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June, 2011:

NonDeductible IRA Contributions: Good or Bad Idea?

Image by Sean MacEntee via Flickr If you find yourself in the position of having too high of an income to make a deductible contribution to your IRA for the year ($110,000 for joint filers in 2011, $66,000 for Single and Head of Household), you may be wondering if it’s a good idea to make a non-deductible contribution to your IRA. There are two opposing camps on this issue, and the deciding factor is how you’re intending to use the funds in the near term. It’s a Good Idea If you’re intending to convert your IRA to a Roth and your income is too high to just make the contribution directly to the Roth account, the non-deductible IRA may be the right choice for you.  This way you’re effectively working around the income limitations of the Roth contribution ($179,000 for joint filers in 2011 or $122,000 for single or head […]

Mileage Rate Adjusted for Second Half of 2011

Image via Wikipedia The IRS recently released Announcement 2011-40, in which was announced an increase of 4.5¢ per mile for the standard mileage rates for certain classes of vehicle use.  This increase is due to the nationwide increase in gasoline prices. As you may already be aware, so far this year the business mileage rate has been 51¢ per mile.  This will remain the same until June 30, 2011, and on July 1, 2011, the rate will increase to 55.5¢ per mile.  You’ll have to keep good records (as always) on your mileage in order to properly take advantage of this increase. The medical and moving mileage rates will also increase by 4.5¢ to 23.5¢ a mile, up from 19¢ for the first six months of 2011. The rate for providing services for charitable organizations is set by statute and remains at 14¢ a mile. These rates will remain in […]

Book Review: Uncertainty is a Certainty

This was a surprising and refreshing book.  The full title is Uncertainty is a Certainty, Fables for Fiduciaries. The author, Guerdon T. Ely, has done the near impossible: the very topic of fiduciary duty has been known to induce a near coma-like status in even the most devout financial professional, but Ely has distilled the critical concepts into a very easy-reading tome that keeps the reader interested, even engaged, in his explanation of what is required of the fiduciary. For the uninitiated, a fiduciary is a financial professional who has the responsibility of handling financial affairs for another entity – it could be a trust, a pension plan, or an individual or family.  There is a set of rules that explain the duties of a fiduciary, known as the Uniform Prudent Investor Act, or UPIA for short (we certainly love our acronyms in this industry, don’t we?). This bit of […]

Don’t Forget – Social Security Tax is Going Up Next Year!

Image via Wikipedia This year you may have been blissfully enjoying an increase in your paycheck without realizing it.  Remember the Tax Act of 2010?  One of the provisions in that little gem of legislation was to reduce the Social Security withholding amount for the calendar year 2011 by 2%.  This means that you’re only having to pay out 4.2% for Social Security tax during the 2011 tax year – and next year you’ll back back in the 6.2% world. But that’s not where it stops.  There is another increase in the offing for 2012: the tax wage ceiling is scheduled to increase as well, from the $106,800 level that it’s been at for the past two years, to an estimated $110,100.  This means that if you’re at the top of the wage base, your withholding and employer portion of Social Security tax will increase from $11,107 in 2011 to […]

Book Review: The Old Rules of Marketing Are Dead

The complete title of this book is:  The Old Rules of Marketing Are Dead – 6 New Rules to Reinvent Your Brand & Reignite Your Business, and it’s written by Timothy R. Pearson.  Mr. Pearson is the former Vice Chair, Global Managing Partner, Marketing and Communications (and first Chief Marketing Officer) for KPMG, along with numerous other positions in management consulting, boards and societies.  It’s from the perspective that he gained in the position at KPMG that much of the book is written, so it is understandable that the viewpoint is primarily about large corporations. That’s not to say that there is nothing in this book for the small business – you simply need to adjust the language to meet your situation.  For example, when the book refers to your marketing team, for the small business person that probably just means “you” – the same as your accounting team, management […]