Making mortgage payment due on Jan. 1 in December will lower your taxes if you will switch from itemizing to the standard deduction.
High Income In Blue States Under New Tax Law
Losing the state income tax and property tax deductions isn’t a big deal even for someone with a high income in a Blue State.
IRS Guidance On Circular Reference in ACA Premium Subsidy and Deduction
The IRS provided guidance on how to solve the circular reference math problem between the premium subsidy under Obamacare and the health care premium deduction for the self-employed.
What’s My Marginal Tax Rate?
Your marginal tax rate isn’t just the listed rate in the tax brackets table. Many phaseouts increases your marginal tax rate.
Fiscal Cliff Law and Exemption and Deduction Phaseouts
The previous two posts about the fiscal cliff law looked at Roth conversion and dividends and capital gains. Today we look at the new law’s reductions to personal exemptions and deductions for higher income taxpayers. Higher income for this purpose is defined as having Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in 2013 over $250k for single and […]
How to Build a Time Machine With IRAs – Part 2
[This is a guest post from Bogleheads investment forum participant Bob’s not my name as a follow-up to his previous post How to Build a Time Machine With IRAs – Part 1.] In Part 1 we discussed how your money can use a deductible traditional IRA to travel forward in time and to a different […]
How to Build a Time Machine With IRAs – Part 1
[This is a guest post from Bogleheads investment forum participant Bob’s not my name.] Wouldn’t it be great to have a Time Machine that would allow your money to travel back and forth in time and from place to place, seeking out the lowest tax rates? Well, you can build one yourself with IRAs. Deductible […]
How to Save $4,000 in Your Graduation Year — Part 1: Taxes
[This is a guest post from Bogleheads investment forum participant Bob’s not my name.] If you are a college senior or if you graduated this year, pay attention. The year in which you finish college and enter the workforce presents unique tax circumstances. In addition, you may think you are achieving financial independence from your […]
Brokerage Account Closeout Fee Tax Deductible Or Not?
By moving my brokerage account from Wells Fargo to TD Ameritrade, I earned a signup bonus from TD Ameritrade, but I also had to pay a $95 account closeout fee to Wells Fargo. I could’ve left the minimum amount necessary to keep the Wells Fargo account open and free, but because the signup bonus more […]
Claiming Parent As Dependent On Tax Return
Reader Bill asked me if it’s possible to list his parents as dependents on his tax return. Bill’s parents are foreign citizens. They came to visit him and lived with him for eight months last year. We are all familiar with children as dependents. Can parents also be dependents for tax purposes? I consulted my […]
Tax Deductions: Above-the-Line, Standard, Itemized, and Miscellaneous
I wrote about tax credits last week. This time let’s look at tax deductions. First a recap of the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction: A tax credit directly reduces your tax dollar for dollar. If you are supposed to pay $5,000 in tax, a $500 tax credit reduces your tax to […]