Updated: September 1, 2015 The US Congress, in the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act (TIPRA) of 2006, eliminated the income limit for conversions from pre-tax retirement accounts (Traditional IRAs (including Rollover IRAs) and 401(k)s, 457s, and 403(b)s) to Roth IRAs as of 2010. Before 2010, your (Modified Adjusted Gross) income had to be less [Learn more…]
Establishing a Streamlined Tax Structure
Updated September 1, 2015 Have you seen the simplified 1040? It looks like this: How much money did you make last year? ________________ Send it in ________________ No place for special exemptions, special deductions, credits or other fancy footwork. In the real world, with the real 1040, there are plenty of special opportunities to save [Learn more…]
Take Advantage of Low Taxes on Investments
Updated: September 1, 2015 How can you take advantage of dividend and capital gain tax rates at historically low levels? Sensible Financial™ identifies 4 specific strategies you can use to maximize your benefit. The 2003 tax law1 reduced the tax rate on capital gains from 20% to 15%2. In addition, the treatment of dividends changes [Learn more…]
Five Simple Rules for Harvesting Capital Gains
Updated: September 1, 2015 The end of the year is upon us1. Your tax advisor (if you have a tax advisor) may be asking you how much capital gain income you have. He or she may also be suggesting that you match any realized capital gains with capital losses to minimize your tax bill. Even [Learn more…]
What to do with your income tax refund
Updated: September 1, 2015 April 15 has just passed¹. With a little luck, you may have come into some extra money – Uncle Sam or your home state (or both, if you were very fortunate) may have sent you a refund check. What should you do with it? You just know that a financial planner [Learn more…]
How to avoid the next Madoff scam
Updated: September 1, 2015 What can we learn from the Madoff fraud? Let’s start by listing what we know about it: The investor group seemed like a private club – only the invited could invest. Many investors were friends with each other and with Madoff or introducing advisors. Madoff was unwilling to describe his strategy. [Learn more…]
Market decline and volatility – what does it mean for my portfolio?
Updated: September 1, 2015 You may have heard or noticed that the stock market has been going through a bit of a rough patch. As of Tuesday, January 22, US stocks, as represented by the S&P 500, were down nearly 11% year to date, and over 16% from their most recent high point on October [Learn more…]