New Tax Increase for Wealthy Americans: Will You Pay More? In March, Congress passed landmark legislation that will affect taxpayers in good ways and bad. It’s called the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010. You’ve heard talk about the benefits for folks with average and lower incomes. But what about the wealthy? [...]
Is Now the Right Time to Buy a Vacation Home along the Gulf of Mexico? Week after week, the Gulf oil spill drama has dragged on, dragging down the fortunes of millions of residents and small-business owners with it. Meanwhile, Ken Feinberg, who oversaw the 9/11 fund payments, has been appointed pay czar for the [...]
We’re all looking for ways to save money and cut costs. It’s just that kind of economy. My brother-in-law, a general contractor, always says, “You buy price, you buy twice.” In other words, if you buy the cheapest thing, you’ll either have to replace it sooner than if you bought the higher-quality item or have [...]
Tax Tips for Commercial Real Estate Owners Once upon a time, TaxMama handled taxes and accounting for a small empire of commercial real estate projects around the country. Tax laws and business structures were much simpler then, before the Tax Reform Act of 1986 simplified the Internal Revenue Code. Today, commercial real estate owners have [...]
Want a Principal Reduction Loan Modification? The New Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) Rules You’ll Have to Live By Are you late in paying your mortgage? Are you about to be? Is your home worth less than the mortgage balance? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may be eligible for [...]
Umbrella Insurance: The FAQs An umbrella isn’t just for rain. We live in an extremely litigious society. Every day, judgments are won, settlements are awarded, and new precedents are set. My company was working with an affluent client who had relocated from a European country and was purchasing an expensive home in Westchester County, New [...]
Hired anyone lately? Oh, my! It’s a daunting prospect. Have you read the National Taxpayer Advocate Report to Congress that was released in July? In it, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson describes hiring hardships faced by the average small-business owner: Consider an individual without a college degree who becomes a successful plumber or electrician [...]
Is unemployment rising? Economists have been puzzled why so few jobs are being created now that the recession appears to be over. I don’t think it’s that surprising. This is the second post-recession period in a decade that has seen anemic job creation. Frankly, between the 15 million Americans who have already lost their jobs [...]
Yesterday, I heard Ed Asner in a commercial touting somebody’s solar installations. That reminded me of my first trip to Israel, in 1977. Waaaaaayyy back then, in a country where the residents had fought to reclaim land from marshes and deserts, where trees were planted one by one to create an arable environment, people were [...]
Selling your home requires getting as many buyers through the door as possible, and you want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to get their attention. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean you need to drop your asking price right away. Instead, consider these home selling tips: Selling a House Tip #1: Make your house [...]
