{"id":5139,"date":"2012-01-13T11:33:02","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T19:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2012-01-13T11:33:56","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T19:33:56","slug":"friday-link-stew-tax-changes-health-concerns-a-bookstore-lost-and-responses-to-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=5139","title":{"rendered":"Friday Link Stew: Tax Changes, Health Concerns, a Bookstore Lost, and Responses to Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5052\" title=\"userpic=verizon\" src=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/userpicverizon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"97\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"10\" vspace=\"10\" \/>It&#8217;s Friday. Time to clear out the miscellaneous stuff from the links over lunch:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Taxing Items<\/strong>. A few items that may affect you with respect to taxes and law changes. First, if you have a business with over 200-plus credit or debit card transactions totaling $20,000 or more in 2011, <a href=\"http:\/\/jan.ocregister.com\/2012\/01\/12\/new-tax-form-may-surprise-small-firms\/77016\/\">there&#8217;s a new form you have to file<\/a>. It is a 1099-K, &#8220;Merchant Card and Third Party Network Payment&#8221;, and needs to be sent by people who sell on eBay, Etsy and Amazon Marketplace as well as brick-and-mortar retailers that accept credit card and debit card payments. Second, if you live in California, <a href=\"http:\/\/economy.ocregister.com\/2012\/01\/09\/state-targets-property-tax-payers\/101799\/\">the deductibility of property tax payments is changing<\/a>: starting in 2013, you can no longer deduct Mello-Roos feels or any other special assessments like vector control or mosquito abatement. Lastly, the rules for all those power adapters you have are changing: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/california-targets-vampire-battery-chargers-by-imposing-new-energy-efficiency-standards\/2012\/01\/13\/gIQAl1ayvP_story.html\">new energy efficiency standards will come into play in 2013 to reduce &#8220;vampire&#8221; power use<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Health Concerns<\/strong>. Two health concern articles of interest. <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052970204083204577080562692452538.html\">The WSJ is reporting on the health risks of being left-handed<\/a>. This is of interest to me, as I&#8217;m a naturally sinister person. Another article looks at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/c\/a\/2012\/01\/09\/MN9A1MLR0Q.DTL\">the stress risks of lots and lots of AP courses, and proposes a cap on the number that can be taken<\/a>. As the parent of a teen who has taken lots of AP classes each year, they forgot the stress on the parent of the teen becoming even crazier.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Closing the Book. <\/strong>Alas, I must report another bookstore closure. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/ci_19724306\">Samuel French, a theatre bookstore is the Valley, is consolidating operations with its Hollywood store<\/a>. I can&#8217;t say I&#8217;ve ever been there, but it sounds like an interesting place.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Laws We Don&#8217;t Need<\/strong>. I always find it amazing that as much as people want fewer laws and fewer government intrusions, when they don&#8217;t like something, they want the government to stop it. Case in point: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/nation\/story\/2012-01-13\/public-pajama-ban\/52532630\/1\">A lawmaker in Shreveport LA wants a law to make wearing pajama pants in public illegal<\/a>. This is the same thing as legislating morality&#8211;it&#8217;s not the government&#8217;s place. Another example: Obama is proposing to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/01\/13\/politics\/obama-federal-government\/index.html\">streamline government by consolidating agencies and making things more efficient with respect to trade and commerce<\/a>. In general, I think this is a good idea, but I&#8217;m wary of anything that threatens the Commerce Department, as it is home to one of my favorite agencies (which does great stuff): <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nist.gov\/index.html\">NIST<\/a> (and in particular, the <a href=\"http:\/\/csrc.nist.gov\/index.html\">Computer Security Division<\/a>). Yet to read the comments on the posts (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2012\/01\/13\/politics\/obama-federal-government\/index.html\">1<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/content.usatoday.com\/communities\/theoval\/post\/2012\/01\/obama-proposes-re-organizing-trade-offices\/1\">2<\/a>) reporting on the proposal, you would come to the conclusion that such consolidation is a bad thing (at least when proposed by Obama).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Music: <\/strong><em>Fairport Chronicles<\/em> (Fairport Convention): Bridge Over the River Ash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s Friday. Time to clear out the miscellaneous stuff from the links over lunch: Taxing Items. A few items that may affect you with respect to taxes and law changes. First, if you have a business with over 200-plus credit or debit card transactions totaling $20,000 or more in 2011, there&#8217;s a new form you <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=5139\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[459,30,370,368],"class_list":["post-5139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-chum","tag-books","tag-health","tag-laws","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}