| The Clock is Ticking on Some Now-Or-Never Tax Breaks
Despite the stock market's wild ride this year, 2007 is expected to be a record year for mutual fund distributions, according to Tim Roseen, of Lipper, a mutual-fund analysis firm. Now is a good time to scour your portfolio in search of losses you can use to offset taxable gains. If your investment losses exceed your profits, you can use them to offset up to $3,000 of ordinary income and carry over any unused losses into future years. Normal year-end tax planning calls for paying next year's deductible expenses, such as January's mortgage interest, property taxes and state income taxes, in the current year. But you don't want to do that if you are subject to the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, a parallel tax system with its own set of rules, does not permit deductions for state and local taxes, home-equity loan interest (unless the borrowed money was used to finance home improvements) or personal exemptions -- worth $3,400 this year -- for yourself, your spouse and your children.
ITT Educational confident in 2008 view
CARMEL, Ind. - Post-secondary education provider ITT Educational Services Inc. said Thursday it is "confident" it can achieve 2008 earnings per share of $4.50 to $4.60 despite the reduction in lender subsidies under federal student loan programs and tight credit markets which are pressuring students. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect full-year profit of $4.47 per share, on average. The company said it expects to continue to improve student retention, but believes future increases in the quarterly persistence rate will moderate from 2007 levels. "Recently, there has been a lot of speculation in the market with respect to the ability of our students to obtain the financing needed to pay their education costs," said Chief Executive Kevin Modany in a statement. "This speculation was caused by a recent reduction in lender subsidies under the federal student loan programs and the current credit crunch that arose from the subprime mortgage crisis." ITT said it has arranged for Bank of America, Chase Education Finance and Citibank, The Student Loan Corp.
Rutgers president meets with students on stadium expansion
If Rutgers can not obtain a crucial $30 million loan from the state or private sources to renovate its football stadium as planned, it will have to scale down its vision, university president Richard McCormick said this evening. But during a meeting with student leaders, McCormick managed to sound optimistic that the $30 million may yet materialize. If that happens, Rutgers will raise the remaining $70 million needed by issuing 30-year-old bonds to be paid off by revenue generated from the renovated stadium, he said. In the meantime, the Rutgers Board of Governors removed from its Thursday agenda a vote on the proposed $100 million expansion, McCormick said. Rutgers' plans for its football stadium in Piscataway, unveiled this summer, include adding 12,000 seats, club seating and a dining club.
the has-been
Put to Bed: For centuries, the criminal defense bar has snickered that any lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. With his fateful guilty plea last month, Larry Craig proved that the old adage holds true for nonlawyers as well. Solicitation may be a victimless crime, but in a case of self-immolation, it's hard to tell where perp ends and victim begins. Now Craig has more lawyers than a Boston Legal washroom. But so far, the only defense they've given him is that he waited so long to hire them. In his original guilty plea, he clearly waived the right to counsel. On the line of the form that states, "I am/am not represented by an attorney," Craig circled "am not." Of course, Craig's lawyers might argue, circling the am-not box doesn't mean you understand it. Craig is desperately trying to play the victim, but he can tell it to the judge.
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