http://www.thestar.com/Crime/article/592401
Summary:
The suspects used a PIN pad device that the spa to assess all the credit card users' information during spring and summer in 2008. They used the money to buy clothes and open businesses of their own. Police officers urged people to check their credit card statements often so that they can prevent unwanted frauds, and eliminating the chance of being a victim of fraud schemes.
Relation to the book
Recalling from a few chapters back, we covered a chapter about personal banking and financing. There is a section that talks about credit cards and how we should always be double checking our monthly bank statements to look out for errors (one should always keep a detailed record of his or her transactions so that he or she will know the exact bank balance anytime). On the other hand, individuals can easily make reference to any particular payments or transactions that had occured during the month. This is the most effective solutions to which individuals can find out instantly if there is a fraud in credit or debit card transactions.
Reflection
It kind of shocks me with how there are actual cases of credit card frauds that are happening in Canada. I feel very angry when i find these types of articles. Why? That's because I don't understand why people do such things. Most people earn money with their own effort and skills they own, so what makes it okay for those criminals to cheat away their money like that? Humans all cheat. HOwever, cheating other people's precious money is just way too over. I really hope that they can set up stricter punishments for people cheating like this. On the other hand, we should always look carefully at our monthly bank statements, and beware of these frauds. When we are being careless individuals, these credit-card-crime-do-ers will target us and take advantage of our money. Thus, remember to double-triple check bank statements.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Chapter 16 blog
http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14784512
Summary
This article is reporting about a new study (Internal Revenue Service data) showing the rich are cheating when it comes to paying tax - hiding more of their own income. Studies show that the rich's income was between $500,000 and $1 million; however, they understated their gross incomes by 21%. The net misreporting rate includes both underreported income and inflated deductions. The IRS estimated that people understate their business income by 43% in general, and for sole proprietors, who report self-employment income underreported their income by 57%. All these years, IRS has been able to collect back all those taxes the rich people owed. Currently, the government is suing UBS for the names of 18,000 wealthy Americans who have had unreported bank accounts.
Relation to the chapter
In this chapter, we have talked about taxable earnings, which states that the employee's contributions to a registered pension fund or plan, union dues, deduction for living in a prescribed area, and deductions authorized by the district office must be subtracted before determining the tax amount. In this case, what the rich people did in the above article reported was understating their income amount so that they can get more money back with less income tax taken away from them. However, this was against the law of the Income tax act. As a result, the government took back their tax money.
Reflection
I think I do understand why the rich people do that. Who would want their money taken away from them if they've worked hard for it? I think not wanting people to take away their possessions is human nature. However, i think if giving out some part of your money so that you can help build a better community for everyone can be something good also. Look at all those parks, community centers, and transportations, and without us paying for our tax, those will not happen at all. Therefore, I find rich people being too selfish and greedy. Why not give out a helping hand to the community if they're earning so much money right? I feel glad for the government has already took back some money from them.
Summary
This article is reporting about a new study (Internal Revenue Service data) showing the rich are cheating when it comes to paying tax - hiding more of their own income. Studies show that the rich's income was between $500,000 and $1 million; however, they understated their gross incomes by 21%. The net misreporting rate includes both underreported income and inflated deductions. The IRS estimated that people understate their business income by 43% in general, and for sole proprietors, who report self-employment income underreported their income by 57%. All these years, IRS has been able to collect back all those taxes the rich people owed. Currently, the government is suing UBS for the names of 18,000 wealthy Americans who have had unreported bank accounts.
Relation to the chapter
In this chapter, we have talked about taxable earnings, which states that the employee's contributions to a registered pension fund or plan, union dues, deduction for living in a prescribed area, and deductions authorized by the district office must be subtracted before determining the tax amount. In this case, what the rich people did in the above article reported was understating their income amount so that they can get more money back with less income tax taken away from them. However, this was against the law of the Income tax act. As a result, the government took back their tax money.
Reflection
I think I do understand why the rich people do that. Who would want their money taken away from them if they've worked hard for it? I think not wanting people to take away their possessions is human nature. However, i think if giving out some part of your money so that you can help build a better community for everyone can be something good also. Look at all those parks, community centers, and transportations, and without us paying for our tax, those will not happen at all. Therefore, I find rich people being too selfish and greedy. Why not give out a helping hand to the community if they're earning so much money right? I feel glad for the government has already took back some money from them.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Chapter 15 Blog
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/30/honda-loss-guidance-markets-equity-0130_markets03.html
Summary
This article is about how Japanese automakers are suffering a $3.7 billion lost. The Detroit Big Three automakers had loss a lot of money after a year, Japanese also followed along. Why? This is because there is a lower demand from the west, and also due to the recession in Asia and Brazil; thus, it is dragging Honda down. However, it claims that Honda will be able to remain safe although there is such a great loss. They're planning to take out 140 billion yen for the full year ending, since the company had a profit of $472.6 billion for the first 9 months of the fiscal year. However, it expects a loss of 332.6 billion at least for the next quarter. On the other hand, there is a bright side of Honda's result. Their sales for motorcycles had gone up by 5.8% ( mainly because of the sales were doing well in Asia - especially Indonesia and Brazil), while their Honda vehicles' sales went down by 5.1% (because of the US , Japan, and Europe recession). In the end, their third quarter revenue went down by 16.8%, and had a net income of 20.2 billion yen (11.16 yen a share).
Relation to the chapter
In this chapter, we learned about analyzing financial statements to check out how a company is doing. While reading the above article, a lot of numbers were shown with regards to their sales and profits. As according to the chapter, these figures can be used to show how much a company had improved and how much a company had done not as well. Specifically, these figures can be plugged into formulas to find ratios (quick ratios, equity percentages, debt ratios..etc) to compare the ups and downs of the progress of a company. These will let outsiders (bankers, creditors, perspective investors, shareholders, or governor agencies) have an idea of how the company is doing, and whether or not they should invest or lend money to the company.
Reflection
I think seeing all those big numbers listed in the article was quite shocking. It would be pleasant if they company was to gain those big digits, but sadly, they are losing that much of an amount. I think that kind of loss is due to the recession we're having right now around the world. Everything is going under inflation. In addition, the economy right now isn't doing well in general. Many businesses are closing down because of that. Just like one of my uncles in Hong Kong, he has his own car business too. However, because there is low in demand for cars because of the recession going on worldwide, he wasn't able to continue on the business(since he has a great loss of profit). I really hope to see the economy jump out of recession soon.
Summary
This article is about how Japanese automakers are suffering a $3.7 billion lost. The Detroit Big Three automakers had loss a lot of money after a year, Japanese also followed along. Why? This is because there is a lower demand from the west, and also due to the recession in Asia and Brazil; thus, it is dragging Honda down. However, it claims that Honda will be able to remain safe although there is such a great loss. They're planning to take out 140 billion yen for the full year ending, since the company had a profit of $472.6 billion for the first 9 months of the fiscal year. However, it expects a loss of 332.6 billion at least for the next quarter. On the other hand, there is a bright side of Honda's result. Their sales for motorcycles had gone up by 5.8% ( mainly because of the sales were doing well in Asia - especially Indonesia and Brazil), while their Honda vehicles' sales went down by 5.1% (because of the US , Japan, and Europe recession). In the end, their third quarter revenue went down by 16.8%, and had a net income of 20.2 billion yen (11.16 yen a share).
Relation to the chapter
In this chapter, we learned about analyzing financial statements to check out how a company is doing. While reading the above article, a lot of numbers were shown with regards to their sales and profits. As according to the chapter, these figures can be used to show how much a company had improved and how much a company had done not as well. Specifically, these figures can be plugged into formulas to find ratios (quick ratios, equity percentages, debt ratios..etc) to compare the ups and downs of the progress of a company. These will let outsiders (bankers, creditors, perspective investors, shareholders, or governor agencies) have an idea of how the company is doing, and whether or not they should invest or lend money to the company.
Reflection
I think seeing all those big numbers listed in the article was quite shocking. It would be pleasant if they company was to gain those big digits, but sadly, they are losing that much of an amount. I think that kind of loss is due to the recession we're having right now around the world. Everything is going under inflation. In addition, the economy right now isn't doing well in general. Many businesses are closing down because of that. Just like one of my uncles in Hong Kong, he has his own car business too. However, because there is low in demand for cars because of the recession going on worldwide, he wasn't able to continue on the business(since he has a great loss of profit). I really hope to see the economy jump out of recession soon.
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