International associates:

Tavana & Co.
Chartered Accountants
Toronto, Canada
Tel.416-229-2221

• The mysterious hijacker:
On Wednesday, November 24,
1971, just the day before the
Thanksgiving-day holiday,
"D. B. Cooper" -- real name
unknown -- boarded a Northwest
Orient flight in Portland, Oregon.
Carrying a black briefcase that he
said held a bomb, he hijacked the
plane, demanding and receiving
$200,000 when the plane touched
down at Seattle-Tacoma.  He then
ordered the plane back up in the
air and parachuted out
somewhere over southwestern
Washington.  Except for $5,880 of
the loot found on the banks of the
Colombia River in 1980, no trace
was ever found of the man or the
money.

• Did you know that:
Thomas Edison was afraid of the
dark.  And among other things, he
invented the light bulb.

• When English settlers landed
in Australia, they noticed a strange
animal that jumped high and far.
They asked the aboriginal, using
body language and signs, about
the animals.  They responded with
"Kan Ghu Ru."  The English then
adopted the word kangaroo.  What
the aboriginal people were really
trying to say was "we don't
understand you, Kan Ghu Ru."

• What's a typically American
menu item?  You can't get more
American than burgers and fries.
Hamburgers are the to-go food for
millions of people every day.  And
you can find your way across the
U.S. using burger joints the way a
navigator uses stars.  "We have
munched bridge burgers in the
shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge and
Cable burgers hard by the Golden
Gate, Dixie burgers in the sunny
South and Yankee Doodle burgers
in the North.  We had a Capitol
Burger -- guess where.  And a
Penta burger in the inner courtyard
of the Pentagon."

• For more of the Generalist,
please visit ARKCPA•COM. 
 

• theGeneralist, a one-page monthly
publication of the accounting firm of
A.R. Kakhsaz Company, is in its 16th
year of providing information, presented
fairly and accurately, from sources we
can depend upon and trust.
 
• Great tax law news:
Businesses get a temporary
expensing boost.  They can
expense up to $500,000 of the
cost of assets put in service in
2010 and 2011.  Expensing is
expanded to some real estate
improvements . . renovations of
restaurants and retail stores plus
improvements landlords make for
tenants.  Up to $250,000 of the
cost of these items can be
expensed for 2010 and 2011.
The 50% bonus depreciation is
reinstated.  Obama wanted
100%, but it wasn't adopted.

• The IRS plans to launch
200,000 audits of people who took
the home-buyer credit to curtail
fraud.

• Life is a lot like jazz. . .
it's best when you improvise.

• Payroll taxes:  The IRS will
greatly restrict use of federal tax
deposit coupons after 2010.  Only
very small businesses will be
permitted to use the coupons.  That
is, those employers that have
$2,500 or less in quarterly
employment taxes and that pay
their liability when filing their
returns.  All others will have to
deposit their taxes by wire.

• Does the tea-party movement
have too much, too little or just
enough influence on the
Republican Party today?

Too much	30%
Just enough	33
Too little	18
Not sure	19

• We see more in numbers
than just numbers...

Ali R. Kakhsaz, CPA, MAcc
www.arkcpa.com