| 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
|
China's economy expanded
6.8% in the fourth quarter 2008
from a year earlier, confirming a
slow down that has cut growth
nearly in half in just a year. Growth
for 2008 was 9%, making it the
first time since 2002 that China's
economy has expanded by less
than 10% annually.
Cleaner air has boosted life
spans: reduced air pollution over
the past two decades has added
nearly five months to average life
expectancy in the U.S. From 1978
through 2001, Americans' average
life span increased almost three
years to 77, and as much as 4.8
months of that can be attributed to
cleaner air, says a report in the
New England Journal of Medicine.
Experts called the gain dramatic.
"It shows that our efforts as a
country to control air pollution have
been well worth the expense."
Banco Santander of Spain
will give thousands of its customers
a total of $1.82 billion in
compensation for losses in Madoff's
$50 billion Ponzi scheme.
New survey on tax cheating:
How much, if any, is an acceptable
amount to cheat on your income
taxes? Here's the survey results:
|
Year |
2007 |
2008 |
|
Not at all |
84% |
89% |
|
|
|
A little here
and there |
8% |
6% |
|
|
|
|
As much as possible |
5% |
3% |
Unemployment has risen in
every state. Joblessness is worst
in the West / Midwest and where
housing / manufacturing's in trouble.
Sign of the times: A
thousand
job applicants lined up in early
February for 35 jobs in Miami for
firefighter jobs.
For more of the Generalist,
please visit ARKCPACOM.
|
theGeneralist, a
one-page monthly
publication of the accounting firm of
A.R. Kakhsaz Company, is in its 15th
year of providing information, presented
fairly and accurately, from sources we
can depend upon and trust.
Swiss Bank will give the
names of account holders and pay
$780 million to settle a criminal
probe into the bank's offshore
private-banking services for
wealthy Americans. The
settlement marks a landmark
break from Switzerland's tradition
of banking secrecy. UBS became
the focus of the U.S. criminal and
civil probes in 2007, when its
former executive told U.S. officials
that the bank began telling
American customers in 2002 that it
wasn't required to disclose their
identities to the IRS.
Under the $789.5 billion
stimulus package physicians will
get bonuses of between $44,000
and $64,000 if they computerize
medical records systems.
Hospitals will get as much as
$11 million.
A recent study of flu found a
correlation between low humidity
and virus transmission.
Maddoff's fraud victims
include an array of people: From
movie director Steven Spielberg
to ordinary people as plumbers.
That's sheer ruthlessness.
A law intended to restrict
children's access to Internet
pornography, died quietly in the
Supreme Court.
Elimination of estate tax on
big
inheritances was approved by
Congress under President George
W. Bush in 2001. But Democrats
will now want to end it.
We see more in numbers
than just numbers...
Ali R. Kakhsaz, CPA, MAcc
www.arkcpa.com
|
