HORNE Tax Planning Memphis is a full service business advisory and accounting firm that is made up of a team with many different specializations, including expertise in fields such as financial institutions, franchise, construction and health care. With services that include assurance, accounting, business valuation, tax, fraud, forensic and litigation services, disaster relief management, government outsourcing and compliance, business outsourcing and accounting, business advisory, wealth advisory and more, HORNE CPA Memphis, TN is one of the largest and most rapidly expanding accounting and business advisory firms in the region and the country.

So what is the cost of owning a Private Jet and Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport for a year?

First of all, a Bugatti Veyron retails for $2,128,230 right out of the door. You can’t lease it, or rent it, you can only buy it. They make less than 100 per year and there is typically a waiting list. If you were to fork over the initial costs to buy a Bugatti, you would have to maintain it as well. Here are just a few of the yearly costs:

• Routine Service at Authorized Bugatti Dealership, about $20,000
• Reaching top speeds of 253 MHP, you’ll need new tires, $35,000 set of four. At top speeds, you’ll burn out tires in 12 minutes.
• After 4th tire change, rims must be stress tested for cracks on a track. Costs: $60,000

Include auto insurance, fuel costs (8 MPG), car detailing service, and other miscellaneous fees, and you have a grand total of $300,000/year for a Bugatti.

A midsize private jet, meantime, can cost $2,200 to $2,700 an hour – including catering, fuel, pilots and maintenance. Some jet-management companies put the expense of all the operations at $200,000 a year or less. (Of course, those per-hour trip costs don’t include the purchase price nor depreciation.)

At an average costs of $2,500 per hour, you could travel approximately 120 hours for $300,000 in a private jet and fly between NY and LA 17 times.

It seems to me your money goes much further in a private jet, while a Bugatti is a cash drain that only Billionaires can afford. Which do you think is more expensive?

Over the past few years  social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have given unprecedented access to people’s private lives. More and more personal information is revealed through photos, status updates and conversations that are all being documented online. Last week, the Serious Fraud Office of London (SFO) warned that Facebook and Twitter are being used to harvest users’ personal financial details,

“The public should be aware of the predatory nature of fraudsters and be careful about revealing personal information on social-networking sites, as this has become a primary method of harvesting information and targeting victims,” SFO said.

In a joint venture between London police and Financial Services Authority, over 10,000 people were notified that their names were on a “master list” that contained a range of personal information, that might include: names, address, phone number, place of business, income and relationship status. While this is the only reported list, it’s quite possible thousands more were already victims of this latest cash scam.

Facebook users may not mention all that personal information on their Facebook page, however, they may have it listed on a combination of networking sites. For example, a Facebook user will list their name and location along with photos on Facebook. The scammer can take that information and then look you up on LinkedIn and Twitter to find out your personal website, job, position, average income, number of years employed, education level and parlay all that information into a “cash scam.”

Fraudsters are using this information to set up “boiler rooms” and contact people on this master list. Boilers rooms look to employ high pressure sales tactics to push unwanted, over priced, or sometimes non-existent stock to unsuspecting buyers. Boiler rooms are nothing new, but using Facebook to gather leads and target people is becoming a serious problem.

The FSA is clearly trying to stay ahead of the scam, “By writing to people now, we can raise awareness of this type of fraud and help protect people from losing money to these criminals,” FSA said. While multiple efforts are being taken to stop these criminals, these cash scam continue to grow and more boiler rooms continue to operate off shore. It’s up to the individual to be aware of such fraud and report any phone calls that you suspect could be criminal.

In the mean time, keep your friends close, your Facebook account closed to outsiders, and don’t allow just anyone to view your personal details on your Facebook page.

Vector Marketing is a company founded on the hard work ethic of their independent contractors working out of their regional offices all over the country. The company is built on a top-notch product perfectly complimented with a direct-sales initiative that enables them to recreate the rapport of a friendly, neighborhood salesperson that knows your family, understands your needs and will happily provide them.

Vector Marketing has recently found success for a couple key reasons. One of them is increased interest in cooking at home. Instead of choosing to eat out at an expensive restaurant, people are choosing to prepare their meals at home, often from scratch, to save money. Additionally, the increasing popularity of cooking shows on Food Network suggests that people not only cook at home out of necessity but people are learning to enjoy cooking at home and desire to expand their knowledge of it. Owning a decent set of knives, then, becomes a priority. Cutco’s “forever” guarantee helps because people feel like they are making a one-time investment that guarantees a sturdy set of premium kitchen knives in their homes for generations to come.

By sticking to a proven formula, Vector Marketing has found success in an unlikely place: the frugality of the battered American consumer. If I didn’t already own a set of trusty Cutco knives, I might even consider investing in a set myself, despite the low balance in my checking account.

Last year sales were down along with the economy, but computers sales and a new operating system by Microsoft have elevated profits in the 4th Qrt of 2009.

For its most recent quarter, Microsoft saw a 60% rise in earnings. Revenue grew 13% to $19 billion USD, lifting earnings to $6.7 billion. Analysts had expected $17.9 billion in revenue.

Microsoft beat the street estimate and reported strong earnings to match other companies such as Dell and Apple. With the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft is expected to continue to have strong sales, but the economy could have other plans. While the overall tech industry is looking better, a full recovery may not be in the cards for 2010.

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” Jobs said. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

Apple sold 3.36 million Macs, including more than 2.1 million notebooks. That represented 33% growth in Mac sales, compared to an industry-wide 17% growth in PCs reported by IDG. Desktop sales reached 70% growth year over year thanks to the popular new iMac models. Apple’s CFO Tim Cook detailed even greater growth rates in Mac sales internationally.

It also sold 21 million iPods and 8.74 million iPhones, a record number of new mobile devices for the company. Apple retained roughly 70% market share in the global MP3 market with iPods; growth in the iPod touch reached 55%, while iPhones amounted to a 100% increase in sales over the previous quarter, comparing very favorably to Canalys’ data showing industry smartphone growth at around 30%.

Apple currently has $40 Billion in cash and grew by $5 Billion from the last quarter alone. This cash is one big reason that Apple has a $180 Billion market value according to Steve Jobs. It also gives Apple more cash than Microsoft and makes Apple one of the richest companies in the world.

Apple has big plans to announce later this week, many expect the announcement to include the Apple tablet that has been rumored for many years.

Job cuts

Starbucks’ total revenues for the quarter rose to $2.7bn from $2.6bn a year earlier.

Its results beat market expectations.

The firm has cut thousands of jobs and shut hundreds of under-performing stores over the past two years to trim costs.

It has also introduced new, lower price coffees to win back customers temped away by cheaper rivals.

Starbucks chief financial officer Troy Alstead told the Associated Press news agency that the firm was “extremely pleased with the progress we’ve made”.

The company’s turnaround has been led by founder Howard Schultz, who returned to the chief executive role in January 2008.

He admitted at the time that the company had opened too many branches, which had resulted in stores taking business from each other, and the company’s upmarket brand image being tarnished.

Since we are not stock brokers or investment bankers, we won’t go into details about the financial numbers, but we do want to point out a few key facts:

- Revenues in Q4 2009 rose to $10.6 billion, a climb of 28 percent from $8.3 billion last year.

- However, if you look at the big picture, Intel had a better 2008 than 2009. 2009 revenues were $35.1 billion, while 2008 revenues reached $37.6 billion. That’s a 7 percent difference

- Intel predicts revenues of approximately $9.7 billion in Q1 2010, above Wall Street estimates.

Intel’s Q4 report is one of the first to come out this year, but it won’t be the last. If Intel’s numbers are any indication though, we’re nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.