#Tax extension for combat zone

[sagiow]

🎀, 💞, 💌? please and thank you!

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

uuuuuggggh... it's sometimes funny? and then it's not anymore? and then it is again? and then it's super sad? and you probably wanna punch me for it ?

I really don't know what people like most about it!

I overanalyze the crap out of everything in canon; I fact-check all historical details I sprinkle into my writing and find names with relevant meanings for my OCs, so you may end up learning a thing or two if you Google any place or person I casually namedrop. And that's your good influence (as well as that of all Mercy Street Alumni) at work here, dear friend <3.

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

I am laughing so hard because I don't really do 3 of those (although I do try to fit in a figurative figure or two in later edits because Real Authors would), I'm sure the technical stuff is patchy at best (I blame the French), so all that's left in the characters. But that is, truly, the most important part of a story for me in fanfic: that the characters be true to the blorbos we all fell in love with in the source material, and, by extension, that their dialogue and voice ring true. So I do go through many mental "WWXD?" loops and read dialogue out loud to check that it sounds all right. And, incidentally, my biggest fear is alienating readers when I push the characters out of their "known zone" and risk having our respective headcanons clash. But such are the risks & perils of writing!

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

The answer I should be giving out right now is "There are NO WIPs in my folder! The computer is down for the season! Spring has arrived and my life now consists of sun, cold beer and baseball!"

But, I kid you not, it's still snowing. And I have my Fridays off with no kids in the house. And I am procrastinating doing my taxes.

So, along with a cold beer, I do have a WIP. Because people such as you and @undisclosed-serendipity and @divinecomedienne leave really nice comments in which you ask nicely about Jungle Cruise Crossovers and Companion Epilogues and Romantic Reunions and @combat-librarian even started an emo band called Sleeper Car Smut.

So I am taking the scenic route myself and tackling the hardest of the bunch, which is "WTF is Eli doing after Cherished?" I am still not sure whether this will be In camera - Epilogue 2 or a canon-compliant standalone because I am still not quite sure WTF he is doing and how long he's gonna take to do it, but it's already 3K words and 95% dialogue. Stay tuned!

Thank you for the ask! List found here!

[heatpumpsolutionuk]

Air Source Heat Pump Cylinders for Large and Small Homes

Homeowners are increasingly turning to air source heat pump cylinders (ASHP cylinders) as a reliable, energy-efficient, and eco-friendly solution for their heating and hot water needs. These innovative systems are designed to cater to a wide range of household sizes, making them an ideal choice for both compact apartments and sprawling family homes.

In this article, we explore how air source heat pump cylinders can meet the unique demands of large and small homes, highlighting their versatility, efficiency, and environmental benefits.

What Are Air Source Heat Pump Cylinders?

Air source heat pump cylinders are advanced systems that extract heat from the air to provide heating and hot water for residential properties. They combine the functionality of a heat pump with a hot water cylinder, offering an all-in-one solution that delivers consistent performance across various climates.

The adaptability of these systems allows them to cater to the diverse requirements of both small and large homes, making them a preferred choice for households of all sizes.

Why Air Source Heat Pump Cylinders Are Ideal for All Home Sizes

1. Scalable Heating Solutions

One of the standout features of air source heat pump cylinders is their scalability. These systems come in different capacities, enabling homeowners to select a model that aligns with their specific needs.

For Small Homes:

Compact units designed to fit into tight spaces.

Lower capacity to efficiently meet the needs of fewer occupants.

Minimal noise operation, ideal for apartments or townhouses.

For Large Homes:

High-capacity systems capable of handling multiple bathrooms and extensive heating requirements.

Advanced features like zoning capabilities to heat different parts of the house independently.

Reliable performance for homes with greater hot water demand.

2. Energy Efficiency Across Property Sizes

Air source heat pump cylinders are designed to be highly energy-efficient, regardless of the size of the home they serve. With Coefficient of Performance (COP) values of 3–4, these systems generate more heat than the electricity they consume.

Benefits of High Efficiency:

Lower energy bills for small households with modest energy needs.

Significant cost savings for larger homes with higher heating and hot water consumption.

Reduced carbon footprint for environmentally conscious homeowners.

3. Space-Saving Designs for Small Homes

In compact living spaces, optimizing square footage is crucial. Many air source heat pump cylinders are designed with space-saving features to fit seamlessly into small homes.

Key Features for Small Spaces:

Slimline designs that fit into closets, utility rooms, or compact outdoor areas.

Quiet operation to minimize disturbance in smaller homes.

Easy installation with minimal disruption.

4. High Performance for Large Homes

For larger properties, meeting extensive heating and hot water demands is critical. Air source heat pump cylinders rise to the challenge with powerful performance and advanced capabilities.

Features for Large Homes:

Ability to heat multiple zones simultaneously, ensuring consistent warmth throughout the house.

Quick recovery times to provide ample hot water, even during peak usage.

Robust outdoor units designed to handle high-capacity workloads efficiently.

The Benefits of Air Source Heat Pump Cylinders for All Homes

1. Reduced Energy Costs

By leveraging renewable energy from the air, ASHP cylinders lower reliance on expensive fossil fuels. The result is a significant reduction in monthly energy bills for households of all sizes.

2. Environmental Sustainability

ASHP systems reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to a cleaner environment. Whether in a large family home or a small apartment, every installation helps combat climate change.

3. Government Incentives

Homeowners can take advantage of government programs promoting renewable energy, such as grants and tax credits, to offset the installation costs of air source heat pump cylinders.

Choosing the Right Air Source Heat Pump Cylinder for Your Home

When selecting an air source heat pump cylinder, it’s essential to consider the unique needs of your home. Here’s a guide to help you make the right choice:

1. Assess Your Home’s Heating Needs

Small Homes: Look for systems with lower capacities that match your heating and hot water requirements.

Large Homes: Opt for high-capacity models with advanced features like zoning and quick recovery times.

2. Evaluate Space Availability

Ensure you have adequate space for both the indoor and outdoor units, particularly for smaller homes where space is at a premium.

3. Consider Noise Levels

For small homes, prioritize models with quiet operation to maintain a peaceful living environment.

4. Consult with a Professional

Work with a certified installer to assess your home’s specific requirements and recommend the best system.

Maximizing the Benefits of Air Source Heat Pump Cylinders

To fully leverage the advantages of an ASHP cylinder, homeowners should focus on the following:

1. Improve Home Insulation

Proper insulation minimizes heat loss, ensuring your system operates at peak efficiency.

2. Use Smart Controls

Modern air source heat pumps offer smart features like remote temperature adjustment and energy usage monitoring, which help optimize performance.

3. Schedule Regular Maintenance

Routine servicing ensures your system runs efficiently and extends its lifespan.

The Future of Heating for Homes of All Sizes

Air source heat pump cylinders offer a practical and sustainable heating solution for both large and small homes. Their adaptability, energy efficiency, and eco-friendly design make them an excellent choice for modern households looking to reduce energy costs and environmental impact.

Whether you’re living in a compact apartment or a sprawling estate, investing in an air source heat pump cylinder is a step toward sustainable living and long-term savings.

[rankconsultancy]

5 Essential Steps for Streamlined Business Setup Services in UAE with Rank

United Arab Emirates (UAE) is known as a business and entrepreneurship hub across the world. Its prime location, progressive government policies, and a booming economy create the perfect environment for those who want to create and expand businesses. For someone in that position, understanding the various regulations and different business setup services in the UAE can be challenging. 

Thankfully, your journey to turning your entrepreneurial dreams into reality doesn’t have to be a daunting one. This essential guide from Rank Accounting and Consultancy, a leading provider of business setup services in UAE, breaks the process up into Essential five steps to make your journey a smooth and successful one.

Step 1:  Choose Your Business Activity & Legal Structure

Common Business Activities in UAE:

Trading: Considering it an umbrella term, it includes Importing, exporting, and distributing goods within the UAE or globally.

Manufacturing: End-to-end establishment facilities for the production and processing of goods.

Services: Providing professional or technical services within the UAE.

Tourism: Operating businesses related to hospitality, travel agencies, or recreation.

Popular Legal Structures in UAE:

Sole Proprietorship: One of the very few simplest structures, ideal for small businesses entirely owned by one person without any involvement of others.

Limited Liability Company (LLC): Another most common structure, by offering personal asset protection for its owners (shareholders).

Free Zone Company: Operates within designated free zones, enjoying tax advantages and business ownership benefits.

Branch Office: An extension of an existing foreign company, subject to specific regulations.

Step 2: Secure Initial Approvals & Licenses

Once you’ve successfully chosen your suitable business activity and structure, now let’s look into the necessary approvals and licenses. This process typically involves:

Trade Name Registration: It is always advisable to select a unique and available name for your business.

Department of Economic Development (DED) Approval: Following which you need to secure approval from the relevant DED authority depending on your chosen Emirate (e.g., Dubai DED).

License Issuance: Once approved you need to obtain the specific license required for your business activity, issued by the DED or relevant authority.

Step 3: Company Formation & Bank Account Opening

Once you have received the approvals and licenses you are ready to move with officially setting up your company.

Memorandum of Association (MoA): This document details the structure of your company, its purpose, and the rights of shareholders.

Articles of Association (AoA): These define the rules and regulations governing the operations of your company.

Opening a Bank Account: Setting up a corporate bank account, for conducting business transactions.

Step 4: Comply with AML & KYC Regulations

To combat crimes and ensure transparency, adherence to Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations is essential. These steps are integral to business establishment services, in the UAE;

Perform Customer Due Diligence (CDD): Verify the identities and funding sources of all involved individuals and businesses.

Establish AML/KYC Policies & Procedures: Put in place mechanisms to monitor transactions effectively and mitigate risks.

Report Suspicious Activity: Report any activity deemed suspicious to the relevant authorities.

Step 5: Ongoing Support along with Business Setup Services in UAE

Your journey doesn’t end with company formation. Rank Accounting and Consultancy offers ongoing support to ensure your business thrives, including:

To begin with, select Rank’s business setup services team for Visa & Immigration Assistance. Not only will they source and secure work visas and residence permits for your company and its employees, but one of their most popular services is the world-famous Golden Visa in the UAE. They’ll also oversee Tax & Accounting Services, delivering comprehensive tax advice, bookkeeping, and financial reporting that maintains your company’s compliance and optimizes its financial health. Securing a relationship with the Rank team allows access to their Business Advisory Services as well, providing expert guidance on the entire spectrum of your company’s operational elements including legal, regulatory, and strategic.

Relying upon a dependable provider such as Rank Accounting and Consultancy allows you to proceed through business setup services in the UAE confidently with the aid of their proficient and skilled professionals. They’ll sustain you throughout every step, ensuring that your business launches smoothly and successfully in the dynamic UAE corporate arena.

Starting a company in the UAE is a viable option

It provides entrepreneurs with the potential to reach a growing market and profit from available opportunities. Though the country offers immense potential for success, ensuring it is fully realized depends on correctly setting up your business. Given the complexity of business setup services in the UAE, you’ll save time, money, and hassle by enlisting a reputable provider such as Rank Accounting and Consultancy.

By understanding these essential steps and considerations, you can navigate the business setup services in UAE effectively and embark on your entrepreneurial journey.

[elevateaccounting]

Everything you must know about Rakez Approved Auditors

When it comes to your business's financial health, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and transparency is crucial. As a business owner operating in the RAKEZ (Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone) free trade zone in the UAE, it is essential to partner with a trustworthy auditing firm.

Unregistered audit firms are barred from performing audits, liquidation, or offering services to companies licensed by RAKEZ. These updated regulations aim to guarantee compliance of registered companies with both local and international standards, including the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT).

Documents required by the RAKEZ Approved Auditors to conduct the audit

To carry out an audit and provide assurance, auditors request companies to provide documentation pertaining to the relevant year. This enables auditors to effectively evaluate the financial statements at the year-end and form an opinion on the financial position, ensuring compliance with regulations. The companies are obligated to present the following documents:

●      Bank Statements

●      Credit/ debit confirmation for all financial transactions

●      Copies of bills and invoices

●      Memorandum of Association (MoA)

●      Articles of Association (AOA)

●      Latest Trade License

●      Registration Details for VAT and Excise Tax (If Applicable)

●      Books of Accounts

Why Choose RAKEZ Approved Auditors?

i) Unmatched Expertise: Elevate brings a team of seasoned professionals with extensive experience in auditing within the RAKEZ framework. Our auditors possess a deep understanding of the regulations, laws, and compliance requirements specific to the RAKEZ free zone. This expertise ensures that your business receives accurate and reliable auditing services that align with RAKEZ's standards.

 ii) Compliance Assurance: As a RAKEZ approved auditing firm, we specialize in helping businesses adhere to the stringent regulatory framework established by RAKEZ. Our auditors meticulously examine your financial records, transactions, and internal control systems to ensure compliance with RAKEZ regulations. By partnering with us, you can rest assured knowing that your business operations are in line with the guidelines set forth by the free zone authority.

 iii) Tailored Solutions: At Elevate, we understand that every business is unique. Our RAKEZ approved auditors take the time to understand your specific requirements, challenges, and objectives. This enables us to develop customized auditing solutions that address your business's specific needs, ensuring maximum efficiency and accuracy in our auditing process.

 iv) Transparent Reporting: Our commitment to transparency is unwavering. As RAKEZ approved auditors, we provide comprehensive reports that outline the findings of our audits in a clear and understandable manner. Our detailed reports help you gain insights into your financial performance, identify areas of improvement, and make informed decisions to drive your business forward.

 v) Trusted Partnership: When you choose Elevate as your RAKEZ approved auditors, you gain a trusted partner invested in your success. We go beyond the scope of auditing by offering valuable guidance and recommendations to enhance your financial processes, internal controls, and overall business operations. Our aim is to build a long-term partnership based on trust, integrity, and mutual growth.

Conclusion:

As a business operating within the RAKEZ free trade zone in the UAE, choosing the right auditing firm is pivotal. Elevate Accounting & Auditing stands as your reliable and expert RAKEZ approved auditors, equipped with the expertise, knowledge, and dedication to support your business's financial well-being. With our tailored solutions, compliance assurance, and transparent reporting, we ensure that your business thrives in the RAKEZ ecosystem.

Trust Elevate to be your partner in success. Contact us today to learn more about our RAKEZ approved auditing services and elevate your business to new heights.

[williamtruax]

Missed the Tax Deadline? What You Need to Know!

All too often, the April 15th federal tax return deadline arrives sooner than expected – causing frustration and anxiety as you scramble to get everything together at the last minute. Yes, a six-month extension is available from the IRS which defers your tax return filing deadline until October 15th. However, taxpayers are still responsible for paying late penalties on the unpaid tax that was due earlier in the year – as well as any unpaid taxes from prior years. The bottom line is, extension or not, failure to file and pay your taxes on time can be a costly decision!  

Generally, interest accrues on any unpaid tax from the due date of the return until the date of payment in full. The interest rate is determined quarterly and is the federal short-term rate plus 3 percent. Interest compounds daily!

The three most common penalties include:

Failure to file – when you don't file your tax return by the return due date or extended due date if an extension to file is requested and approved.

Failure to pay – when you don't pay the taxes reported on your return in full by the due date, April 15. An extension to file doesn't extend the time to pay.

Failure to pay proper estimated tax - when you don’t pay enough taxes due for the year with your quarterly estimated tax payments when required.

Before we dive in, here’s some good news for families who don't owe taxes to the IRS… you can still file your 2021 tax return and claim the Child Tax Credit for the 2021 tax year at any point until April 15, 2025, without any penalty!

Failure to File

If you owe tax and don't file on time, there's a penalty for not filing on time. The Failure to File penalty is usually five percent of the tax owed for each month, or part of a month that your return is late, up to a maximum of 25%. If your return was over 60 days late, there's also a minimum penalty for late filing. The minimum Failure to File penalty is $435 (for tax returns required to be filed in 2020, 2021 and 2022) or 100% of the tax required to be shown on the return, whichever is less. 

You must file your return and pay your tax by the due date to avoid interest and penalty charges. Often, you can borrow the funds necessary to pay your tax at a lower effective rate than the combined IRS interest and penalty rate.

 Failure to Pay

If you file a return but don't pay all tax owed on time, you'll generally have to pay a late payment penalty. The Failure to Pay penalty is 0.5% of the tax you didn’t pay for each month, or partial month that you don’t pay, after the due date. California has a similar penalty, but tacks on an additional 5% as of the first day after the tax was due.

Note: if you filed your tax return on time as an individual and you have an approved payment plan, the Failure to Pay Penalty is reduced to 0.25% per month (or partial month) during your approved payment plan.

The Failure to Pay penalty rate increases to 1% if the tax remains unpaid 10 days after the IRS issues a notice of intent to levy property. Be aware that the IRS applies payments to the tax first, then any penalty, then to interest. Any penalty amount that appears on your bill is generally the total amount of the penalty up to the date of the notice, not the penalty amount charged each month.

There are some exceptions to the general deadlines for filing a return and paying tax, such as:

If you're a member of the Armed Forces and are serving in a combat zone or contingency operation. Refer to Publication 3, Armed Forces' Tax Guide, for additional information and qualifications.

If you're a citizen or resident alien working abroad. Refer to Publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad, for details.

If you were a victim in certain disaster situations. In those situations, the IRS has the authority to extend filing and payment deadlines. Search keyword "disaster" on IRS.gov for more information.

 Failure to Pay Estimated Taxes

The United States income tax system is a pay-as-you-go tax system, which means that you must pay income tax as you earn or receive your income during the year. You can do this either through withholding from your employer or by making estimated tax payments if you’re self-employed or own a small business. If you don't pay your tax or you pay an insufficient amount of tax through withholding, you might also have to pay estimated taxes. 

Generally, most taxpayers will avoid this penalty if they either owe less than $1,000 in tax after subtracting their withholding and estimated tax payments, or if they paid at least 90% of the tax for the current year or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the prior year, whichever is smaller. There are special rules for farmers and fishermen, certain household employers and certain high income taxpayers. For more information, refer to Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax.

Generally, taxpayers should make estimated tax payments in four equal amounts to avoid a penalty. However, if you receive income unevenly during the year, you may be able to vary the amounts of the payments to avoid or lower the penalty by using the annualized installment method. Use Form 2210 (PDF), Underpayment of Estimated Tax by Individuals, Estates, and Trusts, to see if you owe a penalty for underpaying your estimated tax.

The law allows the IRS to waive the penalty if:

You didn't make a required payment because of a casualty event, disaster, or other unusual circumstance and it would be inequitable to impose the penalty, or

You retired (after reaching age 62) or became disabled during the tax year or in the preceding tax year for which you should have made estimated payments, and the underpayment was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect.

Finally, it's very important you review all IRS notices and bills in detail. If you believe there's an error, write to the IRS office that sent it to you within the time frame given or call the number listed on your notice or bill for assistance. You should provide photocopies of any records that may help the IRS correct the error. If they find a mistake was made, they'll make the necessary adjustment to your account and send you a corrected notice.

William D. Truax and his friendly team of EAs and licensed tax preparers have been assisting individuals and businesses with their taxes for nearly 50 years. He is licensed to represent taxpayers before the IRS and is also a member of the Bar of the United States Tax Court.

If you need assistance or have questions about a notice you’ve received or penalties you may owe, please contact us today for a FREE consultation. We’re here to help!

[gonbe-nyanya]

How to Actually Play Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering (MTG, or just Magic) is the first and one of the most popular trading card games in the world. Described as the chess of card games, you can go as complex as you want (even make a computer) or have as much fun as you want, diving into the multitudes of worlds, creatures, and characters to express yourself.

But first you need to know how to play.

Lots of guides tend to be overly simplistic, so here I’ll try to go really in-depth in the rules while still maintaining an introductory tone. I will also try to provide as many pictures of relevant cards as possible to expose you to the vast array of effects cards may have, and how they interact with what I’m currently discussing.

1. The Colors of Magic

The most defining part of Magic are the five different colors. Each has its own flavor, playstyle, advantages, and disadvantages. You can combine different colors in your deck to have access to interesting combos and to balance out your deck’s weaknesses. Different color combinations also have their own specific flavor, often embodied by groups such as the guilds of Ravnica.

White: This is the color of unity, healing, and order. Cards in this color will often gain you life, protect your creatures from damage, tax or outright prevent your opponents from doing tricky things, and make armies of small creatures that together make mighty fighting forces. It is also associated with artifacts, enchantments, and exiling.

By the way, I will be defining Magic terms as they come up, like so.

Token: A representation of a creature, artifact, or something else. You can use it like a card while it exists, but it will vanish when it leaves the battlefield. (the rest of these terms will come up soon.)

Exile: Originally called “removed from the game”, exile is a zone that is inaccessible to most cards. It makes sure your opponents’ creatures go away forever. Sometimes, creatures go to exile and come right back to get extra enter-the-battlefield effects, known as blinking.

If you see something that isn’t immediately defined, just keep it in mind. Chances are I’ll cover it in a later chapter.

Blue: This color is related to knowledge, water, and the cold. You’ll get to draw lots of cards, but your creatures will be lacking. Instead, you will have access to powerful spells that bounce, freeze, or steal your opponents’ creatures and even give you extra turns. Quelch your opponents’ attempts with counterspells. It also has affinity for artifacts.

Black: This color represents death, disease, and ambition. Full of evil kill and discard spells, you will have access to your own army of zombies, vampires, and demons. You will also be able to do powerful things, but often at the cost of cards, creatures, or even your own health. In the words of Dark Confidant, “Greatness, at any cost.”

Red: This is the color of passion, fire, and explosive power. Many of the direct damage spells, including the iconic Lightning Bolt, are Red, as well as aggressive, fast creatures and multiple combats. You will have an extreme upper hand in your first few turns, but will quickly run out of gas if you don’t use another color to keep up on card draw. Red also brings with it mighty dragons and world-morphing chaotic effects.

Green: The color of nature, Green is similar to white in its abilities to heal, create tokens, and destroy artifacts and enchantments. However, Green has a wild side and is full of giant beasts, swarms of bugs, and rapid evolutions. It also brings out lands quickly and makes tons of mana.

2. Dissecting a Card

Sidisi is a popular character that hales from the plane of Tarkir. She’ll be helping us as a prime example of what a card looks like. There’s a lot to take in, but we’ll start from the top and work our way down.

First is the border (yes, from the very top!). It seems silly, but there are actually a few different borders that mean different things. A vast majority of cards have the regular black border. You may also see cards with white borders - these tend to be older cards, but they’re just as good as the black bordered ones. Silver borders come from the Un-sets, a series of joke sets full of wacky mechanics and inside jokes. None of these cards  are tournament legal, but you’re free to have fun with them with your friends. Gold-bordered cards will also have a different back, and were printed as a part of tournament-winning decks back in the day. These are not tournament legal, but since they are often cheaper than their “real card” counterparts, people will use them in casual decks.

Next is the name. “Sidisi, Brood Tyrant” is the full, English name of this card. Each deck can only have up to 4 copies of any single card (there are very important exceptions to this I will cover in the next chapter). There are also a few cards which specifically reference others by name.

To the right of that is the mana cost. In this case, we need to use one black mana, one green mana, one blue mana (each represented by their respective symbol) and one mana which can be of any color, or even colorless, represented by the 1 in the circle. We’ll find out how to get mana in the next chapter as well. As a side note, many cards will consider the mana value (formerly, converted mana cost), which is just the total cost of the card as a number. For Sidisi, it’s four.

Beneath that is the art.

Arguably the most important part of any card, Magic’s art is what really sets it apart from other games. People fall in love with specific cards for their dramatic poses, mighty beings, and stunning vistas. The art brings character to every card, and ties flavor and function beautifully. This is the best way to express yourself, and find what you really like about Magic.

Next is a thin bar called the typeline. This will tell you first what type of card it is - either a land, creature, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, instant, sorcery, or tribal (or some combination!), which dictate how you use the card, and what other cards interact with it. Card types can be divided into permanent, which go on the battlefield once played, and nonpermanent, which you play for a single effect and immediately go to your graveyard. There are also some supertypes. Sidisi herself is Legendary, meaning she represents a specific character from Magic lore. This also means you can only have a single copy of her on the battlefield at any one moment; if you somehow get another, you’ll have to sacrifice one. Basic is another important supertype we’ll cover soon.

On the other side of the hyphen is the subtype - this is almost exclusively used for creatures to tell you what tribes they belong to. Sidisi herself is a Naga and a Shaman, and will thus interact with cards that care about that (these are often called tribal effects; for example, “Elves you control get +1/+1″). From Trilobites to Trolls, the creatures of magic are a diverse crowd.

Finally comes the set symbol, that strange orange shield thingy to the right. This tells you two things: the set the card comes from, and the rarity. This specific symbol represents the set Khans of Tarkir, so booster packs from that set may contain Sidisi. Rarity comes in 5 different colors.

Black: Common (Simple, often weak)

Silver: Uncommon (May have cool mechanics)

Gold: Rare (More powerful and complex)

Orange: Mythic Rare (The most powerful and complex)

Purple: Special (This is only used in situations such as Time Spiral, where they reprinted cards in the old border)

The rarity often (but not necessarily) corresponds to power level. It’s better to think of it as a ranking of design complexity. Newer Rares and Mythics will also have that shiny, elliptical sticker near the bottom, which simply guarantees the authenticity of the card.

The bottom half of the card is dominated by the text box. This will tell you the effects and abilities of the card. Sidisi has two abilities: one that triggers whenever she enters the battlefield or attacks, and one that triggers whenever a creature card is put into the graveyard from your library (on modern cards, this is called milling). We will go over abilities later.

Notice how Sidisi aligns with her colors. As a Naga, she is Green. Her zombie tokens are characteristic of Black, and tokens are generally Green as well. Milling is a Blue ability, and putting creatures in the graveyard to bring back to life is definitely Black.

The text box is also home to flavor text, the italicized text beneath the rules. This will often be a little blurb or quote relating to the flavor of the card. Consider it an extension of the art.

Creatures will also have that rectangle to the bottom right, called the Power and Toughness. The first number is the power (how hard it punches) and the second is the toughness (how hard of a punch it can take). This is relevant for combat and we will cover it extensively later.

Finally come all those funny symbols at the very bottom. This will include the collector’s number (199/269), the set (KTK = Khans of Tarkir), the artist (Karl Kopinski) and the copyright.

3. Lands

Lands are by far the most important component of your deck. They are what generate the mana you need to cast your spells, and dictate the colors of spells you can play.

You can play one land per turn - just plop it from your hand onto the battlefield. They have no mana cost, and thus the top right is blank.

The Basic land is the prime exception to the four-card limit, as you can have as many as you want in your deck. The Basic supertype also interacts with several cards, such as ones which let you get more from your deck onto the battlefield.

The 6 basic lands are Plains (white), Island (blue), Swamp (black), Mountain (red), Forest (green), and Wastes (colorless, only used in decks such as Eldrazi Tron, and are often not included).

This cycle comes from Lorwyn, a set based in Gaelic mythology.

All Basic lands come with the implied rules text that they can tap to create one mana of their respective color, and as such will often have the cinematic mana symbol instead.

Tap: A common cost on a permanent to activate an ability. Turn the card sideways to tap it. It will stay tapped until your next turn, when it will untap during your untap phase (more on that later). A tapped card can’t be tapped again, and a tapped creature can’t block.

Some lands, especially those that can make different colors, will enter the battlefield tapped, so you’ll have to wait an extra turn to use them. Other lands might only create colorless mana (represented by a number on older cards and a diamond on newer cards), so they’re less useful for casting spells, but will have interesting abilities, such as:

This Mutavault can turn into a creature for just 1 mana, which you can use to attack and block with. (Pop quiz: see if you can recognize each part of the card!) There are dozens more examples that do everything from draw you cards to destroy your opponents’ pesky lands.

But what exactly does it mean to create a mana? Well, really, it gets added to your mana pool, as you may have noticed on the Mutavault. This is an arbitrary place where all your mana goes so that you can spend it. This isn’t often relevant, because you’ll mostly tap your lands while casting spells and the mana will immediately be used, but there are a few scenarios where it might be useful. For example, someone targets your land to destroy it because they don’t want you to have the mana open to kill something they’ll play next. Just tap your land to keep a mana “floating”. However, all the mana in your pool will automatically drain out each time you change phases (more on those later).

Tapping lands for mana is an ability, but since it’s a mana ability, it won’t use the stack, so you can use them just about whenever. More on the stack later as well.

Most decks will be around one-third lands, with more or less depending on how low the average cost of cards you have are. The less colors you run, the less cards you have at your disposal, but the more flexible your mana base can be - more colors often use lands that enter tapped and are inconsistent at drawing the colors they need.

Have fun experimenting with your mana base, especially in casual formats. In more competitive formats, lands are actually the most expensive cards! The top lands are called the shocklands, fetchlands, and original dual lands - the last of which are several hundred dollars each.

4. Permanents

Besides lands, just about every other card you play is considered a spell when you cast it (you’ll see this on cards such as Counterspell). However, for the sake of clarity, I’ll be using “Permanent” to refer to anything that goes directly on the battlefield once it resolves and “Spell” to refer to single-use cards.

Of the card types mentioned above, permanents include lands (which we just covered), creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and the mighty planeswalkers. I’ll include a visual example of each as we go.

Creatures are your basic way of winning the game. They can attack your opponent to take down their life total, but might also have interesting abilities that make them more valuable as repeatable spells than combatants.

Incubation druid is a great example of both: she starts off as an additional land, giving you more mana quicker to play your other cards. With 0 power, she’s useless as an attacker. However, her Adapt ability lets her grow into a formidable 3/5, so you can attack and block with her much more effectively later in the game. Notice the curved arrow symbol that represents tapping.

+1/+1 Counter: This is a permanent buff to your creature, giving it an additional power and toughness each. Counters in general can come in many forms: -1/-1 counters are self-explanatory, but ability counters such as a Flying counter give your creature a new keyword. Other counters, such as Lore and Filibuster, keep track of certain things for you. Always bring a few dice with you to every game, as you’re sure to want to track some sort of counter.

Creatures enter the battlefield with summoning sickness, which means they can’t attack or use any ability that requires them to tap until your next turn. Creatures also get summoning sick when they change control. A creature with Haste, a keyword ability, lets you ignore this, and is often found on red creatures.

Artifacts, lore wise, are artificial, sterile creations of wizardry, and as such, almost never correspond to a color. They may imitate the effects of a certain color, but to prevent other colors from having easy access to it, they will often be overcosted. A common type of artifact is colloquially known as the mana rock, as it generates mana. There are many cards that interact and enhance artifacts.

Hedron Archive is a typical mana rock, costing four mana of any color and boosting your mana generation ability by two. Later in the game, if you already have more than enough lands, you can cash it in for two mana to draw some more cards. Notice the distinct metallic border.

Artifacts often combine with Creatures to form Artifact Creatures, or less commonly with Lands to create Artifact Lands.

Artifacts can also come on the form of Equipment, which will give an effect when equipped to a creature. This often comes in the form of a buff to its power and toughness, but can also include adding keywords and other cool abilities. You’ll need to equip it by paying a cost, and can pass equipment around between any of your creatures. This can result in some funny mental images, such as a cat wearing a suit of armor and wielding three swords!

Enchantments are similar to artifacts in that they sit on the battlefield and have an effect, but they will have color. Also, Green and White excel at “cleansing” both by destroying them, but Red is only good at blowing up artifacts - after all, an ogre with a mace can smash a rock, but not a mystical spell.

Some enchantments have the subtype Aura. This means you cast them targeting a specific permanent, and they will enter the battlefield attached to that permanent like a piece of Equipment. These, however, can’t be moved around, and will fall off and go to the graveyard if the thing they enchant ever leaves the battlefield. Auras will often buff creatures, but can also subdue permanents or boost a land’s mana production.

Planeswalkers are the newest and arguably the most powerful of the permanents. They represent the primary characters of MTG lore, beings who have incredible magical prowess and can teleport from plane to plane. They are (as of yet) all legendary, and thus you can only have one of each at a time on the battlefield.

They look pretty weird, don’t they? Instead of a power and toughness, they have a loyalty in the bottom right. Each planeswalker will enter the battlefield with that many loyalty counters on it. You can activate one of its abilities on each of your turns by adding or subtracting the indicated loyalty. Once a planeswalker is at zero, it dies and goes to the graveyard (or rather, gets fed up with your mishandling and teleports away, as per loyalty flavor). Planeswalkers can also be killed by spells that specifically target them, when they’re dealt damage, or when they’re attacked by creatures. Their last ability is often incredibly powerful, and is called an “ultimate”. Newer planeswalkers sometimes also have static abilities.

Planeswalkers are not creatures, and can’t attack or block. That being said, there are some planeswalkers that can turn into creatures.

Permanents are very useful, as they stick around and provide value turn after turn. Many strategies revolve around certain tribes, or using artifacts. Creatures are the main way to get damage through to your opponent to win the game. And planeswalkers have powerful abilities, requiring an answer from your opponent to stay in the game.

5. Spells

As stated above, all nonland cards are technically spells when cast, but here we will talk specifically about Instants and Sorceries. We will also define timing, as instant- and sorcery- speed is something we will discuss often when looking at casting spells, activating abilities, and using the stack.

Sorceries are your basic single-use card. Pay their cost, they’ll resolve, and you’ll get their effect once before they go to the graveyard.

Something I haven’t brought up yet is when you can play cards. We’ll go over the turn structure more in depth, but for now, know there’s a beginning step, a main phase, a combat phase, and a second main phase. You can play any of the previously mentioned cards, including sorceries, and activate planeswalker abilities, whenever it’s your main phase and the stack is empty.

The Stack: Whenever you cast a spell or activate a non-mana ability, or a triggered ability triggers, it will go on the stack. Things on the stack resolve last-in, first-out.

Instants are just like sorceries, but you can cast them at any time you have priority. This means they can go on the stack above other spells, which allows them to interact with other spells. Activated abilities can also be activated whenever, except for planeswalker abilities and those which specify otherwise.

Priority: When you have priority, you will have an opportunity to cast spells, play lands, and activate abilities. Everyone gets priority every phase, and it starts with the active player (whoever’s turn it is) and is passed around in turn order.

Whenever something goes on the stack, priority is passed around as well. Once each player has passed priority, it resolves and priority is passed once again for the next thing.

You can hold priority to cast multiple spells in a row.

Here’s a quick example to see how spells, abilities, and priority all interact on the stack:

Johnny and Timmy are playing each other, and it’s Timmy’s main phase. Johnny has a 0/2 Incubation Druid.

Timmy plays a Bala Ged Scorpion, which goes on the stack. Priority is passed around and it resolves. Its triggered ability goes on the stack, and Timmy targets Johnny’s Incubation Druid, since its power is 0, less than 1.

Since the ability is on the stack, Timmy gets priority and passes it to Johnny. In response, Johnny casts Burst of Strength, maintains priority, and casts a second Burst of Strength. Now priority passes between them for both, and they both resolve. Incubation Druid is now a 2/4.

Priority passes for Bala Ged Scorpion’s ability, but since the Incubation Druid now has more than 1 power, the ability does nothing and fizzles.

Fizzle: A spell whose target is no longer legal does nothing when it resolves. This is colloquially called fizzling.

Assuming he had the mana for it, Johnny could also have activated Incubation Druid’s Adapt ability in response to the Bala Ged Scorpion, making it a 3/5 and also letting it survive.

There are lots of cool things you can do with the stack, such as making slick plays to foil your opponents’ spells or to copy big spells for massive value.

Some permanent cards have Flash. This is a keyword ability that lets you play the card as if it was an instant. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is the quintessential Flash card, as it also gives your other creatures flash and prevents your opponents from playing at instant speed.

6. Where are We?

I’ve been throwing around terms such as Graveyard and Battlefield, so what exactly do these mean? Well, these are all zones. We’ve already looked at one zone - Exile. The Stack is also a zone.

A zone is a place where cards can exist. They may have abilities that work while in that zone, most often on the battlefield. Public zones are where all the cards are known. This includes the Battlefield, the Graveyard, and Exile.

Urabrask’s ability only works while he’s on the battlefield, and only creatures you control on the battlefield would get haste - after all, those are the only ones who can use it, anyways. Yixlid Jailer takes away abilities from cards in graveyards, so Momentary Blink would not have Flashback while it’s there. Momentary Blink also exiles a creature (using the old wording of “removed from the game”) and brings it back, known as flickering.

Private zones are anywhere where cards are not public information. This includes your hand and your library. Thoughtseize, and other similar hand disruption spells, let you take a peek at what your opponent has. Loads of cards like Armillary Sphere let you search your library for cards. Others may reveal the top card of your library, or let you look at the top few.

It’s also possible to have “hidden” cards in public zones. Willbender feature the Morph mechanic, which lets you cast it face-down as a 2/2 creature. This means your opponent won’t know what it is until you turn it face up, but you will. Other effects might put cards face-down in exile, where you could cast them.

Whenever a card changes zones, it becomes a new “object”. That means all counters, equipment, and auras fall off, and it is no longer being targeted by anything that was targeting it before. A classic use of this rule is flickering a creature being targeted by a kill spell - even though it comes back to the battlefield, it is a new object and is thus no longer being targeted by the kill spell. The spell will fizzle and your creature will be safe.

7. Starting the Game

Ok. So you’ve got a basic understanding of all the cards and the different locations. How do you get started actually playing?

There are lots of ways to play the game, but I’ll start out with the most common: a 1v1, best of 3 duel. This will also get a little bit into deckbuilding, but there’s a lot more on that later.

Most 1v1 decks will be 60 cards. In fact, this is a lower limit, and you can have as many cards as you want, but it’s convention to stay at 60 cards to maintain consistency. In a best of 3 match, you will also have a sideboard - 15 or less cards that may target specific strategies such as graveyard decks or artifact decks. After your first game and seeing what your opponent is playing, you’ll be able to switch out cards in your deck for the right silver bullets for games 2 and 3.

Common sideboard cards against Burn, graveyard, and artifact strategies.

If you’re playing a casual game with a friend, feel free to omit the sideboard, but it’s a staple part of competitive play and is a fun way to personalize decks in strictly defined metagames.

Now that you’ve got a deck (and presumably, a friend with a deck as well) shuffle up. Cut your opponent’s deck by putting the top half on the bottom (a customary ritual to prevent cheating) and let them cut yours. Figure out who’s going first by rolling some dice (whoever wins gets to choose, but generally going first is preferred), and draw seven cards. 

You may not like your hand for several reasons. Maybe you have too many lands, or none at all. Your lands might all produce the same color of mana instead of all the colors you need, or you might have only highly-costed spells and nothing to do on your early turns.

No problem, just shuffle it back in and draw seven more. This is called mulliganing. You can do this as many times as you want, but don’t be too hasty, because once you find a hand you like, you’ll need to put one card from your hand on the bottom of your library for each time you mulliganed.

Now it’s time for your first turn. But before we really get playing, let’s look at the structure of a turn.

8. Phases of a Turn

credit to u/paper_alien

From this fancy diagram, we can see that your turn is broken down into roughly three different parts. I’ll be including examples of cards that interact with each phase. First is the beginning phase.

Your untap step is right at the start, when all your permanents untap. Simply turn them right-side up. Claustrophobia would prevent one of your opponents’ creatures from untapping, rendering it useless as an attacker and blocker, as well as preventing its tap abilities from being used. No player gains priority during the untap step, and play immediately proceeds to the upkeep step. 

Normally, nothing happens here, unless an ability triggers. For example, the Luminous Angel gives you a 1/1 token on your upkeep. Players will get priority, so you’ll have a chance to cast instants or activate abilities as well.

After that is the draw step. You immediately draw a card, and abilities like that of Font of Mythos will trigger. Again, priority passes around. Once you’ve finished with the draw step, move on to your main phase.

Side note: Normally, players will typically condense these three steps into one (untapping and drawing), because it’s rare that you do play something here, but the steps are distinct for those cases in which you do need to take an action.

As mentioned above, your main phases are the only times you can play lands and non-instant spells, as well as activate planeswalker abilities. They sandwich your combat phase. It’s uncommon for cards to trigger during your main phases, but the two above are prime examples of such cards. Many activated abilities will also have an explicitly written restriction to only use them during your main phases.

The combat phase is the most complex, as it is really made up of five to six distinct subphases. First, you declare that you are going to move to combat. This will trigger cards like Hazoret’s Favor, and will give your opponents an opportunity to subdue your creatures before they can attack but after you have a chance to cast relevant non-instant cards. 

Once priority is passed around, you move to the Declare Attackers step. Here, you will tap each creature you want to have attack, meaning you can only attack with untapped creatures, and declare the player or planeswalker it will be attacking. Creatures do not attack other creatures (this isn’t Hearthstone), and instead your opponent will have a chance to block your creatures with their own. 

This happens after priority is passed around and you move to the Declare Blockers step. Your opponent will choose which of their untapped creatures they want to block your attacking creatures. Each creature can block up to one other creature, but any number of creatures can block one creature. 

Next is the Damage step. Here, each unblocked creature will deal damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking, and each blocked or blocking creature will deal damage equal to its power to the creature(s) it’s been pitted against. If one of your creatures is being blocked by multiple, you need to divide its power among them. For example, a 3/3 being blocked by two 2/1′s must deal 1 damage to one and 2 damage to another. All creatures who have been dealt more damage than their toughness die and are put into the graveyard.

The theoretical sixth step actually occurs before the Damage step - the First/Double Strike step. If any creatures with first strike or double strike are involved in the combat, this step will be created and those creatures will have an opportunity to deal damage before other creatures. For example, if a 5/1 with first strike is blocked by a 3/3, the 5/1 will deal 5 damage to the 3/3 before it has a chance to fight back, and the 3/3 dies. Double strike means the creature deals its damage twice - during this phase and the regular combat phase.

Finally is the End of Combat step. Similarly to the Beginning of Combat step, this is mostly a formality, but some cards do trigger here (such as the Wall of Cinders), and priority is passed around.

Notice that you also get priority after every one of these phases, meaning you have tons of control over what happens. This allows you to play combat tricks. For example, say you attack with a 4/4 and your opponent has a 4/2. They might think you just want to trade creatures (meaning both die) and blocks your attacker. Before damage, you have a chance to play Giant Growth, pumping your creature out of range of your opponent’s creature, so yours survives.

This is also a great time to cover the keyword abilities I’ve been bringing up throughout, as many of them concern combat. Many of them are fairly self-explanatory, and are not exclusive to creatures.

Deathtouch: Whenever this creature deals damage to another creature, that creature dies.

Defender: This creature can’t attack. Often seen on Walls.

First Strike/Double Strike: As mentioned above, these let the creature deal damage before other creatures. Double Strike means it deals damage twice, once in the first strike damage phase and once in the regular phase.

Flash: You can play this card at instant speed. Can appear on any permanent card.

Flying: This creature can’t be blocked except by other fliers and creatures with Reach.

Haste: This creature isn’t affected by summoning sickness.

Hexproof: This can’t be targeted by your opponents’ spells and abilities. This doesn’t prevent it from being affected by “choose” or “all” effects.

Indestructible: This can’t be destroyed by damage or effects that say “destroy”. It can still be sacrificed, exiled, or given -X/-X to reduce its toughness to 0.

Lifelink: Whenever this deals damage, you gain that much life.

Reach: Can block creatures with flying.

Shroud: Like Hexproof, but also prevents you from targeting it (for example, with a pump spell or equipment).

Trample: Excess combat damage can be dealt to your opponent. However, you still need to deal lethal damage to any blockers. For example, a 5/5 with trample being blocked by a 2/3 must deal at least 3 damage to the 2/3 so that you can deal 2 damage to your opponent.

Vigilance: This creature doesn’t need to tap when attacking.

Menace: This creature must be blocked by at least two creatures.

There are many, many more keyword abilities, but these are the most common - the rest you will come across as you explore the different sets and planes.

After your second main phase comes the end step. In reality, you’ll care more about your opponent’s end step, because it is the optimal time to play removal, card draw, or other useful instants because it will give your opponent the least amount of time to react before your next turn. However, once priority is passed during your end step, check if you have more than seven cards in your hand - the maximum hand size. if you do, the cleanup step is created. Here, you must discard down to seven cards, and there will be another chance for priority after that. Seven is the default maximum hand size, but there are many cards that let you play around with that.

So now you’ve got your deck, you’ve mulliganed as you need, you’ve played an Island. I see you preparing to cast that Opt - but wait! Casting a spell is quite a bit more complex than it first seems, so let’s go over that now.

9. Casting Spells and Activating Abilities

All this time, I’ve been talking about casting and activating without really explaining exactly what that means, so now let’s make sure you know what that means. There is a lot of nuance to properly casting a spell, but once you understand it, you can ignore all the decorum in most cases. However, it’s still important to know exactly what happens to prevent common misunderstandings, and because Magic is full of strange cards that love to bend the rules; you will doubtless find fun corner cases.

The steps to casting a spell and activating an ability are identical except the first, so I will be going over them together, referring to casting a spell.

Declare you are going to be casting the spell by putting it from where it is (generally, your hand) onto the stack. An ability will be put onto the stack as an arbitrary object.

Declare all the additional and alternative costs you wish to pay (for example, Vandalblast’s Overload cost), the mode of the card for split cards (such as Assure // Assemble) and double-faced cards (such as Alrund, who is also a bird on his other side!), and define the value of X (such as for Chalice of the Void), which you can pay for in mana of any color.

Choose the targets of your spell. You must have a legal target for each time the word “target” appears on the card (this is when effects such as “When this becomes the target of a spell” are triggered and go on the stack, to be sorted out and resolved later).

Now determine how much you need to pay. This includes cost reductions and additional costs, such as for Torgaar, as well as taxing effects (i.e., “noncreature spells cost {1} more to cast).

Activate mana abilities, such as those from your lands and mana rocks, and pay all costs as required. This means, for example, that you can tap a creature that produces mana and sacrifice it to pay for Torgaar.

Congratulations! Your spell or ability is now on the stack. Abilities that trigger while you are casting your spell, such as Talrand’s, will be on the stack above it and will thus resolve first. We covered fizzling before, but to clarify, a spell will fizzle only if all its targets are no longer legal, either through dying, or gaining Hexproof, or some other means. This means you get no part of its effects. If it has multiple targets, and only some become illegal, the card resolves as normal.

Like I said, you really don’t need to understand all of this in depth, but it helps clarify the occasional odd rules interaction.

10. Abilities

There are four types of abilities that you might find on cards. The one we’ve just covered extensively was activated abilities, which further come in two forms.

Draconic Disciple handily features both: a mana ability, and a normal activated ability. Notice that all activated abilities use the syntax “Cost X, Cost Y: Ability.” As we covered last chapter, you need to use mana abilities before paying costs when activating an ability, so you couldn’t tap Draconic Shaman for mana for his own ability as well as tap him to summon the dragon.

The main distinction for mana abilities is that they don’t use the stack, resolve instantly, and can be used while casting spells. An activated ability is considered a mana ability if and only if all it does is create mana. That means that Deathrite Shaman’s first ability is not a mana ability, because it exiles a land in addition to creating a mana.

The three other types of abilities are triggered abilities, passive abilities, and replacement effects.

Vanquisher’s Banner features a passive ability by giving all your creatures of a certain creature type +1/+1. It’s pretty straightforward: a static ability simply applies as long as the permanent which has it is on the battlefield. There are nuances in “layering”, but this is already far more complex than you’ll need to know for the majority of games. Feel free to read that article, though. 

Vanquisher’s Banner’s third ability is a triggered ability - an ability that goes on the stack when something happens. This could be casting a spell, a creature entering the battlefield, or drawing a card - or just about anything. These are generally in the form “When” or “Whenever”, and should not be confused with replacement effects.

Replacement effects, like the one seen on Teferi’s Ageless Insight, come in the form “If... would... instead”. They are similar to triggered abilities in that they occur in response to something happening, but they don’t use the stack. Instead, think of them as modifiers to abilities. For example, if Teferi’s Ageless Insight was formatted like a triggered ability, drawing you a card each time you drew a card, you’d be stuck in an endless loop of drawing. Instead, replacement effects only apply once to each thing they modify.

There are many ways  that abilities might manifest themselves, and they don’t always need to be on the battlefield. Bridge From Below’s wall of text works when it’s in the graveyard. Skyscribing’s ability only works from your hand, and is keyworded by Forecast, which only appeared in the original Ravnica set.

The best way to experience all the different interesting abilities and cards is just by playing and expanding your collection. Enjoy playing around and learning more about the game.

This is just about all you need to know to understand the game itself. However, Magic cards just love bending the rules, so you’ll always be encountering interesting rules interactions that will teach you more about the game as you play.

11. Formats

Here is where the fun really begins. Choosing a format is like choosing a social media platform: it comes with its own drama, flavor, speed, and player personalities. All formats use 60 card decks with 15 card sideboards, and start at 20 life, except Brawl and Commander. Each format has its own banlist, so make sure you check that before building just any deck. However, feel free to totally disregard all formats and just build whatever deck you want to have fun with friends!

Here are the most popular formats:

Standard: Probably the most popular 1v1 format, Standard uses cards from the last few sets, and constantly rotates. Deck prices can range from under 100$ to over 500$ when certain powerful cards are in rotation, but when a card rotates out, it can lose its value if it isn’t played in older formats. It can be competitive, but also lets you play with fun new cards in a weaker environment.

Pioneer: The newest official format, Pioneer uses cards dating back to the set Return to Ravnica. It has the same fresh feel as Standard, but doesn’t rotate and is closer in power level to Modern.

Modern: This format uses cards from the newest set all the way back to Eighth Edition from 2003. Decidedly more powerful than Standard, and expensive as well. Competitive decks can range from 200-1000$, but the vast size of the card pool means you can find budget builds and underdog decks to tinker with.

Legacy: You can use any card in the history of Magic, except those from the Banlist. The power level is incredibly high, yet the stereotype of 2-turn games is not as true as one might think. Because of the original dual lands, decks are often over 1000$, but mono-colored decks such as Burn can be brought down to 200$. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

Vintage: Like legacy, all cards are at your disposal, and this time, instead of a banlist, you have a restricted list, meaning you are limited to 1 copy of certain cards. A single copy of Black Lotus can be tens of thousands of dollars, and is a staple alongside the rest of the Power Nine. Very few play it because of the price tag, but it lets you tap into the true power of the oldest Magic cards.

Commander (AKA EDH): Play with any card, like Legacy, but with the distinct Commander banlist. The deckbuilding process here is very different: Pick a legendary creature you like, and pick 99 more cards that are of the same color(s) as your commander. This is a singleton format, meaning you can only have one of each card except for basic lands. Commander is also a multiplayer format, played in pods of 3-6; most often 4. Your commander starts in the Command Zone, where you can cast it. Each time it dies, it goes back to the Command Zone, where you can replay it for an additional 2 mana each time. The multiplayer nature, 40 starting life total, and high variance make Commander incredibly casual, much more a social event than a game. Have fun casting huge spells, playing pet cards, and embodying your commander. That being said, there’s a competitive scene in EDH, known as cEDH.

Brawl: Ah, Brawl. Commander’s younger, forgotten brother. It’s a cross between Commander and Standard, in which you have a commander (in this case, it can also be a planeswalker) and must have singleton copies of cards. Like Standard, you can only use cards from the last few sets, your deck is only 60 cards (no sideboard, though), and games are 1v1. You start with 25 life. Almost nobody plays this in person, but it’s very fun on MTG Arena.

12. Where to Play

Assuming you don’t have a group of friends ready to accept you into their playgroup, finding people to play with can be hard. First, I’d recommend checking Wizards of the Coast’s official Store Locator to find local game stores that might be hosting events and selling cards. If you go to their websites, they’ll often have calendars listing events by date, format, price, and prize. Explore and find one you like. MTG players are generally friendly, and will be willing to accept you into their playgroup, teach you about the game, and maybe even let you borrow a deck!

If you don’t feel like playing in person, there are several online options.

Magic Online (AKA MTGO or MODO) is the primary official way to play. Pay 10$ for an account, and you can buy, sell, and trade cards as if they were real. No really - Magic cards are almost like stocks, and MTGO cards are basically digital versions of Magic cards, so their price will generally mirror their real world counterparts, albeit at a lower price.

Magic Arena (MTGA) is the newest official online game. It only has cards from recent sets, back to Kaladesh, as well as a few odd cards hand-picked for Historic play (a format specific to the game that uses all cards available). Because of the smaller card pool, MTGA is limited to Standard, Brawl, and Historic as the primary game modes. However, it is free to play and your collection can’t be traded, so you collect cards somewhat like Hearthstone.

There are also a few unofficial programs, including Untap.in, XMage, and Cockatrice, which are free and give you access to the full range of cards for testing new decks before you buy them in paper.

Make sure you keep track of MagicFests, official conventions hosted both around the world and online, to meet tons of new people and play in competitive events.

Ultimately, though, many people choose to play at home around the kitchen table with friends and family. Play wherever and however you feel most comfortable; after all, Magic’s best aspect is self-expression.

13. Accessories

Credit: Tolarian Community College

If you’ve visited a local game store by now, you may have noticed that they sell way more than just cards. There are a myriad of accessories you can use to personalize your game and protect your cards.

Dice: from D4′s to D20���s, you can find these in countless colors and styles. Have fun picking your favorite and use them to keep track of life totals, counters, tokens, and more.

Sleeves: These can come in many different colors and designs, but vary wildly in quality. Pick the ones that feel right for you. These will help you shuffle your deck with ease and prevent your cards from getting damaged. Inner and outer sleeves provide additional protection for your most valuable and prized decks.

Deckboxes: Again, tons of variation. The right deckbox for you will depend on how many cards you want to fit in it, if you want space for dice, the design, and much more.

Playmats: These provide a sleek surface for you to easily pick up, tap, and move your cards around. Pick ones with your favorite Magic art, or order one with your own.

Trade Binders: Once you’ve built up a collection, you might have a few valuable cards you want to show off. Put them in a trade binder, and approach people to find other neat cards you might need.

Tolarian Community College on Youtube provides the best reviews of popular accessories, rating and testing them thoroughly. He also dishes out incredible commentary on new sets and the state of the game. Probably the most popular MTG Youtuber out there.

14. Further Resources

You’ve made it this far, but there’s still so much to explore! Here, I’ll be listing plenty of websites that are excellent resources to expand your understanding of the game.

The official rules: Quite dry, but this is where to go if you ever find a confusing interaction.

Tolarian Community College: I just discussed him, but I must reiterate how awesome his channel is. 

Scryfall: A powerful search engine for all the Magic cards you might be looking for. What I’ve been using for card images this whole time. WOTC’s official Gatherer pales in comparison.

TCGPlayer: My favorite way to order cards online, but alternatives include Card Kingdom, StarCityGames, and ChannelFireball.

MTGGoldfish: An excellent all-round resource for keeping track of metagames, card prices, and interesting articles and gameplay. You can also use it to find, build, and share decks and see their prices.

EDHREC: This site conglomerates EDH decks from around the internet to give you a condensed list of the best cards by commander. A must-have resource when building new commander decks.

Last but not least, the best way to learn to play Magic is to watch others. I started out by watching gameplay from Grand Prix’s and other competitions on Youtube. Even though I barely knew what the cards were, I quickly picked up the most popular ones, learned common play patterns, and more. You don’t need to be a pro to learn from them.

15. Have Fun!

Yeah, it’s cheesy, but as I’ve reiterated, Magic is a game of self-expression. With thousands of cards to pick from, plenty of formats, styles, and accessories, customize your play experience as much as you want and be comfortable with that. Meet new people, participate in trading, and play in local events. Magic is what you make of it, so make it the best it can be.

[bigmacdaddio]

Hitler’s car, not Goring’s car...

"Hitler's Car" and the Canadian War Museum: Problems of Documentation and Interpretation 

Cameron Pulsifer - Canadian War Museum in Ottawa

1 One of the best known and also most problematic artifacts on display at the Canadian War Museum (CWM) is the black Grosser Mercedes automobile that was once used by Adolf Hitler. When the car came to the CWM in 1970 it was believed to have belonged to Hitler's Deputy Führer and Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering. But then a critical piece of research, undertaken by CWM librarian Ludwig Kosche, and published in the magazine After the Battle in 1982, revealed conclusively that the car had belonged to Hitler.1 Kosche's study is thorough, meticulous, and indisputable, and it transformed the significance of the artifact. An object of moderate interest when associated with the second-ranking Nazi leader, it became one of intense fascination when associated with the arch-villain behind the whole Nazi enterprise, the Führer himself.

The story of the car has been well told by Kosche. The following will, in the main, be concerned with its story as an artifact at the Canadian War Museum. It will focus on the manner of its acquisition, the nature of its "restoration," the problems of its documentation, and the difficulties inherent in its exhibition. As such, it should serve as an interesting case study of artifact acquisition and research in what must be seen now as a markedly aggressive era in the history of museum collecting, and as an illumination of the approach the CWM has taken over the years to the documentation and the presentation of this particularly contentious artifact.

3 The CWM's vehicle is a Grosser Mercedes 770 W 150 of which Daimler Benz of Stuttgart produced three versions between 1938 and 1943. The first was unarmoured; the second was armoured; and the third was a larger more powerful version termed a Staatskarosse. The CWM's car is one of the second, armoured, versions. Weighing 4100 kilograms, it was powered by a 230-horsepower engine, and could produce top speeds of between 145 and 150 km/h. The doors were armoured, the windows were 2.5-centimetre-thick bullet-proof glass, and a 0.6-centimetre-thick armour plate could be raised behind the rear passenger seat. There are separate front seats for a driver and a passenger, and a bench style rear passenger seat. In addition, immediately behind the front seats are three folding jump seats to hold additional passengers if required. There is one compartment in the front dashboard and two in the rear seat for holding pistols.

4 The car has a number of features that, according to Kosche, have "so far not been found in photographs of other Grosser Mercedes 770 W150." These are: "an ornamental hole in the radiator; four vents directly beneath the wind screen; two door hinges on either side ... short, curved side rear windows; and twenty cooling-slits on both sides of the central hinge on top of the bonnet."2 These distinctive features, together with the car's one surviving registration plate at the rear, were eventually to enable Kosche to confirm that the car had been one of Hitler's, not Goering's.

5 The CWM acquired the vehicle in May 1970 from Quebec City businessman and entrepreneur Claude Pratte for a gift tax receipt. He had purchased it some years previously from H. J. O'Connell, a Montreal collector, who in turn had acquired it in an auction at the American Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland in November 1956 for $2,725 (American). O'Connell had hired R. J. Rumble of Rumble Motors in Toronto to do the bidding, and after its purchase the car was shipped to the firm's Toronto premises, where a further $5,000 (Canadian) was spent on an extensive "restoration."3

6 The car was well known at the time as Goering's staff car. It had been associated with the Luftwaffe commander virtually since its capture by the Americans in May 1945. Sergeant T. Joe Azara of the 20th Armored Division had found the car sitting on a flatbed in a railway siding in the village of Laufen just north of Salzburg, Austria. After a short fire fight with some German snipers, Azara secured the car, removed it from the flatbed, and soon had it running. (He soon, however, had to replace the original engine with another of the same power removed from a Mercedes found at Hitler's retreat at Berchtesgaden, located just to the north of Laufen across the Austrian-Bavarian frontier.)4

From a reading of the 20th Armored Division's newspaper, The Dispatch, Kosche attributes the association of the car with Goering to a statement made at the time by a Dutch civilian worker in a garage near where the car was captured. He claimed that the car was being shipped from Berchtesgaden, "because it was out of gas, and even Goering could get no more."5 Kosche concludes that this rather ambiguous statement was the origin of the car's becoming identified with the portly Reichsmarschall. Whatever the case, after the car was shipped to the United States in August 1945, it was used as the centre piece of a number of war bond drives identified as "Goering's Personal Car."6

8 In October 1956, it was put up for auction, after having spent the previous nine years in storage with the Property Disposal Office of the American military. Again it was advertised as one of Goering's cars, and was apparently acquired by H. J. O'Connell with this understanding. Another car sold at the same sale was one of two Mercedes that had been captured by the 101st Airborne. It was a 1943 Mercedes that its captors had termed the "Blue Goose," which had indeed belonged to Goering. R. J. Rumble evidently assumed that his car was the other Mercedes known to have been captured by the 101st. Since the other car taken by the 101st was known to be a Staatskarosse, Rumble based his "restoration" of his own car upon a photograph that he had available of a Staatskarosse. The result was the centre light mounted on the curved bar above the front fender, which the CWM's car never had originally.7

The car purchased by Rumble had suffered some gunshot damage. Bullets had pierced the armour plate at the back, and the dashboard had also been hit. In addition there were three bullet holes in the front wind screen with some cracking, and the right passenger windscreen was badly splintered. It had long been believed that this damage had been inflicted after the war by trigger happy G.I.s at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, anxious to test the effectiveness of the car's armour plate. However, Kosche has shown conclusively, again by reading The Dispatch, that this damage had in fact already been inflicted at the time of the vehicle's capture in May 1945. How or when it was done is not certain. One can only note that the car had been sitting on a railway flatbed for some time in what was clearly a combat zone.8 Work carried out by CWM conservator Leslie Redman in 1996 on the leather seats has revealed gun-shot damage especially to the left rear and to the jump seats. Indeed a reinforcement bar in the latter was found to have a large elliptically-shaped hole blown in it, leading to some speculation by CWM staff that it was caused by a fairly large projectile, as from an aircraft.9 Whatever the case, attempts were made to repair most of this damage during R. J. Rumble's "restoration" of 1956, except for that in the windows. As Rumble explained to CWM Director Lee Murray: "Mr O'Connell required everything to be restored to its original condition except the windows, which he felt lent more authenticity to the war action the car had seen."10

10 Rumble also drew attention to the fact that the car had had a total of eighteen layers of paint applied to it. These were said to alter "from black to 'Luftwaffe green' — the car being repainted for state events or for field trips." The presence of the so-called "Luftwaffe green," of course, lent credence to the story of the car having belonged to Goering.11

11 As these alternating layers of black and so-called Luftwaffe Green paint were subsequently cited frequently in support of the notion that the car belonged to Goering, Kosche's own thoughts on the matter are worth recounting before proceeding further. He concludes that although the "car had undoubtedly a few layers of paint, the two uppermost being American in origin... [t]here is ... no support for this story." He quotes a driver who sometimes drove for Hitler to the effect that "to the best of his knowledge, none of the cars were given camouflage paint — there being no other explanation for the alleged 'Luftwaffe green'." Indeed, the type of vehicle possessed by the CWM was not usually used for field trips at all, which instead were the domain of another type of Mercedes, the much heavier six-wheeled Mercedes 770-G. "In any event," observes Kosche, "it is more likely that the colour would have been Army green rather than Luftwaffe grey."12

12 Claude Pratte offered the car to the CWM towards the end of October 1969. As Lee Murray wrote to his superior, Dr William Taylor, Director of the National Museum of Man*, on 3 November: "A gentleman from Quebec City has offered to make available to us, either by loan or gift, Field Marshal Goering's Staff car." Murray considered it to be "a very valuable historical item, and its acquisition would be very timely as it could become one of the chief features of our V-E Day display."13

13 This appears to have been the only justification necessary for the CWM to acquire the car. Like many other museums at this time the CWM had no acquistions policy and no formally constituted collections committee that vetted artifacts proposed to be brought into the collection. Indeed, the CWM had only moved into its new museum quarters at 330 Sussex Drive in Ottawa two years earlier. With only 67 000 artifacts in the collection, the primary impetus amongst museum staff at the time was to increase this number, the result being the close to half a million objects that the CWM has in its collection today. Inevitably, a large number of items came into the collection in this era that, while they were related to the general theme of warfare in the twentieth century, lacked that specific association with Canada's involvement in this warfare that has become the prime concern of today's collecting priorities. Examples are a large number of Soviet artillery pieces, two early marks of German Panzers, an Italian Carro Veloce 33 "tankette," and a turret off an American M-48 tank, none of which have any specifically Canadian reference at all. Probably the most prominent and well-known example, however, is Goering's, later, Hitler's, car.14

14 Pratte himself wrote on 10 November enclosing details of "Goering's bullet proof car that were given to me when I bought the car from Mr H. J. O'Connell."15 As these materials were very skimpy, however, over the following number of months the CWM attempted to obtain more information about the car, and also to find someone qualified to do the evaluation that was necessary to issue a gift tax receipt. It is interesting to note that almost from the beginning the CWM seems to have not been prepared to accept the car's attribution to Goering at face value, and looked for some means of associating it with Hitler. Thus in a letter to R. J. Rumble of 14 November 1969, requesting whatever additional information he had on the car, Lee Murray wrote: "In collaboration with the owner of the Second World War German Staff car that was reputed to have belonged to Adolf Hider... this Museum is attempting to piece together the history of the car and to evaluate its present worth—both as an antique car and as a relic of the Second World War."16 Note that there is no reference at all in this letter to the car's established reputation as having been associated with Goering. And a letter written a few months later to the potential evaluator, E. A. Jurist, President of the Vintage Car Store of New York, N.Y., Murray wrote: "This is one of seven [cars] delivered to German Army Headquarters in 1940, and which have since become known as 'Hitler' cars because it was in one or more of these large, armour-plated, open touring limousines that the German leader usually rode on ceremonial occasions." This letter noted only that the car was "reported to have been assigned to Field Marshal Goering." Whether there were solid historical reasons for such doubts, or whether they arose from wishful thinking is not certain, although one suspects the latter. For his part, Rumble attempted to correct what he perceived to be Murray's deviancy on the issue by repeating the received mythology: "There were seven of these units purchased in 1940 by the German Army Headquarters and this particular car was then issued to Goering, not Adolf Hitler as stated in the first paragraph of your letter. These facts were substantiated by the serial number, etc. and [sic] was used as his personal staff car."17

15 Rumble did supply one piece of critical information that up to that point had not been known — the car's factory serial number of 429334. He had taken it down, along with other technical data, off a plate attached to the car's bulkhead firewall. This discovery was "a big breakthrough," wrote Murray, and he immediately had it cabled off to the Daimler-Benz plant in Stuttgart hoping to receive more detailed information on the history of the car.18 The German Company did not respond, however, with Murray commenting wryly in a letter to Pratte of 29 January 1970: "I have noticed a reluctance in many Germans to admit they were around at all during the Second World War, and have a feeling that the same is true of this company."19 Finally, when by 11 February they had still not heard, Murray wrote for help to the German ambassador in Ottawa, Dr J. F. Ritter. "The Museum is extremely interested in a Mercedes Benz type 770 car which is in Canada," he wrote:

It is one of seven of these magnificent vehicles which were purchased by German Army Headquarters in 1940 and issued for service. The one that we are interested in is vehicle number 429334 and carries the original military license place [sic] 1Av148697. [Note that the license plate number was known this early, despite claims by Kosche that it was not revealed until 1980.] Part of the legend surrounding the car is that it was assigned for the use of Reichs Marshal Goering [sic].20

16 This at last produced results. The Embassy contacted the Ministry of Defence in Bonn, which in turn approached Mercedes Benz. The result was the first substantiated piece of historical documentation that was ever acquired on the car. The Embassy's military attaché, Colonel G. E. Stamp, wrote to Murray on 12 June:

It was confirmed by Mercedes Benz, Stuttgart, that the car in question had been delivered to the adjutancy of Adolf Hitler on 8 July 1940. It could not been [sic] found out whether the car had been used by Hermann Goring himself, but it is possible.

Additionally they found that the car had been sent to Daimler-Benz Company for repairs on 19 April, 1943 and was returned to Adolf Hitler's adjutancy again on 15 September 1943.

A photocopy of the factory worksheet was enclosed.21

17 In the meantime, a number of correspondents had been expressing doubts concerning the car's presumed affiliation with Hermann Goering. Thus on 17 February, when delivering his evaluation, Jurist contended that a:

... mistaken impression which has gained publicity is that each of the high-ranking members of the military and political staff of the Third Reich was assigned a particular 770K. Nothing could be further from the truth. The government provided car pools for visiting dignitaries who drew vehicles from these pools during their various visits to areas where parades or other public or private events were being held. However, several cars were assigned for Hitler's use ...22

18 On 16 June, the CWM's deputy chief curator, Ralph Manning, described the car in a briefing note for Olive Dickason, then of the Public Relations office of the National Museum of Man, as a "Mercedes Benz armoured staff car that was delivered to the adjutancy of Adolf Hitler on 8 July 1940 — one of the famous 'Hitler' staff cars." Manning evidently felt no need to draw attention to the car's association with Goering.

19 As has been seen, the CWM's acquisition of the car was completed on 15 May 1970, when Pratte was sent his gift tax receipt. The vehicle was not delivered to the CWM until September, as in the interim, at the special request of Mayor Jean Drapeau, it was put on show at the Man and His World exhibition in Montreal, a carry-over from the famous World Exposition of three years earlier. It is interesting to note that here it was displayed without qualification as "Hitler's Car."23

20 Despite the tendencies noted above to dissociate the car from Goering, when finally put on display at the CWM the vehicle was identified as "Goering's Staff Car." The caption, written by resident CWM historian, John Swettenham, repeated the known fact that it was delivered to Hitler's headquarters on 8 July 1940. It then introduced the slight qualification that "it is said to have been issued to Reichsmarschall Goering." It did, however, repeat the stories of its having had eighteen coats of paint, with Luftwaffe green for field trips and black for state occasions, and that it had been captured in 1945 by the 101st Airborne Division.24 Although there already were some doubts about these stories, both outside and inside the CWM, and in retrospect we know that this information was almost completely false, in fairness it must be said that the caption did reflect the prevailing weight of "expert" opinion on the car to that date. Evidently prepared to be hung for a sheep as for a lamb on the issue, the CWM even went to the trouble of putting fake number or registration plates on the car with the number WL-148697 — the initials WL being those of the Luftwaffe! This included painting this bogus number over the number on the car's one original registration plate at the rear!

21 On 14 September 1971 the CWM received a letter from Ottawa resident Collett Calverley casting further doubt on the association of the car with Goering. Calverley wrote expressly "to contest the claim that the vehicle was used by Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering." Although avowing that it was "always unpleasant to shatter delusions" he drew attention to the fact that the British already had a Mercedes, captured at Bad Homburg in 1945, that they claimed to have been Goering's. And noting that the British car had three door hinges, whereas the CWM's had only two, he argued: "Assuming the Nazi hierarchy was supplied 'from the top down,' and assuming there was a valid reason for changing the number of door hinges on the series of vehicles ... would it not be reasonable to conclude that the earlier models were more heavily armoured than later ones and that the Canadian one would fall into a more lightly armoured, later, and therefore more junior position in the series."25

22 Despite the weakness of Calverley's arguments his letter seems to have provoked a momentary flurry of doubt and reappraisal within the CWM. Thus Manning wrote to Murray on 17 September:

You know my feelings on the so-called "Goering" car we have. We have nothing to link it to him; nor do we have any worthwhile supporting evidence for its having been painted Luftwaffe green. This legend originated with Rumble Motors in Toronto, who did the overhaul in Toronto, and they wouldn't know Luftwaffe green from Wehrmacht green. I did at one time suggest a method by which the colour might be tested but [a staff member's] sickness has kept it from being pursued.

Should not John S[wettenham] prepare the reply — he prepared the caption?

Murray replied back two days later: "Ask John to prepare reply and maybe we should make our own test as suggested by you."26

23 Manning's plan as outlined to Swettenham in mid-November involved the removal of a paint chip from the car and then comparing it with a chip from another item in the collection "known to be still painted with Luftwaffe green." He also asked Swettenham to "carry the ball on this." Swettenham responded testily to Lee Murray on 23 November:

1. Ralph can hardly fob this one off on me.

2. He ... was behind this project all through. You will recall that it was Hitler's car until he changed it to Goering's at a meeting.

3. I wrote the label from research material which he supplied and there is a note of caution in it — the car "is said to have been issued" to Goering.

Swettenham's remarks suggest that CWM staff had been on the verge of identifying the car with Hitler, and that it was only Manning's reservations that prevented them from doing so. If this indeed was the case then Manning, who had strong personal doubts of his own about the attribution of the car to Goering, was clearly not yet willing to let these doubts influence the historical message that the museum presented about the car to the public.

24 Meanwhile, the CWM's letter to Calverley of 5 November, presumably written by Swettenham but bearing Murray's signature, pointed out that "we have been careful to caption this specimen as 'said to have been issued to Hermann Goring' — which may seem somewhat disingenuous in light of the fact that the caption was headed 'Goering's Staff Car'." Swettenham went on to observe that the possibility of the car being Goering's was "enhanced" by its having alternate coats of black and Luftwaffe green paint, "thus supporting the premise that it was used by a high Air Force officer when visiting units in the field."

25 Whether or not the test on the paint chips was ever carried out is not recorded. In any case, Swettenham's caption, identifying the car as Goering's, was that which visitors to the CWM continued to read for the next decade, and the artifact continued to be known to most, both inside and outside the museum, as Goering's car. Indeed, the February 1974 British periodical After the Battle ran an article on the car entitled "Hermann Goering's Mercedes Benz." This article repeated most of the myths and legends that had accumulated concerning the car that linked it to Goering, and a photograph clearly shows the CWM's faked registration plate of WL-148697.27 Eight years later this same publication was to carry Ludwig Kosche's corrected version, that for the first time told the real story of the car.

26 Although his official position was as the CWM's librarian, Kosche had an M.A. in History besides his library degree and while at the CWM his interests went well beyond the holdings of the library. He was perhaps especially well suited for a study of the Mercedes, in that he was of German origin, and his command of the language permitted a thorough sifting of German sources.

27 By November 1979 plans were afoot to move the car from the CWM's Third Floor to the Second Floor Galleries. Victor Suthren, then the museum's chief of exhibits, noted in a memorandum to museum historian Bernard Pothier of 1 November that it "seems to need a new caption," and asked Pothier to undertake it.28 When completed, Pothier's own caption contained no reference to Goering at all, which probably reflected growing doubts on this point amongst CWM staff. Instead it was entitled simply "German Staff Car, 1940-45." While it contained no specific references to the Reichsmarschall, the new caption did, nonetheless, repeat the hoary old tale of its being painted with eighteen alternating coats of Luftwaffe green and black paint, to be "used alternatively for Luftwaffe field inspections and for state occasions." And its capture was still attributed to the 101st Airborne Division.29

 28 In his comments on the caption, Ralph Manning reverted to suggested emphases that he had not raised since the car had been first acquired back in 1970. "Could we not get in here that this is one of the so-called 'Hitler staff cars'? of which there were eight?", he asked Pothier on 11 January 1980. He then went on to repeat his earlier opinion that "This Luftwaffe green was made up out of whole cloth by the car dealer in Toronto... "30 And earlier, probably in response to a memo from Lee Murray questioning the absence of any reference to Coering in the caption, Manning wrote: "we have been unable to come up with one tittle of evidence that our German staff car had any particular relationship to the Field Marshal. I think we should drop the reference in any caption."31

29 It was probably concerns such as these that inspired Kosche to begin his research on the car. Kosche was helped immeasurably by an action the CWM took in 1980 before he began to work. The layer of paint that had been applied to the car's original registration plate at the back was removed to reveal the original number underneath — 1 Av148697. (Although in fact the number had only been obscured since the car was first put on exhibition in 1971, and the CWM had been well aware of it before then.) The uncovering of this number was to prove crucial to Kosche, and was to enable him, along with the car's original factory production number, to search out more specific information on the car than anybody had found before. He was to prove conclusively that it had in fact been used by Hitler himself and not by Goering.

30 Kosche's investigations revealed that the 1A in the registration number denoted a Berlin location, and that the superscript letter v (in red) became mandatory soon after the outbreak of war in September 1939 for all vehicles that were not affiliated with such official bodies as the army, airforce, police, and postal service. This was in fact proof that the car was not used by the military, and perhaps most significantly for our purposes, not by the Luftwaffe.

31 Furthermore, and probably most helpfully, Kosche discovered a number of photographs showing Hitler actually riding in the car. One, taken eleven days after the car's arrival at the Reichs Chancellery, shows the Nazi leader riding in its front passenger seat on his way to make a speech at the Kroll Opera House, the substitute Reichstag. All the physical details of this car are similar to the CWM's, except minor ones that could easily have been altered later, such as black out lights and metal covers for the spare tires, and the registration number 1 Av148697 clearly visible.32 Other photographs show Hitler using the car on 10 September 1941 during a visit to Marienbad to meet the visiting ruler of Hungary, Admiral Horthy; on 28 November 1941 when he attended the funeral of the fighter ace Werner Môlders; and on 15 March 1942 when he arrived at the Zeughaus in Berlin to make an address. The latter is the last known occasion that Hitler used the car.

32 The next documented reference is for 19 April 1943 when, as noted, it was sent back to the Daimler-Benz plant for repairs. There is no record of what the problem was, and the vehicle was returned to the Reichs Chancellery on 15 September. Thereafter all references to it ceased until it was captured by Sergeant Azara at Laufen, in May 1945.33

33 Azara was able to use the car only briefly before it was taken over by one of his superior officers of the 20th Armored Division, Brigadier General Cornelius Daly. For the latter's use it was painted olive drab and provided with the marking of a large white star, which was the distinguishing mark born by all vehicles used in the Western Allied armies. It is interesting to note that recent conservation work has revealed the "barely visible outline of a star" in the centre of the fabric roof, its presence being verified by infra-red photography. This doubtless dates from its period of use by General Daly, and confirms that this roof is the original.34These were the colours and markings the car bore when it was shipped to the United States.

34 After its arrival in Boston on 8 August 1945, an article in that city's Daily Globe was headlined: "Goering's Auto Bullet Proof to protect Fat Marshal's Hide." The newspaper ran some photographs of the car, one of which, showing the dashboard and the inside surface of the windscreen, appeared later in the Newsweek magazine of 20 August. The caption noted that "there were three broken points on the windscreen with veins or cracks running from each, unquestionably where someone had taken a pot-shot at Hermann or some American G.I. had tried to find out if that glass were really bullet proof." Clearly the damage evident in the photograph exactly matches that on the windscreen of the CWM's car today, confirming that the two cars were indeed one and the same. In addition, the reading on the car's broken odometer upon its arrival in the United States was 13 900 kilometres, precisely the same as that on the CWM's car, the gauge evidently having never been subsequently repaired.35

35 The car's subsequent history has been outlined above, from its sale at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1956 to a Canadian collector, its donation for a tax receipt to the CWM in 1970, and the subsequent quandaries experienced within the museum as to the precise history of the car. Kosche's article, which answered most historical questions about the car, and firmly identified it with Adolf Hitler, was published in February 1982. The wheels of CWM bureaucracy revolved slowly, however, and it was not until a year and a half later that revisions were made to the caption that accompanied the car in the galleries, which still linked it to Goering. The new caption, which was ready in April 1984, finally identified the car with Hitler. "Photographic evidence shows that Adolf Hitler made use of it at least until 1942," it read, and its capture was at last correctly attributed to the U.S. 20th Armored.

36 Work then proceeded on constructing an exhibit space deemed appropriate to the display of the newly significant artifact. In September 1986 its opening was announced, and Kosche's discoveries about the car emphasized, in a CWM press release. "A Bavarian streetscape and two German officers provide a new backdrop for the Canadian War Museum's 7.7 litre Grosser Mercedes," it proclaimed. "Once attributed to Hermann Goering, the sleek Daimler-Benz armoured convertible has now been positively identified as Adolf Hitler's personal staff car ... Archival research by a former librarian has matched the car's original number plate (later overpainted) with the German police registration number 1Av148697."

37 The car sits in the CWM's Second Floor Gallery in front of its mock Bavarian Streetscape to this day. A visually striking and impressive artifact, it is one that visitors to the museum tend to remember — not infrequently to the exclusion of anything else. Thus in an interview with J. L. Granatstein just before he took up his appointment as CWM Director General and Chief Executive Officer in mid-1998, it was the only CWM artifact that CBC Ottawa host John Lacharity could remember. Moreover, in an article on the holdings of Ottawa Museums published in April 1998, the Globe and Mail chose to run a photo of it in preference to all the other artifacts that the CWM has on display.36 It is doubtful mat the car would have the same effect if it were still identified as belonging to Goering.

38 Thus while the artifact itself remained the same, its identification with Hitler not only greatly increased its monetary value, but transformed its significance, both for the museum itself and for the visiting public. It is not, of course, that the car as an artifact provided any more insight into the nature of Hitler's persona or policies than it did into Goering's. But its positive identification as a car that had been used by the Führer himself imputed to it new meanings and levels of significance that transcended its status as a car, even one with a known Nazi provenance. This, of course, takes us beyond material history as we know it, and closer perhaps to the world of the personality cult and the collector. Still it is a constant of museum life that, however intrinsically fascinating a piece is in its own right, a perceived association with a famous or infamous figure tends to enhance its interest to the public. And this in turn can provide the museum with a useful tool that can help to explain historical developments and the unfolding of historical events.

39 This is what the CWM hoped it could do with Hitler's car. By situating the car against the setting of the Bavarian streetscape, replete with other tangible icons of the Nazi era, such as swastika banners and a mannequin in an SS uniform, it hoped to focus attention on the rise of Nazism and its significance for the origins of the Second World War. But the presence of the sleek black roadster and the accompanying Nazi paraphernalia was in fact criticized for glamourizing the Nazi regime. And doubtless the car and the exhibit did evoke what might be termed the Leni Riefenstahl view of Hitler, with its emphasis on adulating crowds, torchlight parades, and Nuremberg rallies, more than on the Hitler of military aggression, racist politics, and the Holocaust. The Museum responded to these criticisms eight years ago by adding a backdrop of photographs from the death camps to emphasize the horrific consequences of Hitler and Naziism. Yet, as noted, the car is a powerful enough presence that it is still the memory of it, and its associations with Hitler, that often predominate amongst visitors' recollections of the museum — possibly an uncomfortable reminder of the fascination that items associated with Hitler and the Third Reich continue to exert.

40 As has been seen, the car was acquired in an earlier more free-wheeling and opportunistic era in the history of museum collecting. It probably would not be acquired today, when much more tightly focused collecting policies are the rule. The specific mandate of the CWM, of course, is Canadian military history, with which Hitler's car has only a minimal association. The car can in ways be seen as a testament to the possible pitfalls inherent in displaying artifacts obtained under less focused circumstances, especially if, like Hitler's car, they have prominent and evocative associations with important historical developments that go beyond the specific thematic emphasis of the museum. If not handled carefully, they can draw unwanted attention, possibly at the expense of the museum's main message. The problem for the CWM, then, remains that of reconciling the car's undoubted visual impact and interest to visitors with the equally undoubted interpretative and pedagogical problems that its presence in the museum creates. It remains to be seen whether such reconciliation can be achieved.

NOTES:

1 Ludwig Kosche, "Story of a Car," After the Battle (1982): 1-13.

2 Ibid., 2

3 CWM Artifact File 19700158-001, R. J. Rumble, Rumble Pontiac Buick Ltd, Toronto, to L. F. Murray, CWM, 27 November 1969.

4 Kosche, "Story of a Car," 4.

5 Ibid., 5.

6 Ibid., 7-8.

7 Ibid., 9.

8 Ibid.,4-5.

9 See CWM Conservation File, Condition Report and Treatment Record, 12700158 Grosser Mercedes, Leslie Redman, 23 October 1996.

10 CWM Artifact File 19790158-001, R. J. Rumble to L. F. Murray, 27 November 1969.

11 Kosche, "Story of a Car," 9. Unfortunately, the letter where Rumble makes the claim about the eighteen layers of paint is missing from CWM files.

12 Ibid.

13 CWM Artifact File, 19700158-001, Lee Murray to Dr W. E. Taylor, re Field Marshal Goering's Staff Car, 3 November 1969

14 For more on this era in the history of CWM collecting see Cameron Pulsifer, "The Canadian War Museum: Past, Present, and Future?", 20 March 1998, unpublished manuscript on file, CWM.

15 Ibid., Claude Pratte to R. V. Manning, CWM, 10 November 1969.

16 Ibid., L. F. Murray to Rumble Motors, Toronto, 14 November 1969.

17 Ibid., R. J. Rumble to L. F. Murray, 27 November 1969.

18 Ibid., L. F. Murray to R. J. Rumble, 2 December 1969; Canadian War Museum to Daimler Benz, Stuttgart, Cablegram, 2 December 1969.

19 Ibid., L. F. Murray to Claude Pratte, 29 January 1970.

20 Ibid., L. F. Murray to His Excellency Dr J. F. Ritter, Ambassador of Germany, 11 February 1970.

21 Ibid., G. E. Stamp. Col. Air, Military and Naval Attaché, German Embassy, Ottawa, to Canadian War Museum, 12 June 1970.

22 Ibid., E. A. Jurist, Vintage Car Store Inc., to L. F. Murray, 17 February 1970.

23 Ibid., C. Pratte to C. J. Mackenzie, Secretary General, National Museums, 25 May 1970; on its being displayed as "Hitler's Car" see Kosche, "Story of a Car," 10.

24 CWM Artifact File 19700158-001, "Goering's Staff Car," caption, 1970-1980.

25 Ibid., Collett Calverley to The Curator, Canadian War Museum, 14 September 1971.

26 Ibid., Ralph Manning to Lee Murray, re The "Goering" Car, 17 September 1971; Murray to Manning, 19 September 1971.

27 "Hermann Goering's Mercedes Benz," After the Battle, no. 5 (February 1974): 52-53.

28 CWM Artifact File, 19700158-001, V. Suthren to B. Pothier, 1 November 1979.

29 Ibid., German Staff Car, 1940-1945, caption.

30 Ibid., Ralph Manning to Bernard Pothier, 11 January 1980.

31 Ibid., Ralph Manning to Lee Murray, 27 November 1979.

32 Ibid., see esp. facing p. 1 for photograph, and p. 3.

33 Ibid., 4.

34 CWM Conservation File, Condition Rep[ort] and Treatment Proposal, 19700158-001, Daimler Benz AG, Helen Holt, no date (treatment still underway).

35 Ibid., 6-7.

36 "Picasso on the Side," Globe and Mail, 15 April 1998.

[webdesignmains]

Elyon beta dates

#Elyon beta dates Pc

#Elyon beta dates free

#Elyon beta dates Pc

Dimensional Portals will lead you to planes of rich resources that will help you become stronger.Įlyon is coming to PC ( Steam) in Fall 2021.CBT2 participants can expect a build more closely aligned with its Korean counterpart, with features not available in CBT1.

#Elyon beta dates free

Dungeons, Arenas and Dimensional Portals: Enjoy a variety of PvP and PvE content, from classic 1vs1 to Free For All arenas, to dungeons filled with clever mechanics.

When in conflict zones, players can claim Laurel Wreaths of Greed, allowing them to attack any player be it enemy or ally - but the use of such power comes with dire risks.

Open-world PvP: Players of opposing Realms can attack each other anywhere in the world.

Have unused materials? You can sell them via Trading and make a profit!

Gather, craft, and trade: Make your own high grade equipment and other consumables that will aid you in battle.

Top clans get to control Dimensional Portals and collect taxes from any player that enters them.

Clan Wars: Compete with other clans and establish yourself as the best of the best.

Realm vs Realm battles: Engage in large scale Realm vs Realm battles with the assistance of heavy artillery, mechas, and dragons!.

Deep skill customization: Modify the way your skills and character respond with Skill Attributes, Rune Attributes, and Mana Awakening.

Want to go the extra mile? Take your look to the next level with the Equipment Dye system.

Extensive character customization: Create your own unique character with extensive customization tools and detail-oriented options.

By purchasing Additional Packages users will be able to secure up to a 72-hour head start, an exclusive weapon, and an exclusive armor set. Those who pre-order Elyon will enjoy exclusive pre-order rewards, guaranteed CBT2 access and a 24-hour head start on release.

Localization in English, French, Spanish and German.

Improved game service platform and infrastructure for Western market players.

Events specifically for CBT2 participants.

Easier leveling via increased XP for killing monsters at a certain power level.

Dungeons are now divided into solo and party dungeons.

Players can enjoy a variety of challenging battle experiences in new dimensional portals.

Class balance adjustments and updated Mana Awakening skills.

Those selected to join the Elyon CBT2 will be informed of their invitation via email.ĬBT2 will offer a version significantly closer to that of the Korean build, with features including: Kakao Games announced that the 2nd Closed Beta (CBT2) play period for Elyon will run from August 18th to the 23rd across North America, Europe, and Oceania.Īpplications for CBT2 are now open to the public until August 11th, with pre-orders also going live today.Ī substantially higher number of applicants will be accepted to participate in this second testing event, which will occur from August 18th to the 23rd. Players can even create their own quests, alter their hunting grounds, and change the difficulty when battling monsters in dungeons or hunting areas. An airship, for instance, can have its type, appearance, color, and performance modified. Most of Elyon’s content is highly customizable, allowing players to tailor detailed aspects of their play experience and unleash their creativity. The combination of ground-based and aerial combat makes each fight challenging and dynamic. Various strategic weapons such as cannons, mines, and attack buffs are at each faction’s disposal to tip the balance in their favour. Players can also join the fight from the ground with mechs and anti-air artillery to fight airborne threats―or initiate ground based aerial attacks depending on the map and strategy. In RvR, factions fight for fame and glory, taking turns to lead offensive and defensive efforts using all kinds of flying vehicles. Vehicles and mounts in Elyon serve more than just the purpose of transportation they will also provide adventurers with the ultimate battle experience― Elyon’s Realm vs Realm PvP mode. In search of a new home, adventurers take to the skies using a wide selection of airships, vehicles, and flying mounts to traverse Elyon’s open, highly vertical world. Elyon takes place in a high fantasy steampunk world where machines and magic rule and everyone is dependent on flight to explore, travel, and conquer.

[xtruss]

Project director Haïdar el Ali in Senegal: People need to be able to see the value in the project Foto: Stefan Kleinowitz / DER SPIEGEL

The Great Green Wall

Warding Off Desertification in Africa

Africa is suffering from increasing heat and droughts, even though the continent itself plays a very small role in causing climate change. Environmentalists are working on a massive project that will see the planting of a green belt leading from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.

— By Fritz Schaap | 08.12.2021 | Spiegel International

On a hot morning in July, and a man with a graying beard is crawling through the grass of the Sahel in northern Senegal. He joyfully picks up the seed of a zachun tree, then that of a baobab. Tiny seedlings are emerging from the ground in one of the poorest and most drought-stricken regions on Earth. "It's working," says Haïdar el Ali. Then he kneels down in front of the sapling of an acacia tree and emits an almost childlike laugh. "Without us, this grass and these young trees wouldn’t be here."

They are also el Ali's trees. Based on his advice, the communities here near the village of Kodiolal have enclosed large areas of land, with the fences stretching for several kilometers. They are there to prevent large herds of cattle from eating up the grass and the saplings, thus expediting desertification. Overgrazing is an important factor in the desertification of the Sahel.

"People have far more cattle than they need," says el Ali. "They're status symbols." He wants to protect the small shoots from the voracious animals, because the trees, he believes, can save this land.

El Ali is one of the best-known environmentalists in Africa. He once served as the head of the Green Party in Senegal and has his country's environment minister, in addition to planting millions of mangrove trees. He has had a new role since 2019: His job is to get the Senegalese part of the continent’s largest environmental project up and running again. It’s called the Great Green Wall.

The idea is simple: A gigantic green belt south of the Sahara is supposed to stop the desertification and degradation of the land and help make the effects of the devastating droughts more bearable. The Great Green Wall is to extend from Senegal in the west of Africa to Djibouti in the east, a length of around 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) and about 15 kilometers wide. The belt is expected to sequester 250 million tons of carbon dioxide and create 10 million green jobs. The majority of the planting is to be completed by 2030. For years, the project had been plagued by a lack of money, but in January, the international community pledged around $14 billion, nearly half of the $33 billion the African Union says will be needed to complete the wall by 2030.

African governments are increasingly recognizing the need to take action on climate policy and abandon their victim role. South Africa, for example, continues to rely on coal-fired power plants, but introduced a promising carbon tax for industrial plants in 2019. The Noor Power Station, set to become the world’s largest solar power plant, is currently under construction in Morocco. And Nigeria aims to generate almost one-third of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030.

But agriculture plays the decisive role on the continent. Many farmers are suffering from the increasingly long periods of heat and drought, but they are also contributing to the crisis. According to the World Bank, agriculture is responsible for 80 percent of water consumption in the Middle East and Africa, which is another reason that reforestation projects are so important.

There are quite a number of success stories. In Niger, for example, farmers have found an inexpensive and effective way of greening the Sahel: They don’t plant new trees, they simply protect the saplings that sprout from existing root networks. The farmers take care of the trees that then grow on their farmlands. This method is called farmer-managed natural regeneration.

A protected tree in Kodiolal: Fruit can be an additional way to make money. Foto: Stefan Kleinowitz / DER SPIEGEL

Around 5 million hectares have already been greened in this way across the country. Through their roots, the trees ensure a rising water table. They also provide shade, improve the quality of the soil by fertilizing it with their decaying leaves and offer farmers an additional source of income with their fruits. The soil also stores more carbon. Agroforestry, the name given for the combining of agriculture and reforestation, is one of the most promising methods of combating land degradation and the effects of drought, according to Chris Reij, a researcher at the World Resources Institute.

In Ethiopia, terracing has shown great promise. Water is used more effectively, and soil erosion is stopped. The groundwater level in the valley also rises as a result, making irrigation possible even during the dry season.

The traditional "Zaï" planting method has been further developed in Burkina Faso. Deep holes are hacked into the hard soil, seeds are planted and then covered with manure, leaves, ash and soft soil. Small stone dams are used to store rainwater, which is then diverted and used for irrigation. This has allowed extensive, dense vegetation to develop. It tends to be the simple things that work.

But it is questionable whether new irrigation techniques and water recycling can be applied on a mass scale, given how costly and technology reliant they are. In the Sahel, especially, the problem is becoming more pressing. The region is suffering more than almost any other from climate change, with the air is warming up here one-and-a-half times faster than the global average. The weather is becoming more extreme, with prolonged droughts and unpredictable rainfall, with occasional torrential downpours eroding the soil. Around 155 million people live in the countries of the Sahel, a figure that could rise to 340 million by 2050. The population is dependent on agriculture, but a wall of trees to help these people seemed unfeasible in many of parts of the Sahel.

"We had to change the plan," says Haïdar el Ali, the environmentalist from Senegal. Instead of planting a real wall of trees at the edge of the desert, as originally planned, it will now be more of a green mosaic. The measures implemented, he says, have to be compatible with the lives of the people who live in the region. More than anything, though, he says, it's a matter of making up for a lost decade.

El Ali and co-workers: Simply giving out seedlings is of little help. Foto: Stefan Kleinowitz / DER SPIEGEL

El Ali's idea for the area around the village of Kodiolal in northern Senegal looks as follows: Instead of just letting their herds freely roam the land, the cowherds fenced it in, cut the grass themselves and gave it to their cattle as food. This protects the tree saplings. And more trees mean better soil and lower temperatures, and thus more food for the animals in the long run. "This is something people can see," says el Ali. "They can recognize the added value right away." He says that simply giving out seedlings is of little help, because without protection, they usually die.

In Kodiolal, the elders share their memories of how dense the trees used to be in their youth, how large the leaves were, how cool the shade they provided. How abundant the rain had been and how robust the cattle were. And how this changed already in the 1970s and how dusty wind has now become a part of their everyday lives. "This used to be a paradise, but now it’s becoming hell," says Haïdar el Ali. Without the Green Wall, the mayor explains, many people would already have fled. But now, many cattle herders are staying on permanently. As a consequence, their children are able to attend school regularly.

Making up for a lost decade: Helpers use slingshots to spread seeds in Senegal Foto: Stefan Kleinowitz / DER SPIEGEL

"In the beginning, the shepherds thought their land was being stolen. It took years of discussions before they accepted the project," el Ali says as he walks through the grass. "But now they see that they can also sell the fruits from the trees." At the same time, it’s also clear that he cannot stretch the fences like the ones he has built around protected areas here in northern Senegal from the west of the continent to the east. Fencing of land is only scalable to a limited degree.

He is also aware that the Green Wall is growing more slowly than hoped. The project has been suffering from corruption, mismanagement and bad planning for years. In addition, the fight against climate change isn’t particularly high on the list of priorities for people living in poor and often war-torn and unrest-ridden countries in the Sahel zone. Experts consider the large-scale planting of trees to be unrealistic, especially in sparsely populated areas.

Indeed, nine years before the scheduled deadline for completing the Green Wall, the challenges remain daunting. So far, 4 million hectares of land have been reforested, only 4 percent of the area planned. If reforested areas outside the official Green Wall corridor are included, the total comes to around 18 million hectares.

Haïdar el Ali knows he needs to apply pressure. "Time is the big problem," he says. He drives past a trampled fence, where a herd of several hundred cattle is grazing in an area that is actually designated for protection. His companions drive the cattle off the site. The shepherd grins when el Ali confronts him, saying the grass looked better behind the fence.

In the past, people used to always drive their cattle wherever they wanted, says el Ali. "It’s not easy to change centuries-old habits." But that, too, is an essential part of the battle against climate change.

[joanprimmer21]

SALE PROCEEDS FOR EXCHANGES

The Intermediary has to hold these resources to prevent “constructive receipt” problems.

Furniture, equipment, a few possessions and other private property transferred together with the Relinquished Property or the Replacement Property isn’t “like type” to property, and can be treated as transported unless the Replacement Property includes “like type” furniture, equipment, or other private property. When it’s treated as boot, then you have to pay tax on its own worth.

The title into the Replacement Property has to be accepted by precisely the same proprietor of the Relinquished Property. The replacement property ought to be acquired with the aim to hold. A disposition in a couple of years after receipt could call in to question the intent to maintain.

In Texas, a Realtor may work as an intermediary for those performing 1031 exchanges and doesn’t practice law or bookkeeping. You have to depend on the advice and counsel of your own tax advisor and/or lawyer for this foreign exchange trade. real estate stephenville tx

You have to compose a letter that identifies each the possible replacement properties to Your Texas 1031 Exchanges Realtor or the right party to the trade within 45 times after the transfer of the Relinquished Property. Buy of the Replacement Property Has to be performed within 180 times after the transfer of the Relinquished Property. The legislation permits couple extensions (catastrophe or combat zone support). Any property obtained as Replacement Property has to be contained at the 45 day identification letter mentioned previously.

If you spot Replacement Property within the 45 — day trial interval and purchase a few but not all the property you have diagnosed with no constraints, then you shouldn’t withdraw any residual funds from the exchange account before the 180-day exchange interval is finished. Inappropriate withdrawal in the trade account destroys the trade.

Therefore, to be secure, the capital should not be removed before the expiry of the replacement interval or until all qualified properties are bought. Repairs or improvements made into the Replacement Property once you get the titles don’t count as a portion of the expense of the Replacement Property for trade functions. If repairs or improvements are essential, and should you will need the cost represented since the Replacement Property.

Then the Replacement Property must be originally deeded into the Qualified Exchange Accommodation Titleholder before the repairs are finished. To be included in the trade improvements have to have been finished from the 180th day of the market. Prepaid materials or labor costs don’t qualify. You will find additional fees when developments are created as a member of this market.

[debskilawohio]

Tax resources for military members, veterans and their families

The IRS has a variety of resources to help members of the military, veterans and their families navigate the unique and sometimes complex circumstances that come with filing taxes while in the military.

Here’s a list of some of the resources these taxpayers may find helpful.

Tax Information for Members of the Military is the main page on IRS.gov where people can go to find links to helpful info, resources and services.

It’s very important that members of the military know the rules for service. This can be done by email.

A taxpayer's military status affects whether they are eligible for certain benefits. Taxpayers can check their eligibility for military tax benefits by visiting IRS.gov. Qualifying employers include the Armed Forces, uniformed services and support organizations.

There are rules specific to those who serve in combat zones. These taxpayers and their families can find out more on the Tax Exclusion for Combat Service page of IRS.gov. They should also review special EITC rules. If these apply to their tax situation, it could lead to a larger refund.

The Armed Forces' Tax Guide is a comprehensive publication with info for military members. This includes:

Members of the military and qualifying veterans can prepare and e-file their taxes for free through MilTax. Taxpayers who do not qualify for MilTax have other options to prepare and e-file their federal taxes for free. Those who earned less than $72,000 in 2020 can use IRS Free File software. Any taxpayer, regardless of income, who is comfortable completing their tax forms digitally can use Free File Fillable Forms.

Most military posts offer free income tax assistance through the military Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. Military service members can contact their installation’s legal office for details. Veterans may also qualify for free tax help at locations nationwide. They just have to meet income or age requirements.

Special rules for military personnel serving abroad including deadline extensions

Unreimbursed moving expenses

Reserve component travel expenses

www.DebskiLawOhio.com

Source: www.IRS.gov

[williamtruax]

4 Things to Know About the October 15th Tax Extension Deadline

With the October 15th personal tax extension deadlines just a few weeks away, we wanted to share some important information you should consider when filing your tax returns. 2020 was a tumultuous and historic year that saw many changes to tax law and new incentives surrounding the pandemic. So, if you haven’t filed your 2020 taxes yet, now’s the time!

First, let’s have a look at the upcoming deadlines you should be aware of.

INDIVIDUAL DEADLINES

Oct 15: FINAL tax deadline for individuals who filed for an extension

Oct 15: Deadline to re-characterize 2020 Roth IRA conversions. If you converted a traditional IRA to a Roth during 2020 and paid tax on the conversion with your 2019 return (doing so could save you money if the IRA lost money since the time of the original conversion)

Next, let’s look at four things you should consider when filing your 2020 tax return.

Penalties & Interest May Be Due - Section 6651(a)(2) of the federal tax code specifies the deadline to actually pay your tax liability due for the year and there is no extension. If you fail to pay the balance owed for the year, you will be subject to a penalty of 0.5% for every month or fraction of a month that the tax payment is outstanding. The total penalty is capped at 25% of the total tax due but that penalty will keep mounting every month until you reach the maximum penalty (in about 50 months). On top of that, if you didn't extend and filed after the April 15th deadline plus pay your taxes late, you'll be charged both the late payment and late filing penalties for each month or fraction of a month they are late. That’s no small chunk of change!

Help Is Available If You Can't Pay - The best thing to do is file your taxes and pay the amount due by the filing date. If it’s not possible to pay the full amount there are a few options:

Apply for a payment plan

In a few special cases, you might be able to make an offer for a settlement, or Offer in Compromise

In severe cases where you have far too much debt, including tax debt, you might have to file for bankruptcy

Receiving a Refund -The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issues 9 out of 10 tax refunds in less than 21 days. The easiest way to check on a refund is by using “Where’s My Refund?,” an online tool available on IRS.gov or through the IRS2Go app. Updates to “Where's My Refund?” ‎on both IRS.gov and the IRS2Go mobile app are made once each day – usually overnight. Even though the IRS issues most refunds in less than 21 days, it’s possible a refund may take longer for a variety of reasons, including when a return is incomplete or needs further review. Bear in mind, the IRS only gives you 3 years from the original filing deadline to submit your return & claim your refund. If no action is taken by then, Uncle Sam gets to keep your money!

You May Have More Time to File - U.S. citizens and resident aliens who live and work outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico can write a letter to the IRS requesting a final two-month extension until December 15, 2021 to file their 2020 tax returns and pay any tax due. This is a discretionary extension and not automatically granted so it should only be used as a last resort. In addition, military service members and eligible support personnel serving in a combat zone have at least 180 days after they leave the combat zone to file their tax returns and pay any tax due. This includes those serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat zones.

If you have any questions about upcoming tax deadlines or would like help filing your return, please CONTACT US right away. Our certified tax professionals are here to help!

 NOTE: Due to the high volume of tax returns we process at this time of year, please contact us or send in your completed organizers right away. Otherwise, we may not have enough time to complete your return by the October 15th deadline.

[orbemnews]

Europe’s Bankruptcies Are Plummeting. That May Be a Problem. PARIS — Romain Rozier’s cafe should be bankrupt by now. Since the coronavirus hit last spring, sales at the once buzzing lunch spot in northern Paris are down 80 percent. The only customers on a recent day were a couple of UberEats couriers and a handful of people spaced far apart at the counter, ordering takeout. “We’re at death’s door,” Mr. Rozier said, tallying the 300 euros ($365) he had made from the lunch shift, well below the €1,200 he used to pull in. “The only reason we haven’t gone under is because of financial aid.” France and other European countries are spending enormous sums to keep businesses afloat during the worst recession since World War II. But some worry they’ve gone too far; bankruptcies are plunging to levels not seen in decades. While the aid has prevented a surge in unemployment, the largess risks turning swaths of the economy into a kind of twilight zone where firms are swamped with debt they cannot pay off but receiving just enough state aid to stay alive — so-called zombie companies. Unable to invest or innovate, these firms could contribute to what the World Bank recently described as a potential “lost decade” of stagnant economic growth caused by the pandemic. “We need to get off of all of these subsidies at some point — otherwise, we’ll have a zombie economy,” said Carl Bildt, co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former prime minister of Sweden. Bankruptcies fell 40 percent last year in France and Britain, and were down 25 percent on average in the European Union. Without government intervention, including billions in state-backed loans and subsidized payrolls, European business failures would have almost doubled last year, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private American organization. At the Commercial Court of Paris, Judge Patrick Coupeaud, who has handled bankruptcy cases for nearly a decade, sees the difference. “I have about a third fewer people coming to me, because many troubled businesses are being helped by the state,” he said, gesturing to the court’s nearly empty colonnaded marble halls. By contrast, Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the United States rose in the third quarter to the highest level since the 2010 financial crisis, a trend that is expected to continue in 2021, according to an index compiled by the U.S. law firm Polsinelli. President Biden has proposed a new $1.9 trillion rescue package to combat the economic downturn and the Covid-19 crisis, and last week, the government reported that 900,000 Americans had filed new unemployment claims. Those statistics are shaping a debate over whether Europe’s strategy of protecting businesses and workers “at all costs” will cement a recovery, or leave economies less competitive and more dependent on government aid when the pandemic recedes. “Parts of the misery have only been delayed,” said Bert Colijn, chief eurozone economist at the Dutch bank ING. He added that there would be “a catch-up in bankruptcies” and a spike in unemployment whenever support measures were withdrawn. Analysts say the government programs are already seeding the economy with thousands of inefficient businesses with low productivity, high debt and a high prospect of default once low interest rates normalize. An estimated 10 percent of companies in France were saved from bankruptcy because of government funds, according to Rexecode, a French economic think tank. Letting unviable businesses go under, while painful, will be essential for allowing competitive sectors to thrive, said Jeffrey Franks, the head of the International Monetary Fund’s mission for France. Updated  Jan. 24, 2021, 8:21 p.m. ET A wave of bankruptcies “is not something that’s necessarily so bad,” he said. “It’s part of the normal creative destruction process of regenerating economies.” The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is urging governments to fine-tune their support measures to ensure a revival in growth. “Failure to do so could hinder the recovery by trapping resources in nonproductive ‘zombie firms’ and jobs,” the organization said in a recent assessment. Most European governments planned to end support last autumn, figuring the coronavirus would be under control. But a second wave of cases has filled hospitals, followed by faster-spreading variants of the virus, all leading to extensions in aid. The European Union late last year approved a recovery package worth €2 trillion. In France, the investments are seen as a way of buying social stability by preventing mass unemployment. The finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has pledged to maintain the support “as long as the crisis lasts,” a strategy that he described as adding “spirituality” to the economy. Almost no businesses are being left out of the largess if they lobby hard enough — not even French escargot farmers, who recently won a battle for limited financial aid while restaurants that are their main buyers stay closed. As governments’ Covid debts skyrocket, European fiscal rules have been suspended. France is among several countries declaring that they don’t plan to pay down the enormous bill until the economy has mended. For now, financial aid is preventing the collapse of many once-healthy firms whose main misfortune was the pandemic. At the Paris Commercial Court, Judge Coupeaud said the measures had helped avoid a domino effect by encouraging businesses to use state-backed loans and other aid to pay suppliers and debts. France’s bankruptcy system is unlike those in other countries, in that it encourages troubled companies to come forward before default and offers help in negotiating with creditors. “Failure is not a word that the French like to use,” said Dominique-Paul Vallée, the judge at the court in charge of helping business owners avoid bankruptcy. “We prefer to say we are saving companies.” He added that there had been a sharp rise in firms going to him for help. Those that did file for bankruptcy protection in 2020 tended to be big companies with large work forces, such as the retailer Camaïeu, with 3,900 workers, and Alinea, a furniture maker with 2,000 employees. That was a shift from the small and medium-size business cases that the court typically hears. Still, the safety net extends only so far. Countless businesses face mounting debts, declining profitability and a limited capacity to invest the longer the pandemic lasts. Mr. Rozier is a case in point. He started his organic-themed cafe, Make Your Lunch, in 2016 in a bustling business and cultural district. The concept was so successful that he opened a second cafe near the high-traffic Paris Opera. After the pandemic hit, business plunged as offices that housed thousands of workers stood empty and remained largely unoccupied most of the year. The government helped pay the bulk of his employees’ salaries, and Mr. Rozier got a low-interest €30,000 state-backed loan with payments deferred until May, which the government last week extended for a year. After a new national lockdown in October, restaurants like his got an additional €10,000 a month in direct aid. But that money hasn’t made up for months of lost sales. “My treasury is drained,” said Mr. Rozier, who sold his cafe near the opera in the summer and spent much of the government loan paying off suppliers. With 80 percent fewer clients, he is three months behind on his €4,000 monthly rent, and he struggles to pay social security taxes, electricity and other expenses. The government allows restaurants to offer takeout only. Mr. Rozier has become an unofficial spokesman for restaurant owners who demand that the government let them seat patrons again, with social distancing, to survive. After the New Year’s holiday break, he said, his morale slumped when he reopened the business. “I waited. And I waited. And three people came in the door,” Mr. Rozier said. “At this point, there is a real danger I will have to close within a couple of months,” he continued. “I’d rather sell the business than have to go to bankruptcy court.” Two of his friends, also restaurant owners, have already declared bankruptcy. “There are many more that will follow in their footsteps,” Mr. Rozier said. “That we know for sure.” Antonella Francini contributed reporting. Source link #Bankruptcies #Europes #Plummeting #Problem

[advancetaxreliefexperts]

MISSED THE TAX DEADLINE EXTENSION?? LETS HELP YOU FILE YOUR BACK TAX RETURNS

You could be forgiven for missing your tax extension deadline. After all, it's 2020. You could be, but unfortunately, you won't. The IRS wants your return and your tax payment. They waited three extra months, and now they want Uncle Sam's cut.

This year, with the pandemic and all, Tax Day was delayed from April 15 to July 15. Everybody had an extra three months to get their taxes together. Some needed even more time than that. In a typical, non-2020 year, you would get six extra months to file when requesting an extension. This year, well, you only got three.

If you filed IRS Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, you have until the middle of October to file and pay your 2019 taxes.

Yep, the deadline for filing your taxes if you had an extension was October 15. And you missed it. Now what?

NEED HELP WITH OFFER IN COMPROMISE, TAX SETTLEMENTS, TAX PREPARATION, AUDIT REPRESENTATION OR STOP WAGE GARNISHMENTS?

ADVANCE TAX RELIEF LLC www.advancetaxrelief.com BBB A+ RATED CALL (713)300-3965

FAILURE TO FILE VS. FAILURE TO PAY

There are penalties for both failure to file your taxes and a failure to pay your taxes. One is harsher than the other.

Failure to pay taxes means you get to pay an extra 0.5% on the unpaid balance of your taxes.

Failure to file has a penalty of 4.5% on the unpaid balance. The upper limit on both is when interest reaches 25% of the amount due. On top of that, you accrue interest on your tax balance.

If you filed for an extension and then didn’t file by October 15, you will get hit with a failure to file. If you filed for an extension, filed your return on October 15, and then didn’t pay anything, that half-percent penalty may be raised. If you were able to pay a little bit towards your taxes on July 15, you might have saved yourself some interest at least, but that will be rapidly eaten up by the failure to file penalty.

Did You Get a Premium Tax Credit? The premium tax credit is to help pay for insurance. When you file for one, you need to file and pay as soon as possible, or you may lose it. You don’t have as much time as you do to file to get a tax refund.

What If You Are Due a Refund? If you’re due a refund, that's great. It means there is no failure to file a penalty because it doesn't apply in this case. The IRS is happy to keep your money if you don't want it back. Just don't file.

If, however, you do want your refund, you need to file your return. You won’t earn any added interest on your refund by letting the IRS keep it. And if you don’t file within three years, you won’t get that refund back at all.

What If You Owe Taxes? If you filed for an extension in July then missed filing by October 15, not only will interest continue to accrue on your tax debt, you will get hit with a failure to file penalty. As mentioned above, that one is more expensive than a failure to pay.

The best thing to do is to file as soon as possible, although that won't eliminate the penalty. If you can pay something, anything, toward your tax debt, so much the better. At the least, you can reduce the tax burden, which then accrues less interest and penalties.

Until you pay off the balance, interest, and penalties will continue to accrue. If you know you cannot pay your entire tax debt at once, the IRS offers payment agreements, both short and long-term. Contact the IRS as soon as possible to get one arranged.

You can take as little as 120 days to pay off the balance or as much as 72 months (5 years). Just remember that as long as there is a balance pending, it will continue to accrue interest and penalties. The failure to file penalty maxes out at 25% of your balance, but the lower you can make your balance, the better.

There are eligibility requirements, and you must be completely current on past tax return filings and payment.

If you know you cannot possibly pay the entire amount, you may be able to arrange an Offer in Compromise, which allows you to pay a lower amount.

Special Circumstances Believe it or not, the IRS does realize doing your taxes in a war zone or natural disaster is pretty impossible.

If you are a member of the military who has served or is currently serving in a combat zone, you get an additional extension of at least 180 days to file and pay taxes. Support personnel in combat zones or a contingency operation in support of the military may also be eligible for an added 180 days or more.

2020 has seen its share of disasters. Those in disaster situations from the California wildfires to the hurricanes in Louisiana qualify for more time to file and pay.

If you are out of the country at tax time, you may qualify and get two to four additional months to file.

2020 TAX YEAR

So you don’t find yourself in this spot in April 2021, start planning now. The federal government is unlikely to delay tax day again, so you need to get your next round of tax files ready within the next six months. That sounds like a lot, but, you know, we have HallowThanksMas to get through, so the rest of 2020 will fly by (we hope).

If you haven’t been setting aside documents and money, start now. Find all the documents you may need to file next Spring and put them in a folder or scan them into your computer. Then check your withholding at work to make sure it’s enough. If you work for yourself, keep up with your estimated tax payments.

GET TAX RELIEF HELP TODAY

If you think that you may need help filing your 2018/2019 tax return or past due tax returns, you may want to partner with a reputable tax relief company who can help you get the max refund and reduce your chances for an IRS AUDIT.

Advance Tax Relief is headquartered in Houston, TX with a branch office in Los Angeles, CA. We help many individuals just like you solve a wide variety of IRS and State tax issues, including penalty waivers, wage garnishments, bank levy, tax audit representation, back tax return preparation, small business form 941 tax issues, the IRS Fresh Start Initiative, Offer In Compromise and much more. Our Top Tax Attorneys, Accountants and Tax Experts are standing by ready to help you resolve or settle your IRS back tax problems.

Advance Tax Relief is rated one of the best tax relief companies nationwide.

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Financing a comprehensive and equitable COVID-19 response

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/financing-a-comprehensive-and-equitable-covid-19-response/

Financing a comprehensive and equitable COVID-19 response

By Mahmoud Mohieldin, Michael Kelleher Global economic leaders’ worst springtime prophecies have been proven true by autumn: COVID-19 is choking the world economy and compounding the suffering of our most vulnerable people. As the global death toll approaches 1 million, both the human and economic costs of the pandemic continue to worsen in the deepest recession since World War II, triggering the first increase in global poverty in a generation. Social distancing is causing a unique global supply shock, severely reducing investment in low-income nations, requiring vigorous and creative action. As we look back nostalgically at earlier anemic-but-positive growth projections, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now predicts a global economic contraction in 2020 of nearly 5 percent. Working-hour losses for the second quarter of 2020 relative to the last quarter of 2019 are estimated to reach 14 percent worldwide, equivalent to 400 million jobs lost. Trade in areas such as commodities, tourism, transport, and distribution have been devastated by both health restrictions and capital outflows. Meanwhile, foreign direct investment (FDI) is forecasted to fall by 40 percent in 2020—bringing FDI below $1 trillion for the first time since 2005. Remittances, a valuable source of development income, are expected to fall by 20 percent by the end of this year. Yet even during this unprecedented crisis, low- and middle-income countries will still be asked to pay a total of $130 billion in debt service this year. Dozens of nations have requested debt service relief. Many of these are in distress and face the possibility of default. Others may be forced to make devastating cuts in public services that are badly needed to bandage their wounded people and economies—just to service their debts.

Some say our hopes for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals may already be a fading dream, especially for the world’s poorest.   Yet the SDGs have never been more important—and are still the best course to navigate through these perilous waters.

Let us never forget that the world’s poor are suffering the most from the economic and health effects of COVID-19. Thus, a comprehensive and equitable response is required. More than 100 million additional people will be pushed into extreme poverty—some say nearly twice this amount—the first increase of global poverty since 1998. As a result of mass unemployment, disruption to food production supplies, and declining aid, as many as 12,000 people per day could die from hunger by the end of the year, doubling the number of families that are food insecure, and creating new epicenters of hunger across the globe. The hardship of people living in conflict zones will increase, particularly for women and children and other vulnerable populations. If history is our guide, their misery could create new conflicts unless we intervene effectively to prevent further human and economic losses. Some say our hopes for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may already be a fading dream, especially for the world’s poorest. Yet the SDGs have never been more important—and are still the best course to navigate through these perilous waters. We previously outlined our case for the SDGs as a guide for the COVID-19 response, but now it is time to implement them—and with adequate financing. So how should we proceed to finance and implement the SDGs during and after the pandemic? There are at least four key steps: 1. Countries must have the necessary funds to protect their people and economies. The combined global fiscal response to the crisis is now over $11 trillion. Many wealthy countries have enacted extraordinary fiscal spending measures that often exceed 10 percent of their GDP. Yet developing nations have insufficient fiscal space, limiting their ability to respond with large fiscal packages needed to save lives and livelihoods. Low-income countries will need cash to maintain their investments in health care and safety nets. They also require funds to provide credit to protect small businesses, which employ most of their people. These nations should explicitly integrate the SDGs into their budgets, while maintaining good governance, and establishing fair tax and trade systems, which could also help unlock financing from the private sector. To convene all the financial stakeholders to fund efforts to reach the SDGs—including private sector finance, international and bilateral aid organizations, and businesses—countries should establish integrated national financing frameworks (INFFs). Multilateral development banks could also do more to collaborate on this agenda, each exploiting their comparative advantage, creating greater leverage, and pooling financing as needed. Some may need to increase their capital base, and their shareholders will need to make this happen. 2. We shouldn’t pour water on drowning victims. Thus, we should lighten poor nations’ crushing debt burdens with voluntary sovereign-debt buybacks. This could be managed by the IMF, which has noted that emerging and developing nations need an additional $2.5 trillion to deal with the pandemic. The IMF could also issue new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), and reallocate unused SDRs from advanced to developing economies to boost liquidity. Some policymakers have urged the IMF to modernize its debt restructuring to address today’s economic and environmental challenges, while others have argued for debt service suspension, involving all official bilateral and private sector creditors, along with greater transparency. Heads of state and ministers are meeting in September under U.N. auspices to recommend policy responses that will help sustain the recovery and reduce debt burdens. While the World Bank implemented the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which allows 76 International Development Association (IDA) countries and Angola to suspend principal or interest payments on their debts to G-20 countries until the end of 2020, some have argued to free up additional resources for developing countries. During a Meeting with finance ministers held on September 8, many called for an extension of the DSSI until at least 2021, a broadening of its base to include Middle-Income Countries and Small Island Developing States, and greater participation of private sector creditors. 3. On the delivery side, we have to spend every dollar wisely, “building back better” than before by aligning recovery policies with long-term benchmarks including the SDGs and the Paris Agreement, and laying the groundwork now for a resilient, sustainable, and inclusive future. For example, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has advocated for strengthening the capacities of local governments, while the World Bank has argued for enabling Africa to accelerate the transition to digital economies through innovative investments in infrastructure and human capital. The Secretary-General has also called for the establishment of debt-for-climate and debt-for-SDG swaps to help release resources in developing countries. The U.N. Regional Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for example, has proposed swapping Caribbean external debt for annual payments into a climate resilience fund, which can be a source of funding for investments for the crisis response and the SDGs. 4. We must plug the leaks. Supporting developing countries in the form of debt relief and boosting liquidity is not possible so long as major leakages exist in the system in the form of illicit financial flows. In Africa alone, $1 trillion is estimated to have been lost over the last 50 years—roughly equal to the amount of official development assistance received on the continent during the same period. To combat illicit financial flows, we must implement procedures and frameworks that have already been agreed upon—in theory. As emphasized by ministers of finance during the High-Level Meeting on September 8, digital technologies could also be utilized to strengthen automatic exchanges of tax information, boost anti-money laundering systems, and combat tax evasion and illicit flows. To pilot through this crisis our community of nations has to work together—guided by the SDGs—to fund and implement measures to address both short- and long-term needs, particularly for the poorest.