April 2009 Archives

The Los Angeles County assessor Monday again warned property owners about companies offering to find ways to lower property assessment rates.

County Assessor Rich Auerbach says his office continues to receive calls from property owners regarding such solicitations.

"Neither Los Angeles County nor any government agency approves or endorses these companies' services," Auerbach said. "Furthermore, companies offering to lower property taxes must show clearly that they are not a government agency, and failure to do so is a violation of California law."

"Don't get ripped off," county Supervisor Gloria Molina said. "You never have to pay for a review of your property's assessed value. The L.A. County Assessor's Office does this service for free."

The county is conducting an automatic review of about 500,000 single-family residences, with the list of properties included in the review posted on the County Assessor's Web site.

Property owners who disagree with the results of the review may contest the outcome through Dec. 31.

You land at LAX after a relaxing vacation only to find out your luggage didn't make it home with you. Just like the drier didn't eat your sock, the plane didn't eat your stuff, so where did it go?

One possible option is www.isthisyourluggage.com. When an airline or airport finds lost luggage but not its owner, it auctions off the bags and sends the profits to charity. The creator of isthisyourluggage.com buys that lost luggage at auction, photographs it and posts the images on the site so people can find their lost belongings. If while browsing the site you come across a suitcase or bag that looks like yours, you must send an e-mail to the luggage collector to negotiate the return of your items.

Hoping to save homeowners and businesses substantial sums of money, Los Angeles County officials on Monday unveiled a mapping program and Web site designed to help people determine if their properties are suitable for solar power.

The Web site calculates the suitability of solar panels for a given property by computing factors including the roof size, pitch and shade from nearby trees. All the user has to input is an address.

"Solar makes sense in Los Angeles and in Southern California," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. "This is one of the capitals of sunshine on the globe. We have more sunshine days in this city and county than probably most metropolitan areas in the United States."

Yaroslavsky typed in his address and discovered he had 125 square feet of space on his rooftop for solar panels, which would save him $400 annually in utility costs.

The Web site includes the largest solar map in the world, covering 3,000 square miles.

The Web site, created by the county's Chief Information Office and the Internal Services Department, was developed for $93,500 and was generated from high-resolution pictures acquired in 2006. It calculates and ranks incoming solar radiation every 25 square feet, using roof pitch, orientation and shading from surrounding structures and trees to provide the best estimate possible.

-- Troy Anderson, Staff Writer

A resource historically only available in classrooms has moved online to seize on a "national teachable moment" and make saving money a lifelong habit.

The Teach Children to Save Web site offers tips for children and parents on how to make budgets, start savings accounts and make regular deposits.

If you haven't already, you should be getting a fatter paycheck soon. That is if you're among the 110 million families to benefit from the government's economic stimulus plan.

The way the benefit works is that the Internal Revenue Service has issued new tax tables to employers, effective April 1. The tax tables reduce the amount of taxes withdrawn from your check, giving you a little more money to spend.

However a few groups of people may get caught up in having too much money given back and find themselves owing the government when they do their taxes next April.

Probably the best approach is to use a withholding calculator that will figure out for you how much money you should be taking out of each check. The IRS offers one that includes the new tax break.

To get an accurate picture, you'll need a recent pay stub and you'll need to know how much money you expect to contribute this year to your 401(k) or other retirement accounts.

If needed, you can adjust your withholding by filing a W-4 form with the IRS. The form allows you to adjust the amount of money withheld from your paychecks to match closely what you owe in taxes.

You can get a W-4 form from your employer or on the IRS Web site.

Always check your withholding if there are personal or financial changes in your life, or changes in the law that might change your tax liability. They include:
Lifestyle changes. Marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of child, loss of an exemption, purchase of a new home, retirement.
Wage income. You or your spouse start or stop working, or start or stop a second job.
Increased or decreased income not subject to withholding. Interest income, dividends, capital gains, self-employment income, IRA (including Roth IRA) distributions.
Increased or decreased adjustments to income. IRA deduction, student loan interest deduction, alimony expense.
Increased or decreased itemized deductions or tax credits. Medical expenses, taxes, interest expense, gifts to charity, job expenses, education credit, child tax credit.

-- The Associated Press