Relocation Guide

-newsobserver.com

Changes are nothing new when it comes to taxes. Each year, there’s a tweak here, a tweak there and occasionally a punch to the gut.

This year, more of the changes are designed to help taxpayers with an eye toward helping the economy. New laws add a variety of credits and deductions that could put more money in your pocket. But first you have to help yourself by learning what’s new. You may want to go to a tax specialist, use software, read a tax guide, consult the Internal Revenue Service’s Web site or actually read the 1040 that comes in the mail. We’re going to get you started by highlighting some of the major changes.

Change for everyone

Personal exemptions have increased - $3,650 each for the taxpayer and dependents, up $150 from 2008.

The standard deduction has increased: $11,400 for married couples filing jointly, $5,700 for individuals and $8,350 for heads of households.

And tax brackets have been adjusted upward by about 5percent since 2008, said Greg Rosica, tax partner at Ernst & Young and a contributing author to the “Ernst & Young Tax Guide 2010.” That means youmight not jump to a higher tax bracket if you earned more.

Change for earned income

Income limits for the earned income tax credit have been raised, and there’s a new category - families with three or more children. The Internal Revenue Service says one in six taxpayers claim the credit.

Change for higher incomes

The exemption for the alternative minimum tax has been increased once again, this time to $70,950 for joint returns and $46,700 for individuals. If your income is higher than these amounts, you could be subject to the AMT tax.

Change for the standard deduction

The standard deduction isn’t so standard this year. Some taxpayers may be able to increase their standard deduction if they paid property taxes, bought a new car and paid sales or excise taxes on it or were the victim of a federally declared disaster.

You can claim all these things if you itemize as well, but if you opt for including them in the standard deduction, you’ll have to fill out Schedule L. Here are the details:

Victims can add their net losses to the standard deduction.

Homeowners can increase their standard by a maximum $1,000 for joint filers or $500 for individuals for state or local real estate taxes paid on their principal residence.

People who bought a new car, truck, motorcycle or motor home (used vehicles don’t count) after Feb. 16, 2009, can add the sales or excise tax they paid if the vehicle cost less than $49,500. The deduction begins phasing out for individuals with incomes above $125,000 or joint filers earning more than $250,000.

Change for homebuyers

If you bought a home last year, you may qualify for a tax credit under one of three federal programs - it just depends on when you bought. In each case, the home has to be your main residence, not a vacation home, and it can’t cost more than $800,000.

If you bought your first home between April 9, 2008, and June 30, 2009, you got a long-term, interest-free loan that has to be paid back over 15 years. The maximum credit was $7,500.

If you bought between Jan. 1, 2009, and Nov. 30, 2009, you don’t have to pay back the credit, which also has a higher maximum, $8,000. Again, you had to be a first-time buyer.

If you buy between Nov.7, 2009, and April 30, 2010, first-timers still get a max of $8,000, but longtime homeowners who buy a new house also qualify for a credit, but at a reduced value - up to $6,500.

To claim the credit, you’ll have to fill out form 5405 and submit a copy of your settlement statement, usually Form HUD-1, with the names and signatures of all parties, the property address, the sales price and date of purchase.

To avoid refund delays, the IRS recommends that longtime homeowners who purchase a new home also provide documents to prove they’ve lived in the house consecutively for five of eight years. These can include mortgage interest statements, or property tax or homeowner’s insurance records.

Because of the extra paperwork provided, those who file for the homebuyers credit will not be able to electronically file their returns.

Change for college students

There’s new help for students. The American opportunity tax credit offers a bigger maximum credit - $2,500 - than what was available under the Hope credit. Also, it’s available to students for the first four years of college; the Hope credit could be used only for the first two years.

On top of that, 40 percent of the credit is refundable - even if that’s more than you owe.

To claim the maximum credit, a student had to spend $4,000 on qualifying expenses, such as tuition and fees, the cost of course materials and text books.

The credit begins phasing out for individuals whose modified adjusted gross income is more than $80,000, or $160,000 for married couples filing jointly.

If the opportunity credit doesn’t work for you, you may qualify for:

A lifetime learning credit for up to $2,000. It’s for undergraduates in their fifth or sixth year of study, students attending school part time and graduate students. The credit phases out for people with higher incomes. This is the one you’ll probably qualify for if you had to retrain or learn a new skill.

A tuition deduction of up to $4,000 for eligible tuition and fees for higher education. Again, there are income eligibility limits.

A deduction up to $2,500 for interest paid on student loans. To qualify, your modified adjusted gross income must be less than $75,000. The income limit on a joint return is $150,000.

A business deduction for a work-related class required by your employer. Claim it in the miscellaneous column of your itemized deductions, but to take it, the total of all miscellaneous deductions must exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income.

Change for the unemployed

The first $2,400 in unemployment compensation is not taxable, but that’s for 2009 only.

If you are paying for continuation of your coverage under COBRA, you can only deduct the premiums if you can take them as part of a medical expense deduction and you itemize your taxes. If your premium cost plus other medical expenses exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income, that would qualify.

Bad change

There is one possible whammy this year. The Making Work Pay tax credit kicked in last spring. Tax withholding tables were revised downward to give individuals up to $400 and couples up to $800. The result: more take-home pay for about 95 percent of working families.

People with more than one job, couples in which both spouses work and some Social Security recipients may have received too much of a credit because of the way the program was set up. “It may wind up that they owe taxes, or the big refund they expected might not be as big as they thought,” said Barbara Weltman, author of J.K. Lasser’s “1001 Deductions and Tax Breaks 2010″ and “Small Business Taxes 2010.”

The credit also requires a new form, Schedule M. Weltman said the form isn’t that complicated. “The shock is going to be whether you owe more than you think,” she said.

The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration estimated that more than 15 million people could be affected. The extra tax bill could be up to $400 for individuals or couples or $250 for Social Security recipients.

Overlooked deductions

In its tax guide, Ernst & Young lists 50 of what it says are the most overlooked deductions. They include:

Accounting fees for tax preparation or IRS audits.

Casualty or theft losses.

Employee moving expenses.

Dues to labor unions.

Long-term care premiums.

The cost of doing charitable work, including driving there.

There also are deductions for removing lead paint, health insurance premiums if self-employed, and alcohol or drug abuse treatment.

Common mistakes

Failing to include your Social Security number or those of your dependents.

Claiming the wrong number of personal exemptions.

Simple math errors.

Picking the wrong filing status.

Final thoughts

Remember, a tax credit directly reduces the taxes you owe. A deduction reduces the income on which your tax liability is based. In some cases, credits are refundable. That means you’ll get the money back even if the amount exceeds what you owe in taxes.

Keep records for any income, credit or deduction claimed, for at least three years. Longer still if you own securities, a home or other property.

And, if at the end of the day you find you owe the IRS money or want a bigger refund, you may be able to contribute to an individual retirement account until April 15 and take a deduction on your 2009 taxes.

If you’re covered by a plan at work, you may be able to deduct a contribution of $5,000 - $6,000 if you’re at least 50 - if your modified adjusted gross income is less than $65,000 if you’re filing status is single, or $109,000 if you’re married filing jointly.

The Associated Press

-wral.com

With unemployment numbers at some of their highest levels, temporary work is becoming an attractive option to those without jobs.

Michael Lane, branch manger of AccountTemps in Raleigh, says more people are seeking temporary work, and experts agree that companies seem to be making temporary workers permanent employees.

Jeannette Moss, director of job placement at Wake Tech, says she is seeing more companies that want to hire candidates on a temporary basis. The challenge, however, is that with more people turning to temporary work, the competition to get those jobs is much greater, she said.

“A lot of the employers are nervous about hiring permanent folks, so they would much rather hire a temp,” Moss said.

Right now, directors say the best fields for finding temporary work are in health care, IT or financial services.

“It is an opportunity to kind of audition for a permanent job,” Lane said. “So don’t necessarily think of a temp job as just a temporary position.”

Theresa Cochran became a permanent hire through a temporary job. Nearly two years ago, she lost her job as a data analyst for GlaxoSmithKline.

“It was very difficult, especially after spending 21 years of your life with the company that meant so much to you,” Cochran said.

With the help of a temporary-employment service agency, she eventually found work at a bank. Within three months, she was hired full time as an executive assistant.

“I really love it where I’m at,” she said. “I’m at home.”

-wral.com

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Big Blue is touting its efforts to go green with its new $360 million data center.

On Thursday, IBM unveils its massive collection of data processing computer servers that the company says uses half the energy of a typical complex.

The new data center in IBM’s largest worksite in the world was designed to support companies moving into cloud computing, where the operating and other software are stored at a remote site and used as needed instead of stored on a user’s computer.

IBM owns or operates more than 450 data centers worldwide.

Data center consultant John Boyd Jr. said he expects demand for data centers to grow because financial services reforms and electronic health care records will likely add new record-keeping requirements.

N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue will be among the guests attending Thursday’s unveiling. Bob Greenberg, IBM’s senior executive in North Carolina, is serving as host for the event.

Also attending will be IBM’s Pat Kerin, the general manager for global technology services in North America.

Perdue will meet with media and other guests for an IBM “Town Hall” session about the center at 2 p.m. before touring the facility at 3 p.m.

-starnewsonline.com

A Missouri hotel developer submitted a proposal this week to build a 250-room Embassy Suites hotel adjacent to the Wilmington Convention Center.

It was the only hotel proposal the city received by Tuesday’s 5 p.m. deadline that met the requirements of the city’s request for qualifications, said Steve Bridges, the city’s convention center project manager.

John Q. Hammons Hotels, of Springfield, Mo., proposes a 14-story Embassy Suites, with a restaurant and lounge, top-floor meeting rooms, an indoor/outdoor pool and other amenities, Bridges said.

The proposal, on first glance, appears to meet the requirements set forth by city council, he said.

The city also received a letter from CMC Hotels, of Cary, Bridges said. That company didn’t propose a specific hotel, but rather sought to sit down and talk to the city about the project.

“There’s nothing that we can do with it, quite frankly,” Bridges said.

City officials will review the proposals during the next few days to determine how to proceed, city spokeswoman Malissa Talbert said in a news release.

In September, Wilmington City Council terminated its contract with Wilmington River Group LLC, the company the city had chosen to build a 150-plus-room Hotel Indigo next to the convention center. After repeated deadline extensions, Wilmington River Group failed to purchase the hotel land from the city and meet the financial requirements of the city regarding financing for the hotel.

That left the city in a pickle: The convention center will open in the second half of 2010 without an adjacent hotel for its guests. So late last year, the city solicited proposals again from hotel developers.

John Q. Hammons Hotels operates 83 hotels in 25 states, with additional properties under construction or in planning, according to its Web site, www.jqhhotels.com. Its North Carolina properties include Embassy Suites in Cary, Concord and Greensboro, Homewood Suites in Greensboro and Renaissance Suites in Charlotte.

The company submitted a similar proposal to the city in 2007 but wasn’t chosen to develop the hotel.

“They were asking for the city to provide certain things that we couldn’t legally do,” Bridges said.

Bridges cautioned that any proposal would be contingent on the company securing financing.

“The market today for financing commercial projects is tough, very difficult,” he said.

Bridges said the city would form a small committee to review any proposals, conduct interviews of company representatives and make a recommendation to City Manager Sterling Cheatham, who would make any developer recommendation to city council.

Bridges said he hoped to have a recommendation to council within three months at the most.

“We’re going to do it as quickly as we possibly can,” he said.

The convention center is expected to open later this year, with a hotel as much as two years behind. Convention center marketers have expressed concern that not having a headquarters hotel will affect the city’s ability to bring in large, out-of-town groups, which is a primary reason the city is building the convention center.

-newsobserver.com

A billionaire broke out the bubbly.

Cary software employer SAS, which has been a fixture for years on Fortune magazine’s annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work for,” was never No. 1.

Until now.

Fortune’s latest ranking, out Thursday, puts SAS at the top, citing its “laundry list of benefits,” including unlimited sick days, onsite medical care, free fitness center, library and more.

To piggyback on that news, SAS announced that it generated $2.31 billion in revenue in 2009, up 2.2 percent from the year before. That marks the 34th straight year revenue has increased, despite the recession and increasing competition.

SAS executives warned in October that the streak might not last but then saw a late-year surge in sales as banks, retailers and other customers worldwide bought more of its analytics software.

To celebrate, SAS workers and bosses, including co-founder and CEO Jim Goodnight - who is also the state’s richest person - gathered Thursday afternoon in Cary for a champagne and spark ling cider toast.

Goodnight drank champagne.

The revenue increase in a down year was notable. But Fortune also noted that SAS kept and added benefits when many other companies are cutting jobs, pay and perks.

The magazine also lauds Goodnight as “the unlikely architect of this rare corporate culture.” Fortune gushes about Goodnight’s leadership helping foster loyalty, and “shockingly low turnover of 2percent,” by avoiding layoffs in 2009 despite the economic slump.

SAS, which last year was No. 20 on the Fortune list, strives to add perquisites every year. Besides bragging rights, getting noticed by Fortune can help companies recruit new talent and providing rich perks can help retain existing employees.

“My chief assets drive out the gate every day,” Goodnight told Fortune, using a favorite line he uses to justify the business strategy. “My job is to make sure they come back.”

SAS displays past Fortune covers in frames outside one of the many break rooms at its massive Cary campus.

“There’s a lot of pride having been on the ranking since it began,” SAS spokeswoman Allison Lane said.

SAS officials didn’t get official word from Fortune on taking the top spot until around dawn Thursday. But they had some hints: The magazine sent a reporter, photographer and videographer to Cary.

The No. 1 ranking and another glowing profile of the company and Goodnight in a major publication could boost business. The Fortune piece follows recent profiles in The New York Times and Business Week - all read by business bean counters who make decisions on what kind of software they should buy.

SAS sells software that helps corporations and government agencies analyze and mine vast amounts of data to predict customer preferences and other trends.

The private company, which Goodnight helped start while a professor at N.C. State University, doesn’t release financial information besides its annual sales. Goodnight warned in October that SAS’s streak of annual revenue growth wasn’t a sure thing for 2009 because of the economic downturn. The company cut expenses, including travel, last year to offset weaker sales growth.

But the last three months of the year brought a surge of interest and orders among a wide range of customers, including banks and retailers, said chief marketing officer Jim Davis.

“Momentum is good for us right now,” Davis said. “Given that we did 2.2 percent [revenue growth] in the toughest economy we’ve ever seen, I’m very optimistic.”

Davis knows competition is intensifying as other technology companies try to grab customers. “Everyone is migrating to our space, and there’s going to be a lot of confusion in the marketplace,” he said. “We’re the hottest space in software today, but we feel like we’re a step ahead.”

SAS’s focus on analytics, its drive to develop better and faster software, and strong base of more than 45,000 customers worldwide will help it stand out, he added.

SAS, which employs about 11,000 people worldwide and 4,200 in Cary, increased its headcount about 1 percent in 2009. That’s down from the 5percent to 6 percent rate during previous years. Davis said he expects SAS will add workers at a moderate rate again this year.

SAS, which fell as low as No. 48 on Fortune’s list in 2007 (the company peaked at No. 2 in 2001), learned from the magazine’s editors that it wasn’t enough to tell about great perks; they wanted proof.

“We had employees give testimonials and showed examples of the company being thoughtful and generous and caring for its people,” Lane said.

The company has added new green programs, including an Earth Day fair, in which SAS invites vendors such as solar panel companies to its campus. And a program coordinates volunteers who collect recyclables from break rooms.

Last year’s Fortune No. 1, NetApp, fell to No. 7 this year. The California-based tech company is expanding its operations in Research Triangle Park.

Other employers with Triangle operations on the latest list include Cisco at No. 16, Novo Nordisk at No. 25 and Kimley-Horn at No. 62.

-www.wral.com

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — Satellite navigation device maker Garmin International will open a research and development facility in the Triangle for wireless devices, the company announced Tuesday.

Initial plans are to hire up to 40 engineers and to open the facility as soon as possible, company spokesman Ted Gartner said.

“The wireless industry is moving very quickly and it behooves us to get a work force in place and running as soon as possible,” Gartner told Local Tech Wire and WRAL.com. “We are highly motivated to get up and running as fast as possible.”

In order to expedite the hiring process, Gartner will host a job fair on Thursday.

However, Gartner said Garmin is still finalizing where the R&D facility will be located.

“At this point we haven’t announced anything,” Gartner said of an office location. “We are down to a final handful of facilities.”

The lab will focus on wireless and mobile products. Garmin offers a wide variety of navigation devices and last fall launched its own navigation-equipped smart phone called the Nuvifone.

Garmin is not receiving any tax incentives or grants from state or local governments, according to Gartner.

“We have not sought any nor have we received any,” Gartner said about incentives. “We came to the Raleigh-Durham area because of the quality and quantity of the engineers in the area.

“That comes from not only the higher education institutions as well as companies in the area but we also are aware of cutbacks and layoffs in that area,” he added.

Research In Motion, the Canada-based manufacturer of the BlackBerry mobile device, also is going to open a Triangle-area facility. The two announcements help offset somewhat the recent loss of Sony Ericsson’s North American headquarters and several hundred jobs.

Garmin wants to hire engineers who “are experienced wireless development, wireless software, and handset certification engineers.”

“We are excited to expand our resources through the opening of a wireless technology center in the Raleigh-Durham area,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s chief operating officer, in the announcement. “In light of the growth opportunities for wireless products, we believe that this expansion is a critical step in expanding our ability to launch new wireless devices to markets around the world.”

Garmin noted the Triangle “area offers a large pool of highly-skilled engineering talent, thanks to the area’s many excellent universities and high-tech companies.”

It is planning a career forum on Jan. 14 from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hilton Raleigh-Durham Airport.

Many history buffs familiar with the Civil War in our area can list several well-known stories about the battles fought at Fort Fisher.

There was the ship Federals filled with powder and exploded near the massive earthworks. It did little more than wake a few soldiers from their slumber.

The story about Galusha Pennypacker, a Union officer who led a charge against the fort and personally planted his unit’s flag on the parapet gets a lot of attention. Pennypacker, who was wounded in that event, won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery.

Diligent students can even tell you about the extensive use of U.S. Colored Troops in and around Wilmington, including Fort Fisher. But few can give you details about these troops.

To fill in the gaps of knowledge many of us have, the 145th anniversary of the second battle at Fort Fisher will feature several opportunities to learn about U.S. Colored Troops.

At 6 p.m. Friday in the Azalea Coast Room at the Fisher Student Center at University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Road, scholars will lead a free discussion titled “Black Men Bearing Freedom: U.S. Colored Troops and Their Impact on North Carolina.”

Topics in this category will include everything from recruitment of black soldiers by the Union army to their role in the service and post-war arguments for their citizenship.
other discussion will be held 3 p.m. Saturday at the Fort Fisher State Historic Site, 1610 Fort Fisher Blvd. South, Kure Beach. Dr. Richard Reid, author of “Freedom for Themselves: North Carolina’s Black Soldiers in the Civil War Era,” will talk about the U.S. Colored Troops that were in our area.

This year, several nighttime events are scheduled.

Thirty-minute tours by lantern-light will be held beginning at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The last tour will leave at 7:30 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m. Saturday, living history re-enactors will fire the fort’s 32-pound rifled and banded cannon, an impressive display of firepower set against the night sky.

Of course, Fort Fisher will be open with re-enactors,

encampments and demonstrations from 10 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Sunday.

For more information call 458-5538 or go to www.NCHistoricSites.org/fisher/fisher.htm.

– Amy Hotz
www.starnewsonline.com

-By Wayne Faulkner
www.StarNewsOnline.com

Wilmington-area home sales continued to show improvement in December, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors.

The number of homes sold through the WRAR’s multiple listing service totaled 351 in December, compared with 299 in December 2008.

It was the fourth straight month that sales exceeded year-earlier levels, according to the WRAR data.

A string of year-over-year improvements is necessary to show any kind of sustained rebound from the housing bust. April McDavid, then president of the WRAR, said in the fall that it would be 2010 before a truer picture emerged on the housing market’s strength.

Sales reflect actual closings of deals. That means that contracts may have been signed 30 to 90 days before.

The average price of a home sold in December was $223,312, compared with $240,147 in December 2008. The median price - the point where half the homes sold for less and half for more - was $175,000 in December, compared with $185,500 a year earlier.

The average time it took to sell a home was 135 days in December, almost even with a year earlier.

BY DAVID BRACKEN - Staff Writer
www.newsobserver.com

In late 2007, as the local residential real estate market was beginning to nose-dive, Mark Ward and Larry Lippincott decided this was an opportunity not to be missed.

Instead of running away from the coming train wreck, they and partners Judith Adams and Edythe Poyner created a new company called Imagine Holdings to buy and develop distressed land.

“We actually formed the company with the idea in mind that with the downturn a lot of people would be in trouble and it was a good chance for a new company with no baggage to take advantage of the market,” Ward said.

Over the last two years Imagine and its home building arm, ForeverHome, have scooped up hundreds of discounted lots in Cary, Morrisville and Durham and built new single-family homes and townhouses, most priced between $170,000 and $250,000.

The company’s success — it sold 58 homes in 2009 — speaks to how much the economics of building and selling homes has changed in recent years.

Ed Dunnavant, who tracks Triangle housing trends for the research firm Metrostudy, said when the housing market was humming builders would often let the cost of a lot dictate what type of home they built.

Because the lot typically accounts for about 20 percent of the cost of a home, an $80,000 lot would often result in a $400,000 home.

But with the market for homes priced at $400,000 and above extremely soft in the Triangle, builders can no longer expect homes priced in that range to sell.

Now, Dunnavant said, builders are looking at what type of homes are selling — $300,000 and under — and working their way back to figure out how much they can pay for the dirt underneath.

“We’re going back to what I call the fundamentals of building 101,” he said.

The average lot price for a single-family home in the Triangle was $46,247 in the third quarter of 2009, down 27 percent from the same period in 2008, according to Market Opportunity Research Enterprises, a Rocky Mount group that tracks Triangle housing trends. The year-over-year declines in average lot prices in the Triangle during the first three quarters of 2009 were the three biggest percentage drops in the past 20 years.

Imagine and other active residential land buyers are now taking advantage of people who paid a premium for dirt during the boom and find themselves with a project that no longer makes economic sense. Some sellers simply want to cut their losses; others are being squeezed by lenders.

Imagine competes for land with national builders such as Pulte Homes and KB Homes, and many of the company’s dozen employees have experience working for those behemoths. Lippincott, for example, worked as both the Raleigh division president for Pulte and North Carolina division president for KB Homes.

Ward said the company has private investors who help with its land purchases and a collection of eight different banks that finance construction.

Imagine targets residential areas close to Research Triangle Park. It has passed on a number of buying opportunities in nice subdivisions that it deemed too far from job centers.

Imagine’s recent deals include paying about $2 million, or $20,000 a lot, for 101 lots in the Weston Place subdivision in Cary, and paying $1.49 million for a 22-acre residential plot off Sherron Road in Durham.

The Durham property is across from the Brightleaf at the Park subdivision. Imagine paid 15 percent less than the seller paid in 2007. And the seller had already gotten site plan approval for 110 units, which means ForeverHome can begin developing the property immediately.

Imagine’s purchase price on the Sherron Road property works out to less than $15,000 a lot, a deal that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

“These days, with the market being what it is, you truly do have to decide what the market will bear in terms of price and back in to the land price from there,” Ward said. “We just try to be really, really careful and make the best land decisions.”