Taxes in Retirement
Bob Carlson of Retirement Watch on how to manage your taxes and planning strategies to pay less
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New Tax Rules for Investment Sales
There are new forms and rules for reporting some capital gains and losses in 2011 and following years. For sales of stock purchased after Jan. 1, 2011, on Form 1099-B brokers report the cost basis as well as the sale proceeds. For stock purchased before 2011, only the proceeds are reported. Also reported is whether […]
Deducting Medical Expenses
Many people believe that they’re no longer able to deduct medical expenses. They don’t even track their expenses or enter them on their income tax returns. That can be a costly mistake. Medical insurance covers fewer expenses each year, and more people would save taxes by deducting medical expenses than realize it. Congress did make […]
New Estate Tax & Social Security Rules, Limits
Inflation and other factors triggered some tax and benefit changes for 2012 announced recently by the IRS and Social Security Administration. The exempt amount for estates and gifts increases because of inflation. The estate of anyone dying in 2012 excludes up to $5.12 million from federal estate taxes. The annual gift tax exclusion remains at […]
Planning Year-End Taxes
You finally can do serious year-end tax planning in 2011. Year-end planning was difficult the last few years, because so much of the tax code was up in the air. But the December 2010 deal made the tax code fairly certain for 2011 and 2012. That’s important, because tax planning requires looking at two years […]
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Using Low Interest Rates to Cut Your Taxes
Low interest rates put a crimp in your investment income, but they can help reduce your income, estate, and gift taxes. Treasury rates and mortgage rates recently hit record lows, and that means the rates the IRS uses to calculate taxes on different strategies also were at all-time lows. Around the middle of each month […]
Taking Advantage of Market Declines
The silver lining in the recent market declines is you might be able to use tax strategies to recover some losses. We’ve been fortunate that the losses in our recommended in-vestments have been very modest. But you probably own assets beyond our recommended portfolios, and might have losses from a recommended investment if you bought […]
Still Taking Advantage of the 0% Tax Rate
The 0% tax rate still is in effect. Created for select taxpayers for 2008-2010, it was extended with other tax breaks in the December 2010 tax deal in Washington. The 0% tax rate applies to long-term capital gains and qualified corporate dividends earned by those in the two lowest income tax brackets. For other taxpayers […]
Updating State and Local Tax Burdens
State tax codes are being shaken up, and that could shake up your retirement plans. State and local taxes are growing in absolute terms and relative to federal taxes. Total taxes paid are among the top three expenses for many retirees, and the share of state and local taxes is rising. We review the state […]
