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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Travis_Bickle who wrote (159221)	10/22/2008 10:50:04 PM
From: posthumousone	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

Etrade is happy with people trading in these volatile times :) Dear ETRADE Customers: We are all facing a truly historic period of time in the global financial markets and the U.S. economy. Risk tolerance is being tested across the board, as investors navigate the intense volatility of recent weeks, and watch as groundbreaking events unfold daily. Without being overconfident, we do believe ETRADE is well-positioned going forward. We've been aggressive in managing through the credit crisis, making difficult decisions and executing on them in a timely fashion. As a result, ETRADE's capital base is sound, and we are able to effectively serve the needs of you, our customers. I'm proud to see our customers take advantage of the opportunities in the marketplace. We've had open dialogues with you about managing risk tolerance and ensuring your asset allocations are aligned with your long-term goals. Collectively, you've opened a record number of accounts and engaged in record volumes of activity, showing yourselves conscientious and prudent with investing decisions. Those investing toward longer-term goals have maintained discipline and patience through the disruptions in the market. In closing, though these are unsettling times, please remember the market has survived crises before. Financials will stabilize and the markets will resume their ascent once again. ETRADE will be here to help you through it all. As always, we appreciate the opportunity to serve you and your investing needs. Sincerely,

To: Travis_Bickle who wrote (159221)	10/22/2008 10:51:48 PM
From: posthumousone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

You save on the medicare part of FICA but not on the social security part, no way the IRS lets you declare wages of $30k and a $200k dividend ... though you may get away with wages of $160k and a $70k dividend>> I have a regular job and consult on the side..... I wonder if IRS would not like me taking no salary (dont really need it)and only div from 'part time' consulting

To: Travis_Bickle who wrote (159221)	10/23/2008 10:04:52 AM
From: BWAC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

<<though you may get away with wages of $160k and a $70k dividend ... >> Probably can do better than that split. Depends on what you can validate the business itself to be worth. Several case laws that support a portion of the profit to be non wages under the theory of being entitled to a return on your business investment/value.

To: Travis_Bickle who wrote (159221)	10/23/2008 10:39:22 AM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

Hey, don't listen to me get a CPA. My CPA was after me for years to switch to an S or LLC to forgo the FICA tax. You are wrong about saving Medicare and not SS. No dividend payments are are ever subject to either and it is not unusual for small business owners under those entities to have dividend payments that are a large multiple over their wage income. What the IRS legally allows for your compensation level depends on the market value of your position or what you would pay a replacement for what you do. It has nothing to do with the net profit on the biz. I had a biz where the market value of my job, photographic printer, was about a tenth of what I could make owning the biz. Basically dividends are the return on your capital, not compensation based on hours and work done as an employee of the company. Now a lawyer, with little invested capital and a high market value for their work, might have a much more difficult time making those kinds of ratios, but small business owners that aren't normally high paid professionals can frequently justify low wages/high dividends for themselves especially when they have large amounts of capital equipment, like all my clients do. You don't even have to be the most highly compensated individual in your business. I have several clients that run 2-5 million dollar companies that receive somewhere in the range of 30k in income and many times that in dividends, with employees that make more than they do. Now they have a much more aggressive CPA then I'd ever employ and I've warned them for years that they open themselves up to a serious and costly battle with the IRS over that practice, but so far they've gotten away with it. I've been warning them for 25 years and so far I've been wrong.