Personal Taxes

No. Land is not depreciable.

Depreciation may not be claimed on personal use property such as a residence. Depreciation expenses can be claimed on a Rental property or a business vehicle.

You may be treated as actively participating if for example you participate in making management decisions or arrange for others to provide services. Examples of management decisions are, approving new tenants, deciding on rental terms, approving capital or repair expenditures and other similar decisions.

Generally not. Rental income from real estate is not considered self-employment income subject to self-employment tax. The exception to this is if you are considered a real estate dealer or income from a rental business where substantial services are rendered to the occupant.

If you only gave one lecture and only plan to give occasional lectures then that income is not subject to self-employment tax. If you actively seek lecture engagements and give them with reasonable regularity then your lecture fees are treated as income subject to self-employment taxes.

Generally, most babysitters are not employees of the parents they are providing babysitting services for, unless they are employees of a daycare or childcare center.
Self-employed babysitters file tax returns using the 1040 Schedule C and SE to report their earnings.
Depending upon the babysitter's tax liabilities, the babysitter may be required to remit quarterly estimated taxes.

A patent for an invention is a grant of a property right by the government to the inventor. The right conferred by the patent grant is the right to exclude others from making, using or selling the invention. A patent is given only to the first inventor. If one innocently invents something already patented, no second patent will be granted. Patents are granted for a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, or ornamental design for an article of manufacture. For more information on patents speak to your local CPA or call the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at (800)786-9199 or go to their website at http://www.uspto.gov.

A copyright protects creative works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible form. A copyright gives its owner the right to control how that work is used, including the right to reproduce the work and make derivative forms of it. A work is protected the moment it is produced in tangible form. Only works that are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office are entitled to full protection. Registering your copyright to a work is a straightforward process. You have to fill out a form, attach a copy of the work and pay the registration fee (as of 10/2000 = $30. You can go to the U.S. governments Copyright Office's web site to get the appropriate form.

A Trademark is like a copyright. The trademarks protect an owner's work from unscrupulous business practices. Unlike copyrights, trademarks protect a product's identity from being copied. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of them which identifies the source and quality of a business product. The most effective way to secure nationwide ownership to a trademark is to register it with the Patent and Trademark Office. You can also register your trademark with the state or states in which you use your trademark. The benefits of state registration vary from state to state, but at a minimum, state registration puts others on notice that you are claiming rights to a mark in a certain area.