Downtown Long Beach Historic Homes Offered For Sale and Renovation

Downtown Long Beach Historic Homes Offered For Sale and Renovation

The Long Beach Redevelopement Agency is offering 4 Downtown Long Beach Historic Homes for sale and renovation.

The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency (RDA) has made four historic homes available to the public for purchase and restoration. As part of its Willmore Historic Homes project that relocated three of the four early-20th-century homes, the RDA is seeking proposals for the ownership and restoration of the following:

• 539 Daisy Avenue: Built in 1908, this one-story, single-family home has two bedrooms, one bath, and 996 square feet. This home was relocated by the RDA to its current location in 2007, and sits on a 6,000-square-foot lot.
  

• 543 Daisy Avenue: Built in 1903, this one-story, single-family home has two bedrooms, one bath, and 887 square feet on a 5,250 square-foot-lot.

• 226 West 10th Street: Built circa 1905, this two-story, single-family home has six bedrooms, one bath, and 1,975 square feet. This home was relocated by the RDA to its current location in 2007, and sits on a 5,000-square-foot lot.

• 734 Maine Avenue: Built circa 1912, this two-story, single-family home has three bedrooms, 1½ baths, and 1,696 square feet. This home was relocated by the RDA to its current location in 2007, and sits on a 6,000-square-foot lot.

Curbed LA also presents pictures of the homes here. Don’t let the current condition of these homes turn you off. These homes are incredible once they are restored to their original magnificent stature. These homes, restored properly may qualify for substantial tax incentives through the Mills Act.

Oh, how I love the historic homes of Long Beach! Over the years I have sold many of these homes, some of them several times and I can tell you that each and every one of them is drop dead gorgeous in it’s own right. The attention to detail in many of them is just so beautiful; I have seen buyers just want to meld into these homes. The history contained in these homes is almost palpable. Restoration is very expensive, it is a shame to renovate one of these beauties. I hope they are sold to buyers for the love of the homes.

To those of you thinking about restoring a historic home (perhaps one of these), the California Heights Historic Assn., (the largest of the 17 historic districts in Long Beach) has a page of restoration resources that is just outstanding.

http://www.longbeachrealestatehome.com/downtown-long-beach-historic-homes-offered-for-sale-and-renovation-1

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To ease pressure created by mounting subsidy bills, various revenue intelligence agencies have gone on the overdrive to mop up revenue
and bring more corporate entities and services under the tax regime with the added emphasis on cases of duty evasion.

As part of the ongoing anti-evasion drive, the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) and various commissionerates of central excise and service tax authorities have in the last few months booked cases with major revenue implications.

DGCEI raided the premises of a leading Kanpur-based businessman, owner of a leading gutka brand, suspected of evading taxes that are likely to touch Rs 50 crore, sources said. Just before the search was launched against the gutka company, DGCEI had initiated investigation against a leading airliner for an alleged tax evasion of more than Rs 140 crore.

In the airline case, the company had allegedly not paid service tax of over Rs 1,700 crore payment of which it had received on account of branding of the payee firm through display of logos on both sides of the aircraft, tickets, boarding passes and baggage tags.

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Seriously, the Canadian Revenue Agency website is really good at publishing pretty much anything you need to know about Canadian taxes. Not only do they have the actual laws, but there is a virtual cornucopia of questions and answers covering most scenarios, all in relatively plain, if not quite Queen’s, English. And pretty much all forms are available in fillable and printable formats. You shouldn’t need to fill any of them out but they’re a good reference for when you call CRA so you can expect which questions they’ll ask.

The main phone number for CRA is 1.800.959.5525. As a call centre, they are better than Expedia but worse than Go Daddy (who, admittedly, gets a few bonus points for having the best on-hold music ever). For the most part, you aren’t on hold *too* long and the agents are friendly and seem knowledgeable enough even if they give conflicting advice.

Specific sections:

• International and non-resident taxes
• Non-residents
• GST
• CPP
• EI

Note that it’s still hard to get concrete answers to some questions, even if you call them up but this is still the best resource I’ve found short of paying someone a lot of money for advice. And speaking of paid advice, if you are serious about this scenario, you should seek it out. After you’ve gleaned all you can from the CRA website. I used KPMG in Calgary and am reasonably happy with the advice I got, if not the price I was charged (** UPDATE ** or the follow-up service I got). I also talked with someone at Continental Tax and I wish I remembered his name because he was amazing. Gave me a ton of free advice over the phone and I will not hesitate to engage their services in the future.

http://codebetter.com/blogs/kyle.baley/archive/2008/06/17/rehash-canadian-taxes-for-non-residents.aspx

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GST is handled completely separately than income tax, despite the fact that you call the same number to ask questions. There are different rules regarding residency status for GST. Meaning you may be a non-resident for income tax purposes but a resident for GST purposes. And residents need to collect and remit GST.

The rules here are a little easier to follow. If you expect to make more than CDN$30,000 in a given year while in Canada, then you need to charge GST. For most consultants, that’s ‘twixt two and four months worth of work so chances are, you’ll need to file.

To collect GST, you need a Business Number which is easy enough to get. Call up CRA at 1.800.959.5525 and they should be able to give it to you over the phone. Here is the gist of what to tell them:

• I am not a Canadian resident but I *am* a Canadian citizen. I will be working in Canada for a period of X months and expect to make over $30,000 during that time. I’d like to apply for a Business Number for GST for the period that I am in Canada.
• I will file GST annually
• I do not need a payroll account
• I am a sole proprietor

They may try to tell you that you need to call the International Tax Office but that’s wrong. The International Tax Office doesn’t deal with GST at all.

Grey areas:

Should I keep my Business Number active after I leave the country?
Probably not. In my experience, it’s pretty easy to deactivate and reactivate it so it’s worth the phone call to deactivate it when you leave. And that’s all you need to do. There’s no paperwork involved. And you do *not* charge GST for any work you perform outside Canada.

Should I incorporate?
My opinion is no, you shouldn’t. The major advantage of incorporation is to lower your taxes which isn’t really an issue for non-residents. More importantly, with you as the major shareholder, it constitutes a major residential tie to Canada, something you should avoid.

** UPDATE ** Setting up a corporation in Canada means the corporation will pay tax in Canada. In my experience, *EVERY* contracting agency will try to pressure you to incorporate. Fair enough, they don’t want to rock the boat any more than you do and dealing with a foreign entity is a warning flag. But stick to your guns. I had to go through three agencies in my last contract before I found one that would accept me. And even then, I had to sub-subcontract.

http://codebetter.com/blogs/kyle.baley/archive/2008/06/17/rehash-canadian-taxes-for-non-residents.aspx

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