Top reasons why you should have gas heaters in your home by Pugh Heating & Air Conditioning

Heating your home using natural gas furnace can give you a lot of benefits other than saving energy and money since it uses less boiler energy to heat the air to a higher temperature. These days, natural gas furnaces are palpably a trend among homeowners and it is the most popular home heating option on the market. In recent years, almost 70 percent of new-build homes have included gas heaters. The following are the good reasons why you should have gas heaters in your home:

Energy efficiency

As described above, one of the main advantages of gas heaters is its ability to save energy since such equipment have the highest energy efficiency, so other than keeping your house warm, you can also save money using them. With this, gas heaters can diminish the impact on the environment, and its byproducts are typically water vapor and small amounts of carbon dioxide. There are hardly any emissions of any home heating fuel with natural gas. In order to eliminate the carbon dioxide made from your home, gas heaters require venting to your home's chimney.  Pugh Heating & Air Conditioning needs you to understand first the exact venting requirements building and safety codes in your area and confirm it with your local public works officials.

Safer

Because of innovations in technology such as pilot-less ignition systems and zone heating, gas heaters are also known to be safer. You can also suit your specific needs to it since it can also be customizable.

Durable

Unlike other fuel types, natural gas furnaces last longer than its expected lifespan.

No-hassle delivery

When you're choosing a heating system, the very first thing you need to consider is the delivery method. With natural gas, you don't need to worry about an empty tank and running out of fuel to heat your home because gas is delivered to your home through underground pipelines.

However, Pugh Heating & Air Conditioning also wants you to know some of the disadvantages of boiler natural gas as a heating fuel, and they are listed as follows:

- It is apparently flammable

- It can be toxic if a large amount is inhaled

- Carbon monoxide is poisonous (the exhaust produced when burning natural gas)

- The current network of underground pipes doesn't reach all rural or urban areas

To give solutions to some of the predicaments mentioned above, fire departments suggests the use of a carbon monoxide detector since this kind of gas is completely odorless, and in order to make leaks noticeable, gas companies add a scent to natural gas.

When looking for heating systems, avoid fraud services online because according to the review done by Pugh Heating & Air Conditioning, thousands of customers are being a victim of fraud every day. Getting service protection from reliable security firms will help you purchase items with no worries of fraudsters. But it's also important to be careful at all times to avoid any problems during the process.

You can also inquire at Pugh Heating & Air Conditioning about different alternative heating systems such as boilers, hot boilers, water heaters, garage heaters, etc. since the company has a wide variety of available heating systems. Begin discussing your heating needs with their team today.

ARTICLE REVIEW: Paternal Great-Grandfather: John Hamilton of Cadzow, James Earl Hamilton Marsden

Sir John Hamilton of Cadzow, 4th Laird of Cadzow (b. bef. 1370 – d. c. 1402) was a Scottish nobleman and soldier.

                                               

He succeeded his father, David Hamilton of Cadzow, no later than 1392, when he appears on a charter of Andrew Murray of Touchadam as Dominus de Cadzow.

He was imprisoned, along with his brothers William and Andrew, in Norwich in 1396. Richard II of England ordered their release from the Mayor and bailies of that city on 29 June. It appears that their imprisonment was due to violations of the truce between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland. A John Hamilton, either his brother John Hamilton of Bardowie, or uncle John Hamilton of Fingalton, was released from the Tower of London on the same date. Hamilton and his uncle seem to have found themselves guests of the English again, when at a meeting of Border commissioners at Hawdenstank on 28 October 1398, the first point of business was the release of Hamilton of Cadzow, and Hamilton of Fingalton and others in their entourage. The Hamiltons had been caught at sea by English privateers, again in violation of the truce. The English were urged to release the ship and restore their goods to them, or alternatively pay suitable recompense.

There is no record of Hamilton’s death, though it is possible that he was one of the prisoner fatalities at the Battle of Homildon Hill in 1402, where a Sir John Hamilton, elder, appears on a list of captives.

Marriage and children

- John Hamilton married Janet or Jacoba Douglas, daughter of Sir James Douglas, 1st Lord Dalkeith, prior to 1388. It was thought that he had three sons by her:

- James Hamilton of Cadzow

- David Hamilton of Dalserf   

- Walter Hamilton of Raploch

However DNA testing of descendants of James and Walter in the Hamilton Surname DNA Project show that these two did not have the same father. The DNA project shows that the descendants of Walter and his uncle John Hamilton of Fingalton are related, which suggests that James’s biological father was not from the same family.

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3 Lessons Young Singaporeans Can Learn

3 Lessons Young Singaporeans Can Learn From the Retrenchment of Middle Aged PMETs

Once upon a time, getting a cushy PMET job and rising to senior management was the Singaporean dream. Claw your way to the top of the corporate ladder and you’d be in for a lifetime of cruising around in your Porsche and golfing at the country club.

But those days are gone, and middle-aged, highly-trained PMETs are now first in line for retrenchment at many companies. These people have not only been most affected by the increased spates of retrenchment last year, but are also having the hardest time finding jobs. Many of those who do find jobs take a huge pay cut or end up doing things like driving taxis.

Now, all this might sound awful, but is life really worse for someone who’s been earning $10,000 for the past 10 or 20 years only to lose his job, or for a lower income earner who’s been toiling away for 30 years but earning only $1,000 a month?

Obviously, the PMET should be in a much better place than his lower earning counterpart if he has played his cards right in his economically active days and saved and invested wisely. Unfortunately, we often get the reverse scenario, where PMETs are so mired in debt and their lifestyles are so expensive to upkeep that losing their job immediately becomes disastrous.

You might be young now, but in a decade or two you could be facing the same risk of being made redundant. Here are 3 things to never forget along the way.

Jump start your retirement savings and investments when you’re young

Judging by the number of Chanel handbags you see on the streets, young Singaporeans aren’t prioritising saving and investing, figuring they can handle that when they’re older, more boring and have higher earning power.

A 2014 report revealed that 36% of young Singaporeans had no savings at all, while 25% had less than $6,000. The generation before didn’t fare too well either, with an average of just $60,000 in savings.

The problem with this mentality is that it’s premised on the belief that it’ll be easier to save money at a later age. That isn’t the case for many of the PMET’s who’ve been retrenched and found that they were bogged down by car loans, housing loans and dependents to support.

If these people had prioritised saving and investing when they were younger, getting laid off might not have been as scary as it is right now.

Sure, they would have been earning much less in their younger days. But with the help of compounding interest and the benefit of a burgeoning economy, their money could have grown significantly over time—probably much more than it will ever grow in their remaining years before retirement.

The best time to start saving for retirement is when you’re young. Even if you can’t save as much as you think you will when you’re older, if you invest it wisely your money can work a lot harder than it can if you only start in middle age.

When you reach your forties or fifties and your risk of getting retrenched rises, if you already have a decent nest egg saved up you might see your derailed career plans as a rather welcome sign that it’s time to take it easy. If you haven’t, however, good luck.

Be wary of inflating your lifestyle as you rise through the ranks

The most recent Straits Times report on PMET retrenchment mentioned that some of the retrenched folks complained about being bogged down by financial obligations like car loans and housing mortgages, and lamented having to adjust their lifestyles.

That makes you wonder just how much of their lifestyle inflation was necessary to begin with, and how much was due to their wanting to live the high life and being complacent enough to think they’d be able to enjoy such high salaries for the rest of their careers.

Sure, your financial obligations do increase when you buy a home or have kids. But is it really necessary to go into debt just so you can be seen driving a BMW or pay more than a million bucks for a condo?

Young Singaporeans who are lulled into a false sense of security by a job market that makes employment readily available to the young and relatively cheap should take heed that the higher you climb, the more precarious your position will be, unless you are in field that renders you more or less immune to retrenchment (meaning you’re a teacher, doctor, data scientist, civil servant or similar).

You don’t really want to live like a king when the throne can be snatched from under you at any moment.

Never get complacent at work

Retrenchment might sound unfair to an outsider—after an employee has given a company the best years of his life, casting him aside sounds barbaric.

But ask any young Singaporean who’s been subject to the incompetent tyranny of middle and upper management folks well past their prime, and you’ll receive a different opinion.

Complaints about supervisors who are even less competent than rookie hires and manage their teams terribly are sadly quite common, and it’s not very difficult to say why these folks would be the first to get laid off.

Due to the fact that workplaces in Singapore are generally very hierarchical, many employees who are senior enough to become supervisors or managers get complacent about their jobs, thinking they can now rely on their subordinates to take the rap if things go wrong at work. Of course not everyone is like that, but ask around and you’ll find it’s more common than you think.

As a young employee who might one day be promoted, never forget that the higher your salary is, the harder it is to show you deserve it. You have to be more knowledgeable and better at your job than your subordinates are or risk being replaced.

That means constant upgrading, learning new things and at times being made to feel like an old dog trying to learn new tricks. It may sound like a bother, but that’s what you’re really being paid for.

Mossack Fonseca & Co.: Practical wisdom and trusted advice

Corporate Governance

The Mossack Fonseca Group applied corporate governance in their firm to provide confidence and security to their clients regarding protecting their assets through the years. The firms don’t stop in improving their processes and utilizing the best technological tools in the market to have a better service for their clients. It has adopted a Business Management System that assures that the firm will continue to follow all ethical standards and the best legal practices.

The firm is eager to ensure the long-term success of its clients as a global corporation with a well-organized corporate government. The corporate governance structure helps to reduce costs, avoid risks and identify problems and strategic opportunities.

Attorneys

The Mossack Fonseca Group is proud to have highly dedicated lawyers. Each of them graduated with honors from different universities in Panama and abroad and has a master's and doctoral degree as well as vast experience in various legal issues.

Exceptional Features

The top feature of Mossack Fonseca Group is its decades of experience in business. In particular, it has 39 years of extensive experience and will continue to deliver excellent service to their clients. The firm's Panama Head Office has 24-hour service; and you can find their office in every continent, which proves their powerful international network. Its staff a member is consists of more than 500 experts around the world and all of them were service and research-oriented professionals. It's also the first ISO 9001 certified law firm in Panama and continues to follow strict due diligence requirements. It acquires "VeriSign" encryption and Central Bank standards for a secure technology platform. They're also motivated specialists seeking solutions for changing business environments. Their client considers their exclusive client portal as a beneficial treat.

Data Security

You can have a peace of mind with the Mossack Fonseca & Co.'s client portal because it is 100% safe. They hold all their servers in-house to provide the most secure and latest protection available to their clients. The firm joined numerous companies and banks who depend on Verisign to keep their clients' information protected because it is considered the strongest encryption available with the most rigorous authentication standards in the world.

Along with those discussed above, the Mossack Fonseca Group will continue to provide top-notching services. You can visit their official website to have a better understanding of their firm.

Mossack Fonseca on Powerful US Congressman Proposes Massive Tax Overhaul

House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R – Texas) has disclosed that, under his leadership, the Committee will immediately draft US international tax reform legislation, while laying the framework for more comprehensive tax reform in 2017.

On February 12, 2016, Mr. Brady delivered the keynote address at the Tax Council Policy Institute's 17th Annual Tax Policy & Practice Symposium, and confirmed that, "in the months ahead and beyond, the Ways and Means Committee will be the center of the tax reform discussion and debate. … The code we have is too costly, complex and unfair. It is abundantly clear that now is the time to overhaul our tax system from top to bottom".

Chairman Brady’s proposed changes include:

• Making the tax code simpler, fairer, and flatter
• Replacing the current world-wide tax system with a permanent, modern territorial-type system
• Closing loopholes, eliminating special rules and limiting deductions, exclusions and credits
• Providing businesses both large and small with a competitive tax system, including a fair and competitive tax rate
• Encouraging businesses to locate their operations in the United States rather than incentivizing (effectively) the shift of jobs overseas

Mr. Brady confirmed that the Committee will move forward immediately to draft international tax reform legislation – "as we plan for that finish line in 2017, developments in the global environment demand our immediate attention."

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Mossack Fonseca on Singapore Joins OECD Multilateral Tax Convention

On January 20, 2016, Singapore deposited with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) its instrument of ratification for the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, reports Lowtax.net.

With this development, Singapore became the 93rd jurisdiction to join the pact, touted by the OECD as the world's leading instrument for boosting transparency and combating offshore tax evasion.

The Convention provides for all forms of administrative assistance in tax matters: exchange of information on request, spontaneous exchange, automatic exchange, tax examinations abroad, simultaneous tax examinations, and assistance in tax collection. It guarantees extensive safeguards for the protection of taxpayers' rights.

Ratifying the Convention will expand Singapore's network of partners for the exchange of information on request by 34 jurisdictions. This is part of a series of changes that Singapore has made in recent years to combat cross-border tax evasion, following Singapore's adoption of the internationally agreed standard for exchange of information on request in 2009, Singapore's Ministry of Finance said.

Minister for Finance, Heng Swee Keat, said: "Ratifying the Convention reflects Singapore's commitment to effective exchange of information based on international standards, but the standards can only work if all financial centres, such as Switzerland, Luxembourg, Singapore, and Hong Kong, move together. We will continue to work with our international partners to achieve this and prevent regulatory arbitrage."

The Convention was developed jointly by the OECD and the Council of Europe in 1988. It was amended in 2010 to respond to a call by the Group of Twenty (G-20) nations that it be aligned to the new international standard on the automatic exchange of information and that it be opened up to all countries.

The Convention is now seen as the instrument for swift implementation of the new Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters developed by the OECD. It will also be critical for the automatic exchange of country-by-country reports, proposed in the OECD's base erosion and profit shifting project.

Mossack Fonseca, Switzerland: Double Tax Agreement with Argentina

On October 29, 2015, the Swiss State Secretariat for International Financial Matters announced that the double taxation agreement (DTA) with respect to taxes on income and capital between Switzerland and Argentina will enter into force on November 27, 2015. It replaces the agreement of 1997 and is in line with the current international standard on the exchange of information.

The purpose of the new agreement is the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and on capital, particularly those on dividends, interest and royalty payments. It adopts the majority of the provisions of the former agreement and complies with the current international standard on the exchange of information upon request. The new agreement will be applicable from January 1, 2016, with the exception of taxes withheld at source, for which relief will already be applied in 2015 according to the agreement.

The new agreement sets the maximum withholding tax rate for dividends at 15 percent, and provides for a ten percent rate where the beneficial owner is a company that holds directly at least 25 percent of the capital of the company paying the dividends. The withholding tax rate for interest payments is capped at 12 percent. The maximum withholding tax rate for royalties is 15 percent, with reduced rates of ten, five, and three percent applicable in certain circumstances.

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