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Mindconnection eNL, 2008-11-02

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In this issue:
Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Miscellany | Thought for the Day

 

1. Product Highlight

Your own weather station
As we head into winter (I am referring to the weather, not the economy), having instant access to accurate weather information seems like a pretty good idea.

Mindconnection has several models of weather stations, such as the projection model at right. This dual projection weather forecaster with 1 wireless remote sensor projects time, remote temperature, and weather forecast on the wall or ceiling.

Click the picture to see all of our offerings, or use the link below.

Removed 2015-01-10
 

 



2. Brainpower tip

Garbage in, garbage out. Don't let the mudstream media provide input to your brain.

3. Finance tip

How long should you keep financial records? Most advisors have a schedule based on common misconceptions. For example, they say you don't have to keep federal tax returns after 10 years. They base this on the idea that you can't be audited three years after you file your federal tax return. That idea is false.

You can be audited for any year in which you have existed, whether you earned wages that year or not. It is up to you to prove any counterclaims made in your defense. If you murder someone, you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. But if you are accused of not paying enough tax, you are presumed guilty until you prove otherwise (and sometimes you are presumed guilty even if you do prove otherwise).

Never discard financial records. Whatever you discard will simply be unavailable if you need to mount a tax defense. Yes, there are statutes of limitations in the law, but there are loopholes and ways around those. If you use tax filing software, keep backups of the data and backups of the original programs. Keep backups locally, but also offsite. If your home is devastated by a flood, hurricane, tornado, fire, or whatever, those records are lost. And your odds of being audited will rise just for that reason--you are likely not to have the records for your defense, so you become an easy target.

The two main loopholes on the expiration statutes are fraud and under-reporting. These don't actually have to occur or be proven before the statute is lifted. Mere suspicion qualifies, so essentially the statute carries no meaning.

Under-reporting can happen without your intention, and it's not legally defined as a criminal act. But it can still get you into plenty of trouble. Take care to keep good records and report accurately. If you are audited in 2009 for your 2007 return and the auditor discovers under-reporting, then you are fair game for being audited for, say, 1968. Don't leave that "back door" open. Don't give anyone a reason to suspect you are under-reporting, and this problem is unlikely to bite you.

Actual fraud is a different animal. It's a criminal act that can get you life in prison, while lesser crimes such as killing someone can have you out in 10 years. A tax crime is the most serious crime you can commit (if measured by the sentences meted out), so don't even allow yourself to have the smell of committing tax fraud.

What about suspicion of fraud? It's very easy to incriminate yourself, even if you've done nothing wrong. Always, always, always go through a tax attorney to avoid this problem. Now, it may seem expensive to pay an attorney to handle tax disputes for you. But consider the cost of producing tax records from, say, 1968. Or what can happen if you need those records and don't have them.

Keep your finances in order and documented. This will not only help you protect yourself in the event of an IRS attack, but it will also help you note where you aren't managing your money the best so you can then improve in the needed areas.

Don't toss records that can prove a tax-related expenditure. They never really expire. If you need storage space, use a scanner and store them as PDFs. You can also toss records that are redundant, but be consistent. For example, maybe you keep your credit card statements but not the actual receipt for something or vice versa. The receipts are easier to file and retrieve later, so consider keeping those and shredding credit card statements after three years.

4. Security tip

More about protecting your identity....

What if you are a victim of identity theft? First, realize it's not the end of the world. One particular govt agency, which requires you to submit sensitive information along with payment by 15 APR every year, is noted for the fact its employees sell personal information to other parties. Until the Fair Tax www.fairtax.org is passed so this "use your govt job to conduct crime without fear of reprisal" system is abolished, it's likely that at least part of your identity is already stolen.

Though not the end of the world, identity theft is nonetheless a serious matter. On average, victims of identity theft spend $1,100 and 600 hours to set things straight. That $1,100 pertains to what they spend to correct the problem, not what they lose as a consequence of it.

Those figures are for incidences not directly traceable to criminal activities conducted by (some) employees of the aforementioned agency. When those folks get involved, the costs of defense and remediation can quickly climb to multiples of your annual wage and the time can easily exceed that 600 hour figure each year. It's easier and cheaper to mount a murder defense than to fully engage these folks in a legal battle (and yes, that's fact, not hyperbole).

The single biggest source of catastrophic loss due to misuse of personal information is the aforementioned agency. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for CONgress to do something other than pass our money on to the clients of lobbyists.

Passing the Fair Tax, for example, would be a good first step. In addition to abolishing the aforementioned agency and lowering the cost of taxation even for retired folks, such common sense legislation provides a huge number of benefits. What it doesn't provide is a wealth transfer to the clients of lobbyists, so CONgress can't see any reason to pass it.

But the aforementioned agency isn't the only source of identity-related risk, and it's not going away any time soon. This means you must take specific steps to prevent, detect, and remediate identity-related losses in the meantime.

The most important thing you can do is look for an egregious breach of security such as outright identity theft. For example, reviewing credit card and bank statements online weekly or even daily, rather than waiting for the paper version. Another example--you receive credit cards, card statements, bank statements, cell phone bills, welcome kits, and other information indicating new financial arrangements, subscriptions, or purchases, you didn't make.

When someone from the aforementioned agency sells bits of your personal information, that's not identity theft. It's still theft, but not of your whole identity. With identity theft, another person poses as you and conducts business. This person may enter into all kinds of contracts, mostly in the form of unsecured loans, to obtain merchandise and leave you with the tab.

If you suspect someone may have stolen (don't wait for confirmation) your identity, file a police report with specific details about the theft. Before you contact the police, organize your information and prepare documents the investigating officer can take with him or her. Don't assume the police officer taking the report is well-versed in any of this or really knows what to do or what information is needed and can coach you on what information to provide. Organize all relevant information and supply it all.

Someone at the police department will sift through this information and create an Identity Theft Report. Ask if they will send a copy of the report to each of the three credit reporting companies and to you. The report entitles you to certain legal rights with these companies. For example, it entitles you to having permanent blocks or even outright removal of fraudulent information on your credit report. Note that this same protection does not apply to fraudulent information filed by the aforementioned agency.

While you're waiting for a police officer to arrive and take your information for the report, contact your credit card companies, bank(s), and others you have financial contracts with. Let them know the situation. Credit card companies are more than happy to cancel your existing cards and issue new ones. Banks will typically close your existing account(s) and open new ones. But let them advise you on what to do. It's their system, and they know how it works.

Fighting a particular incidence of identity theft this way is a temporary measure. It addresses the symptoms, without curing the underlying disease or removing the vulnerabilities. So, do this. File with your state to create an LLC. Contact the IRS for an EIN for that LLC. Then, open new credit cards and accounts on that LLC. An LLC enjoys a great deal of legal protection, so don't be surprised when a bank also insists on using your personal tax ID and making you personally liable. That is just sound business. For example, you want your LLC to hold your mortgage. The bank says you personally have to be liable.

Now, a twist here is if you open the LLC this way you lose LLC type protections in other circumstances. So, form one LLC for which you allow "piercing of the corporate veil," for example to cosign your mortgage. Form one or more other LLCs for other purposes. The LLC that you allow to be pierced serves as another signatory, essentially. This provides you with an automatic stop on transaction attempts by someone who steals your personal identity. That person would also have to steal the identity of your LLC.

Many "experts" advise closing all accounts in the case of identity theft. That's poor advice. Closing an account may cost you dearly. For example, closing your cell phone account by cancelling your contract may cost you several hundred dollars.

A person who stole your identity may cancel your cell phone account, a lease you have, and even your utilities just to keep you off balance and too busy to address other issues arising from the identity theft.

Rather than blindly close accounts, contact each party with whom you hold an account and explain what happened. It may make more sense just to add a signatory (such as your LLC for this purpose) or to put some other restriction on the account. Ask if they would prefer you do this or go through the hassle of closing and opening accounts.

Now, most importantly, we go back to that agency. These folks don't care about actual circumstances. If someone files a federal tax return fraudulently using your taxpayer ID (your SSN), this agency may wait like a snake in the grass for decades before hitting you with back taxes, interest, and penalties. With that much time, a small "debt" of a few hundred dollars can grow into a $50,000 tab. By the time you find out about this problem, it will be too late for you to do anything about it. You will simply owe the amount. That's how the law works.

Yes, we can all hope that CONgress will finally abolish this pestilence of an agency, but don't hold your breath. This agency has been a source of terror, fraud, waste, theft, and corruption for nearly a century now and CONgress hasn't yet done what it obviously should do. Each member of CONgress takes an oath to defend the American people from all enemies foreign and domestic. In the case of this agency, CONgress simply ignores its oath.

The existence of this agency leaves you open to all kinds of liability and abuse. For example, employees of this agency colluded with Jay Hoyt back in the 1970s to use the personal information of several thousand people for fraudulent tax purposes. Hoyt went to prison for life and died there, while his cohorts kept their jobs at the agency and were never indicted.

Even today (four decades later!), the victims are on the hook for taxes, interest, and penalties in amounts so extreme as to be unpayable. These victims are constantly harassed by collection actions, have liens on all of their property, and suffer various indignities on a regular basis. Sounds like Idi Amin's Uganda, but it's the United States we are talking about.

You may be saying, "But wait! The 1970s were so long ago. Surely, the 3-year statute on assessment and the 10-year statute on collections have expired."

No.

This agency has all kinds of cute ways to get around the statutes of limitation and other laws that allegedly protect people from abuse, theft, harassment, property seizures, and various acts of terror and intimidation. If someone who holds a job in this agency decides to cover up his or her participation in fraud, then laws do not matter. Period. The long-term solution to this lawlessness is to pass the Fair Tax www.fairtax.org. But until such time as the USA joins the ranks of countries that enjoy the rule of law (rather than this lawlessness), you are highly vulnerable. Watch your a--.

And prevail upon your misrepresentatives in CONgress to support the Fair Tax. Contact those turkeys once a month--set a date on your calendar. This is the single most effective action you can take to provide adequate protection of your identity, your financial security, and your personal freedoms.

While waiting for this desperately needed legislation to be passed, take the other actions outlined above. Constant diligence helps detect a breach. Common sense measures help prevent one. Don't give out information you don't have to give out.

5. Health tip/Fitness tips

While CONgress is busy loading up on pork for their next spending orgy, you might be taking a different approach to things. As we come into the holiday season, we are confronted with so many calorie bombs that the average American gains 10lbs during the Thanksgiving / Christmas / New Years season.

To avoid fighting the Battle of the Bulge all spring and summer, you need to avoid getting all that extra fat in the first place. This article will definitely help:

http://www.supplecity.com/articles/hiddencalories.htm

6. Miscellany

  1. The Bank of America was originally called the Bank of Italy until the founder, Amedeo Giannini, changed the name in 1930. Let's hope BoA survives the lunacy inflicted upon our entire banking system by the Frauderal Reserve with its funny money policies. Alan Greenspan may be laughing maniacally about now, but the rest of us aren't so amused.
     
  2. We don't run ads in our newsletter. We do get inquiries from advertisers, all the time. To keep this eNL coming, go to www.mindconnection.com and do your shopping from there (as appropriate).
     

  3. Please forward this eNL to others.

7. Thought for the Day

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.

 

Wishing you the best,

Mark Lamendola
Mindconnection

Authorship

The views expressed in this e-newsletter are generally not shared by criminals, zombies, or brainwashed individuals.

Except where noted, this e-newsletter is entirely the work of Mark Lamendola. Anything presented as fact can be independently verified. Often, sources are given; but where not given, they are readily available to anyone who makes the effort.

Mark provides information from either research or his own areas of established expertise. Sometimes, what appears to be a personal opinion is the only possibility when applying sound logic--reason it out before judging! (That said, some personal opinions do appear on occasion).

The purpose of this publication is to inform and empower its readers (and save you money!).

Personal note from Mark: I value each and every one of you, and I hope that shows in the diligent effort I put into writing this e-newsletter. Thank you for being a faithful reader.

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