EBay's double tax base prompts calls for investigation

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Germany may have missed out on a combined $1 billion in sales tax since online marketplace eBay picked a tiny Luxembourg office as its base for EU sales, a shift that lawmakers say should now be investigated.

EBay's nomination of Luxembourg unit eBay Europe Sarl - with a staff of nine - as its provider of services to EU clients allows it to charge customers in Europe a low rate of sales tax, often known as Value Added Tax, helping it to compete against rivals.

However, the unit doesn't actually receive the money from sales. Instead, eBay said it continues to channel revenues through a Berne-based unit, allowing the company also to benefit from what Swiss tax lawyers say is the most competitive corporate income tax regime in Europe.

EU rules allow companies to establish subsidiaries in Luxembourg and levy VAT at Luxembourg's low VAT rate on sales to customers across the bloc.

However, the rules also allow individual EU taxmen to challenge any claim to Luxembourg residence, and the right to charge Luxembourg VAT, in their domestic courts, if the taxman feels a Luxembourg-based subsidiary does not have sufficient staff or assets to support its claim to be the true supplier of goods or services.

Tax experts say eBay's arrangement, which appears to give eBay the best of both income and sales tax worlds, could be open to challenge, and lawmakers in the UK and Germany want their taxmen to investigate.

"I hope that HMRC (UK tax authority Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) takes note ... and takes prompt action," said Margaret Hodge, member of parliament and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which monitors government finances.

"I will be seeking assurance that they are, next time we take evidence from HMRC," she added. Officials from HMRC are due to testify to the PAC in early December as part of the committee's investigation into tax matters.

Sven Giegold, member of the European Parliament for Germany's Green Party, said he wanted the German tax authorities to "have a very critical look at this".

It is common for companies to seek to reduce their tax bills, and a number of multinationals have established bases in Luxembourg so they can charge customers lower levels of VAT.

EBay said HMRC was aware of all its tax arrangements and that it was confident it met all its tax liabilities in the UK and elsewhere.

"In all countries and at all times, eBay is fully compliant with national, EU and international tax rules (including the OECD) including the remittance of VAT to the appropriate authorities," an eBay spokesman said in an emailed statement.

The UK, German, French and Luxembourg tax authorities declined to comment on eBay, citing rules on taxpayer confidentiality.

LOWER THRESHOLD

Big companies' tax practices have risen to the top of the political agenda in Europe in the past year, with lawmakers growing increasingly frustrated with the way in which companies such as search engine company Google pay almost no income tax in countries where they have billions of dollars in sales.

The companies escape liability for income taxes in countries like the UK by arguing the value created by their business, and therefore the location where the profit should be realized, is not the place where the customer resides, but rather in the location where the intellectual property underpinning the product or service is based.

Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said this was a valid economic argument and that if, for example, HMRC wants to claim more income tax from Google, it has to prove the company is generating more value in the UK than it is declaring.

This would require a thorough deconstruction of its business model and supply chain.

However, it is easier to establish liability to VAT, since this tax hinges simply on the location of the buyer and seller.

"The threshold is lower," said Simon Newark, head of VAT at accountants UHY Hacker.

"There are a lot more aspects for HMRC to challenge in VAT than in direct (income) tax."

For tax purposes, the EU deems eBay's online platform an "electronically supplied service", a category that also covers e-Books and music downloads.

Under EU rules, suppliers of such services based within the bloc are supposed to charge EU customers VAT at the rate prevailing in the country where the supplier is based.

A number of suppliers of electronic services, including Amazon.Com Inc and Apple Inc's iTunes have established European headquarters in Luxembourg to enable them to charge customers lower VAT rates than prevail in their customers' countries.

Luxembourg has traditionally charged the lowest standard VAT rates in the European Union. Its 15 percent rate compares with rates of 19-25 percent in most other EU members.

By charging customers VAT at Luxembourg's rate eBay is better able to compete with rivals based elsewhere in the EU, such as Britain's eBid, which must charge customers VAT at the standard UK rate of 20 percent.

However, to be entitled to charge Luxembourg rates, a company has to be able to prove in British, German or EU courts that it is genuinely based in the Grand Duchy.

Companies selling to EU customers from outside the EU - as eBay was until the 2007 nomination of eBay Europe Sarl as supplier to EU clients - must charge European customers VAT at the rate prevailing in the country where the customer resides, and to pay that VAT to the taxman in the customer's country.

There is no definitive checklist that determines the true base of a company and any decision by a national court can be challenged in the European Court of Justice. In the UK, HMRC said it approached the matter on a case-by-case basis, and disputes are often resolved in court.

"HMRC will challenge any arrangements where it is claimed that supplies are made from a particular country but the business does not have the necessary resources to make those supplies," a spokesman said.

EUROPE EXPANSION

EBay, which is headquartered in San Jose, California, moved into Europe in 1999 when it established eBay International in Berne. Switzerland's low income tax regime for foreign companies was highly beneficial for the auction site. "We do have a very favorable international tax structure," then-Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta told analysts in 2002 when asked how the company managed to pay such low taxes on its non-U.S. income.

The Swiss base also meant, initially, that the company didn't have to charge EU customers VAT. But in 2003, Brussels changed the rules, which forced eBay to charge EU sellers on its platform VAT based on their residence. The VAT gathered was remitted to the tax authority in the customer's country.

Not all customers are charged VAT. Most medium-sized and big businesses are legitimately exempted from paying VAT on some purchases, such as eBay seller fees.

EBay's Swiss-based European public relations head declined to say what portion of its EU customers were liable to be charged VAT. James Cordwell, equities analyst at Atlantic Equities, estimated that such customers accounted for 40-50 percent of sales in Europe.

Since the 2007 creation of its Luxembourg operation, eBay has had German fee revenues of $6.1 billion and UK revenues of $5 billion, its annual accounts show.

If the services were supplied from Switzerland or another non-EU country, and assuming only half of customers should have been charged VAT, EU rules would have obliged eBay to collect $580 million in VAT for the German taxman and $500 million in VAT for HMRC since 2007.

EBay's entitlement to charge Luxembourg VAT on sales and to pay this to the Luxembourg taxman rests on being able to prove in court that eBay Europe Sarl is the provider of services to EU clients.

But despite German and UK fee income of $3.1 billion last year, eBay Europe Sarl recorded turnover of only 5 million euros in 2011.

John Hemming, an MP with the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in the British coalition government, said the fact eBay's sales revenues did not go through the Luxembourg unit undermined the claim that it was the true provider of services to EU clients.

"If it's a real transaction, you would expect the money to pass with it, and not pass someplace else," he said.

Rather than going to Luxembourg, the money generated from customers continues to go to Berne-based eBay International AG, a spokeswoman said.

When Reuters visited in mid November, staff at the Luxembourg office, just opposite the central post office, declined to discuss what operations the unit conducted for eBay.

A spokesman later said the office conducted activities including billing, data privacy, contracting, regulatory, management and some customer services operations.

By contrast, Amazon and iTunes do report their sales of ebooks and music downloads to EU customers through their Luxembourg units.

Prem Sikka, professor of accounting at Essex University, along with Newark and Roy-Chowdhury said a cash trail through a unit was one of the key factors used as evidence that the unit was the true supplier of a service.

UK and German tax authorities could argue that the shift in eBay's supply base to Luxembourg from Berne was therefore not genuine. If successful, they could claim back the VAT lost.

EBay declined to say why it channeled sales through Switzerland. Tax advisors say the country can still offer some companies lower tax rates than other European low-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland and Luxembourg.

Indeed, EBay's closest rival Amazon, which channels about half its non-U.S. earnings through Luxembourg, reported average income tax on overseas earnings of 6 percent in the past four years. EBay paid just 3 percent over the same period.

(Additional reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-ebays-double-tax-prompts-calls-investigation-152143017--sector.html

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Cancer of the Uterus and Other Parts of the Female Reproductive ...

female reproductive organOvarian cancer is rarer than uterine cancer; there are about 20,000 new cases diagnosed each year. It also has a higher mortality rate, resulting in more than 12,000 deaths per year. Cancers of the vagina and other female genital organs are very rare. In the last decade, there have been reports of a slight increase in precancerous changes in the vaginal tissue among young women whose mothers took DES, an artificial estrogen that was given until the late 1960s to prevent a miscarriage. These young women should have regular gynecological checkups, but early reports of increases in vaginal cancer have been exaggerated.

Regular Pap smears-the microscopic examination of cells shed from the surface of the cervix-have been instrumental in the dramatic decline in cervical and uterine cancer deaths. By detecting cervical cancer in its early localized or even precancerous stages, treatment with laser, freezing, burning (cauterization), or local excision is usually sufficient to cure the disease. Women who are at risk of developing either cervical or uterine cancer should undergo yearly gynecological examinations. The American Cancer Society recently relaxed this recommendation for women with a history of normal Pap smears and no risk factors, saying they are probably safe having a gynecological examination and Pap smear every 2 or 3 years until age 50 and annually thereafter. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends, however, that women over the age of 20 or 25 who are sexually active undergo an annual pelvic examination, noting that cancer is only one of many conditions that doctors look for.

In discussing uterine cancer, the question of hormone therapy inevitably arises. Studies have found that long-term estrogen replacement following menopause appears to increase the likelihood of endometrial cancer. This prompted a marked decline in the use of postmenopausal hormones in the 1970s. In recent years, the trend has reversed somewhat, largely because of an increase in osteoporosis (thinning of the bones) among older women. There is now a greater tendency to give women who are likely to benefit from estrogen therapy small doses of the hormone with periodic interruption of the estrogen with a second female hormone, progesterone, which causes the shedding of the endometrium similar to what occurs during menstruation. This prevents a buildup of the endometrial tissue, which, in theory, should also prevent endometrial cancer. In addition, women on long-term estrogen therapy are advised to have annual endometrial biopsies and periodic pelvic examinations. In younger women, hormone manipulation does not seem to increase the risk of uterine cancer. Women who use oral contraceptives seem to have a lower incidence of cancer than women who use other forms of birth control.

A precancerous condition (carcinoma in situ) affecting the cervix is relatively common among young women, especially those in their thirties who have borne children. It has no specific symptoms and is usually detected by an abnormal Pap smear or sometimes visually during a pelvic examination. Treatment depends upon the age of the woman, extent of the diseased tissue, and the probability that it may develop into invasive cancer or spread to other parts of the body. If there is no indication of spread, the diseased tissue may be removed by surgery, laser surgery, electrical cautery, or cryosurgery. These treatments are frequently followed by radiation therapy to ensure that any abnormal cells that may have spread to nearby tissues are destroyed. A hysterectomy may be recommended for a postmenopausal woman or a woman who has completed her family.

Treatment of established cervical cancer depends upon the extent of the disease. If it is localized, with no evidence of spread, removal of the cancer and surrounding tissue followed by radiation therapy and perhaps chemotberapy may be sufficient. A hysterectomy may be indicated if a large portion of the cervix is involved or if the disease has spread to the uterus.

Uterine cancer is usually treated surgically with removal of the uterus and, depending upon age and other circumstances, the ovaries and Fallopian tubes also may be removed. If the woman has not yet reached menopause, the ovaries may be left intact. In postmenopausal women, the tendency is to remove them, thus ending the risk of later ovarian cancer. In some cases, radiation may be used instead of or in addition to surgery. If the cancer has spread, chemotherapy may be given. If diagnosed early, the 5-year survival is 81 percent for cervical and 88 percent for endometrial cancer. If treatment is delayed until the cancer has spread to adjacent tissue, however, the 5-year survival drops to 57 percent for cervical cancer and 75 percent of endometrial cancer.

Ovarian cancer is much more difficult to detect in its early stages, largely because there are no obvious early symptoms and no simple screening test. Masses on the ovaries can be felt during a pelvic examination, but these usually are not cancer. Vague abdominal pain is the most common symptom of ovarian cancer, but this often does not occur until the disease is advanced. Treatment is usually with surgery followed by radiation and/or chemotherapy.

Source: http://g-xp.com/cancer-of-the-uterus-and-other-parts-of-the-female-reproductive-organ/

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Communication Basics: 7 Simple Tips to Improve Your Relationship

There are so many books and articles written about how to communicate effectively, that it can often be overwhelming knowing what to believe or even what works,

I?ve distilled down some of the most important factors couples need to focus on to improve their communication and relationship. My ideas are based on my observations of working with hundreds of couples over the last 10 years.

1. Seek to understand before trying to be understood

One of the most common negative patterns I see in my work with couples is the cycle of criticism and defensiveness.

This often happens when you hear something you perceive as an attack or criticism from your partner, which leads to you immediately defending yourself.

The problem with this pattern is it immediately sets both of you up to not be heard.

As soon as you start to defend your position, you?ve lost the opportunity to understand your partner.

Tip: Even if you feel under attack or think you hear a criticism, first seek to understand your partner?s thoughts and feelings that they are raising with you, before you respond.

2. Slow down your communication to truly hear your partner

Many issues get out of control because once this dynamic of criticism and defence is underway, the interaction often moves very quickly.

When your communication is speeding up, you can miss a lot of important information that your partner is expressing.

This fast-pace also increases the volatility of your discussion, making it harder for you to keep the conversation calm.

Tip: If you notice that things are moving fast in your discussion, intentionally put on the brakes and slow down the exchange. You can say to your partner ?Let?s slow this down so I can really understand what you are telling me.?

This helps defuse the reactivity and allow you to continue to communicate in an adult-to-adult way.

3. Be curious about your partner?s perspective

This one is easier said than done when you?re feeling blamed, criticized or attacked.

However, one of the best things you can do when you?re feeling that is to be curious about your partner?s perspective.

This can be disarming in a positive way, and it immediately helps de-escalate the rising tension between you.

By being curious, you can learn new things about your partner, as well as support your conversation in moving towards a resolution.

Tip: You can still disagree with your partner?s perspective and remain curious and interested in how their view is different from yours.

Practise bringing in this state of curiosity next time you?re feeling a heated discussion coming on and see what happens.

4. Recognise your emotional triggers and learn to self-soothe

When you know what your emotional triggers are, it allows you to be aware when the potential for them being activated is present.

We all bring ?baggage? into our relationships- from our childhood, previous relationships, school experiences and of course, our family of origin.

There?s no such thing as a person who is ?baggage free?, however, you can use your awareness of your ?hot spots? to know when they are likely to be triggered.

Tip: Practise observing yourself, even when you feel triggered by your partner. See if you can name it by saying ?I?m feeling [insert feeling] now, and I think it?s also touching something in my past that?s not related to you.?

By naming the trigger, it helps your partner understand that there?s more at play here than just the current conversation. This understanding can help both of you be less reactive in the moment.

5. Practise using empathy to foster a closer connection

Empathy is the fuel of good relationships.

Being empathic is about imagining yourself walking in the shoes of your partner and feeling and seeing the world like they do.

When you can respond empathically to your partner, it also facilitates a deeper bond- creating a strong sense of safety and trust between you.

The challenge is when you?re feeling under attack, it can be the last thing you feel like doing. It does require you to be able to ?step outside yourself? and begin to appreciate an alternative reality to your own.

Practising empathy does not mean that you have to completely surrender and give up what you want or your own reality. It just means you need to suspend your own perspective, even momentarily, so you can appreciate the smallest part of how your partner sees things.

Tip: Start small- even if you?re imaging only 1%-5% of what your partner feels, and then build on that. Your partner will feel the shift and will be able to let down her guard a little, opening up the possibility of a better connection.

6. Listen for the unmet need or emotion that is hidden

When your partner is in distress and voicing a complaint or you?re feeling criticised or blamed, there?s always some unmet need, want, desire or unexpressed emotion underlying this cry.

The challenge for you is to go underneath the overt complaint and see if you can tap into the hidden emotion.

By uncovering this emotion and tentatively asking if the covert emotion is also going on for your partner, you can bypass the surface anger, irritation or resentment and cut to the core emotion that needs to be validated.

This is no easy task, as it requires you to figuratively step up-and-out of the current conflict and to look and listen for what?s not being expressed.

The challenge is it does require you to suspend your own reactivity and defensiveness to be able to connect with the deeper needs of your partner.

Tip: When you find yourself in a conflict situation, pause for a moment and see if you can feel what else in the conversation your partner is not expressing.

To help you with this, remind yourself that your partner is in distress, but is not able to share the whole picture of the distress with you. Listen carefully for this and use your curiosity to find out what else is not being overtly shared.

7. Anticipate issues before they become issues

One of the most common major communication problems is that many current issues often could have been dealt with much earlier in the relationship, but weren?t.

Avoidance of speaking about small issues can often lead to the unresolved issues fostering and expanding over time. They can then explode later down the track and feel much bigger than they were to begin with.

Some of the reasons the small issues are avoided are because you may not want to ?rock the boat? when you think things are going relatively well. You may also have a belief that nothing good comes of raising complaints or issues.

The reality is, couples that seek to avoid conflict almost always end up in more conflict than they were trying to avoid in the first place.

Tip: Get into the habit of naming and flagging issues with each other, even when they are small. One of the ways to do this is to have a regular check-in where you meet on a regular basis to discuss current issues and check how your relationship is going.

Over time, this structure can help you feel more confident about your ability to effectively deal with conflict and disagreements.

Communication in a relationship is something that needs to be constantly attended to for the health of your relationship.

Start with the basics and establish rituals of communication and connection in your relationship to ensure the longevity of your love and connection with one another.

Now over to you. What communication basics would you add to this list?

Clinton Power is a Sydney-based Gestalt therapist and the owner of Clinton Power & Associates- a private practice dedicated to helping singles and couples move out of relationship pain. He is also the founder of?Australia Counselling Directory, a free directory for find counsellors and psychologists in Australia. Clinton is also a passionate coach and?consultant for healthcare professionals. Find him on Twitter @sydneytherapist.

photo credit: By?Ed Yourdon, via flickr creative commons

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Source: http://clintonpower.com.au/2012/11/communication-basics-simple-steps-improve-relationship/

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Foreclosure tidal wave fails to materialize in U.S., proving ...

Stockton, California, has the highest U.S. foreclosure rate. It also has a housing shortage.

The number of homes for sale in the city fell 42% in October from a year earlier. Listings routinely attract multiple offers. Prices are on the rise.

When banks pulled back on foreclosures two years ago following a government investigation into allegations of faulty practices, market researchers, academics and Wall Street analysts said that a surge of delinquent homes would deluge the U.S. market once lenders resolved the claims and worked through backlog, driving down prices for years to come. RealtyTrac Inc., a seller of property data, warned a year ago of a ?new set of incoming foreclosure waves.? Susan Wachter, professor at the University of Pennsylvania?s Wharton School, said in February that a logjam may be ?unleashed? and destabilize the market.

In fact, the flood failed to materialize, even after the five biggest U.S. mortgage servicers reached a US$25-billion settlement with federal and state regulators in February. Instead, the number of properties for sale shrank to the fewest in a decade, prices appreciated at the fastest pace since 2005, and the gradual healing of the housing market helped boost consumer confidence and the economy.

?We don?t have enough homes now to meet the needs of the market,? Paul Jacobson, a Stockton native and real estate broker for 22 years, said as he cruised the city?s northern fringe, where suburbia meets farmland. ?People see a foreclosed home for sale in this area and they?re going to jump on it.?

Bank Deals

Banks have stepped up foreclosure alternatives to avoid legal challenges. They?re forgiving debt, modifying payment plans and approving short sales that allow homeowners to sell for less than they owe.

The federal government, criticized by consumer activists for failing to prevent more than 4.7 million homes from being lost to foreclosure or short sales since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, is also helping to stem the crisis. Expanded loan-modification programs have gained traction, and the Federal Reserve has kept bank interest rates near zero. Investors including Blackstone Group LP and Colony Capital LLC are purchasing thousands of foreclosed homes in bulk before they even hit the market, further limiting new supply.

With the unemployment rate also coming down, concerns are fading that a deluge in foreclosures will destabilize the housing market as it recovers from a six-year slump.

?Wrong?

?Many of us, myself included, feared a wave of foreclosures when the settlement came,? Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at Wharton in Philadelphia, said in a telephone interview. ?I was wrong.?

Slowing the foreclosure process has allowed banks to avoid booking losses on non-performing loans, said Joshua Rosner, an analyst with Graham Fisher & Co. in New York. U.S. banks reduced their net charge-off rate on mortgages to 0.77% in the second quarter, the most recent available, from a high of 1.81% at the end of 2009, according to data Rosner compiled. That drop occurred as the rate of non-current loans declined to 9.77% from 10.15% in late 2009.

?The goal all along ? from the banks, the servicers and the government ? was sort of to slow walk the whole thing, bleed it through over time,? Rosner said in a telephone interview.

Prices Rise

The strategy may be paying off. Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose 3% in September from a year earlier, the most since 2010, the S&P/Case-Shiller index showed this week.

An index of pending home resales climbed 5.2% in October, exceeding the highest estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed Thursday in Washington. The median price of an existing home sold last month jumped 11% from a year earlier to US$178,600, the steepest annual increase since November 2005, according to the group. The number of previously owned homes on the market in October fell 1.4% to 2.14 million, the fewest since December 2002.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated that as many as 1.8 million properties would be taken back by banks in 2012, according to a January speech by President William Dudley. Through October, there have been about 559,000 home seizures, indicating a pace of about 650,000 for the year, according to Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

The so-called shadow inventory of pending foreclosures, which may be larger than the visible supply of previously owned homes for sale, is shrinking as new defaults decline and banks work through their backlog of bad loans. Home loans that were more than 90 days late or in the foreclosure process, a proxy for the shadow inventory, fell to 7.03% of properties with a mortgage in the third quarter, the lowest share since 2008, the Mortgage Bankers Association said two weeks ago.

Managed Process

While lenders may bring more distressed properties to market over the next year, it won?t be enough to depress values, said Vishwanath Tirupattur, housing strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York.

?I don?t anticipate a flood that will take the market down with it,? he said in a telephone interview. ?It will be a much more managed process.?

David McNew/Getty Images filesThe so-called shadow inventory of pending foreclosures, which may be larger than the visible supply of previously owned homes for sale, is shrinking.

The shadow inventory ? which also includes properties owned by banks but not for sale ? fell from an estimated 8.8 million homes in 2010 to 5.36 million as of this month, a faster decline than expected as fewer loan modifications re-defaulted, according to Tirupattur.

Changes to Obama?s loan-modification program had the biggest impact on reducing pending foreclosures since late 2010 by creating a template that lenders followed, Wachter said. That included incentives to compensate loan servicers for reducing principal on loans for delinquent borrowers. In January, the administration tripled the award to 63 cents for every $1 in writedowns.

?Transformative Steps?

?The loan modifications were successful in this new wave,? she said. ?Transformative steps were being put into place in the loan modification process. I underestimated how transformative those reforms would be.?

An estimated 1 million homeowners qualify for payment-plan changes with principal reductions under Obama?s guidelines, according to Wachter. Assuming a redefault rate of 25%, that would result in almost 750,000 sustainable modifications, Wachter wrote with Mark Zandi, Celia Chen and Cristian deRitis of Moody?s Analytics Inc. in a report published in May.

?Along with those that would take place in any event, this is about the number needed to forestall any further house-price declines,? they said.

Principal Forgiveness

Since the February settlement, the five largest U.S. mortgage servicers provided loan relief to 309,385 borrowers, including trial plans, according to a Nov. 19 report by Joseph Smith, monitor of the deal. Almost 22,000 borrowers had principal forgiveness totaling US$2.55-billion. The companies, which include Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., agreed to short sales for 113,000 borrowers for another US$13.1-billion in principal write downs, Smith?s report said.

The settlement helped stabilize prices, in part, by encouraging alternatives to foreclosures, including principal forgiveness and short sales, said Nela Richardson, senior economic analyst with Bloomberg Government. Modified loans have a high default rate and may eventually show up as foreclosures or short sales, she said.

?In this sense, I think the shadow inventory is still looming but it does not look like it will come out of the shadows all at once,? Richardson said in an e-mail. ?Rather, properties will trickle out into the market.?

About 940,000 modifications will be completed this year, including 100,000 resulting from the US$25-billion mortgage settlement, according to a Nov. 21 report by JPMorgan analysts led by John Sim. The pace will fall next year to about 530,000 as the pool of eligible borrowers shrinks.

Short Sales

Short sales made up 9.3% of transactions in September, up from 7.8% a year earlier and 5.8% in September 2009, according to CoreLogic Inc., an Irvine, California-based real estate data firm.

?The best, lasting legacy of the crisis is that the industry has created a more nuanced approach to loss disposition,? said Mark Fleming, chief economist of CoreLogic. ?I don?t think the idea of evaluating a delinquent borrower for all different alternatives goes away after we?ve dealt with the shadow inventory. I think that?s here to stay.?

In Stockton, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) east of San Francisco by car, the foreclosure crisis is easing after a plunge in home values that has left prices down 60% from a 2006 peak. The city earlier this year became the largest in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy protection from creditors after the collapse of the housing market left it with mounting retiree health-care costs for employees and an eroding tax base amid accounting errors that overstated municipal revenues.

Highest Rate

One in 67 of Stockton?s households received a foreclosure filing in the third quarter, the highest rate of any U.S. metropolitan area with a population of more than 200,000, according to RealtyTrac. The number of filings of default, auction or repossession fell 21% from a year earlier.

William Hoeurn, a teacher?s assistant in Stockton, last month won a US$337,906 principal reduction on his mortgage from Bank of America, reducing monthly payments on his three-bedroom house to US$884 from US$2,362. Hoeurn fell behind on his loan payments after his wife lost her job and two of his grown children, who helped pay the mortgage, moved out of the home.

?Before, I was having bad dreams that I am losing my house,? Hoeurn, 66, a refugee from Cambodia, said during an interview in his kitchen. ?Now, I feel very happy.?

Short Sales

The number of bank-owned homes listed for sale in Stockton plunged 72% in September from a year earlier, according to MetroList Services Inc., a Sacramento, California-based listing information service. Short sale listings fell 63% to 155 homes.

If they flooded the market, prices would go down. So they?re getting more for what they?re selling. At the same time, it?s making more work for us

Re-sale prices rose 14.6% in the 12 months through October to US$179,570 in San Joaquin County, where Stockton is the county seat, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Peter Lemos, code enforcement field manager for Stockton?s police department, said he suspects banks are delaying foreclosures to reduce the supply of houses on sale and keep prices higher.

?If they flooded the market, prices would go down,? Lemos said during an interview in his office. ?So they?re getting more for what they?re selling. At the same time, it?s making more work for us.?

Painting Lawns

There were 6,650 properties with unresolved code violations as of Sept. 30, about two-thirds of which were vacant because the owners walked away and banks hadn?t foreclosed, Lemos said. His team stages night raids to oust squatters from abandoned properties. To give the appearance homes are occupied, they paint dry lawns green.

Rick Simon, a spokesman for Bank of America, and Tom Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan, said they aren?t keeping foreclosed properties off the market to boost prices or avoid booking losses.

?Under servicing agreements and investor guidelines, we generally are compelled to move defaulted loans through the foreclosure process and bring them to market without undue delays in order to curtail servicing costs and recover as much of the investment for the owner of the loan as possible,? Simon said in an e-mail.

Potential Foreclosures

The inventory of potential foreclosures remains a threat across the U.S. and could result in a new wave of defaults and depress home values, especially if the economy slows, said Robert Shiller, an economics professor at Yale University. Homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth are more likely to default if they lose a job, need to move for employment, or simply decide to walk away, he said.

?I?m still worried about home price declines,? Shiller, and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, said in a telephone interview. ?It?s funny how people have so much confidence in the recovery. History shows that these markets are hard to predict.?

Glenn Lowson for National Post?I?m still worried about home price declines,? said Robert Shiller, co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes.

Delaying the process may also be hindering a faster recovery, said Anthony B. Sanders, an economics professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

?The best cure for any market meltdown is to let prices fall to whatever level is needed to clear it,? he said. ?Instead, we?re sitting here in 2012 and we?re still not out of the woods yet. The wisdom of delaying foreclosures etc. was more of a political act than an economic act.?

Bank Seizures

Mortgages on homes seized by banks averaged a record 708 days delinquent in September, up from 624 days a year earlier, according to Lender Processing Services Inc. The U.S. average was 367 days in December 2008, before Obama took office and launched an alphabet soup of programs to help struggling homeowners keep their residences.

Maybe bureaucracy is actually helping, in this case, to diffuse the impact of the foreclosures

The February mortgage settlement restricted lenders from so-called ?dual-tracking? ? simultaneously pursuing a foreclosure while borrowers were in the process of applying for a loan modification ? a limitation that prolongs the time it takes lenders to repossess a house.

?In hindsight, by delaying and prolonging the foreclosure process, that gave the market time to stabilize and get back on its feet,? said Blomquist of RealtyTrac. ?Maybe bureaucracy is actually helping, in this case, to diffuse the impact of the foreclosures. Talk about unintended consequences.?

Fed Prevents

Low interest rates engineered by the Federal Reserve prevented a wave of defaults that would have been triggered by resets for borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgages, said Karen Weaver, head of market strategy and research at Seer Capital Management LP in New York.

?With very low interest rates, that?s been completely finessed,? Weaver said in a telephone interview. ?That?s another reason we haven?t had the tsunami.?

An Obama program begun in February allowing refinancing for Americans with more than 125% negative equity also has reduced incentives for underwater homeowners to abandon their property. The higher threshold opens the door for about 5 million borrowers to refinance, according to CoreLogic.

More than 100,000 borrowers a month, most of whom have no equity in their homes, have been able to get lower interest rates through the Home Affordable Refinance Program.

?We were originally skeptical,? Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics Ltd., wrote in a note sent last week. ?But we have to admit that it has made a significant difference.?

The foreclosure slowdown took place as the broader economy began to heal. The unemployment rate fell to 7.8% in September, the lowest since Obama took office.

Household Formations

Household formations increased to an annual pace of 1.15 million in the third quarter, driving down the vacancy rate for rental homes to its lowest rate since 2002, while the vacancy rate for owner-occupied properties dropped to 1.9%, a level last seen in 2005, according to the Census Bureau.

Homes that are seized by banks are attracting investors, many of which aim to turn them into rentals. Private-equity firms are raising as much as US$8-billion to buy single-family homes, often purchasing at auctions or directly from banks before the properties are publicly listed for sale. New York- based Blackstone, the world?s biggest private-equity firm. has been buying US$100-million of houses a week, Chairman Stephen Schwarzman said during an Oct. 18 earnings call.

For those foreclosed properties that do hit the market, investor purchases are rising. All-cash sales represented 29% of existing-home deals in October, according to the National Association of Realtors. Investors, who account for most cash sales, purchased 20% of homes in October, up from 18% the previous month and a year earlier.

Phoenix Demand

Some hot markets are seeing even more demand. In Arizona?s Maricopa County, home of Phoenix, investors accounted for a third of home purchases, including those at auctions, said Michael Orr, director of real estate research at Arizona State University?s W.P. Carey School of Business.

Investors and other homebuyers are moving east toward Stockton from the San Francisco Bay area, where the technology industry has kept property values high, said Jerry Abbott, president of Grupe Real Estate, a Stockton-based sales and development company that has acquired more than 1,000 rental homes since 2010.

?My guess is 50% of the active closings are investors,? Abbott said in a telephone interview. ?Everybody and his uncle wants to get in at low prices.?

Bloomberg News

Source: http://www.davidsells.ca/foreclosure-tidal-wave-fails-to-materialize-in-u-s-proving-doomsayers-wrong/

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Senate approves new sanctions for Iran energy, shipping

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Friday resoundingly approved new sanctions on trade with Iran's energy, port, shipping and ship-building sectors, its latest effort to ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

The new package builds on existing U.S. sanctions but keeps exemptions for countries that have made significant cuts to their purchases of Iranian crude oil. Senators voted 94-0 to make the new sanctions part of an annual defense policy bill.

Iran's currency has plunged this year as its oil exports were slashed by U.S. and European sanctions aimed at pressuring the country's leadership to stop pursuing nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The United Nations' nuclear chief said on Thursday his agency has made no progress in its year-long push to investigate whether Iran has worked on developing an atomic bomb.

"We must be clear to the Iranians that toughing it out and waiting it out is not an option, that it will only get worse," Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said.

Menendez, of New Jersey, co-authored the package with Republican Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois and Senator Joseph Lieberman, an Independent from Connecticut.

The Obama administration has not publicly commented on the proposals, but has privately raised concerns that it does not provide enough "waiver flexibility," said Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Levin said those concerns may be addressed when the Senate and House of Representatives work out differences to finalize the massive defense bill. The House has approved its version of the bill, and both bodies will need to approve a final version before it is sent to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

The new sanctions also include measures aimed at stopping the flow of gold from Turkey to Iran.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby group, endorsed the measures, which they said would close a loophole in existing laws.

"In an effort to circumvent international sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, some purchasers of Iranian oil and natural gas have been using gold and other precious metals to pay for petroleum products," AIPAC leaders said in a letter to senators ahead of the vote, urging support for the bill.

Whether an expansion of sanctions can actually slow or stop Tehran's nuclear program is uncertain.

Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst for the Persian Gulf region, said sanctions will not work without solid diplomacy to accompany them. He said the leadership in Iran is unlikely to make concessions on the nuclear issue if it expects sanctions to continue until the regime falls.

"It is a fallacy to believe there is some breaking point at which the regime in Tehran cries 'uncle' and makes major changes in policy even if it sees itself as getting nothing in return," he said.

Jeff Colgan, a professor at American University who studies the geopolitics of oil, said the expanded sanctions would represent a "continuation of a cat and mouse game."

"The sanctions get placed, Iran tries to find ways around them, and the U.S. tries to close the loopholes. But so far, a dent in the (Iranian) economy has not resulted in a change in the nuclear program," Colgan said.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-senate-votes-94-0-expand-sanctions-iran-154701353.html

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12 Viral Reports PLR Pack (For List Building) ? Get This Private ...

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No Soup for You! Bloomberg Bans Food Donations to Homeless

Due to recent Facebook changes, Healthy Home Economist posts may not be showing up in your Facebook news feed like they used to. To keep up with daily postings and announcements, click on the "Liked" tab at the top of The Healthy Home Economist Facebook page and make sure "Show in News Feed" and "Get Notifications" are selected.

Fans of the beloved 90?s sitcom Seinfeld will no doubt remember the words of the Soup Nazi which were quickly directed at any customer who did not strictly follow his no nonsense rules for standing in line, ordering, and payment at his popular New York deli.

?No soup for you! ?NEXT!? the Soup Nazi would shout at the red faced customers who would silently slink away in shame after being lambasted for not adhering to his standards.

New York Mayor Bloomberg has taken Soup Nazi?s tactics to a whole new level with his Administration?s banning of food donations?to all government-run facilities that serve New York City?s large homeless population.

The nanny-esque ban, put in place in March 2012, still stands despite city resources stretched to the breaking point by the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy on the City?s five Boroughs in October 2012.

Perplexingly, the reason for the ban is not the result of homeless getting ill from food contamination!

Rather, Mayor Bloomberg has become New York?s new Soup Nazi by insisting that because the nutritional content of donated food cannot be adequately assessed by the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), homeless shelters are thereby required to turn away all Good Samaritans wishing to donate even such innocuous items as soup and bagels.

Seth Diamond, Commissioner of the DHS, defends the decision saying that the ban is in line with Bloomberg?s passion for improving the nutrition of all residents of New York City. ?The measure tightly controls what can and cannot be served at city run facilities for New York?s down and out including portion sizes and the amount of sodium, fat, fiber and calories per serving.

No exceptions to the strict ban are given even for established donation centers with a healthy track record such as Ohab Zedek, an Upper West Side Orthodox congregation which has donated freshly cooked and nutrient rich foods left over from synagogue events for over ten years.

Mayor Bloomberg?s relentless pursuit of a New York food utopia through implementation of his social justice agenda, while well meaning, is certain to fail (note the ban on all sugary sodas larger than 16 oz in September 2012 which head scratchingly exempted?diet sodas which are arguably just as bad if not worse as diet drinks have been shown to trigger overeating).

The reason is that is removes all personal choice and responsible actions from the individual ? be it positive or negative. ?If people want to drink a Big Gulp, they should be free to do so. ?And, if citizens like?Glenn and Lenore Richter, who lead a team of food-delivery volunteers from their local congregation, want to donate fresh foods to homeless shelters in their neighborhood, they should have the freedom to perform such charitable activities as well.

Attempting to control consumer behavior with a socially ?just? agenda cannot and never will accomplish health. ?It just creates a populace that becomes highly adept at circumventing the ?rules? such as what happened in America during Prohibition.

?

Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist

Source: Nanny Bloomberg Bans Food Donations to Homeless Shelters

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Source: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/no-soup-for-you-bloomberg-bans-food-donations-to-homeless/

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Solo puts focus on soccer, not personal life

By ANNE M. PETERSON

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 3:07 p.m. ET Nov. 28, 2012

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Hope Solo diffused the drama surrounding her personal life as the gold medal-winning U.S. women's soccer team prepared for an exhibition match against Ireland.

"My life is great," the goalkeeper said. "My life is happy."

Solo made her first appearance with the national team since she was married to former NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens in Washington state on Nov. 13, a day after his arrest at a party for domestic violence. A judge determined there wasn't enough evidence to hold Stevens, but the matter remained under investigation.

Solo spoke after a workout with her fellow U.S. teammates at Portland's downtown Jeld-Wen Field. The national team plays Ireland on Wednesday night on its U.S. appreciation tour following a 2-1 victory over Japan in the final match at the London Games.

"It's unfortunate what the media can do to judge before the facts are out there. It's hard to see, but it's a hard truth, and it's part of life," she said. "I'm happy. I'm happily married. I would never stand for domestic violence. I've never been hit in my life."

Solo has had a stellar career with the national team, helping the team to two straight Olympic gold medals. But she's never shied from attention: From her Twitter criticism of former national team member Brandi Chastain during the London Games to appearing on TV's "Dancing with the Stars."

Police say that they were called to a disturbance at a home in Kirkland, a Seattle suburb, in the early morning hours on Nov. 12. Solo and her brother blamed a disturbance on three unknown men. Officers maintained they had probable cause to arrest Stevens because they observed evidence of an altercation, including a cut on Solo's elbow, and his admission that the two had argued, according to court documents.

The next day, Solo and Steven were married. Solo, 31, posted a smiling photo of herself with Stevens, 33, to Twitter two days later.

Stevens was selected with the No. 28 pick of the 2002 draft by the Seahawks after a stellar career at Washington. But he also was involved in incidents away from football that included reckless driving charges for crashing into a nursing home.

His best season with the Seahawks as in 2005 when he started a career-high 12 games and had 45 receptions as the Seahawks won the NFC championship.

Solo also went to Washington. The two started dating following the London Games.

"Like I said, we're happy, and ultimately that's all that matters," she said.

Wednesday's match is the sixth of the U.S. team's Fan Tribute Tour.

Jill Ellis, women's development director for U.S. soccer, is coaching the U.S. team against Ireland. Former Australian national team coach Tom Sermanni takes over the national team in January, replacing Olympic coach Pia Sundhage, who stepped down.

Ireland and the United States will play again Glendale, Ariz., on Dec. 1 as the tour continues.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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