May v1i1

Info Briefs
Short Articles Relevant to Business, Investment,
Taxes, and Leadership
May 2019 vol 1, iss 1
BUSINESS BRIEFS
RISE IN SELF-EMPLOYED
CHALLENGES THE
COMMON WISDOM
Andrew W. Hait March 13, 2019,
for the U.S. Census Bureau
If you think a business is a
brick-and-mortar place of work
with employees and managers
who have benefits and paid time
off, think again.
The latest data show that more
than three-fourths of U.S.
businesses may be run out of
someone’s home and have zero
employees.
According to the Nonemployer
Statistics program, there were
almost 25 million nonemployer
businesses in 2016, accounting
for more than 76.2 percent of all
businesses. These are businesses
with no paid employees and are
subject to federal income tax.
Most nonemployers are selfemployed
individuals operating
sole proprietorships, which may
or may not be the owner’s
principle source of income. They
are present in nearly every
sector of the U.S. Economy.
US JOB GROWTH
SURGES IN APRIL
beating expectations with
263,000 added
By Megan Henney, May 03,
2019, Jobs, FOXBusiness
The U.S. economy added
263,000 jobs in April,
soaring past Wall Street’s
expectations for an increase
of 185,000 jobs, while
unemployment fell to the
lowest rate since 1969.
MICROSOFT TOPS $1
TRILLION
Microsoft briefly tops $1 trillion
market cap after earnings boost
By Megan Henney, April 25,
2019, Microsoft FOXBusiness
Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday
briefly surpassed $1 trillion in
valuation for the first time,
boosted by
betterthanexpected
earnings
and the
growth of
the
company’s cloud business.
That makes it the third U.S.
company to top $1 trillion in
market capitalization; Apple
became the first in August and
was followed in September by
Amazon.
FACEBOOK'S NEW CAMPUS FOR OCULUS GETS $515 MILLION OF FINANCING
By Megan Henney, April 25, 2019,Real Estate, FOXBusiness
The developer building Facebook’s new campus just south of San Francisco received $515 million in financing for the
project from JPMorgan and Starwood Property Trust this week.
Known as Burlingame Point, the 803,000-square-foot campus will eventually house
Oculus, the virtual reality arm of the social media behemoth. It’s the largest lease ever
signed in San Francisco, said Mike Moran, one of the lead brokers at Cushman &
Wakefield, which arranged the financing for the developer Kylli Inc.

INVESTMENT BRIEFS
TESLA COULD GO EVEN HIGHER THAN OUR $4,000 PRICE
TARGET, SAYS FUND MANAGER CATHIE WOOD
May 4 2019,Lizzy Gurdus @LIZZYGURDUS
Ark Invest chief Catherine Wood is holding firm on her thesis on Tesla
— which she believes could run to $4,000 a share or higher — telling
CNBC’s “ETF Edge” on Monday that her conviction in the company has
actually increased since last year.
SEC CHAIRMAN CLAYTON
ON BITCOIN: BUYER
BEWARE
By Joe Williams, March 14, 2019,
Bitcoin, FOXBusiness
Could bitcoin still go to $25K?
In an exclusive interview with
FOX Business, Chairman Jay
Clayton defended his stance on
the digital currency, arguing he
is not against the asset but rather
has concerns over the potential
for manipulation and wants to
ensure investors are protected.
Still, Clayton’s ongoing
apprehensions cast doubt over
the possibility that the SEC will
approve the first bitcoin
exchange-traded fund in the
coming months and provides
fresh fodder to critics who have
assailed his approach to
regulating the digital currency.
“What I’m concerned about at
the moment is if it can be
reasonably demonstrated that
the underlying trading is
generally not manipulated, it’s
happening on reliable venues
with good rules and that custody
is something we can feel
comfortable about," he said.
Bitcoin hit $8,000 again.
What's behind the rise
Shannon Liao, CNN Business, Tue
May 14, 2019
New York (CNN Business)
Bitcoin just surged past $8,000
on Tuesday, hitting its highest
mark since last July. It tapered
off slightly by mid-afternoon,
but is still trading at its highest
level in nearly a year.
What's going on? Bullish experts
say the strong showing could signal
that bitcoin has a future as a worthy
investment oppor-tunity. But the
currency's volatile and
controversial history has prompted
plenty of skepticism. "It's bitcoin's
moment to shine when people
momentarily give up on the
government or the banking system,"
Dow Jones 6 Months Chart ~ macrotrends.net
We do virtual bookkeeping & taxes
for businesses & individuals
wherever they are located.

TAX BRIEFS
MOVING EXPENSES
Employers must now include
moving expense reimbursements
in employees’ wages. The
new tax law suspends the former
exclusion for qualified moving
expense reimbursements. There
is one exception for active duty
members of the U.S. Armed
Forces. They can still exclude
moving expenses from their
income. There is additional
guidance on reimbursements for
employees’ 2017 moves if an
employer reimburses the
expenses in 2018. Generally,
reimbursements in this situation
are not taxed. ~ IRS 3/11/19
CHOOSE A TAX
PROFESSIONAL WISELY
Hiring a tax professional is an
important decision. Choose
carefully. Well-intentioned
taxpayers can be misled by tax
preparers who don’t understand
taxes or who mislead people into
taking credits or deductions they
aren’t entitled to just to increase
their fee. Every year, these types
of tax preparers face penalties
including prison time for
defrauding their clients. ~ IRS
3/12/19
HERE'S HOW MUCH WEALTHY
AMERICANS PAY IN TAXES
By Brittany De Lea, April 15, 2019,
Taxes FOX Business
Out of the 150 million-plus
taxpayers expected to file returns
this year, new data shows the
country’s wealthiest residents bear
a sizable tax burden when
compared with lower-earning
payers.
According to data released recently
by the Internal Revenue Service,
compiled by the Tax Foundation,
the bottom 50 percent of taxpayers
paid about $43.9 billion in income
taxes 2016– which accounts for
roughly 3 percent of all income
taxes paid.
The top 1 percent, on the other
hand, accounted for about 37.3
percent of all income taxes paid
during the same year.
BUSINESS TAXPAYERS SHOULD
TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT
THEIR ESTIMATED TAX
PAYMENTS
Taxpayers who pay quarterly
estimated tax payments may want
to revisit the amount they pay. The
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changed the
way most taxpayers calculate their
tax. These taxpayers include those
with substantial income not subject
to withholding, such as small
business owners and self-employed
individuals. Many taxpayers may
need to raise or lower the amount of
tax they pay each quarter through
estimated taxes.
Alternatively, many taxpayers who
receive income not subject to
withholding, but who also receive
income as an employee, may be able
to avoid the requirement to make
estimated tax payments by having
more tax taken out of their pay. ~
IRS 3/14/19
PAY-AS-YOU-GO
The U.S. tax system operates on a payas-you-go
basis. This means that
taxpayers need to pay most of their tax
during the year, as the income is earned
or received. Taxpayers must generally
pay at least 90 percent (however, see
2018 Penalty Relief, below) of their taxes
throughout the year through
withholding, estimated or additional tax
payments or a combination of the two. If
they don’t, they may owe an estimated
tax penalty when they file.
Who may need to pay estimated taxes
Individuals, including sole proprietors,
partners and S corporation
shareholders, may need to make
estimated tax payments if:
they expect to owe at least $1,000 when
they file their tax return.
they owed tax in the prior year.
Taxpayers who may need to make
estimated tax payments include
someone who:
receives income that isn’t from an
employer, such as interest, dividends,
alimony, capital gains, prizes and
awards.
has tax withheld from their salary or
pension but it’s not enough.
has more than one job but doesn’t have
each employer withhold taxes.
is self-employed.
is a representative of a direct-sales or
in-home-sales company.
participates in sharing economy
activities where they are not working as
employees.
Wage-earners and salaried employees
can avoid estimated tax payments by
having their employer withhold tax
from their wages. ~ IRS FS-2019-6, April

LEADERSHIP BRIEFS
EGO IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD LEADERSHIP
Rasmus Hougaard & Jacqueline Carter, Harvard
Business Review, November 06, 2018
On his first day as CEO of the Carlsberg Group, a global
brewery and beverage company, Cees ‘t Hart was given
a key card by his assistant. The card locked out all the
other floors for the elevator so that he could go directly
to his corner office on the 20th floor. And with its
picture windows, his office offered a stunning view of
Copenhagen. These were the perks of his new position,
ones that spoke to his power and importance within the
company.
Cees spent the next two months acclimating to his new
responsibilities. But during those two months, he
noticed that he saw very few people throughout the day.
Since the elevator didn’t stop at other floors and only a
select group of executives worked on the 20th floor, he
rarely interacted with other Carlsberg employees. Cees
decided to switch from his corner office on the 20th
floor to an empty desk in an open-floor plan on a lower
floor.
When asked about the changes, Cees explained, “If I
don’t meet people, I won’t get to know what they think.
And if I don’t have a finger on the pulse of the
organization, I can’t lead effectively.”
In short, the higher leaders rise in the ranks, the more
they are at risk of getting an inflated ego. And the bigger
their ego grows, the more they are at risk of ending up
in an insulated bubble, losing touch with their
colleagues, the culture, and ultimately their clients.
Following is an excerpt from the
book, Effective & Enduring
Leadership … Visions of Greatness!
by Michael Bianchi
TRUE GREATNESS
All men and women have inside
them the desire to become 'great'
and being great will mean
different things to different
people. We want to be great
politicians, great architects, great
parents, great musicians, great
athletes, great students, great
pastors … and so on. The
problem is that most of us
confuse true greatness with
worldly greatness and either do
not believe we can achieve
worldly greatness or have given
up trying out of frustration. For
non-Christians, pursuing worldly
greatness is an exercise that leads
to ultimate futility devoid of
eternal significance. Christians,
having already accepted Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Savior,
can achieve eternal greatness by
obeying and applying God's Word
and living a humble spirited,
servant lifestyle as Jesus Christ
did.
Do not discount the significance
of such a lifestyle. In Luke 18:14
Jesus tells us, “For all those who
exalt themselves will be
humbled, and those who
humble themselves will be
exalted.”
Effective & Enduring Leadership
can be simply defined as
leading and Discipling others
so that we teach Godly legacies
to future generations. Jesus left
us a model of Effective &
Enduring Leadership and
Discipleship and, as a result, a
model of eternal greatness that
we can all strive to achieve.
Christians achieve eternal
greatness in Heaven through
fulfillment of God's purposes for
their lives. Matthew 16:27 says:
“For the Son of Man is going to
come in his Father's glory with
his angels, and then he will
reward each person according
to what they have done.” My
study Bible says, “Our heavenly
rewards will be the most accurate
reflection of what we have done on
earth, and they will be far greater
than we can imagine.” What
more can we possibly do during
our time here on Earth to please
God other than fulfill His
purposes for us?
~ Lead Like Jesus