Itemized Deduction, AMT, and Other Tax Nightmares The itemized deduction has several levels of complexity; increases in standard deductions can generate no tax change at all because the alternative minimum tax overrides all your deductions; and a variety of tax benefits disappear as your income increases. This overview shows how some of these things affect [...]
Do I Get a Deduction for My Gifts? Or Do I Get Punished for Being Generous? We all love to get gifts, don’t we? One thing I learned much later than I should have is if someone asks you what you want, tell them. Being too shy to ask for something you dearly want simply [...]
Estate Tax Tips: A Choice for 2010 Finally, Dec. 17, 2010, we got the estate tax law we all expected to see in the first quarter of 2010. The 2010 Tax Relief Act establishes an exclusion from estate taxes for $5 million dollars per person, effective for all of 2010 through December 31, 2012. Wait—2010, [...]
6 Tips for Pushing Your Adjusted Gross Income Below $250,000 By Eva Rosenberg, EA One of the big delays in passing the “extender bill” last fall was the conflict over extending the Bush tax cuts to people with incomes over $250,000. The debate isn’t over. In this year’s State of the Union, President Obama said, [...]
Free Tax Services: Do You Qualify? By Eva Rosenberg, EA Approximately 70 percent of taxpayers qualify for the various free filing services available in English and Spanish, according to Eric Smith, an IRS spokesman. Do you? Sit down with a trained volunteer and get in-person assistance and some advice, or use a variety of online [...]
2011 Tax Filing Help: How to Select the Right Tax Pro for You Visit the Tax Homepage for more advice on how to file your taxes. So you want to hire a tax professional to handle your taxes. You can opt for a CPA or an EA to handle your tax return, but which is [...]
File Your 2011 Taxes Online for Free One of the fun things I get to do is interview folks from all the major tax-software companies to learn about their products and best advise my clients. The tax-software companies produce tax programs for online use and as boxed software. Which is the best choice for you? [...]
Filing Taxes 2011: Should I Do My Own Taxes? Way back in the mists of time, I worked for a national CPA firm. They charged $250 for a simple individual tax return. Back then, that was more than my rent—today’s equivalent of over $1,250. That’s a lot of money for a simple tax return! I [...]
2010 Tax Relief: A Checklist of Benefits for Your 2010 Tax Return By now, the tax-software companies have had time to update their programs to reflect the last-minute changes brought about by the 2010 Tax Relief Act. If you’ve already filed your tax return, you may have missed out on some benefits, because not everything [...]
6 Things You Can Do All Year Long to Save Money on Your Tax Bill How tedious it must be to spend all your time thinking about taxes. Don’t you wish that you could just push it to the back of your mind and deal with it at the end of the year? Actually, that’s [...]
