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UPDATE: The Senate passed the bill 39-1. It now heads to Gov. Rick Scott.

Tax changes designed to help Verizon Communications and other telecom companies suddenly seem poised to pass on the final day of session, just two weeks after the measure appeared to stall.

At 7:42 p.m. last night, an amendment was filed to SB 1060 that would restore a controversial provision to the legislation, which deals with the states communications services tax.

Specifically, the language would give telecom companies more freedom to bundle together items that are subject to the CST (such as phone service) with items that they are not (such as home-security monitoring) into a combined package with one price for consumers. But they would only have to calculate taxes based on the hidden prices of the items that are subject to the tax.

Telecom companies say the legislation would ensure that they and their customers dont wind up being unfairly taxed on products that were never meant to be included under communications services and they say allowing them to package it all for a single price is a convenience for customers. But some tax-policy experts say the legislation creates a loophole through which companies will be able to deflate their tax bills, by minimizing the price of anything that is subject to the CST and maximizing the price of anything that is not.

State economists have struggled to understand the magnitude of the bundling provision, estimating it would cost the state and local governments a minimum of $35 million a year. A separate analysis by the Department of Revenue estimated the hit could be more than $300 million a year. The telecom industry disputes the estimates.

In addition to Verizon, Comcast Corp., AT&T and CenturyLink, among others, have been lobbying for the bill.

Two weeks ago, Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, a Fort Lauderdale Republican who is sponsoring the bill, rewrote the legislation to take out all substantive changes and instead order only a study committee to evaluate the CST and recommend ways to modernize it before next years session. The amendment she filed last night would keep that committee, but also restore the bundling language.

The House bill (HB 809) is sponsored by Rep. Jamie Grant, a Tampa Republican, and it passed that chamber last month. The telecom industry has also worked on the issue with Rep. Chris Dorworth, the Lake Mary Republican tentatively in line to become House speaker after the 2014 elections.

More:
UPDATED: Tax changes for telecoms look pass Senate, head to governor

By G.E. Miller, Guest Columnist

If you're in your twenties, every financial action you take -- from accumulating debt, to saving for retirement, minimizing your expenses, or even negotiating a lower rate on your mortgage -- is compounded over time.

No pressure.

DOWNLOAD: The Kip Tips iPad App

But really, it's not time for excuses or to claim ignorance. Decades later, all of those woulda, coulda, shoulda thoughts won't add up to a dime.

Here are three ways you can start to optimize your finances.

1. Get your employer's 401(k) match and max out for the win! There is no better time to stockpile savings for retirement than in your twenties, particularly if you do not have children or a mortgage to balance yet. The power of compound interest is something you can't cram for like a final exam when you're in your fifties or sixties. Once you lose time, the power of compound interest is gone forever (see the Kiplinger.com tool The Power of Boosting 401(k) Contributions).

Maxing out your 401(k) contribution is encouraged but not easy to do for most. At the very least, take full advantage of the 401(k) match that your employer is offering you. Most employers who match employee contributions do so at the rate of 50% or 100% up to a given amount. You could invest in the stock market for the next 70 years and never get a 50% or 100% return on your investment in a given year, but that is what you are effectively getting with your employer's match. Free money!

This year ratchet up your 401(k) contribution as much as you can comfortably stomach. For the first time in four years, the IRS will increase the maximum 401(k) contribution allowed by employees. The 2012 maximum 401(k) contributionincreases to $17,000, up $500 over the 2011 401(k) maximum contribution. The increase also extends to 403(b) and 457(b) plans. See Retirement Account Contribution Limits for more information

2. Grab the saver's credit (while you still can). The unsung hero of tax credits has to be the Saver's Credit (aka the Retirement Savings Contribution Credit). If you qualify, you're turning your back on free money if you don't contribute to an IRA. The government will pay you in the form of a tax credit of up to $1,000 for a retirement account contribution of $2,000. This credit, which lowers your tax bill dollar for dollar, is available to lower-income taxpayers (highly correlated to younger folks), so grab it while you can.

Continued here:
3 Ways for Twentysomethings to Get Ahead Financially

Western workers are the civilian mercenaries of Africa. They are easy to spot in the continent's airports. Generally white and casually dressed, they travel in groups of three or four. They often seem to speak with Scottish accents and have little or no hand luggage, except possibly an iPad. And they are such seasoned travellers that they are generally the last to leave the bar when the flight is called.

"You do it for the money and only for a few years,'' said a Scottish welder I met recently at Luanda airport in Angola. All he knew of the country was the international airport and a hotel nearby where he had stayed while waiting for his helicopter transfer to the rig.

He works a 30/30 schedule: non-stop, 12 hours a day for 30 days, followed by a month off for 40,000 per year. That is the favoured work rhythm of employed oil workers who are a long way from home. Others work short stints for different companies as freelance contractors.

The untrained, entry-level staff, with no qualifications can expect to earn about 100 a day, but skilled staff can expect much more: senior construction project managers can pocket as much as 150,000 a year for their work, often much more than they could earn at home. In Nigeria, a project manager can take home 65,000 for helping to build hotels, according to one careers website yesterday.

The welder, a single man, said the best and worst aspect of his work was the monotony: jobs are narrowly defined for safety reasons but there also few surprises: "No bills to pay, no everyday dramas to deal with. They are waiting for me back home,'' he said. He was travelling back to Britain with a pipe fitter, a mechanic and a scaffolder, all working the same shift pattern.

Sites housing hundreds of expat specialists have everything: internet, swimming pool, gym and satellite television. Accommodation is five-star and is kept functioning by an army of housekeepers, plumbers and galley hands.

The downside is that the work takes place in remote and often dangerous regions where they risk being kidnapped or worse, as this week's events showed.

The companies involved are expected to provide security for their workers, but as message boards suggested yesterday, some areas of Africa, particularly Nigeria, remain highly dangerous for expat workers.

"I spent three months in Somalia two years ago and if u [sic] think Iraq is dangerous Somalia is much worse... The Niger Delta isn't much better. Having worked a lot in Africa I would advise u [sic] to think very carefully about going there at all," said one blogger.

Read the original:
The expats: 'No bills, no everyday dramas' – until the unthinkable happens

Building a pipeline of prospects is one of your top goals with internet marketing. Pete Sabine shows Realtors, Lenders and Property Managers how they can build a followingand their businessesusing email and direct mail marketing.

Lafayette, CA (PRWEB) March 09, 2012

If you find yourself confused by the internet marketing options, this seminar is perfect for you, said Pete Sabine, the workshops host and Concord and Walnut Creek real estate investment consultant. We not only introduce you to effective email marketing strategies and its most beneficial features, we will teach you how to build the proper foundation for success.

The workshop is organized into two segments which include:

Relationship Marketing with Email

The ideal customer can be nurtured using email marketing. This segment teaches participants how to connect with them by explaining how to build the proper foundation for success. The key is email database list management.

Become a trusted email sender in the eyes of your prospects and clients

Build your list! How to find and keep email list subscribers

Get your sent emails opened and read

Turn your readers into more frequent referral sources for buyers and sellers

The rest is here:
Concord and Walnut Creek Real Estate Investment Consultant, Pete Sabine Announces the Contra Costa Association of ...

MILFORD -- While local police investigate a real estate scam that nearly cost a West Haven man more than $3,000, federal officials say the Milford case represents a new twist on an old flimflam.

"We've seen this for a number of years, where someone will claim to represent an apartment or house for rent and tries to get a deposit wired to them,'' said Amy Hebert, a spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission. "But we haven't seen it where someone local offers to meet the prospective renter at the property.''

That's what Joseph Tomasso said made the attempted con last week seem so legit. "I was going to go down and meet him when I got the strange email and people began warning me off,'' the former EMT said. Tomasso, who is awaiting a liver transplant, was nearly scammed out of $3,300 on Tuesday when he attempted to rent a Walnut Beach house through an ad on Craigslist.

The ad included interior photos and a list of amenities that turned out to be cribbed from a legitimate listing by Ditchkus Realty agent Cathy Vincelette. The "owner'' claimed to be on a mission trip in Africa but was going to arrange for someone to meet Tomasso. If the meeting happened, officials said, Tomasso would have been pressured to wire money in exchange for the keys, officials said.

"That's why this almost worked,'' the West Haven man said. "It all sounds legit. If you call to check you find out that the house is for rent. And the guy says, `You've seen pictures of the inside. You know what it looks like. But a lot of people are interested.'''

The email, purportedly from "Amy Matthews'' in West Africa, did not sound as if it was written by someone whose first language is English. The Milford house is not owned by an Amy Matthews, according to city land records.

Officer Jeff Nielsen said that Milford police are familiar with the scam, but that until this week it hadn't happened here. Tomasso and Vincelette filed a complaint, and police are investigating.

Hebert said her department investigates Internet scams and assists local police, who have the primary enforcement responsibility. "We maintain a database of incidents from all over the country that they can tap into, and we do a lot of public education. We have a consumer alert about hijacked real estate listings and how people can protect themselves.''

Vincelette and Tomasso are working together to find his family a house near the beach where he can recuperate from the transplant surgery scheduled for later this year. "In a way there's a silver lining in this,'' Tomasso said. "I'm on a fixed income due to illness, and if I lost that money it would have really devastated us. But a lot of people have heard about this now and are helping us.''

fjuliano@ctpost.com; 203-520-6986; http://twitter.com/FrankJuliano

Continue reading here:
Milford real estate scam had a twist