Money - The Salt Lake Tribune

Bill to notify online buyers about sales tax fails 7-6

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:52:50 MDT

Bill to notify online buyers about sales tax fails 7-6

By cathy mckitrick The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 13, 2012 06:52PM MDT

A House bill that would require Internet retailers to post sales tax notices on their online transaction pages was voted down Monday by lawmakers in a 7-6 committee vote. Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, has been working on the complicated issue of taxing Internet sales for more than a decade. HB385 had no enforcement mechanism but would have urged Utah purchasers to remit the required sales tax when they file their annual tax returns. “It’s an effort to level the playing field for brick-and-m...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Event counting on LDS Church message about scams

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:50:01 MDT

Event counting on LDS Church message about scams

By TOM HARVEY The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 13, 2012 06:50PM MDT

Organizers of an event on Wednesday aimed at educating Utahns about avoiding financial scams hope that an LDS Church representative will deliver a strong message to help stem the tide of scams that have rolled over Utah in recent years. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is sending Michael Otterson, its managing director of public affairs, to the Fraud College at the University of Utah, where he is scheduled to speak at 11 a.m. The event is free but registration is suggested at www...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

End nears for Saab in Utah, elsewhere in U.S.

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:05:34 MDT

End nears for Saab in Utah, elsewhere in U.S.

Bloomberg News

Published Feb 13, 2012 06:05PM MDT

The bankruptcy of Saab Automobile has left the carmaker’s 900 dealers around the world scrambling to reinvent themselves, sometimes in creative ways. In Utah, the state’s only remaining dealership is one operated by the Ken Garff Automotive Group in downtown Salt Lake City. It has only five Saab models left, with their prices discounted as much as 40 percent. “We’ve basically been left high and dry,” said John Garff, the CEO of the automotive group founded by his grandfather. “We have no choice...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Delta’s Utah employees to share $10 million in profit-sharing

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:02:37 MDT

Delta’s Utah employees to share $10 million in profit-sharing

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 13, 2012 06:02PM MDT

Eligible employees of Delta Air Lines in Salt Lake City will receive $10.1 million on Tuesday as part of the carrier’s payout of $264 million in profit-sharing for meeting 2011 goals. The payment on Valentine’s Day is equal to almost 5 percent of all eligible worker’s annual pay, CEO Richard Anderson said in a letter to 80,000 employees. Delta has more than 3,000 employees stationed at its Salt Lake City International Airport hub, including 600 pilots. It isn’t clear how many local workers will ...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Apple asks outside group to inspect factories

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:02:37 MDT

Apple asks outside group to inspect factories

combined news services

Published Feb 13, 2012 06:02PM MDT

Apple said Monday that it had asked an outside organization to conduct special audits of working conditions inside Chinese factories where iPhones, iPads and other Apple products are manufactured. And in a significant about-face for the company that has the potential to affect the electronics industry, Apple asked the independent Fair Labor Association to identify particular facilities where abuses are discovered. Amid growing criticism over labor and environmental practices — especially in Chin...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Wells Fargo will leave The Gateway in May

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:02:37 MDT

Wells Fargo will leave The Gateway in May

By paul beebe The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 13, 2012 06:02PM MDT

Wells Fargo Bank is joining the exodus of businesses from The Gateway shopping center as the opening of the massive City Creek shopping, office and residential project gets closer. The bank will close its full-service branch office on the east side of the upper level of The Gateway on May 9, after its lease expires. Customer accounts will be transferred to the Wells Fargo branch office at 79 S. Main St., spokesman Mark Chapman said Monday. The office is on the same block as much of retail compon...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Apple stock breaks $500 level, continuing rally

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:39:02 MDT

Apple stock breaks $500 level, continuing rally

By PETER SVENSSON The Associated Press

Published Feb 13, 2012 04:39PM MDT

New York • Apple’s stock broke above $500 for the first time Monday. It was the latest step in a rally that began more than two weeks ago, when the company reported staggering sales and profits for the holiday quarter. The shares hit $503.83 soon after opening, before subsiding to $502.60 in after-hours trading. That was up $9.18, or 1.9 percent, from Friday’s close. Analysts say the company’s policy of keeping its cash rather than paying a dividend has been hurting the stock. Value-oriented fun...

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Some AT&T customers surprised by ‘unlimited data’ limit

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:12:03 MDT

Some AT&T customers surprised by ‘unlimited data’ limit

By PETER SVENSSON The Associated Press

Published Feb 13, 2012 04:12PM MDT

Mike Trang likes to use his iPhone 4 as a GPS device, helping him get around in his job. Now and then, his younger cousins get ahold of it, and play some YouTube videos and games. But in the past few weeks, there has been none of that, because AT&T Inc. put a virtual wheel clamp on his phone. Web pages wouldn’t load and maps wouldn’t render. Forget about YouTube videos — Trang’s data speeds were reduced to dial-up levels. “It basically makes my phone useless,” said Trang, an Orange County, Cali...

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Empire State Realty Trust plans $1 billion IPO

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:06:03 MDT

Empire State Realty Trust plans $1 billion IPO

The ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published Feb 13, 2012 04:06PM MDT

New York • The company that runs Manhattan’s Empire State Building is planning an initial public offering that could raise as much as $1 billion. Empire State Realty Trust Inc. owns and operates 12 properties in Manhattan and the greater New York metropolitan area. The company didn’t say in its regulatory filing Monday how many shares might be involved in the IPO or what price they might fetch. The $1 billion amount isn’t final, either. It’s subject to investor demand. Empire State Realty sai...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Utah’s Kimball Art Center sets makeover

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:17:40 MDT

Utah’s Kimball Art Center sets makeover

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 13, 2012 01:17PM MDT

The Kimball Art Center in Park City said that BIG-Bjarke Ingles Group of New York and Copenhagen has been named the winning firm in the center’s architectural design competition for a planned renovation and expansion. The $10 million project will entail an interior renovation of the existing art center and the construction of an adjacent building to house a new center. The winning design by BIG-Bjarke proposed a new Kimball Art Center made of stacked timber elements reclaimed from train track pi...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

U.S. market shakes off Greek worries and advances

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:51:43 MDT

U.S. market shakes off Greek worries and advances

By Joshua freed The Associated Press

Published Feb 13, 2012 10:51AM MDT

Investors shook off their worries about Greece on Monday and got back to their routine of little-by-little gains. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 73 points — nothing flashy, but enough to regain most of what it lost with an 89-point drop on Friday. Before that, stocks enjoyed a slow, steady climb this year. Financial stocks led the Dow higher. Its biggest gainers were Bank of America, up 2.2 percent, and JPMorgan Chase, up 1.8 percent. Financial stocks have been the best performers in t...

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Obama’s new budget proposal: Higher taxes for the wealthy

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:31:45 MDT

Obama’s new budget proposal: Higher taxes for the wealthy

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER The Associated Press

Published Feb 13, 2012 10:31AM MDT

WASHINGTON • President Barack Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion spending plan on Monday for 2013 that seeks to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade but does little to restrain growth in the government’s huge health benefit programs, a major cause of future deficits. Obama’s new budget was immediately attacked by Republicans as a retread of previously rejected ideas. The budget battle is likely to be a major component of the fall election campaign. The president would achiev...

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Utah’s Myrexis reports 2Q loss of $7.5 million

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:27:17 MDT

Utah’s Myrexis reports 2Q loss of $7.5 million

By Steven Oberbeck The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 13, 2012 09:27AM MDT

Myrexis Inc., a biotechnology and pharmaceutical development company that was spun off from Utah’s Myriad Genetics in 2009, has reported its second-quarter financial results. The company, which is headquartered in Salt Lake City, reported a loss of $7.5 million for its fiscal 2012 second period that ended on Dec. 31, 2011. The loss per share was 29 cents. A year earlier, Myrexis reported a second-quarter loss of $7.9 million, or 31 cents per share. President and CEO Robert Lollini pointed out th...

Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Obstacles remain for Greek bailout deal

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:24:02 MDT

Obstacles remain for Greek bailout deal

By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER The Associated Press

Published Feb 13, 2012 08:24AM MDT

Brussels • Greece faces further hurdles and delays before it is to receive its second $171 billion bailout in spite of its lawmakers voting through further austerity measures in the face of violent protests. The European Union on Monday called the Greek parliament’s approval of a further round of budget cuts a “crucial step forward” but added that it would still take some time before the second bailout is delivered. Germany’s finance ministry said the country won’t give its final approval for th...

Utah’s Trolley Square surviving in face of challenges

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:06:58 MDT

Utah’s Trolley Square surviving in face of challenges

By LESLEY MITCHELL The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 13, 2012 08:06AM MDT

Trolley Square has survived it all: a shooting rampage that left five dead, the Great Recession and even a legal battle to keep one of its most important tenants, natural-foods behemoth Whole Foods. The Salt Lake City shopping mall also has endured years of construction — and reconstruction — in an effort to better its performance in the Wasatch Front’s increasingly competitive retail environment. Today, most of the work on Trolley Square is completed, Utah’s economy looks as though it’s on the ...

Questar board declares 269th consecutive dividend

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:45:03 MDT

Questar board declares 269th consecutive dividend

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 13, 2012 07:45AM MDT

The board of directors of Questar Corp., the Salt Lake City-based parent company of Questar Gas, has approved a 16.25 cent quarterly stock dividend. The dividend will be paid on March 12 to shareholders whose names are on the company’s stock-ownership records on Feb. 24. Questar said the dividend, which is the company’s 269th consecutive payment to shareholders, is the same as the previous quarter.

Business events scheduled for the coming week

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:33:55 MDT

Business events scheduled for the coming week

The Associated Press

Published Feb 13, 2012 07:33AM MDT

MONDAY, Feb. 13 WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama releases his budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. French cosmetics company L’Oreal reports quarterly financial results. BRUSSELS — The European Union’s competition regulator will decide whether to approve Google’s takeover of cellphone maker Motorola or take more time to scrutinize the deal. BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble hold news conference after meeting with panel on financial secto...

How to fix your finances? Read on

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:53:39 MDT

How to fix your finances? Read on

By LESLEY MITCHELL The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Feb 11, 2012 03:53PM MDT

Whether your finances need fine-tuning or a total overhaul, there’s a book for you. Works covering personal finance have proliferated during the economic downturn, with dozens of titles making their way to my desk each year. Here are a handful I’ve found to be the best at helping you learn more about financial and retirement planning, budgeting, living a frugal lifestyle and saving at the grocery store: — The “B” word • Newly released, The Money Saving Mom’s Budget is a good first book to rea...

For college bound, a look at financial aid changes

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:53:39 MDT

For college bound, a look at financial aid changes

By CANDICE CHOI The Associated Press

Published Feb 11, 2012 03:53PM MDT

The mad dash to cobble together college funding will soon be under way. In the weeks ahead, colleges will begin mailing out their much-anticipated acceptance letters and financial aid packages. The notices will alleviate pent up anxiety and finally give high school seniors a clearer idea of what their futures will hold. But amid all the emotions, students and families will also need to start sorting out how they’ll pay for tuition. The average bill now comes in at more than $17,000 to attend an ...

Corporate profits aren’t what they seem, thanks to Apple, AIG

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:53:39 MDT

Corporate profits aren’t what they seem, thanks to Apple, AIG

By BERNARD CONDON The Associated Press

Published Feb 11, 2012 03:53PM MDT

Is the great profit engine of corporate America running out of steam? While other parts of the economy struggled the past two years, large companies managed to rack up higher profits quarter after quarter. Now reality is catching up with big business. As companies close their books on the final three months of last year, the big ones that make up the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index appear likely to earn about $230 billion — $12.6 billion more than a year earlier. But the increase, 5.8 percent,...