BIR asks BAP's help in tax filing.
Byline: LEE C. CHIPONGIAN The Bureau of Internal Revenue has asked the Bankers Association of the Philippines to persuade accredited banks to accept the filing of taxpayers income tax returns and to comply to the Memorandum of Agreement with the BIR. BIR Deputy Commissioner Kim...

Making scams scram: there are many surprising ways we can be deceived--when we are buying a car, lying in a hospital bed, sending a check in the mail, or even standing in a checkout line.
Scam Proof Your Life by Sid Kirchheimer 336 pages, Sterling Publishing, $19.95 "Nothing is more common on earth than to deceive and be deceived," said the 18th century German author Johann Seume. Seume would feel fight at home in today's world where, thanks to the Internet, money-making...

30 years ago in reason.
"The FBI and CIA still spy and keep secret files on U.S. citizens. The IRS still harasses citizens. Since the Bank Secrecy Act of 1973 requires your bank to microfilm all of your checks and hold these records for six years, the state can get intimate details of your...

She just wants her $4,213.44, plus interest.
Byline: Bob Welch The Register-Guard You know that saying, "You can bank on it?" Well, sometimes you can't. In 1982, soon after her husband died, Velma Ritchie of Eugene deposited about $4,000 in an IRA at what was then First Interstate Bank in Santa Clara....

First Nations remain the bedrock of business.
Peace Hills Trust (PHT) celebrated its 25th anniversary with friends on Oct. 27--more than 200 of them. The silver benchmark provided an occasion for President Warren Hannay to crow about the company's accomplishments. "PHT has proven to Canada, and in particular to financial institutions, that you can...

A question of execution: the success of consumer-directed health plans depends on how they are implemented and how their benefits are communicated to employees.
In March, One-Stop Calibration Services Inc. of Keene, Texas, began offering health-care benefits to its employees for the first time. As a sole proprietor, James Stiles was unable to afford health-care coverage for his six employees. That changed in March, thanks to the growing individual health-care market...

The less you make, the more they take.
I loved Esquire's "The More You Weigh, the More You Pay"--proposing that Americans get weighed at a federal weigh station so they can be assessed a flab tax--by Joshua Foer. It was a spoof, of course, but executed with enough wit to make a good point. It reminded me...

Proceedings of the Tennessee Academy of Science 2006.
TENNESSEE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 21 April 2006 President John W. Harris called the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Tennessee Academy of Science (TAS) to order at 6:40 PM CDT in the Massey Business Building on the campus of Belmont University,...

Consumer-directed care to alter payment habits.
SAN DIEGO -- The growth of consumer-directed health plans means physicians and their staff will need to talk more with patients about their prices and the value of their services. "Admitting-office conversations will change dramatically," said Gary Scott Davis, a health lawyer based in Miami, during the...

HSAs may make consumers try harder to stay healthy.
Health savings accounts and other consumer-directed insurance products can help lower health care utilization and encourage better health behaviors, according to an industry expert. Consumers begin to recognize that their behaviors can lead to a health outcome that might cost them money in the long run, said...