Replies to post #111600 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Oh and just GUESS WHAT? Right NOW!

Infosys Quarterly Profit up 18 Percent to $374M

MUMBAI, India October 15, 2010 (AP)

Infosys quarterly profit rises better than expected 18 pct, to $374 million, on strong demand

PLEASE remember Infosys is just ONE of the companies contributing to the Chamber of Commerce..how MANY more of OUR jobs do they WANT ?

Infosys Technologies Ltd., India's bellwether information technology outsourcing company, beat expectations Friday with an 18 percent rise in quarterly profit in dollar terms on strong global demand for low cost outsourcing services.

Net profit was 17.4 billion rupees ($374 million) for the July-September quarter, up 14.7 percent in dollar terms from the prior quarter. Revenues were 69.5 billion rupees ($1.5 billion), up 29.6 percent in dollar terms from the same period last year and up 10.2 percent from the prior quarter.

Both measures beat analyst expectations in dollar terms. Analysts had expected net profit of $346.5 million and revenue of $1.4 billion, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.

Revenue growth was broad-based, with gains in financial services, manufacturing and retail.

The company said revenues this fiscal year ending March would grow 24.0 percent to 25.0 percent in dollar terms, to between $5.95 billion and $6 billion. It offered more muted guidance in rupee terms of 18.5 percent to 19.4 percent growth, due to a strengthening rupee against the dollar.

The company added a net 7,646 employees during the quarter, bringing its headcount to 122,468 as Indian outsourcing companies scramble to hire and retain staff amid a revival in demand.

Staff costs for the quarter were 36.8 billion rupees ($835.3 million), up 23.4 percent from 29.8 billion rupees during the same period last year.

IIFL Capital analyst Rajiv Mehta said better than expected volume growth bodes well for India's outsourcing industry, but the "disappointing" rupee guidance may weigh on the Infosys share price.

"Overall, the revenue scenario is getting stronger day by day," he said. But, he added, "If you try to value the stock in light of the sharp run-up we've seen in the last month, it seems like the stock will correct."

Rising protectionism in the United States is less of a threat to Infosys and its peers than domestic wage pressure, Mehta said.

"Protectionist rhetoric is not a big concern," he said.

Infosys last raised salaries — by 14 to 15 percent offshore and 3 to 4 percent on site — in April. He said they may have to hike wages again soon to fight rising attrition, which would hit margins.

"If supply side pressures continue and volume growth keeps ticking up, a second round of wage hikes is possible," he said.

Infosys shares hit a record high of 3228.0 rupees on Thursday, before closing up 1.1 percent at 3,184.25 rupees in advance of the results.

As markets opened Friday, Infosys shares dropped 0.9 percent to 3,156.2 rupees.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=11886966

[StephanieVanbryce]

Wouldn't this be DELICIOUS !!!! mmmmmmmm..;)

Hey, Secret Big Political Donor, Don’t Forget The 35% Gift Tax



In the run-up to next month’s elections, a big and controversial development has been the ability of tycoons to make unlimited political donations without any public disclosure whatsoever. This is done by giving the money to certain 501(c)(4) organizations–so-named for the tax-code provision establishing their status. Right now the best-known 501(c)(4) is Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, or Grassroots GPS, closely associated with conservative political operative Karl Rove

The Grassroots GPS Web site makes clear that such contributions are not deductible by the donor from personal federal income taxes. But that may not be the whole story from a tax perspective. A Los Angeles tax lawyer is telling clients such gifts could be subject to the federal gift tax, which is a hefty 35% this year but is scheduled to rise to a weightier 55% on January 1.

In a memo, Ofer Lion, a lawyer with Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp who specializes in nonprofit organizations, writes that unlike contributions to certain other political organizations, there is no gift-tax exemption written into federal law for contributions to 501(c)(4)’s, which the IRS officially classifies as social-welfare organizations but also are often used for lobbying. And that, he says, raises the possibility that down the road the Internal Revenue Service might come calling for the tax, plus interest, plus penalties. “The IRS may well find irresistible the potential revenue to be raised from assessing gift taxes on 501(c)(4) contributors,” writes Lion.

A spokesman for Crossroads GPS, which is based in Washington, D.C., said Thursday he had never heard anything about a possible gift tax liability on 501(c)(4) contributions until Forbes called, and did not know if his organization had a written legal opinion specifying why there would be no liability for its donors.

Enforcement of the gift tax would be up to the IRS. “That’s an interesting issue,” an agency spokesman said Thursday. He said he would need more time to look into the matter.

The federal gift tax theoretically applies to any gratuitous transfer of property by an individual. There are numerous exemptions–such as gifts to a traditional 501(c)(3) charity–as well as minimum thresholds. A married couple can give $26,000 a year to as many recipients as desired without incurring the tax. Above that, a taxpayer also has a lifetime gift-tax exemption of $1 million, which works in conjunction with the federal estate tax.

But if news reports are correct, well-heeled individuals are making multi-million donations to 501(c)(4)s, which would blow through any yearly or lifetime exemptions. It’s also not hard to imagine that the level of giving by tax-averse moguls might go way down if the threat of a gift-tax liability is not negated.

In an interview with Forbes, Lion said donors later hit with a gift tax assessment might have no effective way to challenge it other than through a lawsuit, which would strip them of their confidentiality while necessitating big legal fees. To forestall accuracy-related penalties, Lion recommends that donors to 501(c)(4)’s get a legal opinion now–if they can–that no gift tax is owed on the contributions.

Lion writes that there is no indication now the IRS intends to collect the gift tax on 501(c)(4) contributions, and that there might be First Amendment issue if it tried. But he notes the agency wouldn’t have a difficult research task. While there is no public disclosure of donors to a 501(c)(4)–a presumed part of the appeal for many–federal law requires 501(c)(4)’s to reveal to the IRS the names of all donors of $5,000 and up. The easy-to-use lists would be a “treasure trove” for the IRS, Lion declares.

With less than three weeks to go until Election Day, most of the complaints about 501(c)(4)’s have come from Democrats who feel they are being wildly outspent. U.S. Sen Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) just wrote the IRS demanding an investigation of Crossroads GPS’s tax status. Lion, a UCLA Law School graduate, said he was a Barack Obama contributor in 2008 but that his interest in this issue was just that of a lawyer watching out for clients.

http://blogs.forbes.com/williampbarrett/2010/10/14/hey-secret-big-political-donor-dont-forget-the-35-gift-tax/

[StephanieVanbryce]

American Values.