North Bay Business Journal

Important legal changes for wine, alcohol in 2012

Important laws and regulations affecting members of the California wine and alcohol beverage industry in 2012 include clarification on third-party marketing and promotions, a new direct-to-consumer wine retail license, permission for on-premise infusion of wine and spirits with flavors, a change in the definition of “distilled spirits” for taxation purposes, new state Russian River frost-protection water rules and agricultural union elections law changes.

California alters estimated tax; Roth conversion expanded for 2010

NORTH BAY – Several important tax changes will impact filers on both the state and federal level this year.

New rules on carrying back losses wil help real estate, others

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allowed businesses with fewer than $15 million in gross receipts a five-year net operating loss carryback for the 2008 tax year.

SMART out seeking proposals to start rail project

NORTH BAY – Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit has requested proposals for three major contracts for the $590 million rail project and is about to put out requests for the remaining three.
“We are confident that we are going to get a great deal of interest from the engineering communities,” said John Lackey, SMART’s capital projects director who is leading a team that is overseeing the pending contracts.

Brad Bollinger: Public vs. private

This space has hinted at the vexing question of government’s intrusion into the private sector. But Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger nailed it last week when he wrote:

“The struggle over health care legislation isn’t just another battle between the Democratic and Republican parties. It’s about which force is going to take the United States forward for the next generation: the public sector or the private sector.”

Cancellation of debt can mean big tax bill

NORTH BAY – Commercial property owners are having to come up with ways to avoid paying high taxes on loan restructuring and sales back to a bank.

Brad Bollinger: California can’t keep relying on 1% of taxpayers to fund everything

How about this for a mind-popping statistic: Just 1 percent of California taxpayers, or 144,000 residents in a state of 40 million people, pay 50 percent of the state’s income taxes.

‘Stimulus’ would help housing, homebuyers

NORTH BAY – Residential real estate builders, banks, mortgage brokers and new homeowners stand to be positively impacted by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly referred to as the “stimulus package.”

ACCOUNTING: Times call for new thinking about business

With the economy in turmoil and more and more businesses closing their doors, business owners have to start getting more creative in what they are doing to stay afloat, according to experts.

Banking & Finance: Burr Pilger, Vista Wealth Management merge

Burr Pilger Mayer announced a move toward more offerings for clients via a merger with Vista Wealth Management in Palo Alto.