There have been several provisions available to taxpayers since 2003 that have provided relief from the old “marriage penalty” that was inherent in the tax code. The term marriage penalty refers to several provisions in the tax law that made it automatically more expensive (from a tax payout perspective) for two people to be married [...]
Posts from ‘September, 2009’
Six Important Facts About the American Opportunity Tax Credit
The IRS recently posted a tax tip (Tax Tip 2009-11) regarding the provisions of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which was created as a part of ARRA 2009. The six facts reported in the IRS notice are as follows: The American Opportunity Tax Credit, which expands and renames the existing Hope Credit, can be claimed [...]
How QDRO Impacts NUA
Don’t let the alphabet soup in the title put you off. If you’ve never come face-to-face with a QDRO you might not need to know this – but then again, the basic underlying premises are good information to understand… First some definitions, just so we know what we’re talking about: QDRO: Qualified Domestic Relations Order [...]
Special Rollover Allowed (in 2009 only)
Admittedly, this is likely a small group: folks who are required to take RMD’s in every other circumstance, but for 2009 were given a holiday from RMDs due to WRERA 2008 – but still went ahead and took the distribution for this year… and now they want to put it back. The IRS must think [...]
Health-Care Reform
Confused by the ongoing health-care reform debate? If so, you’re not alone. With multiple bills and proposals in play, it’s often hard to get a grasp on even the most basic elements of the discussion. While the outcome of the debate is uncertain, here are some of the major issues that are being discussed. Universal [...]
Tuition and Fees Deduction Expiring At The End Of 2009
At the end of 2009, the current deduction for Education and Fees – post-secondary education, for enrollment at an accredited college, university or other eligible institution – will expire. Under today’s rules, taxpayers may deduct up to $4,000 of the cost of tuition and fees at those eligible institutions, but beginning next year this deduction [...]
Change Coming For the Child Tax Credit in 2011
In 2011, quite a few provisions that were put into effect with the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA 2001) will be expiring. One of those expiring provisions is the enhancement to the Child Tax Credit. Presently, the credit equals $1,000 per qualifying child, and is a true credit against tax [...]
Why We Use Timber in an Investment Portfolio
Continuing with the series we started some months ago, today we’ll talk about why Timber is a viable and important asset class to include in your portfolio. If you’ll recall, in previous discussions we talked about Real Estate as an asset class, and then we discussed the merits of Commodities as a broad asset class [...]
Expiring Tax Provisions From ARRA 2009
Earlier this year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA 2009) was passed, and it contained quite a few tax incentives that were only good for this year. Since we’re coming down to the last three months of the year, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight those provisions that will be expiring this [...]
The Richest Man in Babylon: Summary, Pt 9 of 9
This article is Part Nine, the final portion of our series of the lessons from George S. Clason’s bestseller The Richest Man in Babylon. Did I just hear a collective “FINALLY!”? If you’d like to go back to the beginning and catch up on the earlier lessons, you can start with the first article in [...]
And if you've come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed "advisor's advisor".
