ValueAppeal is an online tool for challenging and lowering property tax investments. It is also one our private equity investments. Today, the company announced additional funding.
I hope you try out the service. It's a great business model for the consumer. You fill out a form with the address of your property, your tax assessment is a public record and they can tell you if it's too high based on comparisons. If your assessment is too high they offer to create and fill out all the necessary forms for you. The charge is $99. If the assessment appeal fails they refund your $99.
I tried my house and it was not over-assessed. There wasn't much for me to do except rest easy. Are your property taxes too high?
Companies Hoarding Cash
Where will all the cash hoards on U.S. corporate balance sheets turn up? Too often companies with large cash holdings blow it on wasteful acquisitions rather than return it to shareholders. However, there is so much cash on U.S. corporate balance sheets that it will end up in investors pockets somehow. Companies will either give it directly to thier own shareholders via dividends and buybacks or they will spread it around the market as a whole (donating it to other shareholders) through acquisitions.
It's appropriate that nasdaq.com found my comments on the matter at Kapitall. After all, the companies with the famously largest cash positions (Microsoft, Apple, Cisco) are also the largest companies listed on the NASDAQ Exchange.
Disclosure: I own Apple and Microsoft. I am short in-the-money puts on Cisco.