The thought of losing recent years’ tax cuts would alarm many people—especially those dreading a large hit. Imagine buying a company’s stock, in hopes of enjoying its 7.1% dividend yield for the long haul.

On an investment of ten thousand dollars you’d collect about seven hundred and ten annually right now, with a maximum 15% tax hit on those payouts. Now imagine hearing that your tax bill might soar to over a hundred dollars more per payout in 2011—not something which makes you feel great, but try to look at it in a new way.

Yes, the currently reduced dividend rate is due to revert to citizens’ ordinary income tax rate. That would be 39.6% under the proposed budget, but only if you have taxable income of more than three hundred thousand dollars in 2011.

Furthermore, the Obama administration seems to want to limit the increase in dividend taxes to just five percentage points, from 15% to 20%. That’s a meaningful jump, especially for those collecting a lot of dividends in retirement, but it’s not 39.6%.

Critics are also trying to spread alarm about the estate tax. Unless Congress decides otherwise, it will revert in 2011 from 45% to 55%, with an exemption of one million dollars.

It’s estimated that a one million dollar exemption would lead to just over forty four thousand households owing estate tax in 2011 — and they’d only pay taxes on any value beyond that initial one million. This is an irritation for the wealthy, but those problems can be significantly avoided by simply hiking the exemption, which seems likely sooner or later.

Here are several ways that well-known companies reduce their U.S. tax bills. Forbes recently noted that these companies paid relatively little in taxes in 2009, based on accounting provisions.

Many companies take advantage of lower tax rates abroad. For instance, a well known gas company had an eight billion tax bill globally, but it only paid two hundred million to the United States. A well known electric company was cited for losing money on paper, and therefore not owing taxes in the U.S., while at the same time making lots of money overseas, where tax rates are lower.

A computer company paid almost two billion in taxes –but that represented just 19% of its pre-tax income, thanks to lower tax rates abroad. Companies are using tax losses in past years to shelter current and future income.

A leading bank reported over four billion in pre-tax income, but was able to take advantage of deductions and credits to lower that below zero. It still has tens of billions of dollars in credit losses that will shield it from taxes for quite a while.

A prestigious car company reported three billion in pre-tax income, but only paid sixty nine million, thanks to losses carried over from previous years. Even companies that pay income tax now may get huge breaks later.

Another leading bank paid a solid 30.3% of its pre-tax income in taxes, but investors have reason to smile about the future. The company has a twenty five billion dollar allowance for losses on loans.

When those losses are realized, they will offset tax liabilities. The Government Accountability Office found in 2008 that 55% of U.S. corporations actually reported no federal income tax liability in at least one year between 1998 and 2005.

Suddenly, the thought that changing tax laws might make them pay a bit more to the IRS doesn’t seem so bad. Try to resist scare tactics designed to get you alarmed.

Dig a little deeper into the facts about tax changes, and keep the big picture in mind. Yes, some taxes may go up in the coming years, but most of us won’t be affected.

Besides, our nation is facing massive financial challenges right now. Perhaps a few more taxes might not be a bad thing.

Well one way to get rid of them is to print lots more money. This way our government would be in the clear. But, this way we would get hurt. If our government was to do this, our liquid cash would immediately decrease in value.

We can avoid doing this by converting our liquid cash into sound investments. The sooner our money is turned into something more solid, the better we will financially be in the future.

I’m wondering why we are okay with our government spending our taxes to encourage us to buy foreign cars? I have no problem with people buying a Toyota if that is what they are interested in. What I do have a problem with is my government giving my tax money to people so they can buy foreign cars. We need the money back in our economy.

When you arrive at the fast food chain restaurant you quickly peruse their menu and discover that anything less than $3.00 will promote cardiac arrest. You choose to avoid this by going with a more expensive and healthy option.

It is wise to avoid the unnecessary saturated fat but you are also incurring unnecessary costs. We all lose so much money to high cost food. If we can simply plan ahead and prepare food from grocery stores we will save ourselves hundreds of dollars each year.

Ford is one of the few American car companies that have not received a government bailout in the last year. Due to cost cutting, accounting maneuvers, and a gain in market share throughout the world, Ford was able to cut losses in the last quarter. Company officials expect to return to profitability sometime in 2011.

Ford actually turned a $86 million profit in Latin America and $138 million profit Europe – largely due to gains in market share. The North American market is still a sore spot for sales, but Ford saw a smaller domestic sales drop than rivals GM and Chrysler. Ford is actually positioned quite well to make a turn around.

As of 2 PM EST the stock gained 0.51 or (8.01%).

One way for governments to make more money would be to issue more traffic citations. When we speed in the city and get a ticket we are giving our money to that city. Because of this the more tickets they issue the more money they get.

In realizing this we should take great notice of our speedometer. During this time we should slow down and avoid these tickets. The good news is when we do this we also get better fuel economy.

I was reading about a study recently reviewed that analyzed leisure time and how it correlates with education. What they found was interesting because they discovered that those with more education spend less time on leisure activities than those with less education.

think this is so interesting because we have always envisioned the American dream as getting educated, working hard, making lots of money, then leisurely wasting the day away. This is no longer what we as Americans do.

It is important to recognize that those with higher education have a higher employment rate than those with less education. This has to be factored in to the whole formula to get a good idea of what is going on in the market place.

Beyond this though I was concerned when I read that those with less education, although they have more leisure time, they spend less quality time with their children. So here they are, they spend more time sleeping, more time with leisure activities, yet less time with children and less time exercising.

I believe this reveals what is really going on. Rather than focusing on the unemployment argument I believe a huge factor is the work ethic of the different types of people. Education is more and more accessible with tax breaks and scholarships being offered in greater abundance so we need to revamp our society and inject the needle of hard work back into the American Dream.

Education spending will be hit hard in this year’s budget cuts. Nine billion dollars of education spending has been cut from the budget. What does this mean for school systems in California? A rough year. With the unemployment rate over 11% and the housing market still in shambles, the Californian economy has had a rough year and state programs will bear the brunt of the budget deficit.

The number of students per classroom will undoubtedly rise and supplies will be limited. Although California is already projecting a shortage of college graduates to fill future employment needs the University of California and California State University systems will face budget cuts as well. Enrollment will be reduced by 40,000 students this next year – in a state where only 56% of high school graduates go onto college. Tuition and fees will increase by at least 10 % while community colleges may charge significantly more. This will undoubtly hurt higher education in the state as well, but with such large defecits there were limited alternatives. The numbers are scary, but they speak for themselves.

I want to jump into the real estate market so did a little research on this year’s $8,000 federal tax credit for first time home buyers. The more I hear about it the more excited I get. In order to qualify for this you just have to make less than $75,000 a year individually or as a couple make less than $150,000.

Another thing that affects your qualifications is if you’ve been a home owner in the last three years. They want to lend a hand to those who have not.

They are doing this based on a 10% credit so if your house costs less than $80,000 then they’ll give you just 10%. If your house is $80,000 or above they’ll give you only $8,000. Since rates are so low right now it is the perfect time to jump in and take advantage of this offer.