What Should I Do?

As the end of the calendar year approaches, we’ve asked our accountant to share his perspective on year-end tax steps that CM.com readers should consider. He’ has graciously accepted; though wants us to make it crystal clear this article is for educational purposes only. It is not actual tax advice -- which of course must be based on your own specific circumstances. Any action you may decide to take on these topics should be done, if possible, in careful consideration and collaboration with an accounting professional you trust.

In this post, I’ll provide a few checklists of year-end activities to help you:

• be aware of the range of deductions/tax breaks you’re legally entitled to
• avoid some common risks most taxpayers don’t realize they’re exposed to
• learn some useful tips if you own your own business or own alternative investments

Back in the summer, we posted about our need to expand the CM.com team by hiring a top-notch content manager. As we hope you have noticed, the amount of content on this site has substantially increased over the past six months (new contributing editors, more interviews, more posts from Chris, more What Should I Do? articles, etc.) and we realized we needed to bring another person onto the team to keep Chris and me from collapsing under the weight of it all.

After carefully pouring through the 100+ resumes we received and racking up hefty phone bills interviewing our excellent finalist candidates, we finally made our choice.

I'm thrilled to introduce our new content manager: Jason Wiskerchen. Please give him a warm CM.com welcome.

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[Note: today's WSID topic has been a long time in coming. Firearms can be a sensitive subject, but worth considering for many when planning for food procurement or home/personal defense in a changing future. We sought an author who could provide an introduction to the subject in as conscientious, fact-oriented, and knowledgeable a manner as possible, and are grateful to community member Aaron Moyer for doing so. Aaron is a longtime active poster on this site, the founder of our Definitive Firearms thread, and an active-duty serviceman in the US armed forces. --Adam] 

This is one of the more difficult pieces of writing I’ve done to date. There are various reasons why this topic is difficult to start; everyone has a different idea of what they need, their level of commitment, legal concerns, political pre-dispositions and so forth. It’s easy to talk about firearms as a ‘topic’ – you can comment on their particulars, weigh the advantages and disadvantages and wax philosophical about what would be the best choice for a given situation -- but that’s not what this edition is about.

This piece is to help navigate the process that starts once you’ve decided you’d like to purchase a firearm, and leads to the ongoing process of establishing proficiency, maintaining safety and building skill. » Read more

While owner of AlpineAire Foods in the early 1990’s, I conducted significant research and study into the excellent and very effective technology of oxygen absorbers. Developed in Japan, oxygen absorbers insure a very low residual oxygen level in appropriate storage containers. Through this research and the development at AlpineAire foods, I brought the large scale use of oxygen absorbers into the emergency food and outdoor recreational foods industries.

At that time the goal to achieve for the canning of shelf-stable dried foods was a residual oxygen level of 2% or below.  This was the level required by military specifications for long term foods.  Oxidation and an atmosphere inhibiting microbial growth were significantly reduced at these low levels.  The military specified the #10 can for their long term storage of dried products.  By utilizing the appropriate size oxygen absorber, the residual oxygen levels could be reduced to 0.1% or less – a significant drop in oxygen levels.

The premier manufacturer of oxygen absorbers, and the one I use, is Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc. which produces the “Ageless” brand oxygen absorber.  While there are numerous types of absorbers for varied packaging conditions, the appropriate “Ageless” absorber for use with dried foods is type Z.

It is important to note that oxygen absorber sachets were designed to be used by industrial manufacturers and packers of food products with the necessary expertise in working with the absorbers.  While simple to use, if not handled properly or sized correctly you have wasted your time and money and have not achieved the expected outcome.  I have seen and heard of numerous situations where individuals have inappropriately utilized oxygen absorbers and they will unfortunately not accomplish the results anticipated.  If you are going to use these devices, I recommend following the instructions in this article and talk to those who are educated in their proper use.

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