Colorado Springs Financial Briefs: September 7, 2007

Dow Jones Indexes and Barron's magazine have launched the Barron's 400 Index which will track the performance of highly liquid U.S. stocks.

Dow Jones Indexes and Barron's are business units of Dow Jones & Co.

Dow Jones Indexes intends to license the new index to underlie financial products such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other investment vehicles.

For Barron's, the index will provide additional subject matter for articles and analysis in its print publication and Barron's Online (www.barrons.com).

Potential stocks will be rated by criteria that measure companies' profitability, cash flow and "growth" and "value" style characteristics. Analysis and rating of stocks is conducted by MarketGrader.com Corp., a research firm based in Coral Gables, Fla.

The index will be reviewed every March and September, and estimated daily back-tested history is available to Dec. 31, 1997.

IRS interest rates remain steady for 4Q

The Internal Revenue Service says there will be no change in the interest rates for the calendar quarter beginning Oct. 1. The interest rates are as follows:

*8 percent for overpayments (7 percent in the case of a corporation)

*8 percent for underpayments

*10 percent for large corporate underpayments

*5.5 percent for the portion of a corporate overpayment exceeding $10,000

The rate of interest is determined on a quarterly basis. For taxpayers other than corporations, the overpayment and underpayment rate is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percentage points.

IRS issues summer Statistics of Income Bulletin

The Internal Revenue Service has released the summer 2007 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, featuring data from 21.5 million individual income tax returns that reported non-farm sole proprietorship activity during tax year 2005.

Profits from all non-farm sole proprietorships totaled $269.9 billion, up 9 percent compared to tax year 2004.

After adjusting for inflation, profits rose by 5.5 percent during 2005, which is the biggest year-to-year increase since a 7.2 percent gain in 1998.

All but one sole proprietor industrial sector saw an increase in profits.

The real estate and rental leasing sector posted a 19.4 percent gain in profits, which was the biggest in percentage terms among the sector categories.

Transportation and warehousing was second highest with a 15.5 percent profit gain. Retail trade was third with a 14.6 percent increase.

Wholesale trade was the only sole proprietor industrial sector to experience a profit decline, 3.5 percent.

The bulletin also includes articles about:

*Foreign-controlled domestic corporations: companies that are relatively few in number but have a big economic impact.

*Federal excise taxes: Federal excise tax receipts totaled $76.1 billion during fiscal year 2006. This represented a 1.2 percent increase from the prior year and a 35.9 percent gain from 1996.

*Estate tax returns: The total number of estate tax returns filed fell by 58 percent to about 45,000 during 2005 from about 108,000 in 2001.

To read the bulletin, visit www.irs.gov, and click "Tax Stats." From the Tax Stats page, select "SOI Bulletins" under "Products, Publications, & Papers" and click "Historical Tables and Appendix."

SOX extension reaches House subcommittee

A bill that would give certain small businesses another year to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been referred to a House subcommittee.

HR 2727 would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow non-accelerated filers to delay providing management's sign- off on internal controls for financial reporting until Dec. 15, 2008.

The bill has the backing of 51 cosponsors. The measure joins others that aim to mitigate the affect of the act on small businesses.

For information, visit thomas.loc.gov

529 to have its day in Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear a case this fall that could affect 529 college savings plans.

A Kentucky court ruled last year that the state's tax on interest earned on out-of-state municipal bonds is unconstitutional.

The appeal to the Supreme Court holds significance for 529 plans because they are governed as municipal fund securities.

Still life for capital-gains arts bill

Several measures that would put the tax treatment of art and collectibles on par with other investments are stuck in committee.

S 374, now holding steady in the Senate Finance Committee, also would provide a tax deduction for charitable contributions of literary, musical, artistic or scholarly compositions created by the donor.

Similar bills, S 548 (25 cosponsors) and HR 1524 (54 cosponsors) also are awaiting committee action.

Retirement plan disclosure pushed

A bill introduced in late July calls for more disclosure about the specifics of 401(k) fees and investments.

HR 3185, introduced by Rep. George Miller, a Democrat from California, would require plan administrators to disclose all fees charged to plan participants, upfront details about investment strategies, risks and returns and potential conflicts of interest.