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Center to hold counseling sessions

The Small Business Development Center of Southeast Missouri State University will be conducting counseling sessions for area small business persons and individuals planning business ventures.

The counselor, Gil Degenhardt, will be available from 9-11 a.m. Feb. 19 at the Sikeston, Mo., Chamber of Commerce, 1 Industrial Drive. Call (573) 471-2498 for an appointment. The one-hour counseling sessions are free of charge to people taking advantage of the service.

Identity theft leading complaint for fraud

Identity theft was the leading consumer fraud complaint reported last year, far exceeding gripes about Internet auctions and services.

Of the 204,000 complaints compiled by the Federal Trade Commission, 42 percent involved identity theft, the agency said Wednesday. The figures come from a government database that collects complaints from more than 50 law enforcement and consumer groups.

Other top consumer fraud complaints were problems with Internet auctions (10 percent), involving goods that were delivered late or not at all and items less valuable than advertised; deceptive trial offers and charges from Internet and computer services (7 percent); and shop-at-home and catalog offers that failed to deliver or honor guarantees (6 percent).

New line on tax forms causes confusion

The only new line on this year's 1040 tax form is causing confusion among many taxpayers, prompting the IRS to issue some guidance last week about how to treat last year's rebate checks.

The new line is for people who didn't receive a check, or got less than the full amount, to claim a credit of up to $300 for individuals, $500 for heads of households or $600 for married couples filing jointly. Early returns received by the Internal Revenue Service indicate it is the single most frequent error people have been making.

Some people who should have claimed a credit left it blank. Others who got a full rebate check last year are putting that amount on their tax returns when they shouldn't. Some mistakenly think they have to give some money back.

Merrill Lynch reports $1.3 billion loss

Merrill Lynch & Co., the nation's largest brokerage, reported a $1.3 billion loss for the fourth quarter Wednesday largely because of a previously announced charge to pay for a cost-cutting plan that sliced 9,000 jobs from the company payroll.

The loss translated to $1.51 per share for the last three months of 2001, compared to profit of 93 cents per share, or $877 million, for the same period a year earlier, the company said.

Excluding the charge for the job cuts, earnings were $461 million, or 48 cents per share, meeting the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call.

Costs from the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center came to 3 cents per share. Revenue fell 24 percent to $4.8 billion for the most recent quarter, compared to $6.3 billion a year earlier.

-- From staff, wire reports