Tax

Refinance Tax Trap

With the increase in home prices over the last decade a lot of people have taken out home equity loans or refinanced.  What many people may not be aware of is if their new loan balance (primary and home equity combined) is more than $100K over their original loan amount (right before any [...]

Tapping your IRA before 59 1/2

Natalie gives a great primer on 72(t) payments.  The one piece she didn’t cover was the ability for a person using the amortization or annuity method to step down their withdrawals to the RMD method (although you can’t go back once you make the change).

Kiddie Tax Age Limit Raised

Effective Jan 1, 2008 the kiddie tax will apply to children age 18 and younger as well as college students under the age of 24. Troy Onink of Forbes provides some strategies to deal with the new law.

Roth IRA Contrarian View

Lawrence Starr has been hitting the press with his viewpoint that Roth 401Ks are a bad idea for most people. I’m not as big a pessimist as he is because I believe in tax regime diversification. Since most people have much more money in their tax deferred savings than in their tax free savings, I [...]

Tax Treatment of Long Term Care Insurance

Leimberg Information Services has written a great summary of the tax treatment of long-term care Insurance. For individuals, deductions flow through itemized medical expense deduction (subject to 7.5% floor) and if self-employed, through the self-employed health insurance deduction (subject to age [...]

Flat Tax Already a Reality

Scott Burns writes that while bumpy the U.S. tax system already approximates a flat tax.  Once you factor in all the different taxes (employment, income, sales, etc), the U.S. is remarkably close to a flat tax system whose marginal rate averages over 40%.

Taxation of Lump Sum Social Security Disability Payments

Eva Rosenberg of MarketWatch looks at how lump sum payments for Social Security Disability are taxed. Is Social Security Disability Income subject to taxation? – Yes, in the same way that retirement Social Security payments are taxed. Does a lump sum that includes payment for previous years need [...]

2007 Easy Reference Tax Guide

United Underwriters Incorporated has released a 2007 tax reference guide (warning pdf). It is a wonderful one stop shop for all the current limits on many tax related issues. Check it out!

Taxpayers Have Until April 17 to File and Pay in 2007

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=167194,00.html

Sales Tax Deduction Calculator

If you live in a state without income taxes or which has very high sales taxes, the IRS has provided a calculator to help you determine your deduction.
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