself, you can look for a younger doctor to care for you should your current physician retire. You also can seek a primary care physician affiliated with a group practice so there will be a medical doctor there to serve you should your current doctor leave.
Pandemic Packing
There are so many of rules and regulations affecting travel these days, you have to make sure you don’t get quarantined during your journey. There’s more to be concerned about than the COVID -19 coronavirus.
Diseases that have been conquered here still run free in many other parts of the world.
Travelers can protect themselves by taking some extra care when packing medications for their trip.
Malaria still is a threat because it’s transmitted by mosquitoes. Travelers should pack mosquito repellant and avoid areas where the insects thrive. Mosquitos also spread yellow fever and some countries require proof of vaccination before allowing travelers entry.
There is no known protection against West Nile virus, Dengue fever and a few other similar possibly-fatal disorders spread by mosquitos so the only protection is to avoid areas where these creatures breed.
Hepatitis A & B still are perils that you can be shielded from by three immunizations. A vaccination can protect you from meningitis and a booster shot can ward off polio if you’ve been immunized earlier.
Before leaving on any trip, have a chat with your primary care physician to protect yourself on your travels.
The End of a Saga
It girdled two years: from January 2020 to the other day.
The plot was pegged to an Air Canada Phoenix – Toronto round-trip business-class ticket.
After receiving flight confirmation that January and looking forward to what I deemed would be a final fare-thee-well visit to family, relatives and friends around my brother’s July birthday, Air Canada began suspending flights in March and things still haven’t returned to normal for cross-border travel.
The airlines’ first response was to offer ticket holders vouchers valid for two years. I filed a claim like everyone else but had little hope I would get to use it. Then, after Air Canada applied for financial assistance from the Canadian government, the assistance was provided with a condition the Air Canada give its stranded ticket holders refunds if they wished instead of vouchers. I filed for a refund.
A simple phone call was all it took to recoup my travel insurance charge.
Early last year, I received an email with a case number telling me how much Air Canada was going to deposit in the account of the credit card I used to purchase my ticket. I was instructed to check on the status of my case/claim at an online address that I couldn’t get into and called Air Canada reservations a couple of times before being told during a phone call last summer that I was still in the system but there was no information on when my claim would be dealt with.
Suddenly last Wednesday an email popped up telling me my refund had been processed and would be sitting in my credit card account sometime within the next two months. If it didn’t show up on my credit card statement within that time, I was to call the credit-card company and give them the purchase date and ticket number to check and make good on the refund.
I was set to sit out another series of emails and phone calls when MAGICALLY is showed up Sunday on my credit card account, which I check regularly on line.
It set up a feeling that maybe I should look at resurrecting plans for that trip to celebrate my brother’s birthday and attend the relatives’ annual picnic in a nearby city but coronavirus rules and regulations are still in place. When I did a cursory check, I discovered that settling for a voucher would not have been a good idea because the lowest price for that same ticket is almost $600 more.
Followed an Old Piece of Advice . . .
. . . and just watched the final few minutes of Sunday’s football games, each with fabulous finishes. Underdogs won — Cincy beat Kan City 27-24 and Rams beat 49ers 20 – 17.
These two winners weren’t supposed to get through the first round of their play off runs but they’ll face each other in the Super Bowl in two weeks.
Mature Life Features 