If you are a corporate head and run a company, then you might very well know the importance of corporate awards. Medals, trophies, crystal awards, engraved gifts and certificates, there are several ways by which you can reward your employees.

At times, you can do away with the ever so common medals and look for Award plaques. Although plaques have been used since ages, they still manage to create a dignified effect on the minds of most recipients.

This is one of the reasons why Award plaques are still very popular. A good quality plaque made of wood or bronze is still a best seller and most corporate would swear by its performance.

If you are giving away just a few certificates, then you simply cannot do without these plaques.

Plaques for everyone

It is not just the corporate world who can use these Award plaques. Educational intuitions, private sports clubs, media and many more sectors regularly use these Plaques to award their employees.

But the plaques for each one of these occasions differ from the other. For example, the plaque that will be used to award someone who has written a bestselling book will be different from the one for the person who has just completed a world record.

This is where custom Award plaques come into the picture. These plaques are custom designed according to the situation.

Buying plaques online

Like everything else, when it comes to Award plaques as well, the internet is a great place to start looking. You can order completely custom and distinct looking plaques right from your office and have them delivered as well.

In fact, if you are not satisfied with the quality of these award plaques in your local city, you can always order them from a vendor on the internet, such as Martin Awards.

Getting charged with a criminal offense can be a very traumatic event. It’s hard to know what steps to take. You need to make sure that you do the right things so that you don’t get a bad outcome for yourself. Here’s what to do.

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Contact a Criminal Attorney

The very first thing that you will need to do is contact a criminal attorney. If you already have one, then they should come to the station where you’ve been charged quickly. And if you don’t have a lawyer, you will have to hire one quickly. Firms like Rogers and Moss deal with criminal cases. When you have an attorney, they will be able to advise you on what you should do next. Everyone who is charged with a crime has the right to see an attorney, so don’t forget that.

Read the Prosecution File

When you are charged, the police will have to produce a prosecution file. As the person who is getting charged, you are entitled to see this file alongside your lawyer. It’s always a good idea to do this so that you can both know all that you need to know about the charge against you. It’s important to make sure that this is done well in advance of the first court date that you will have to attend. If you don’t, you could be missing out on information that would help you in court.

Try to Get Bail

You could be kept in remand after being charged or you could be granted bail. Remand is when you are kept in custody until the date of your court hearing. Any time you spend in custody while you wait for your court date will be taken into account when sentencing. Most people will try to get bail though. This is when you are allowed to go home until the date of the hearing. Your attorney will help you get bail, so speak to them about this issue.

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And Don’t Breach Any Bail Conditions

If you don’t manage to get bail and return home, you will be given bail conditions. Bail is never unconditional, so it doesn’t mean that you can simply do whatever you want. You will have to agree to attend court when asked, live at a certain address and pay a fee. There might be other conditions that apply to certain types of criminal charge. For example, you might be banned from contacting a certain person while on bail. The police will make all the conditions clear to you.

Appear in Court When Summoned

When you are charged with a crime, you will be asked to attend a court hearing. There are often two of these. The first one is just a preliminary hearing, and the criminal hearing will come later. But listen to what the court asks of you and then make sure that you comply. If you fail to turn up at court when you’re summoned, you will cause yourself even more problems that you really don’t need.

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All US citizens are required to file a US tax return, whether they are living in the US or living abroad. This applies to individuals who are working jobs located in the US or those who have foreign jobs for a foreign company. However, the US has several exclusions and exemptions that help reduce or eliminate the amount of taxes owed. In addition, there are other requirements such as the FBAR that every American living abroad needs to know.

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

If you earn under about $100,000 while living abroad then you may qualify for a Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. This amount can reduce your income and therefore reduce the amount of taxes you owe. For those individual who are making less than $100,000 and have no other sources of income, this exclusion may reduce the amount on total income to zero, and therefore the taxpayer will owe no taxes. However, filing a tax return is still required every year.

Foreign Tax Credit

This is a dollar for dollar reduction in taxes owed based on the amount of taxes paid to a foreign country. If an individual pays more taxes to a foreign country than the individual would owe to the US, then the Foreign Tax Credit may help reduce the amount of taxes owed. This credit is most helpful fore individuals living in a high tax country such as the UK, Norway, or Sweden for example. And it may not be helpful for those individuals living in a low tax country such as Saudi Arabia or the Bahamas.

State Taxes

If you are living abroad then you usually do not need to file a state tax return. If however, you own a rental property or a business in any state while you are living abroad, then you likely need to file a state tax return.

FBAR

If you have over $10,000 in aggregate in all your foreign financial accounts, such as bank accounts, securities accounts or pension accounts then you need to file an FBAR. The FBAR is due on June 30th, 2016 and the FBAR is filed with the US Department of Treasury, not the IRS. The Department of Treasury does not give extensions in 2016, however, in upcoming years the Department of Treasury plans to change the filing date and allow for extensions.

Extensions

The Individual tax return, Form 1040, is due every April 15th. However, the IRS gives an extra extension until June 15th, for individuals living outside the country. In addition, there is an automatic extension available until October 15th, for those who file the correct forms before April 15th. All extensions allow more time to file the return, however, if taxes are due, then they must be paid by April 15th or penalties and interest will begin to accrue.

About the Author

Joshua Katz, CPA, is the founder of Universal Tax Professionals, an expat tax and accounting firm dedicated to the needs of Americans living abroad. Feel free to email Josh directly at [email protected].

It does not matter whether you are saving some portion of your salary in a savings account or not, there are times when things go out of control. For example, medical emergencies are occasions when you have to take out all your savings and if matters are critical, you end up borrowing money from here and there. Even having a pet is enough to cost you thousands of dollars because if something goes wrong with the pet you will either have to lose this loved one or if you get your pet insured, you will have to pay premiums for the insurance.

Among many different methods for obtaining money to meet your urgent and emergency needs, there is one called logbook loan. Logbook loan is probably the easiest of loans to understand. The loan is obtained against the logbook of your vehicle. The logbook gives the proof to the lender of the loan that you are the owner of it. Once you have proved your ownership of the vehicle, these ownership documents are kept by the institution giving you the loan. Against this transaction the loan is forwarded to you in the form of a cheque mostly and cash rarely.

In short, you have given your vehicle to the lender in exchange of money you got as loan. However, that’s not exactly the case with this type of loan. In reality, you will only give the ownership documents of your vehicle and still keep the vehicle. In simple words, you will have the loan amount in your hands and also your vehicle that you will be using just like you did before you obtained the loan. However, if you fail to give the loan back then your vehicle’s ownership that rests with the lender will be used to take the vehicle from you.

This type of loan is often obtained by people who don’t have a good credit score and their vehicle is the only thing against which they can obtain the loan. The loan requires the transfer of ownership of the vehicle to the lender. These lenders can be found on the street or you can use the online method to get this type of loan. The amount that is forwarded to you against your vehicle is mostly the half of what your vehicle is actually worth. However, the interest rates on this type of loan can be quite high so it is best to know them before obtaining the loan.

There are some lenders who will still check your credit and might decline the loan but institutions like ELogbookloan are greatly helping people in making this type of loan easy. For example, they can make their payments earlier without being charged any penalties for doing so. Their weekly installments are very affordable and there are no admin fees involved in the whole transaction. With duration of the loan at 3 years, it is quite easy for borrowers to return the loan at their ease and with very easy weekly installments.

One thing’s for certain: a cash flow crisis has the potential to cause serious damage to your business, perhaps even fatal damage.

For most businesses the single most important thing they can do to avoid a cash flow crisis is have a clear debt recovery plan in place. Seeing debts as assets rather than drains on a business is an important psychological leap that helps you ensure a positive strategy for keeping your cash flow rolling.

Capital problems in the capital

London may be the UK’s showpiece city with buildings such as the Shard dominating its commercial and actual landscape but it is also one of the areas in the country that is most afflicted with debt problems.

Yes, debt recovery solicitors in London are busy, even in its most prestigious postcodes; in fact, particularly in its most prestigious postcodes, with Notting Hill, Hampstead, Kensington and Chelsea some of the areas with the highest amounts of per capita debt, a lot of which is believed to be related to commercial activity and other projects and investments made by some of the world’s wealthiest private individuals.

But it’s not only exclusive addresses that have massive debt liabilities. Sutton, Lewis, Bromley, Lambeth and Croydon are places with debt problems, albeit for different reasons. The local authorities have real consumer debt problems, with many hard-up people looking for assistance from Citizens Advice for their debt issues, often related to payday loans and other forms of expensive borrowing.

In fact, it’s fair to say that debt is a problem right across the capital, extending well into its consumer belt, with residents of Sutton, Kingston-upon-Thames, Guildford, and Slough all having high levels of debt.

Payday loans are also a big problem in the capital, with payday borrowing a significant burden for people in less well-off areas such as Lewisham, Bromley and Lambeth. These types of loan have been well-documented in their propensity for increasing debt rather than alleviating it as they purport to do in the shiny, happy commercials. However, the high rates of interest can be crippling, if the borrower does not clear the debt quickly.

Despite all of this, in 2016 Bank of England Governor Mark Carney stressed his belief that the UK was not in the grip of a debt crisis. His argument is supported by figures which show household consumption to be slowing, with household debt increasing by “only” £5.1bn per quarter since 2009, significantly less than the £22bn rate between 1997 and 2009.

Nobody blames a lawyer such as myself for wanting to relax once in a while. To be honest, relaxation plays an important role in my life, and whenever I have an opportunity to do so I pick up an item such as this fender mustang 1 and start playing until I am completely happy with my progress. Progress is extremely important to me and I would do anything to make it happen as much as possible.