From time to time this question comes up: why can’t I use my IRA account to purchase a retirement home? After all, for many folks, the IRA represents a pretty large account, possibly even enough to purchase a retirement home outright – so why not?
No Personal Use
This is a thorny question, because there are lots [...]
Posts under ‘2010 Tax year’
Real Estate Investing in Your IRA
7 Tips About the First-Time Homebuyer Credit
The First-Time Homebuyer Income Tax Credit has been really popular with lots of folks – and there is still time to take advantage of it. As you may be aware, the name of the credit is misleading – it’s been expanded to include folks who owned a house for a significant period of time and [...]
Social Security Eligibility
In order to be eligible to receive Social Security benefits – retirement, disability, or survivor benefits – a worker must earn eligibility to receive the benefits. The general rule of thumb is that for full benefits, the worker must earn at least 40 quarters of credit within the system.
Social Security Credit
Generally speaking, a quarter of [...]
First Time Homebuyers: No (eFile) Soup For You!
If you’re planning to take advantage of the First-Time Homebuyer’s tax credit or the more recently announced “long-time homeowner new purchaser” credit – you will not be eligible to eFile your tax return when you claim the credit. To find out more about these credits, see the article at this link.
In a move to reduce [...]
What’s Up With Medicare Premiums? How Increases Are Determined
If you are collecting Social Security and covered by Medicare, you may be wondering why your Medicare premium didn’t increase for 2010… or if it did increase, why did it – since it didn’t increase for so many?
To understand this quandry, we need to look at the system for determining increases to Social Security benefits [...]
Current Year IRA MAGI Limits for a Filing Status of Married Filing Separately
2010 IRA MAGI Limits for a Filing Status of Married Filing Separately
Note: for the purposes of IRA MAGI qualification, a person filing as Married Filing Separately, who did not live with his or her spouse during the tax year, is considered Single and will use the information on that page to determine eligibility.
For a Traditional [...]
Current Year IRA MAGI Limits for IRAs – Single or Head of Household
2010 IRA MAGI Limits for a Filing Status of Single or Head of Household
Note: for the purposes of IRA MAGI qualification, a person filing as Married Filing Separately, who did not live with his or her spouse during the tax year, is considered Single and will use the information on this page to determine [...]
Determining Your MAGI
There are income limits for contributing to an IRA (traditional and Roth), and below are links by filing status to illustrate the income limits in the situation where you are or are not covered by an employer-provided retirement plan, given your filing status. This, along with your filing status and your Modified Adjusted Gross Income [...]
Current Year MAGI Limits for IRAs – Married Filing Jointly or Qualifying Widow(er)
2010 IRA MAGI Limits for a Filing Status of Married Filing Jointly or Qualifying Widow(er)
Note: for the purposes of IRA MAGI qualification, a person filing as Married Filing Separately, who did not live with his or her spouse during the tax year, is considered Single and will use the information on that page to determine [...]
20 Questions About 529 Plans
Below is a reprint of an interaction that I had with an anonymous individual several years ago on a web bulletin board, as I thought the 20 questions that the individual listed might be interesting to you. I’ve reviewed the list and updated responses where laws have changed or where I was more snarky than [...]
