Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Tax Research Essay

Tax Research Essay Tax Research Essay Relevant Facts Ms. Linda Smith, single, age 25 is a exotic dancer at an adult entertainment establishment located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her first year in the business is 2012. Linda is considering having breast implants. Linda’s reasoning is that this â€Å"enhancement† will increase her income in her exotic dancing career. The cost of the surgery is approximately $8300. It is expected that the implants will have a useful life of several years. Specific Issues Can Linda derive a tax benefit from the large amount she will have to pay for this surgery? Conclusions Linda Smith can deduct the $8300 expenses of surgery as a necessary and ordinary expense. Also, she can capitalize the cost of the surgery and they are depreciable. Support I.R.C  § 162(a)(2013) states that: â€Å"In general there shall be allowed as a deduction all the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business†¦.† In the line of her trade, the acquisition of breast implants serve as an improvement of an asset (breasts). Hence, as this is not a personal expense, the cost incurred on the breast augmentation could be considered as a â€Å"necessary and ordinary† expense in relation to the line of business Linda is in. In addition to that I.R.C  § 167(a)(2013) states that: â€Å"There shall be allowed as a depreciation deduction a reasonable allowance for the exhaustion, wear and tear (including a reasonable allowance for obsolescence) - (1) of property used in the trade or business, or (2) of property held for the production of income.† As we can see that in her line, the implants serve as a property used in trade or business, she can deprecia te them. Also, the Treas. Reg.  § 1.162-1 (as amended in 1993) states that â€Å". Business expenses deductible from gross income include the ordinary and necessary expenditures directly connected with or pertaining to the taxpayer's trade or business, except items which are used as the basis for a deduction or a credit under provisions of law other than section 162.† Hence, as we can see that the breast

Monday, October 21, 2019

Nike Case Study

Nike Case Study Subcontracting is a situation whereby a company or firm being the main manufacturer (contractor) hires/contracts another firm (subcontractor) to manufacture the products as an alternative. The main benefits is that subcontracting firm focus more on other crucial business areas such as marketing, creation of more employment opportunities since work is done by other people employed by the subcontractor.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Nike Case Study specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Low cost of production is another benefit. Fourthly, the products or services offered are of high quality due to specialization. The contractor only needs to subcontract another firm for less charges hence lowering cost of production. Subcontracting has its drawbacks, which include failure to meet or live up to market/clients demands by the subcontractor. For instance, poor workmanship by the subcontractor may tarnish contracting firms repu tation. Secondly, the contractor may not really have much control over the quality of work. Thirdly, contracting firms’ survival and success usually depends on the performance of the subcontractor. Outsourcing refers to the acquiring of products or services from other producers or suppliers usually from other firms within or from other countries instead of being the sole manufacturer of the products. Many American and European organizations are now outsourcing and this is mostly due to the positive impacts it has on organizational growth. The main benefit of outsourcing is reduced cost of production. These organizations mostly outsource from developing countries where labour cost is very cheap, therefore they are able to make massive profits. Like subcontracting, outsourcing leaves the contracting companies with core business of planning and strategizing on marketing and product development. Outsourcing has its drawbacks as well. One of drawbacks is loss of jobs especially in cases of offshore sourcing, where the organizations bring in cheap labour from other countries. Bad publicity is another drawback, as people who lose their jobs will depict the organization negatively. Thirdly, there is likely to be a problem of language barrier for instance, if products manufactures use different native languages, then manuals may be in a language that most clients cannot understand. This will cause miscommunications or need to translate. Last but no least, here is no guarantee on time of products since outsourcing delays may be inevitable.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In this case, Nike Inc.’s reason to subcontract its production is mainly on the need to cut cost of production, gain high quality products and make most out of the invested capital as the main aim of any business. In particular, this leaves Nike Inc. with only the most cr ucial area of its business of advertising, product development and distribution. This saves Nike Inc. a lot of time, money and resources. The most probable ramifications for laying off 60,000 workers when Nike closed its last factory in U.S. were, increased profit margins since the company was able to do away with responsibilities of managing many of workers, paying workers salary and benefits, insuring the business and many more. Alternatively, it left 60,000 Americans jobless while creating 300,000 jobs in Asia. Code of conduct refers to certain set rules and guidelines within a given organisation or profession. There are several ethical issues found in Nike manufacturing factories including abuse of workers by the subcontractors. The workers are poorly paid; their minimum wages do not meet their daily liveable wage, there is physical and sexual abuse. Child labour is another ethical issue, where minors were stitching soccer balls for Nike. The benefits for Nike operating manufact uring plants overseas include increased productivity, increase in profit margins, high quality products and reduced production cost. It is important to study ethics since ethical behaviour can sometimes be tricky in its form; how a business carries itself can leave a good or bad impression on consumers and other businesses. Most businesses are today interested in profits than anything else, thus failing to check on critical aspects such as ethics and consequently their downfall. Evidently, companies that practice ethical values are incomparable to businesses that just want to make a profit. Implementing Business Ethics in a company’s work is hence critical.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Task Group Proposal (Write a proposal for any of the 3 types of groups covered in the Groups Communication Class)

Task Group Proposal (Write a proposal for any of the 3 types of groups covered in the Groups Communication Class) Task Group ProposalOrganization of a Gay and Lesbian Students Club atXYZ Community College (XYZ)1. The Task Group will meet the first and third Wednesday of March, April, and May 2005. The meetings will be held from 4.30pm to 6.00 pm in Conference Room 216 on the second floor of XYZ Library. All meetings are closed to the public with the exception of the meeting scheduled for April 6, 2005. The public will be invited to offer input during this meeting.The group's purpose is to:a. Discuss and write Bylaws for the proposed Gay and Lesbian Students Club.b. Create a meeting and activities schedule for the upcoming semester for the proposed club.c. Forward the completed Bylaws and schedule for approval to the Student Activities Coordinator, Student Activities Executive Board, and Administrative Council, as outlined in the Guidelines for Prospective College-Sponsored Clubs or Organizations.2. The Task Group will include four self-identified gay or lesbian XYZ students, Ms.Journal of the Ga y and Lesbian Medical AssociationJane Doe acting as advisor to the group, and one representative from ABC University's Gay and Lesbian Organization LAMBDA to offer input from an already established gay and lesbian college organization.3. The objectives of this task group are to create a new club that will enhance student life by offering a club to students that may not feel comfortable joining other clubs due to their sexual orientation. Learning will take place as group members share their expectations in the proposed club and talk about possible activities they desire to include in the club's schedule.4. Members may feel overwhelmed by having to write Bylaws for the proposed club, if this is something they have never done before. Group members may also fear what impact participation in this group may have on their college life; for example, fear...

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Saint Marie and The red convertible by Louise Erdrich Essay

Saint Marie and The red convertible by Louise Erdrich - Essay Example While comparing the pieces of the same writer, the particular style incorporated within the context of theme and other literary devices used elaborately, the time and perspective of that particular writer and ages from which the pieces have evolved out, become more pertinent. Louise Erdrich is a veteran writer who has a remarkable and considerable contribution in the domain of children’s literature projecting Native American heritage. Her remarkable short story â€Å"The Red Convertible† and one of the most anthologized short stories appeared as the second chapter in her debut novel â€Å"Love Medicine† was published in the year 1984. It contains a series of fourteen short stories entwined by common characters, themes and settings. In the year 1993, Erdrich expended the collection with the four more stories and this anthology depicts the true colour of Dakota, its people and life style. Saint Marie, on the other hand, is a narrative based on the life of a convert ed Marie Lazzare who narrates the vents of her recent transformation to Catholicism and her story of sainthood, fifty years following the occurrence of the vent. The story takes place in the flash-back oscillating between past and present of Marie (Erdrich, â€Å"Saint Marie†). Thesis Statement Presentation or narrative style of any story helps in understanding the insight of the writer and the perception related with the story. This essay intends to examine and compare the narrative style of two short stories, â€Å"The Red Convertible† and â€Å"Saint Marie† written by Louise Erdrich that shall result into the understanding of the insight and treatment of the theme, society, age and myriad psychological and social factors interplaying within the narrative framework of these stories. â€Å"Saint Marie† and â€Å"The Red Convertible†: An Insight through Narration A comparative study of the narrative techniques of the stories, â€Å"The Red Convert ible† and â€Å"Saint Marie† would definitely launch the readers into a clear perspective of writer’s social and psychological thought as it would get evidently expressed through her narration. â€Å"Saint Marie† is a story that adapts a chronological order for narration and at the same time, the device of flashback is also used and incorporated within the narrative framework of the story largely. An elderly character of the story named Marie Kaspaw presents the outline of the events that occurred in the fourteenth year of a young and vibrant girl named Marrie Lazzare. Actually, the subtlety of the technique used in this story by Erdrich is that Marie Kaspaw and Marie Lazzare is same person divided in their identity by events of life. The narrative is presented in a mode of flashback where the readers are presented with Lazzare who is a young girl full with energy wishing to enter a local convent. While playing the role of a narrator, the character is seen presenting subtle clues regarding the course of events that is a disastrous one in Marie’s life. At the same time, the narrator has the capacity to withhold the interest of the readers by unveiling and slowly unfolding the course of actions. This way a considerable interest in the plot development is retained. For the contemporary readers, Erdrich has a proper blend of realism and use of evocative visual imagery in her narrative frame work. The most important aspect of the narrative style of â€Å"Saint Marie† is the process of psychological realism operating throughout the plot to uphold a very sensitive social issue like conversion and

Friday, October 18, 2019

Challenges Employees face with electronic health records Research Paper

Challenges Employees face with electronic health records - Research Paper Example Hence, there will be three parts in the research methodology, 1- description of the research strategy, 2- description of sampling strategy and 3- detail description and justification of the data collection instruments. As the researcher will use questionnaire survey method to collect data hence the study will also highlight ethical issues associated with the paper. Research Strategy The researcher has the option to select either qualitative research or quantitative research to conduct the analysis but the researcher will use quantitative research techniques for analyzing demographic variables while qualitative methodology will be used in order to analyze data from the perception perspective of respondents. Quantitative research methodology helps researchers to address â€Å"what is† and â€Å"what might be† components in any research question while qualitative methodology helps in understanding perception of respondents (Roslender 250). Qualitative research methodology can also be used in order to social praxis of the research problem or critical issues regarding any kind of process change (Tinker 18.1; 101). Although these researchers used quantitative research methodology for accounting research but quantitative research methodology can be successfully used for addressing business research problems (Saunders, Lewis, and Adrian 100-102). Hence the researcher will use mix of quantitative and qualitative research technique backed by primary and secondary data sources. Key purpose of this paper is to understand â€Å"how employees at Eye Health Vision Centers feel about the transition from paper charts to Electronic Health Records† Hence the questionnaire will be decided on the basis of this primary research questions and staff in the ophthalmology centers will be the key participants in the questionnaire survey. As mentioned in the module 1, a particular ophthalmology centre (name of the centre will not be used due to confidentiality norm in ethical form) will be selected as the study setting. Any survey is incomplete without questionnaire while close ended questionnaire used in order to check response of respondents on particular topic and open ended questions are used in order to gather perception of respondents. However, in case of medical research on perception of staff about particular system, it is better to use open ended questionnaire (Whiddett, Hunter, Engelbrecht and Handy 75; 532). Hence, the researcher will use open ended questions will be used in order to understand experience of staff at ophthalmology centre regarding transition from paper charts to Electronic Health Records. There is more than 40 staff in the ophthalmology centre and they work in different department in the ophthalmology centre hence researcher will need to identify mutually exclusive but collectively exhaustive sample size which can represent the behavior of sample population. Hence, in the next section, the researcher will brief the sa mpling strategy that has been selected for the research. Sampling Strategy In the ophthalmology centre, there are more than 40 employees and each of the employees has different experience regarding

Reflective Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Reflective Report - Essay Example Furthermore, members have different experiences and each has a preferable way to research for the required information. Therefore, we all decided to choose an area in which one would prefer to focus on at the beginning. This was also informed by the limited amount of time available. Even thought the group met every week, more work was done during our private times. On the other hand, the group meetings were useful as we all used this time to share the researched information and track what areas needed to be looked into with more detail. Also, with today’s technological advancement, we were all able to contact each other through mobile phones or email so as to share the findings thus far and seek for assistance from one another. The business plan consists of three parts. One of them is the market environment, which includes external and internal analysis as well as the strategic fit of the corporation. The main advantage of researching the current external and internal situations is the ability to identify the threats and opportunities for marketing purposes (Baines & Fill 2011) (see Figure 1). In our case, the environmental scanning was essential to understand why the company chose the specific strategies it did. For example, the company decided to create the focused shapes UK music (MixtapeMadness 2014). In addition, according to Mintel (2014), technological evolution changed consumer purchasing behaviour with a majority purchasing music products online nowadays. Therefore, in order to match consumer needs, the online platform was created for music downloads. Moreover, the â€Å"PEST† analysis was highly useful to track the environment that the company operates in (Mullins 2013). For example, economical factors such as low income among young consumers have influenced the company to create a free downloading website. The business plan also contained the marketing plan, which

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Advanced business analytic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Advanced business analytic - Essay Example This paper is an executive summary of the case study on Project planning and project success by Dov Dvir et al.The increase in the management of business through projects and the increase in the complexity of project management The fact that planning is integral to project management is being analysed in this paper. The authors through an empirical analysis present the benefits of project planning for success in projects. The paper also presents an analysis on various aspects of project planning and project success from various perspectives.Project Planning: Project in itself is considered as a unique endeavour to accomplish a specific or a set of goals Richard Newton (2005). He further states that the project being the integration of a set of complex tasks makes it clear that planning is an essential element for success. Furthermore, it is also agreed that the planning is a complex process and not always achievable in case of projects as the outcome of a project tend to change with the end user requirements.Although it is widespread that the project planning is a complex process not able to accomplish in its entirety for a project, the process of not creating a plan would probably lead to failure as argued by Dov Dvir et al (2002). The authors also state that a milestone based planning of the projects is a more successful and reliable method of planning as opposed to the planning in its entirety. The fact project planning provides a scope for the project and through the setting of the milestone the members of the project team gain an idea on what is to accomplish which provides a perspective on the sequence of tasks to be performed. It is imperative that the project captures the end-user requirements comprehensively in order to successfully complete the project to the expected specifications. The Richard Newton (2005) further argues that a successful project manager should give importance to every detail in capturing the end-user requirement more than planning as planning is an integral part of the project whilst the former is the cause for the mere existence of the project itself. Alongside, the planning using milestone is also approved to be a far easier approach to project planning as the details to how the milestone is achieved is up to the individual performing the project task rather than the project team as such. Success Measures: Success in projects is measured under four dimensions argued by the writers as mentioned below 1. Meeting Design Goals: The design goals attribute to the actual purpose of the project and the reason for the inception of the project itself. This is argued as a critical success factor to all stakeholders in the projects irrespective of the scope of the project. 2. Benefit to Customer: This is the most critical success measure for the project as the end-user is the one who endorses the success of the project. 3. Commercial success 4. Future Potential The last two success dimensions are not always measurable as in the case of the case study on hand where the research is conducted on the data collected from Israeli Defence Forces. Research methodology and data A quantitative research analysis using statistical methods was conducted by the writers to analyse the importance of project planning and success criteria in Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). The primary research data was collected through questionnaires with weighing the answers in a scale of 1 to 7 where 7 is the extremely positive answer and vice versa. The research on the data was collected from the personnel and the end-users of the project to identify the success measures and the effects of project planning. With the case research focusing upon the R&D projects in specific, the questionnaire also captured project specific issues in order to identify the role of project