WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is warning consumers about a sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, throughout the country.
Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer. If the victim refuses to cooperate, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.
BancFirst has been selected as one of the top financial institutions in America by Carnegie Mellon University. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon studied and reviewed the consumer privacy practices of 3,422 banks for their data collection policy, as well as sharing and selling customer data for marketing purposes. According to the study released in June, BancFirst was selected as one of the top banks in the nation based on how it handles personal information collected, and how it protects the privacy of its customers. Thursday, November 07, 2013
If you’re currently enrolled in Medicare, you’ve probably begun receiving information about your coverage. That’s because the annual enrollment period for Medicare runs from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7.
During this period, you can make changes to your Medicare coverage that will be effective on Jan. 1, 2014. If you’re satisfied with your current coverage you don’t need to make changes, but you should review your options before you decide to stay with your current plan.
Your Medicare plan sends you two important documents every year that you should review. The first, called the Evidence of Coverage, gives you information about what your plan covers, and its cost.
The Rose State College Small Business Development Center and the Oklahoma Bid Assistance Network are cosponsoring a free conference geared toward active duty military, spouses and veteran entrepreneurs or those who are thinking about starting a business.
The conference will be 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Rose State College Professional Education Center, 1720 Hudiburg Drive in Midwest City.
Major General Myles Deering, the Oklahoma Adjutant General who commands various elements of the Oklahoma National Guard, will deliver the keynote speech. Deering commanded the rescue effort during Hurricane Katrina and also led the state’s Guard during their tour of duty in Iraq.
Jeff Johnson has developed a number of properties the past few years but he knew there was something lacking in the Midwest City community.
And that was the presence of a professional business park he is getting ready to start developing at SE 15th and Douglas Blvd.
Johnson is one of two developers that will be building on the land. His part starts behind the Pablano Grill restaurant and goes north toward SE 15th Street.
"I was born and raised here so I have a lot of real estate interest in Midwest City," Johnson said.
An elective share is the statutory right of a surviving spouse to receive a specified share of his or her deceased spouse’s estate instead of accepting the provisions in the spouse’s will. The elective share protects a surviving spouse from being disinherited by his or her spouse.
Example(s): Bob dies and leaves his wife, Ann, $10,000 in his will. Bob’s total estate is worth $500,000. The state in which Bob and Ann lived provides that a surviving spouse is entitled to one-half of the decedent’s estate. Ann elects to take against the will and receives $250,000.
The elective share is determined under state law and varies from state to state. In some states, a surviving spouse might receive one-third or one-half of the deceased spouse’s estate. In other states, the percentage a surviving spouse receives depends on the length of the marriage. For example, the spousal elective share might increase with each year of marriage, up to a maximum of 50 percent.
Kevin Wilkerson and his wife Laurel had wanted to find a business they could run but never considered anything with the food industry.
That changed for the Edmond couple after they started eating at a Marco’s Pizza restaurant in Georgia where they had been living at the time.
Today, they are the area representatives for Marco’s Pizza and are opening their newest franchise at 10001 SE 15th Street in Midwest City. The restaurant will be open for business Monday, Nov. 4.
A disclaimer is an estate planning tool that allows you to redistribute transfers of property free from transfer taxes. A disclaimer is your refusal to accept a gift, bequest, or other form of property transfer.
Once disclaimed, the property is then distributed to the next recipient. As a disclaimant, you are not regarded as having received the property, or having transferred the property. As a result, no gift, estate, or generation-skipping transfer tax is imposed on your disclaimer of the property.
After you receive a gift or bequest, you generally have up to nine months to decide whether to disclaim the property. (State law can provide a shorter period.) During that period, you may not accept any of the benefits of the property if you ultimately decide to disclaim the property.
The Internal Revenue Service Tuesday announced a delay of approximately one to two weeks to the start of the 2014 filing season. This will allow adequate time to program and test tax processing systems following the 16-day federal government closure.
The IRS is exploring options to shorten the expected delay and will announce a final decision on the start of the 2014 filing season in December, Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said. The original start date of the 2014 filing season was Jan. 21, and with a one to two-week delay, the IRS would start accepting and processing 2013 individual tax returns no earlier than Jan. 28 and no later than Feb. 4.
The government closure came during the peak period for preparing IRS systems for the 2014 filing season. Programming, testing and deployment of more than 50 IRS systems is needed to handle processing of nearly 150 million tax returns. Updating these core systems is a complex, year-round process with the majority of the work beginning in the fall of each year.
Back in 2000, Guy Dommert was cutting hair in his garage whenever he wasn’t working in the oil and gas industry.
His wife, Teresa, didn’t like this so much and urged her husband to get serious about his passion and get a license.
Two years later, Dommert said some things happened with his day job that made him rethink this idea. He then sought out his hair license and started cutting hair part-time.
At that time, Dommert called himself the "traditional barber" but during his training, he discovered coloring and realized how artistic it was.
John Lassiter says time has flown by since he first graduated from pharmacy school in 1963 and is now celebrating his 50th year as a licensed pharmacist.
Lassiter, owner of Lassiter Drug, located at
3252 SE 29th Street in Del City, received his pin and Gold Certificate award this summer from the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy for his years of service in the pharmacy industry.
"I graduated from pharmacy school in 1963 and 50 years rolled around before you knew what happened," Lassiter said. "I was presented the 50 year pin and certificate at the Oklahoma Pharmacists Association convention this past June in Branson, Mo. I really enjoy what I am doing. I enjoy coming to work every day. I am in the position that I don’t have to work a hard 10-hour day anymore because of the people around me."
Rebecca Blaskie, personal banking officer at FNB Community Bank, recently completed the Oklahoma Bankers Association (OBA) Consumer Lending School in Oklahoma City. Blaskie was among 50 graduates of the school, which was held Oct. 7-11 at the OBA Harris Event Center.
The OBA Consumer Lending School, conducted annually, educates students on the overall consumer credit function and helps develop skills to meet the needs of loan customers and their bank.
Mike Murphy was looking for a new location for his restaurant Murphy’s Family Grill in Midwest City when he learned about a site that featured a unique twist.
His restaurant is now located inside the Autumn House, a senior living apartment complex located at 500 Adair Boulevard.
Murphy’s Family Grill held a grand opening Aug. 19 and is open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"I walked into this place because I knew they had a kitchen and she (Autumn House director) about fell out of her seat saying they had been praying for someone like me to come into this place," Murphy said. "I got a built-in clientele
Along the north side of SE 29th St. in Del City, book lovers can find their own piece of literary paradise. At least that’s the view of one patron of the Booksmith.
That customer, Susan Nagelhout, said her favorite thing about the bookstore is browsing.
"To me, this is like nirvana," She said. "If I owned a bookstore, I would just not get anything done."
Rolls-Royce will open a new engine depot services facility at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma to support the US Air Force Global Hawk fleet.
The company has been awarded a $49 million contract to establish the new facility, which is expected to begin operations in 2015.
The facility will be the first for Rolls-Royce at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex (OC-ALC), one of the largest units within the Air Force Materiel Command, and the Air Force’s Center of Excellence for jet propulsion.
The contract was recently awarded by the Global Hawk Systems Program Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
This will be the company’s first Public-Private Partnership to provide engine services for the US Air Force.
If you’re like most people, you probably want to know what return you might expect before you invest.
But to translate a given rate of return into actual income or growth potential, you’ll need to understand the difference between nominal return and real return, and how that difference can affect your ability to achieve financial goals.
Let’s say you have a certificate of deposit (CD) that’s about to expire.
The yield on the new five-year CD you’re considering is 1.5%. It’s not great, you think, but it’s better than the 0.85% offered by a five-year Treasury note.*
But that 1.5% is the CD’s nominal rate of return; it doesn’t account for inflation or taxes.
Last year, the City of Midwest City received a $1 million investment from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to construct infrastructure improvements to help develop the Soldier Creek Business and Industrial Park, located on N.E. 23rd St. east of Air Depot Boulevard.
Since that time, the city has been moving forward with Phase 1 of the project which included adding water and sewer extensions to the property and rough grading for roads and site pads said Billy Harless, community development director for the City of Midwest City.
Phase 1 involves 43 acres of land located along the NE 23rd Street frontage road. The Midwest City Council previously awarded a bid to Downey Construction in the amount of $200,000 for engineering improvements for water and sewer extensions to the property.
If you’re like most people, you probably want to know what return you might expect before you invest.
But to translate a given rate of return into actual income or growth potential, you’ll need to understand the difference between nominal return and real return, and how that difference can affect your ability to achieve financial goals.
