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u V.' Mi I, ,11 This'is the time of year that people begin thinking about preparing their income tax returns. If you itemize your deductions, it also is a good time to ' begin preparing for the return which will be filed next year. Here are some helnful hints on making next year's return easier to prepare: 1. The tax forai for itemizing deductions is divided into several parts, including taxes, finance and interest charges, contribu tions and medical expenses. If you set up envelopes or folders for each of these now and use them during the year, your information win De T andy next year when you need ii. 2. As you vv 'e your checks during the year, fill ' out the line at i. bottom left-hand corner of your check, indicating what the check is for. You will then be able to readily identify possible deductions. 3. When your checks are returned to you with your checking account statement throughout the year, place information on possible deductions in the Robert Brown f 1 vs. 3 SAT., JASUAXY 17,131 By Robert D. Brown appropriate envelope or folder. 4. If you have a home mortgage, an automobile loan or any other loan, you should receive a state ment on each account listing how much you paid during the year in interest. It usually is mailed to you in January. Yburwill need this figure for your return. On that statement, you will also receive figures on how much interest you have paid oh credit lines such as MasterCard or Visa. But you will have to calculate for yourself from your monthly bills the interest you have paid on any retail store charge accounts. . 5. Make contributions to charities and churches with a check so that you can have a written record of how much you have given. 6. If you are self-employed, you should have separate business and personal checking accounts. Separating your business and personal checks as they are returned to you will make your record keeping easier and help identify possible tax deductions. 7. Cancelled checks that are sent back to you can serve as proof of payment if the Internal Kevenue Service should ever have a question about your return. It is very important to keep cancelled checks and other records such as receipts, medical bills, church contribution records and so on, so you will have proof of payment. 8. Banks will automatically deduct North Carolina Intangibles Tax from your savings and checking account each November. Your bank will let you know the amount of that deduction for filing purposes. 9. It may also be helpful to keep record through the year on earnings other than salaries and wages which you receive. If you earn interest on your sav ings account, or any other savings accounts which you maintain (such as accounts for your children), the bank will send you a statement showing your -interest earnings for the year. ' 10. If you have savings accounts at different banks, you will receive interest on each one. You must com bine these interests payments into one figure for your return. 11. If yon maintain a safe deposit box at your bank, the rental fee will qualify as an itemized deduction if the box is used for storage of taxable, income producing stocks, bonds or investment-related papers and documents. 12. Many banks have supplies of income tax forms in their lobbies. You can conveniently pick them up there, from the Internal Revenue office or from the post office. Robert D. Brown it vice president and tax planner in the Pergonal Trutt Department at Wachovia Bank and Trust Company in Wintton-Salem. He hat been with the bank $ince!975. The reason for the financial difficulty of most black institutions is minimally situated in racism and max imally on its graduates who have failed to support and endow their institutions. Though not a graduate of any black institution of higher learning, 1 probably give more money to black colleges yearly than their own alumni. This a major problem for black colleges and universities. The alumni association of any institution can affect admissions, academic policies and programs, as well as state and federal support through their largesse. Most folks know of Notre Dame's Alumni Associa tion's influence on their football team's affairs, exercis ed by virtue of the large amounts of monies given the school through them. UNC-Chapel Hill benefits to a large degree from its alumni gifts and legislation on its behalf by legislators who are alumni. The departments of major institutions are endowed with distinguished professorships given them by industry or rich graduates or frjends. Surely our black institutions have graduated their share of financially secure blacks. Why in Durham alone, it was once estimated that there were at least six Spectacles: A Closer Look Black Colleges -Another Look By Ada M. Fisher millionaires in the 50's. Since we make our money off black people, why are we not putting it back into our in stitutions? Hispanics, women, and other ethnic groups are claim ing more of the minority educational pie and our representation in predominantly white institutions con tinues to decrease. This means our sons and daughters will have to attend traditionally black institutions because the seats will be unavailable at white schools. The major problem now is, will these institutions exist as that time draws nearer? If you listen to many blacks who have "made it", with backgrounds from traditionally black institutions, too many have forgotten that degree in deference to the new paper from white institutions. Yet, it is the black in stitution which made and will continue to make possible our entry into white institutions. Suppose you have a choice between a black institution and a white one. An admission's officer for the white school reviewing your credentials, would know that student had other options and could go elsewhere; hence he'd be more influenced to accept that candidate. But say there were no black schools and that you applied to a white school, that in stitution could set its standards to pick, chose, and ex clude without qustion and really wouldn't have to con sider black students at all. Now, this is not to say that the role for black schools is as a second place for those who can't get into white institutions. Black schools can provide a solid education for any student but they also serve as a means for keeping white institutions honest. . I realize that the problems of black colleges are not all related to their alumni. Too many black institutions have become lazy and complacent. When I've had talented black students interested in college, I've had to go begging and pleading to get black colleges to look at them. The white colleges accepted these same students on my reccomendation alone and followed through without repeated reminders. It is time educators realized that it is their job to educate. Without students they would have no job. If the student knew it all before he arrived, he wouldn't need the degree to begin with. Lest we forget, in education, the student is our most impor tant product not research, not tenure, not campus politics, etc. Black students, black alumni, and black educators. Wake Upt We need you if we are to have a future and we need you all working together for our benefit. j! Throughout life you have been told to concentrate. You've heard that by concentrating good results will come about as you remain relaxed and at ease. Now, however, we're going to take a close look at this matter of concentration. We're going to examine the word and look at it in a larger framework. Wc will look at it from many sides and angles. And you're going to put concen tration to work for you in new, powerful and successful ways in your life. Concentration is focusing your mind on one par ticular thing thinking very hard about a single thought or idea putting your whole mind to work on ' it. Concentration is something like focusing a camera on an object you wish to photograph. When the object is in focus, the picture is sharp and clear. If the subject is out of focus, even a little, the picture is fuzzy and it's hard to recognize the subjects in the photograph. When you're concentrating, you're thinking about nothing other than the subject of your concentration. You let nothing else interfere with what you're thinking at that particular moment. . ,tfy, pto'rwtnA To corttentrate andget tfc bultst powble, you-,, need to 'desire the best results. When you feel deep down Coping Effective Concentration By Dr. Charles W. Faulkner inside of you a desire to concentrate, concentration will be much easier to achieve. Develop this kind of desire. Think about it right now and in the days ahead. Think about it seriously. All it takes is a little practice. Become willing, even eager, to practice concentration. Find yourself getting excited about using your mind in this way. For this is a way to use your mind which most people never ac complish. This is going to set you apart from many other people because this will make you a person who uAhe.jBJwJ0ie4e4naflner possible. oAtet'take.iust nxHjkeBtnd find a time in your re cent past when you did concentrate. In this way you will be able to realize that concentration is a part of your life. When you realize this, you'll be more able to develop your powers of concentration, for you will have seen that concentration is very much a part of your ex- ' istence. It is there waiting to be developed into a . powerful part of your learning abilities. Think back to the last time you watched a television program you really enjoyed watching. Remember how you focused your attention all of your body, mind and emotions focused them into watching the pro gram, people may , have. come , into, the room, ; even,, $poken to you and left all without your even knowing it. That was concentration. It was concentration based on desire and interest. You were interested in the pro gram and you really wanted to watch and absorb every minute of it. Learning -to concentrate is an exciting thing it causes something to happen inside of you. As you see it grow and become very intense, you will realize that this is something not every one accomplishes. It is something new. Something different. Something powerful. In fact, as your ability to concentrate becomes more and more intense, you'll actually feel a type of power mental power build inside of you. You'll begin finding more and more reason to be confident in your new-found ability. Your sense of self-confidence will become very, very strong. It will begin carrying you over what used to be rough spots in school and in life. You'll start to realize you are becoming a powerful personality, so meone of character, someone who has and is using the mental abilities in the right way. If you have questions you would like answered, direct them! to Dr. Charles W. Faulkner,. P.O., Box. 50016. Washington, DC 2X3004. Social Security, the "nest egg" that many are relying on after their working days are over, may not provide the margin of security that was originally anticipated unless major reforms are initiated. The social security system, or the trust fund as it is sometimes referred to, is financed by contributions from workers who pay the pensions of those who have retired. The rate of payment to pensioners is adjusted to keep pace with t,he cost-of-living. When the social security system was implemented during the 30's, the ratio of working to those retired made it appear to be an excellent system, because most people did not live beyond the age of sixty. But modern technology advanced, the life span of older citizens was prolonged and this changed thx ratio substantially. In creasingly, fewer workers arc supporting a larger number of retirees. This fact coupled with a stagnant economy, increas ing inflation and continous high unemployment is br inging the social security system close to bankruptcy. Even though President Carter transferred over $1 billion into the trust fund, in 1978, it only insured distribution of payments on a short-term basis. The pro blem of financing the system has not been solved, the transference of funds simply delayed the time of dcci- j sion. A long term solution must be found to this problem. Decisions affecting the social security system must be made well in advance, so that workers can begin to plan TRANSITION' ADVICE FOR CONSERVATIVES Bv Edwin Feulner " Senator Edward Kennedy has just offered conservatives the sincerest form of flattery imitation. According to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, the Senator is thinking of starting a private think-tank to generate new ideas for liberal programs. One suspects the inspiration for this scheme comes from the success conservative think-tanks have had in providing intellectual ammunition in the battle of ideas. Senator Kennedy isn't the only one who has noticed the conservative intellectual revival. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York laments that the best new ideas are coming from "the right" these days. And Ralph Nader understudy Mark Green recently went through great contortions in an essay in THE WASHINGTON POST to say that the conservatives' "new ideas" aren't new at all. (Criticism of that sort is yet another form of flattery.) Media moguls also are paying attention as you'll see ' if you flip through your favorite news magazine or newspaper, where you're likely to find at least one article on conservative think-tanks. Times certainly have changed! It was only yesterday that the phrase "conservative intellectual" would have provoked derisive laughter in establishment political and academic circles. Now, the liberals envy us our think-tanks and our thinkers. What's going on? The answer is: nothing less than a revolution. For the past few decades, the intellectual establishment in this country was predominantly even exclusively liberal. So, for the most part, was the government. The liberals in academia and the liberals in government made an unhappy marriage (unhappy for the rest of us, that is). The academics thought up new programs for the government, and the government put those programs into effect in the process, creating grants and jobs for the (Continued on Page 16) Getting Smart By Walter L. Smart Executive Director United Neighborhood Centers of America for their retirement. I propose a radical idea, modify the present social security system so that it pays dividends based on workers contributions, like an insurance plan. For ex ample, monies that are contributed would be invested and you recieve a guaranteed annual percentage increase on your returns. This would negate the need of dependency on the contributions of others when you retire. To develoo a Dlan such of a few billion dollars by Subscribe To The Carolina Times Call 682-2913 Don't Delay as this would require a deposit the federal government, but it would produce enormous savings in the long run. Isn't it about time we invested in the security of the American people with a sound plan? On the whole, the average person is employed by age sixteen and retires by age 65, thus, contributing to the trust fund for 49 years. If these contributions were in vested, interest compounded over this period of time Would provide excellent benefits. Even if this initiative is not utilized, one thing is cer tain, the trust fund must revert from its present pattern. It should be obvious by now, that worker's contribu tions alone will not be sufficient to provide the level of security that retirees currently enjoy. ' Wc f 90 PROOF 7 YEARS OLD 60WL WEILER I SONS USniLERY. tOUISVILU. KENTUCKY KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY 90PROOF 5!4 Interest Compounded Daily. Interest Paid Monthly. Only $400 minimum balance. Only $5 charged per month if minimum balance not maintained. Overdraft Protection. FSLIi rv HOME SAVINGS AND LOAN Durham Chapel Hill Roxboro
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Jan. 17, 1981, edition 1
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