TOP DRAWER INK NEWSLETTER

 

Here's the latest issue of Top Drawer Ink, the newsletter written by author HL Carpenter that's chock full of humor and common sense information.

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March 15, 2008
Volume 6, Number 6
ISSN 1554-6330

In this issue:

1. Top Drawer News
2. Carpenter Country
3. Top Drawer Article
4. Top Drawer Tips
5. Top Drawer Satire

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***TOP DRAWER NEWS***

We’ve updated our web site and added a picture of a Top Drawer author – one whose writing we know you love! Take a look! Use the link above to click on over to our virtual home on the world wide web.

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CARPENTER COUNTRY
What's Happening in Our Neck of the Human Experience

 

It’s Saturday. In Carpenter Country that means the copy for the newsletter is due. But this morning the short one is sitting at her desk staring at a blank page – and she can’t figure out why she’s so distracted.

She should be able to pen two hundred words about her week spent furniture shopping. The frustration of searching for a couch that wasn’t tan, brown or black might make a humorous essay.

Or maybe a story about buying a recliner that looked great in the show room - and horrible at home. Surely she could fill a few pages with the crazy thirty mile trip to return the disaster before the store closed at six.

Nope - none of those tales turned her wheel.

Focus, she told herself. Think. There are plenty of things to write about. How about Palm Sunday, St. Paddy’s Day, Easter. Or maybe March winds, azaleas and dogwoods filling the yard with riotous color ...

And that’s when the reason for her scatterbrained mood became clear.

She had spring fever.

Well, no help for that, except to go outside and enjoy it.

So, here’s to Happy Springtime. The short one is sorry this is such a short essay. Hopefully when the next one is due, her brain cells will be back in working order and her mind will have stopped wandering.

If not, she’ll take a spoonful of sulfur and molasses.

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TOP DRAWER ARTICLE

The Value of Good Records
by
HL Carpenter

 

Just how valuable are good business records? The answer depends on how much you like reducing taxes and headaches. Maintaining good records can save you both – dollars at tax time and headaches when the Internal Revenue Service has questions.

Read the entire article here

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TOP DRAWER TIPS
Topics and Tidbits

 

Tip: Along with facts and circumstances, the IRS generally considers nine factors when determining whether your enterprise is a hobby or a business. They are: 1) how you conduct the business; 2) your expertise (or that of your advisers); 3) the time and effort you put into the business; 4) whether your business assets will appreciate; 5) whether you’ve had success in other businesses; 6) your business’s history of income or loss; 7) the amount of profit you earn; 8) your personal financial status; 9) whether the business involves personal pleasure or recreational elements.

Glossary Term: Activity not engaged in for profit. You know this kind of activity as a hobby. Tax rules, also called hobby loss rules, generally prohibit you from claiming more losses than the income you earn from these pursuits.

Financial Horoscope: You don’t have to catch a wily leprechaun this St. Patrick’s Day to find a pot of gold. Instead, follow their thrifty habits and amass your own treasure. Sliding down rainbows is optional.

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TOP DRAWER SATIRE

Thinking Caps
by
HL Carpenter

 

Take off your thinking cap. Under a proposal being considered in Congress, not thinking may bring you more benefit than actually using your brain.

Read the rest here