Foreign students on J-1 visa protest Hershey’s factory jobs

Hundreds of foreign students on a State Department J-1 cultural exchange visa program walked off their factory jobs in protest recently.

The J-1 visa program brings foreign students to the country to work for two months and learn English, and was designed in part to fill seasonal tourism jobs at resorts and seaside towns. The 400 students employed at a Pennsylvania factory that packages Hershey's candies make $8.35 an hour, but their rent and program fees are deducted from their paychecks, leaving them with less money than they spent to get the visas and travel to the country in the first place.

Tips for Individuals Selling Their Home

If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may qualify to exclude all or part of that gain from your income.

1.     In general, you are eligible to exclude the gain from income if you have owned and used your home as your main home for two years out of the five years prior to the date of its sale.

2.     If you have a gain from the sale of your main home, you may be able to exclude up to $250,000 of the gain from your income ($500,000 on a joint return in most cases).

Tax Tips for Job Seekers

Tax Tips for Job Seekers

Many taxpayers spend time during the summer months updating their résumé and attending career fairs. Job seekers may be able to deduct some of the expenses on your tax return.

Here are seven things that you should know about deducting costs related to your job search.

1.     To qualify for a deduction, the expenses must be spent on a job search in your current occupation. You may not deduct expenses you incur while looking for a job in a new occupation.

2.     You can deduct employment and outplacement agency fees you pay while looking for a job in your present occupation. If your employer pays you back in a later year for employment agency fees, you must include the amount you receive in your gross income, up to the amount of your tax benefit in the earlier year.

Tax Tips for Students Starting a Summer Job

School’s out and many students are working this summer.

Here are five things that students should be aware of when they start a summer job.

1. When you first start a new job you must fill out a Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. This form is used by employers to determine the amount of tax that will be withheld from your paycheck. If you have multiple summer jobs, make sure all your employers are withholding an adequate amount of taxes to cover your total income tax liability.

2. Whether you are working as a waiter or a camp counselor, you may receive tips as part of your summer income. All tips you receive are taxable income and are therefore subject to federal income tax.

DV-2012 Entrant Status Check available NOW

DV-2012 Entrant Status Check

Green Card Lottery - Diversity Visa – Results are available now, please go to U.S. Department of State Electronic Diversity Visa Entrant Status Check Web Site for DV-2012: http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ESC/

You need your entry confirmation number in order to check your result.

If you are one of the few lucky entrants that are selected, our law firm offers green card application services for DV lottery winners.

My Law, LLC
Immigration & Tax Law Firm

www.mylawllc.com

Phone: (630) 903-9625

1230 E. Diehl Rd. Suite 106

Naperville, IL 60563

E-mail: attorney@mylawllc.com

E-Verify hurts farmers

HB 87, Georgia’s immigration law, the provision requiring employers to verify the immigration status of new hires (E-Verify) went into effect July 1. Farmers are panicking over how they will find enough workers to harvest their crops.

Many farmers have already noticed a dip in migrant workers as of late May, with harvest labor down nearly 30-50%. Come fall, those labor shortages are likely to continue.

Six Tax Tips for New Business Owners

Are you opening a new business this summer? Here are six tax tips for new business owners to know.

1.     First, you must decide what type of business entity you are going to establish. The type of business entity will determine which tax form you have to file. The most common types of business are the sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation and S corporation. An attorney can help you setup the entity.

2.     The type of business you operate determines what taxes you must pay and how you pay them. The four general types of business taxes are income tax, self-employment tax, employment tax and excise tax. If you sell merchandise, you may also have to collect sales tax.

Diversity Lottery - Dreams Vanish

Every year about 15,000,000 people apply for the Diversity Visa (green card) lottery. The Diversity Visa Program was authorized by Congress in 1990 as a way to increase immigration from under-represented countries. According to this criteria, the lottery has been successful. In 2009, 49% of lottery immigrant were from Africa while only 11% of the total 1.1 million legal immigrant to the US that year were from Africa.

The green card lottery typically opens for entry for one month in October and results are available on May 1^st. There is no fee to enter but winners pay $819 in government application fees. A total of 100,000 winners are selected for further processing. Many people are weeded out for failing to meet deadlines and other requirements. Eventually, about 50,000 people are able to get a green card through the lottery each year.