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The devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy could affect your 2012 business and personal tax filings. The IRS has issued several bulletins to help taxpayers overcome these problems and ease the burden of rebuilding and making disaster-related filings. Residents that live in federally-declared disaster areas are eligible to receive the assistance and include many counties located in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. Loans from retirement plans. Participants in 401(k) plans, 403(b) tax-sheltered annuities and state and local government employees with 457(b) deferred-compensation plans can take out loans from these plans as part of a hardship distribution. IRA [...]

Five U.S. banks have provided about $ 22 billion in mortgage relief to customers under a deal to settle borrowers’ accusations over foreclosures, a report by the settlement’s monitor said on Monday. The report said that Bank of America Corp , which owes the most, improved in providing first-lien mortgage modifications to customers, trailing only JPMorgan Chase & Co through September. Bank of America provided $ 889.2 million in first-lien modifications that reduced loan balances for consumers, a turnaround from August when the bank had completed none. JPMorgan Chase & Co’s total was $ 903.1 million in modifications, the most [...]

Hurricane Sandy left a trail of destruction deeply impacting the lives of millions of Americans up and down the East Coast. While it’s still too early to tell, experts estimate the economic impact from the superstorm to be around $ 50 billion. Sandy destroyed thousands of homes and small businesses. Recovery is an incredibly expensive process and there are a multitude of resources available to small business owners. Below is a list of resources I have compiled to help small business owners get back on their feet:   Emergency Small Business Loans – The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers a [...]

Employers stepped up hiring in October and a small increase in the jobless rate was due to more workers restarting their job hunts, a hopeful sign for a lackluster economy that has been a drag on President Barack Obama’s re-election bid. Employers added 171,000 people to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. The government also said 84,000 more jobs were created in August and September than previously estimated. The jobless rate edged up a tenth of a point to 7.9 percent, but that was due to workers surging back into the labor force. Only people who [...]

Employers stepped up hiring in October and a small increase in the jobless rate was due to more workers restarting their job hunts, a hopeful sign for a lackluster economy that has been a drag on President Barack Obama’s re-election bid. Employers added 171,000 people to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. The government also said 84,000 more jobs were created in August and September than previously estimated. The jobless rate edged up a tenth of a point to 7.9 percent, but that was due to workers surging back into the labor force. Only people who [...]

The U.S. unemployment rate probably rose in October as employers stepped up hiring only slightly, underscoring President Barack Obama’s vulnerability in next week’s presidential election. Employers likely added 125,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, according to a Reuters survey of economists. That would be up from 114,000 in September, but would fall short of what is needed to quickly cut the jobless rate. Indeed, economists expect the unemployment rate — a key focus in the neck-and-neck race for the White House — to tick up by a tenth of a percentage point to 7.9 percent, reversing part of a [...]

Homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure are stressed and scared. They have become a prime target of con artists who prey on vulnerable people. Nonprofit organizations and government agencies are working together to warn consumers of the danger of mortgage relief scams and how to avoid them. Many mortgage scammers have been arrested, but plenty more are trying to take advantage of homeowners’ financial woes. Here are some examples of common mortgage relief scams. Scammers posing as official counselors Several Florida men were arrested in August 2011 and charged with defrauding homeowners under the name of a company called Home Owners [...]

Rain and cooler temperatures in the drought-stricken U.S. Midwest crop belt will provide relief for late-season soybeans, but the change in the weather is arriving too late to help the already severely damaged corn crop, an agricultural meteorologist said on Wednesday. “It’s definitely better than what we’ve had but I’d be hesitant to call it a drought-buster. Longer-term outlooks still look like a return to warm and dry,” said Jason Nicholls, meteorologist for AccuWeather. Nicholls said 0.25 inch to 0.75 inch of rain, with locally heavier amounts, was expected in roughly 75 percent of the Midwest from Wednesday through Friday [...]

South Korea on Thursday cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than three years, fueling concerns that the global economic downturn is taking its toll on one of Asias largest economies.Seouls move followed similar cuts in Europe, China and Brazil last week.Why did China slash interest rate?After lowering its rate by 25 basis point down to 3%, the Bank of Korea pointed to a slower-than-expected growth rate in trade and domestic consumption.The monetary policy committee hopes the rate cut will help the Korean economy return to a long-term growth trend, the banks governor, Kim Kim Choong, [...]