Congratulations – your new baby has finally arrived. With this new addition comes added responsibility that can make it easy to forget about all the important things you need to do. While taxes aren’t the first thing you think about when your new baby arrives, forgetting anything on this list could have you scrambling come [...]
The other day, a client called me very proudly. She had made her second quarterly estimated tax payment “right on time”—on July 15. I couldn’t help chuckling. After all, she tried to get it right. Unfortunately, she was actually one month late on her payment. Estimated taxes are used to pay taxes on income not [...]
On a recent weekend, I visited the Malibu, Calif. area for brunch and a play. The restaurant had a rack of freebie publications, including a glossy homes-for-sale magazine. Wow! The homes and estates stunning—and so are the prices. The advertised monthly rental prices for Malibu homes and estates ranged from $20,000 to $100,000 per month. [...]
The wedding is over, and you’re finally married. Congratulations! Now, let’s see if I can help you stay together. One of the biggest problems newlyweds face is dealing with money—especially today, when couples are getting married later in life and each person has established his or her own habits and relationship with money. It’s hard [...]
“How long should I keep my tax paperwork?” This is a tax question people ask me regularly, often while they are pleading to be released from the towering burden of mounds and mounds of tax records. It’s probably not practical to store the paperwork forever, but you know my “rule of records”: the minute you [...]
Getting an inheritance can be such a bittersweet experience. You might receive lots of money or special mementos from the deceased, but the person with whom you’d like to share the experience is gone. During this trying time, it’s likely that the last thing on your mind is taxes. But taxes are an important consideration [...]
Your home is one of your most interesting assets when it comes to income taxes. It’s easy to avoid paying taxes on most (or all) of the profits once you’ve sold it, and you can even turn home ownership into a tax-free source of income. When you sell your home, you can exclude a big [...]
This article was written by guest blogger Teri Cettina. Chances are good that when you budgeted for your summer travel, you remembered to build in the price of your hotel, the charge for your rental car and the estimated cost of your meals. But what about your hotel tax? Extra rental car fees? State and local [...]
Tax season doesn’t end when you file your taxes on April 15. Tax issues continue all year round, so it’s important to regularly assess your tax situation, and now—halfway through the year—is the perfect time. At this point, you probably have some idea about the direction in which your personal balance sheet is headed, and [...]
Often, the most frustrating part of preparing your taxes is searching for the information you need—and that process can make tax time much more stressful than it needs to be. Trying to track down all of your forms by the April 15 deadline is enough to drive anyone crazy. On top of the added stress, [...]
