| Property rental income skyrockets
EAST London property investors trounced their national counterparts with rentals returning a 41 percent growth in the past three years as lettings played catch-up with the rest of South Africa. While this may be good news for property owners with property to rent, it is bad news for those seeking rental accommodation locally especially the elderly. Nationally, rentals grew 25 percent, experiencing a significant upswing since June 2005 in line with the medium-term surge in residential house prices. The recently released Trafalgar December 2006 rental index reflected the rate to which rentals have risen alongside the market boom. Trafalgar chairman Neville Schaefer said this demonstrated that the property market still offered investors a sound vehicle for capital appreciation.
Losses on investment properties are deductible
A capital asset can be almost anything you own and use for personal purposes, pleasure or investment. If you sell such an asset, the difference between the amount you sell it for and your basis, which is usually what you paid for it, is a capital gain or a capital loss, according to the Internal Revenue Service. While you must report all capital gains, you may deduct only capital losses on investment property, not personal property, the IRS said in a news release. Here are a few tax facts about capital gains and losses: - Capital gains and losses are reported on Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses, and then transferred to line 13 of Form 1040. - Capital gains and losses are classified as long-term or short-term, depending on how long you hold the property before you sell it.
Seizing Opportunity Investing
As many investors, who were both lulled and seduced by the performance of the stock market during the 1980s and 1990s, learned as the new century got under way, the American stock market carries risks as well as rewards. This is particularly the case for investors who lose track of the true values of securities, whose portfolios are relatively nondiversified and who have not become familiar with and do not use opportunities across the investment universe and across the geographic globe. I wrote Opportunity Investing to acquaint readers with the many areas in which to profitably place their capital, to provide to potential investors the information needed to determine when, where and how to take advantage of different investment opportunities, and to offer ways to blend various investment vehicles -- domestic and foreign -- into stable, diversified and profitable portfolios.
No Rest for the Wiki
In late 2005, Intel engineer Josh Bancroft needed a tool that his colleagues could use to share company information, from historical highlights to progress of internal projects. Inspired by Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia assembled by users around the world, he devised Intelpedia, an internal Web site that draws on the input of employees companywide. Although it ruffled feathers -- some employees don't like being edited by colleagues, especially those further down the org chart -- Intelpedia caught on. In a little more than a year, Intelpedia has amassed 5,000 pages of content and garnered 13.5 million page views. "Employees can be frustrated that somebody else edited their work," says Jeff Moriarty, collaboration technical architect of Intel's information technology group.
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