| Losing vacation time to bankruptcy
Baltimoresun.com's tax-advice column features three experts from the Hunt Valley accounting firm SC&H Group answering questions about preparing your return every Monday until April 17. To be included in the following weeks, please use the form at the right side of this page to submit your questions.
Barbara Smith, Baltimore: I worked for a company that filed for bankruptcy. When they filed, they owed me 20 days of vacation. I filed as a creditor on the bankruptcy. I have been notified by the court that the 10 years is up and the company never came out of bankruptcy. Can I claim this as a loss, as the debt will never be paid?
SC&H Group: Individual taxpayers file on the cash basis method of accounting. Since you did not include any of the accrued vacation in your income in previous years, you do not get a bad debt or other deduction for the lost income.
'High School Musical 2' takes its blockbuster status seriously
This takes place amid songs, dancing, cute clothes and cutting loose during a summer when all his school's Wildcats work together at a scenic desert country club.
That moral-of-the-story springs from a discovery by Disney's "HSM"-meisters after the original became a blockbuster sensation. Their "Grease"- for-a-new-generation turned out to have a substantial impact on high school culture they hadn't anticipated from the simple tale of a hotshot basketball player who decides to try out for, yes, his high school musical.
Surprising response
"We just set out to do a fun story," scripter Peter Barsocchini said at the press tour, "but the feedback we're getting is it's having an influence of being inclusive, rather than exclusive, between athletes and drama kids." When the movie's athletes sang and danced with their round balls, it made such "artsy" activity seem, well, macho.
Friday wild card
Participants also expressed less trust in the electoral system and more cynical views of the news media. DFO: I haven't watched Stewart's show enough to decide for myself whether or not he's funny. Question: What do you think of "The Daily Show"? .
Eddie Bauer Reports Third Quarter and Year-To-Date 2007 Results
BELLEVUE, Wash., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Eddie Bauer Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBHI) today reported financial results for the third quarter and the first nine months of fiscal year 2007. For the third quarter ended September 29, 2007, total revenues were $211.0 million compared to $211.3 million in the third quarter of 2006. Comparable stores sales rose 3.4 percent, while revenues from the Company's direct channel, which includes sales from its catalog and websites, declined by 0.7%. Comparable store sales include net sales from retail and outlet stores that have been open for one complete fiscal year. Operating loss improved from a $134.1 million loss during the year-ago third quarter to a $26.5 million loss for the third quarter of this year. The third quarter operating loss of the prior year quarter included a $117.6 million asset impairment charge related to the writedown of the Company's goodwill.
SOUTHGATE HAILS GIBSON SUPPORT
I want to deliver results to repay his faith. Steve is a very successful businessman and he has obviously seen something in me that he thinks can make it work. "The world of football is very fickle - one minute you are useless, the next you are a hero. "The main thing I have learned in my first 18 months of being a manager is not to get carried away with the hysteria, whether it's for you or against you." .
Councilman MikeK Recalls Knievel Action Figure
Top: Young MikeK playing with Evel Knievel action figure; bottom: MikeK receives inspiration from his childhood friends before leaving for a Coeur d'Alene City Council meeting. I had a classic Evel Knievel motorcycle riding action figure when I was a kid. The stunts my brothers and I would stage for that motorcycle toy were legendary (riding out a second story window, chasing the dog around the house without getting chewed to ribbons, you name it). RIP Evel. I wonder what happened to Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man who played the role of Evel's arch-nemesis in the boyhood action figure wars?/Councilman MikeK. Question: What was your favorite action figure/doll when you were little? .
S.C. or else for Thompson
The issue that he hears about most on the campaign trail is illegal immigration. But voters also are concerned about a variety of other issues, such as the war in Iraq, radical Islam, health care, the nuclear threat posed by Iran and the political turmoil in Pakistan, he said. Wherever he goes, his message is the same - that he is the only candidate who has fought consistently for the issues that matter to conservatives, things such as national security, tax cuts, balanced budgets and gun owners' rights. "I've been fighting for these things for a long time," Thompson said. The other Republican candidates "have had to adapt their positions, bring them up to date, shall we say. Where they have been in times past, I have not." Judging from the size and enthusiasm of the crowds that show up at his events, Thompson is convinced that his message is getting through.
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