Personal Finance
Cleveland-area man has one of the highest credit scores in the entire country, 848 out of 850
Tom Pavelka has a nice 3,000-square-foot home in Westlake, a good government job, two British sports cars and an adoring wife of 25 years.
But he has one more thing that most people would really, really love to have: a credit score that is higher than almost everyone else’s in the country.
Pavelka, 56, has a credit score of 848 out of 850. The letter he got from the credit bureau recently said his score “ranks higher than 100 percent of U.S. consumers.”
That makes Pavelka a financial anomaly.
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Would you let the IRS do your return? ‘Real-time tax system’ touted to fight fraud, tax evasion
Most of us grumble about filing our income tax returns every year. But what if the IRS instead prepared your return for you and just told you how much you owe or will get back?
It’s an idea that has been gaining momentum within the Internal Revenue Service as a way to thwart tax evasion and curb identity theft.
It’s called the “real-time tax system,” and here’s a look at how it would work.
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Dow Jones index hits new high. Market record signals economic improvement, but investors, beware
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher than ever before Tuesday. It’s a largely psychological milestone, but it’s one that might convince investors the economy is actually recovering from the massacre of 2008-09.
The Dow ended Tuesday at 14,254, shattering its old record of 14,165, reached 5-1/2 years ago, in October 2007. In the 18 months that followed that record, the Dow lost more than half of its value, bottoming at 6,547 in March 2009.
Now, after four years and tons of Band-aids from the Federal Reserve, the value of the widely watched blue chip index has climbed by more than 100 percent.
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Credit and debit cards with EMV chips mean big changes for consumers, shoppers nationwide
If you have a credit or debit card, shop in a store or eat in a restaurant, you’ll notice big changes in two months.
Oct. 1 is the deadline for banks to re-issue 1.2 billion credit and debit cards that are in circulation in the United States with new cards that contain fraud-resistant computer chips. And Oct. 1 is the deadline for retailers nationwide to upgrade 10 million card readers.
The changes are expected to eliminate about 40 percent of the credit and debit card fraud in this country. But the changes caused by those tiny computer chips will also mean you’ll have to use payment terminals differently, and this could lead to longer lines in stores and restaurants, probably for several months as consumers and companies adjust.
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Municipal tax reform could make life easier for residents, businesses but hurt cities’ revenue
If you think your income tax returns are a headache, CPA Amy Gibson in Mayfield says you have nothing to complain about. She has seen clients who have to submit federal and Ohio returns – and 20 or 30 different returns for different Northeast Ohio cities.
The reason: Ohio is the only state that allows every municipality to set its own tax rates, establish its own rules about income and deductions, and issue its own tax forms.
So if you’re a salesperson or contractor or consultant who has meetings or does work in communities from Euclid to Cleveland to Macedonia to Medina, you could be liable for filing municipal income tax returns for a slew of different cities.
Likewise if you run a business, you may be expected to file tax returns in various cities, some of which collect tax based on whether you ship there, drive through the city or have meetings there.
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