Man Honten

Tax filing is stressful, and without a W2 form it’s even more difficult. Here are some tips for filing your income tax return, W2 issues notwithstanding.

If you have your only W2, income tax return preparation is simple! Just fill out the forms according to the basic instructions you have, and you’re on your way. Tax preparation is never quite as easy as it should be, so it’s often better to have someone else handle the hard parts for you. If you have a W2, but you’re missing another W2, income tax return preparation is a little more difficult. The good news is that it’s just as easy no matter how many W-2′s you’re missing. What you’ll have to do is look at a pay stub and use that to estimate how much money you made for the year, and how much you already had withheld. You’ll have to tell the IRS you’re estimating, and you will probably want to work with a professional to get the numbers right. If you don’t have your pay stub or W2, income tax return preparation will be tough, and is almost certainly something you’d want to leave to a professional. You’ll have to estimate your income and your withholdings, and use that information to figure out how much you owe them. Once you have the right information, you can fix things up. The IRS will tell you how much you actually ought to owe. You can amend your income tax return W2-free once the IRS responds to you and tells you how much your employer reports that you made.

Dealing with a missing W2 is not convenient, but it’s certainly possible. If you work with a good tax website that focuses in these issues, you can do your income tax return W2 or no. The most important thing to do is to remember that there’s no reason to panic. After all, there’s no way for the IRS to know what you owe without being able to tell you the same thing, so at best it’s just an inconvenience.

By: Byrne Hobart

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When you decide to start your hot dog street vending business, you’ll have to bear in mind that the requirements for permits and licenses are different from state to state. So it’s highly recommended that you get in touch with the city or county health and police departments in your area to get the proper licenses and permits to be able to operate your hot dog street vending cart business.

You can do this by visiting the health department in your area. If for some reason you’re unable to go to city hall, you can access the information you need online. Most state and municipal health departments have their own websites.

In general, you’ll need two types of permits and clearances to operate your street vending cart business. This is the license from the health department. This essentially allows you to sell food in your area. One of the requirements is to have your hot dog cart, trailer or truck visited by the health inspector for a thorough inspection to determine whether your unit with its equipment and accessories conform to the state, city or county health codes.

In most instances, the health inspector will approve your unit after verifying that it meets all the requirements of the inspection. In rare cases, the health inspector will require you to install an additional piece of equipment. The cost of a health department permit varies from state to state. But it normally costs $100 or less. Depending on where you live, these licenses are issued by either the state or town.

Another permit that you’ll need to operate your hot dog street vending cart business will largely depend on where you intend set up shop. If you intend to locate on a public property such as on a beach, park, playground or a street curb, you may be required to get a permit from the local police department. Once more, the costs of the permits vary from state to state.

In the case of a special event such as on a parade, carnival or ballgame, you’ll be required to get another permit. But if you’re planning to operate on a private property like in front of an office building or construction site, then you’ll only need to get the permission of the building or property owner.

To be on the safe side, it is highly recommended that you check with the proper regulating agencies in your area for the detailed requirements.

Bear in mind that food is a heavily regulated commodity. Since there is a strong chance for endangering the public if it is not handled properly and prepared safely. Moreover, a hot dog cart operator is considered to be a professional food handler. This is because you store, prepare, and sell food to the public. Even reheating pre-cooked dogs are considered preparing food.

Due to the wide differences in health and sanitation standards from one jurisdiction to another, your hot dog cart manufacturer or supplier may not guarantee that the unit you obtained from them will pass the inspection in your particular area. So meeting the health and sanitation standards in your jurisdiction for your hot dog cart is your personal responsibility.

But most hot dog cart manufacturers will be more than willing to provide you with the assistance you need for your hot dog cart to pass the health inspection. All you have to do is to provide them with the specific requirements.

By: Franklin B. Smith

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What do the initials PRC mean to you as a landlord and property investor? Probably not an awful lot. However, these type of properties which can be found literally around every street corner in the UK are frequently available at up to 50% below the market value of similar properties in the area. PRC properties therefore represent a potential golden investment opportunity for shrewd property investors.

PRC Properties
The initials PRC actually refer to the fact that these properties were constructed from Pre-cast Reinforced Concrete panels. Many thousands of these types of houses were constructed in the 1940′s and 1950′s across the UK to cope with the massive need for homes after the war. They were built from pre-fabricated panels and were constructed in this way because house building materials and craftsmen after the war were in short supply.

PRC homes offer generous family accommodation and gardens and were very popular with their original Local Authority tenants.

PRC problems
The problems relating to these buildings came about in the early 1980′s. Tenants had been buying these properties under the Right To Buy scheme. When it became apparent that these temporary structures were deteriorating due to the cracking of the concrete panels from which they were constructed. Building societies, banks and other mortgage companies would no longer lend on these properties, which became classified as defective making them un-sale-able for those tenants who had already purchased them. The government responded by stepping in and offering to buy the properties back or fund their structural repair to the tune of 90-95%. This funding which saw many of the PRC properties repaired has now ceased.

Once repaired it is often difficult to distinguish these properties from houses of a typical brick construction because part of the process involves re-cladding them with a brick skin.

Investment opportunity for landlords
All this is well and good but where is the property investment opportunity for landlords?

The opportunities are in several forms. Firstly, there are still unrepaired PRC properties that come to the market. These properties because they are unmortgageable will sell at prices 50% below the value of equivalent repaired or traditional construction buildings. Therefore property investors can pick up an unrepaired property which are frequently available at auction and then employ a specialist contractor to repair them. Repairs will involve removal of the redundant concrete pillars, blocks and internal beams and their replacement with traditional block and brick. In some cases the properties do not require the removal of the existing concrete structure. Instead they are best dealt with by treating the existing concrete to prevent any future corrosion and wrapping with new face brickwork.

Increasingly though notes David Nichols of PRC Homes UK Limited a specialist PRC consultancy he is coming across properties that have been repaired but where the original certification that proved that the work has been carried out has been lost or not received by the owner. The result is that these properties become un-mortgage-able in the resale market and therefore will sell normally at auction at a large discount to other similar properties. In this case landlords and property investors that identify these properties can then use PRC Homes UK Limited to put in place retrospective certification subject to proving that the repair is a recognised one. Once this is in place the property becomes mortgage-able potentially generating a large uplift in value for the property investor.

Where can I find them?
PRC properties are found throughout the UK and are particularly prevalent in areas which experienced heavy bomb damage during the war. Places such as Bristol, Southampton & Birmingham for example have high concentrations but PRC properties can be found around literally every street corner throughout the UK.

Once repaired, because of their generous size and location which is frequently suburban or semi rural locations, these properties are highly sort after and make ideal family rentals.

PRC properties frequently appear at auction, therefore landlords seeking to bag a bargain are best advised to start by searching their local auction rooms for these investment opportunities. Websites such as auction property for sale allows an investor to search auction rooms nationally for potential PRC properties. Having identified a potential investment opportunity, landlords will need to line up a specialist loan to purchase these un-mortgage-able properties. A property investor will then need advice about how to repair the PRC property or obtain retrospective certification that confirms the property has been correctly repaired. The landlord is then able to refinance the property by obtaining a traditional buy-to-let investment mortgage.

Dangers for unwary property investors and landlords
Property investors not familiar with PRC properties need to be wary warns David Nichols Director of the specialist consultancy PRC Homes UK Ltd. He recounts his experience with one investor he advised. The property investor and landlord had committed to purchase a PRC property at auction for