Tax refunds being used to pay for bankruptcy filings

More than 200,000 money-strapped households will use their tax refunds this year to pay for bankruptcy filing and legal fees, says a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The NBER research confirms what bankruptcy lawyers have long known: At the first part of the year, when Americans receive their tax refunds, there almost always is a spike in personal bankruptcy filings.

But that has been especially true since the cost of bankruptcy soared after U.S. bankruptcy laws changed in 2005. And many more families have been forced to delay filing until they can afford to pay the fees, the NBER study says.

"If people are expecting a big refund, they go as fast as they can to a tax preparer," says Henry Sommer, a bankruptcy lawyer in Philadelphia. "They need the money so they can afford to file for bankruptcy."

The average cost of legal and administrative fees jumped from $921 in 2005, before the reform in the law, to $1,477 just two years later, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says.

The largest slice of the overall cost is attorney fees, because lawyers now must verify much more information in a case than they did before 2005, says Robert Lawless, law professor at the University of Illinois. "Like any other professional services, the longer something takes, the more it costs," he says.

Allow customers to pay loan EMIs online: RBI to banks

Mumbai: Following complaints from customers, the Reserve Bank has made it clear to banks that there are no restrictions in allowing use of electronic modes for various transactions including repayment of loans.

"It is, therefore, advised that all banks should allow the customers to choose National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) as one of the electronic modes of making payment towards loan EMIs or repayments etc." the RBI said in a notification today.

Launched in 2005, the NEFT or an electronic transfer of funds has been occupying an important place in the payment system space of the banks.

"The system is meant for one-to-one funds transfer and can be used for transferring funds to beneficiaries (individual, institutions etc) and no restrictions have been placed thereon," the notification said.

The central bank, it said, has received some complaints from customers regarding non-acceptance of NEFT for credit to loan accounts causing inconvenience to them.

Brazil says BRICS to back single WB pick

Brasilia: The BRICS emerging economic giants will join together to back a single candidate to lead the World Bank, Brazil's finance minister said on Friday -- though he did not say whom they would endorse.

With the Bank's directors slated to meet Monday to decide between a US favorite and two developing country challengers, Guido Mantega said Brazil, Russia, India and China will make their choice together -- though not mentioning South Africa, the group's fifth member.

"We will take a position together with the BRICS, making a common choice," Mantega said.

He said the four do not have a common position yet, but would reach one today.

The Bank's directors want to reach a consensus decision for a new president by the end of next week when the Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold their annual Spring Meetings.

The race is between the US nominee, Korean-American physician Jim Yong Kim; and economists Jose Antonio...

Money laundering case resgistered against Tatra chief Ravinder Rishi

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New Delhi: A money laundering case has been registered against Vectra chief Ravinder Rishi and his firms by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe alleged generation of illegal funds in the defence deal between Tatra Sipox UK and defence PSU BEML.

The agency has registered the case after gathering initial details of the probe from the CBI and other official channels and it is set to question few people including Rishi in this regard.

The ED, according to sources, is probing if these defence deals and those involved in the execution of the agreements had 'off the book' or overpriced transactions leading to generation of illegal funds which could have been subsequently laundered in other investment avenues.

The CBI has earlier questioned Rishi many times in connection with the alleged irregularities in the Tatra truck supply to the Army.

Jewellers' strike: Centre may roll back excise duty hike on jewellery, say sources

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New Delhi: Centre is likely to roll back excise duty hike on gold and non-branded jewellery, according to sources. This came after Congress President Sonia Gandhi stepped in as jewellers' protests against excise and import duty hikes spread.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi met jewellers on Friday and has assured them of a relook into their demands regarding a rollback.

The jewellers strike has entered the 21st day on Friday. Hoping to find a solution, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will also meet members of the jeweller community on Friday.

Pranab met a few jewellers on Thursday as well, along with RJD chief Lalu Prasad.

Jewellers across the country have been demanding a complete rollback of excise duty on non-branded jewellery and a hike in import duty on gold. Many of the jewellers have shut shops in protest.

In the Budget 2012, Pranab had hiked the import duty on gold bars, coins and platinum from two to four per cent and levied one per cent excise duty on unbranded jewellery.

This led to the jewellery trade being shut down since March 17, terming the new levies "unviable".

April could be good time to buy Rupee: Credit Agricole

Global markets have been witnessing weakness primarily on account of fears of debt crisis returning to Europe with partially failed Spanish bond auctionand disappointing from the Federal Reserve in terms of quantitative easing (QE3), said Dariusz Kowalczyk of Credit Agricole CIB.

He told CNBC-TV18 that there is a big fear of Spain now becoming the next Greece. "Spain hasn't behaved very responsibly in terms of latest Budget and the results were seen in yesterday's auction, where yields were high. Markets are concerned that there could be now a systemic concerns related to Spain," he added.

Meanwhile, he feels one could buy the Indian rupee in April. "April could be a good time to buy at least the Indian currency because it is trading pretty weak. I don't think RBI will allow lot more weakness," he added.

Banking sector results preview for Q4FY12: PLilladher

Prabhudas Lilladher has come with its March quarterly earning estimates for banking & financial services sector. Asset quality will continue to remain the focus area for banks in Q412.

Asset quality will continue to remain the focus area for banks in Q412 and accretion in restructured book for PSU banks (excl. SBI) would be much higher than initial expectations. Growth trends would remain muted for most banks with margins expected to contract marginally due to spike in short-term rates. Though CDR restructuring is on a rise, involvement of beta private sector banks (Axis/ICICI/Yes) is expected to be limited and hence, we maintain our relative preference for beta private banks over PSUs getting into Q4FY12. Our top picks are Yes Bank, ICICI, Axis and LICHF. BOI and Kotak are top avoids.

Wave of restructuring in Q4FY12: Reported asset quality will not be strong as reported in Q3FY12 as recoveries/upgrades from technical slippages in H1FY12 would down in Q4FY12. Though market has been factoring in increase in restructured book for PSU banks, we expect ~Rs50-70bn of accretion to restructured book in Q4FY12 itself (for each large PSU bank) with Air India, number of SEBs and other large ticket CDRs cases to be recognized in this quarter. Among PSUs, SBI will see least restructuring with very limited Air India and SEB exposure. We see limited participation of private banks to be very limited in restructuring and hence, asset quality could continue to surprise positively.

YouTube As Cash Cow: Charlie Bit My Finger Family Has Earned $500,000 [Video]

Money

In 2007 father Howard Davies-Carr put up a YouTube video titled “Charlie Bit My Finger” which as the name suggests featured a baby boy named Charlie who bit his brothers finger.

Since going viral just over 4 years ago the video has been viewed 436 million times, earning the family heaps of money under Google’s revenue sharing program.

According to Mr. Davies-Carr he almost removed the video at one boy but then realized:

“At first I thought, well, this is a bit strange, maybe I should take it down.  And then I realized that, well, if I take it down then what would happen is that everybody that’s already created parodies or taken a copy of it and put it on their own website will just keep those running.”