E2 Visa, Unique Choice of Immigration

The E-2 nonimmigrant classification allows a national of a treaty country to be admitted to the United States when investing a substantial amount of capital in a U.S. business.  

A treaty investor may be eligible for E2 visa if he or she 1) has invested, or be actively in the process of investing, a substantial amount of capital in a bona fide enterprise in the United States and is seeking to enter the United States solely to develop and direct the investment enterprise.  

An investment is the treaty investor’s placing of capital, including funds and/or other assets, at risk in the commercial sense with the objective of generating a profit.  The capital must be subject to partial or total loss if the investment fails.  The treaty investor must show that the funds have not been obtained, directly or indirectly, from criminal activity.

The investor must have invested or in the process to invest substantial amount in the enterprise, i.e, start up cost of operating the business in planning. 

In addition, The investment enterprise may not be one that does not have the present or future capacity to generate more than enough income to provide a minimal living for the treaty investor and his or her family.  Depending on the facts, a new enterprise might not be considered marginal even if it lacks the current capacity to generate such income.  In such cases, however, the enterprise should have the capacity to generate such income within five years from the date that the treaty investor’s E-2 classification begins.  

Possible Failure of EB5 Program

When it comes to choosing the right Regional center to invest hard-earned money, there is understandable fear among investors. Most investors feared because they or their friends or families were scammed before or their trusts are not justifiable given to anyone untested. Yet, many investors don’t actually know specifically why a regional center could fail other than scamming. Instead, they follow the crowd thinking they could be safe. Needless to say, this decision making strategy can justifiably be called “set up for failure”. 

Needless to say, It is important for an investor to understand the actual reason of a particular EB-5 Project’s failure on each stage. Failure of regional centers investment can manifest itself at several stages.  Failure of the I-526, failure for removal of conditions or failure to create the required jobs, failure to complete construction of a project, failure of the business you have invested into and potentially a failure to repay your investment at the agreed upon time. 

In addition, when a Regional Center forms a Limited Partnership; the Regional Center must comply with federal and state laws in conducting the offering of securities. In light of the fact that the investor’s focus is on the EB-5 for the purpose of attaining the green card, often the parties involved, including the investor and the principals within the Regional Center, have no idea that the Regional Center is offering a security with implications under the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC.) The Securities Act requires that al securities sold must be registered with the SEC, unless exempted by the rules. The punishment from Federal Government can be destructive if a regional center failed to comply with the rules. 

With this being said, if individual due diligence is conducted with these possibilities in mind, tragedies and heart-breaking experiences can be greatly avoided. 

Collect Debt by Levying Bank Account

Are you at the end of the rope when your judgement debtor refuses to pay up? The answer is no. There are a few things you can do, such as garnish the person’s wage, placing a lien on the person’s property and levy a bank account. 

This article outlines 1-2-3 of the third choices. 

Levying bank account means to take money out of the judgement debtor’s deposit accounts. If you can obtain the debtor’s bank information, such as the bank, the exact name on the account, and the account number. You may file a write of execute at the court’s clerk’s office and then forward it to the sheriff’s office. The writ of execute is a court order, which the bank must follow if they don’t want to be deemed aiding and abetting. 

Note though, the bank can refuse to pay certain funds on the ground that these funds fall into there are few categories of funds that the laws protect from creditors. These are 

1. Wages. Under federal law, the debtor may exempt up to 75% of his or her wages. Some states allow debtors to exempt even more.
2. Public benefits.  Social Security, veterans, welfare, unemployment, and workers' compensation benefits.
3. Retirement plans. IRAs and Keoghs.
4. Insurance proceeds. In most states, a debtor may exempt disability and health insurance benefits, matured (paid out) life insurance proceeds needed to support the debtor and the debtor's family, and the loan value of most life insurance policies.

Bank levies are an excellent judgment recovery enforcement tool.Typically you can attach all monies in the debtor's bank account up to the full amount of the judgment. Additionally, you can simultaneously attach as many bank accounts as you've located.

  

How does lien work?

Why do you place a Real Estate Lien?

When you receive a monetary judgement against someone, and that person does not pay, you will be told to place a lien on his or her property, including the house, boats, and/or cars. 

How does lien work?

Placing a lien, in essence, is a course of recordation. It put the public who search for titles of this person’s property on notice of his debt to you. The person can continue to stay in the house, or give the house away on quick claim without being punished by law. However, in many cases, say when he needs to finance the house, sell the house, the mortgagors or the buyers usually want to buy a property with a clear title, he then has to figure out a way to pay the debtor, you. If the property is worthy more than the lien, chances are you will be paid at closing from the proceeds so that the title is clear. 

What if the property is not worthy of the lien, or there are a few debtors claiming lien before you on the house, you are facing the chance you don’t get a penny after a long wait. 

In sum, it's a good idea to check when you record your lien whether other liens already exist on the property. If there are other liens, still place yours, but seriously consider pursuing other strategies. As a matter of fact, a serious debtor should always consider other strategies. 

We will discuss other strategies in following blogs. 

Self-Employed's Tax Issues

Self-Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare Taxes)

Many times in filing, we are required to provide tax return package. Some of our clients insist they don’t have tax return package because they are self-employed. 

我们常常需要让客人提供报税记录。 有的客人坚持说他们没有， 因为他们是自雇人群。 

We so wish this is true, don’t we? Self-employment tax refers to Social Security and Medicare taxes, equivalent to those who work for others. Social Security and Medicare taxes of most wage earners are figured by their employers, whereas self-employed figure it out by filing schedule SE.  Wage earners’ half of SE taxes are paid by employers, whereas self-employed pay the whole portion. 

我们多么希望如此， 是吗？ 自雇税是社保和医保的等同税目。 社保和医保税一般是由雇主计算的， 而自雇人要自己通过Schedule E 来算。 一般雇主承付一半的社保和医保税， 自雇承付所有的税。 

Self-Employment Tax Rate

The 2010 Tax Relief Act reduced the self-employment tax by 2% for self-employment income earned in calendar year 2011. The self-employment tax rate for self-employment income earned in calendar year 2011 is 13.3% (10.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare).  The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 extended the self-employment tax reduction of 2% for calendar year 2012 so the rates for 2011 remain in effect for 2012. For self-employment income earned in 2010, the self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security (old-age, survivors, and disability insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (hospital insurance).

自雇税的税收是多少呢？ 2010年减税法将自雇税的税额降了2％。 自雇税的税额是13.3%. (10.4%的社保和2.9%的医保。） 2011临时减税法又将此税率延到20120年。