The Fourth Quarter of 2012 was a busy time in California from a tax legislative standpoint. California residents potentially saw a significant increase in their personal income taxes as a result of the passage of proposition 30. In addition, sales tax rates have increased effective January 1st, 2013. California based businesses should see som [...]

On January 1, 2013, the House of Representatives passed H.R.8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act (the Act). The President is expected to sign the legislation. The Act averts many of the tax hikes that were scheduled to go into effect on January 1st. It also retains certain tax breaks that were scheduled to expire, but it also increases income [...]

Does tax policy change the way in which people behave economically? Could higher tax rates generate lower revenue to the government? This has been an age old tug of war amongst economists since the Kennedy administration proposed tax cuts in 1962, and the ushering in of the so called "Laffer Curve" by Professor Arthur Laffer when he argued against the 1974 tax increas [...]

Welcome to the Entertainment Newsletter, containing content related to the people, news and business issues we see in our day-to-day service to the industry.In This IssueFilm production tax credit extended– On September 30, 2012 Governor Brown extended the tax credit for California based television and film productions through 2017. The $100 million annual program is [...]

With the 2012 election behind us, we wanted to provide you with a brief overview of the likely changes immediately ahead of us and its implications for taxpayers from both a federal and California perspective. The election, which ultimately turned out to be a status-quo election with the same parties that controlled the White House, the Senate and the House [...]

California taxpayers should be aware of two major ballot propositions on California’s November 6th, 2012 ballot that are designed to raise taxes on both businesses and individuals. These ballot propositions are California Proposition 30 sponsored by Governor Jerry Brown and California Proposition 39 which is an initiated state statute. Note t [...]

Welcome to the Entertainment Newsletter, containing content related to the people, news and business issues we see in our day-to-day service to the industry.In This IssueCongress stalled extending Section 181 – In 2004, Congress created the Section 181 Film Tax Incentive, which savvy film producers frequently combined with state incentives to attract investors to redu [...]

The newest idiom in the American political lexicon is the "fiscal cliff.” It is all but certain to become a catch-phrase for the next fiscal iceberg facing the supertanker known as the U.S. economy. The fiscal cliff refers to approximately $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts coupled with expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and a payroll tax break. Absent an agree [...]

Seafood is one of the most popular foods in the United States and while the U.S. imports more than 84% of its seafood, only 2% is currently inspected by the FDA. Recent studies have shown that seafood may be mislabeled as often as 25% to 70% of the time for popular fish species.In fact in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Oceana, a nonprofit organization, con [...]