| A.
R. Kakhsaz Company
an accountancy corporation
Member
American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants
International associates:
Tavana & Co.
Chartered Accountants
Toronto, Canada
Tel.416-229-2221
|
•"Billy
Gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your
software!" That's the two-sentence message addressed to Bill
Gates of Microsoft, which was hidden in the Blaster worm that crippled
millions of computers across the world. The recent rash of
destructive computer programs - most notably the Blaster worm and the
SoBig virus - have prompted many to wonder. If software makers, particularly
Microsoft, wrote better software in the first place, computers would be
less susceptible to attacks. And that's true! The Blaster
worm, for instance, takes advantage of a flaw in Microsoft's windows
operating system by infecting computers through a feature normally used to
help computers communicate with each other over a network. Fixing
inadequate software in the U.S. costs the software makers and the users
between $25 billion and $60 billion a year. That figure doesn't
include losses at business where flawed software leads to bigger problems,
to as high a stake as causing loss of human lives.
•Per-capita state and
local taxes paid by Californians versus those of the neighboring
states:
|
California |
|
$3,670 |
100 |
% |
|
Nevada |
|
2,742 |
75 |
|
|
Oregon |
|
2,682 |
73 |
|
|
Arizona |
|
2,677 |
73 |
|
No wonder Arnold
Schwarzenegger said: "Californians are taxed from the moment they
flush their toilets in the morning."
•For more of theGeneralist,
visit our Website at ARKCPA.COM
•Federal income tax brackets for 2004
are estimated as follows:
| On taxable
income of more than |
|
|
| Joint
filers |
Single
filers |
|
tax rate |
| $
0 |
$
0 |
|
10% |
| 14,000 |
7,000 |
|
15 |
| 58,000 |
29,000 |
|
25 |
| 117,000 |
70,000 |
|
28 |
| 179,000 |
147,000 |
|
33 |
| 319,000 |
319,000 |
|
35 |
The official amounts will be
published by the IRS early next year.
•There is not enough evidence to recommend or reject use of
vitamin supplements as a way to reduce the risk of cancer and heart
disease.
|
•Arnold Schwarzenegger spent $9,707,318 of
his own to become the governor of California. $8.5 million, or
half of his campaign's funding, and $1,207,318 on ads urging
Davis'ouster.
•U.S. hospitals face growing scrutiny for demanding
money from patients with little or no insurance, without passing
along discounts they get.
• theGeneralist, a one-page monthly
publication of the accounting firm of A. R. Kakhsaz Company,
is in its ninth year of providing information, presented fairly and
accurately, from sources we can depend upon and trust.
•Politics of California recall election: Just
before the election, a raft of "liberal legislation" was
enacted that included several key issues of immigration, health
care, privacy and gay rights. That's going to be hard for any
Republican administration to undo. The legislature and Mr.
Davis granted illegal immigrants the right to driver's licenses,
enacted the toughest financial-privacy and anti-spam measures,
expanded the rights of gay partners and another one that will
require businesses with 50 or more employees to provide health
insurance or pay into a state pool to purchase the coverage.
Visit our website at ARKCPA.COM please.
•Identity theft costs $53 billion a year: 9.9
million consumers were victimized by identity theft in 2002, costing
them $5 billion and businesses and financial institutions $48
billion. The victims spent a total of 297 million hours
resolving problems related to the thefts. Here's how the
theft's happened:
| Stolen driver's licenses, credit
cards and mail |
|
23% |
| By credit card recipients during
or after a purchase |
|
13 |
| By someone close and known by the
victim |
|
14 |
| Don't know how |
|
50 |
•We see more in numbers than just numbers…
Ali R. Kakhsaz, CPA, MAcc
www.arkpca.com
|
