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Friday, 15 February 2008 |
Population is growing. Traffic is increasing. Road rage is on the rise. Is it any wonder?
According to the 2005 Urban Mobility Report, Congestion has grown substantially in U.S. cities over the past twenty years, currently topping over 60 hours of delay annually per traveler in very large cities(2). This congestion is predominantly a function of bottlenecks, traffic incidents, and work zones, which collectively account for 75% of all congestion (1). For this reason, the Federal Highway Administrations’ Traffic Congestion and Reliability: Trends and Advanced Strategies for Congestion Mitigation publicly state they have developed strategies falling into three categories:
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 March 2008 )
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Friday, 08 February 2008 |
As tax filing season approaches, we thought it worthwhile to cover a few IRS tax changes and new mileage rates that might affect your tax filings.
First, there have been some changes in the valuation of the Hybrid tax credits since many manufacturers have reached the 60,000 unit limits specified in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. As always, you can only receive the credit if you purchase the vehicle. If you lease the vehicle then the leasing company may take the credit. So, if you lease a hybrid ensure you negotiate the price down.
You can go to this link and check qualifying hybrids tax credits.
Also, it won't help for your 2007 tax year, but the IRS has raised the 2008 tax year Business Mileage deduction to $0.505 (50.5 cents) per mile driven.
The previous rate for 2007 was 48.5 cents.
For medical or moving purposes, the mileage rate actually drops from $0.20 to $0.19 for the 2008 tax year. The mileage rate for charitable organizational driving has not changed since 2007 and remains at $0.14.
Ensure you contact a qualified tax professional to go over changes in the tax laws that affect your filings and deductions before you file.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 08 February 2008 )
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Friday, 01 February 2008 |
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Confessions of a Pack Rat No, this isn’t an article on unleaded gasoline or the benefits of Premium vs. Regular. It is much more basic than that. It is my own personal cathartic confession. For years I have driven cars with no trunk space. I say that because even though I have always owned cars with sufficient trunk sizes at the time of purchase, I have opted to use this space for my own “secret closet”. So I guess in a way, this article is my trunk’s “coming out of the closet”. I have recently unpacked my guitar amps, golf equipment and yes, even some power tools only to find my gas mileage benefit. Obvious, sure, but old habits die hard. I never really thought about what I was lagging all around the city. I was use to putting my groceries in the back seat (another great benefit I have discovered). But after watching way too many hours of those organizational programs on television, I decided to actually organize something. As my house was too big of an initial project I started with my car. And after finding the benefits of such a simple task, I decided to take on an even bigger challenge. Therefore I took on my wife’s car. Being conscientious environmentalists we were careful to select cars that get better than average mileage (read: lighter cars). But this was being insidiously undermined by the fact that we are clutter hounds. | |
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