Category: Tax Planning
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Avoiding taxes for IRA accounts
Avoiding taxes on money held inside an IRA can be challenging. This article in Barron’s discusses how one more easy tax planning tool is likely to be eliminated and how to adjust to avoid triggering taxes in large IRAs. But there is always a way to reduce or eliminate taxes if you make your financial…
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What to do if you didn’t get a tax cut
What if you work in “any trade or business involving the performance of services in the fields of health, law, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, brokerage services, or any trade or business where the principal asset of such trade or business is the reputation or skill of 1 or more of…
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Introduction to tax planning for professionals
You didn’t benefit from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act? Your business and personal income taxes are still way too high? Don’t give up. Plan a new approach to build tax free income and a secure financial future. I’ve helped dozens of business and professional clients increase the portion of their earnings that they keep…
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Initial thoughts on tax season wrap up and where to go from here
Initial thoughts on the wrap up of tax season: 1. OVERALL: It was the roughest tax season in my 30+ years, yet it was not as bad for me as many others tax professionals reported. Tax accountants’ online discussion groups are filled with stories of excess stress, it’s health impact, and threats of retirement from…
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The new world of social investing
The financial world has changed dramatically over the past decade in ways we could not have imagined before the financial crisis. My investment banker training was suddenly not only useless; it was exposed as a liability. I remember trying to relate the shock I felt in October 2008 to my then teenage children. I said…
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An introduction to tax free stock investments
(This blog post is an outline of an upcoming webinar. Comments, questions and feedback during this planning stage is welcome). Understanding the benefit of tax free stocks The difference between tax-free investments and tax-deferred investments The difference between tax-free stocks and tax-free bonds Compared to alternatives like HSAs and life insurance Examples of ending value…
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Tax filing trends indicate future direction for professionals
We are only half way through the tax filing season but so far the IRS reports that tax filer behaviors are significantly different than a year ago. The number of tax returns filed has dropped by more than 12% and the number of paid preparer returns (often including the more complicated tax returns) dropped even…
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Continuing the tax planning conversation
A big part of the tax and financial planning conversation I’m having lately with local upper middle class people my age and older is questioning the wisdom of keeping multiple houses especially those big vacation places at the Jersey shore. (Some have houses and condos elsewhere but shore houses seem to dominate life for many…
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Why are tax writers missing the #1 tax-saving opportunity?
“The perfect tax plan or tax shelter, if such a thing exists, would allow us to do most or all of these things: receive or gain control money without paying taxes, take a tax deduction for the amount invested, allow that money to grow and accumulate without paying taxes, and then allow us to disperse,…
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Five types of tax shelters
There are five categories of tax shelters that benefit many individual U.S. taxpayers and account for most of the tax savings available to us. Four of those categories of tax shelters are potentially on the chopping block this month with Congressional tax reform discussions. This post is simply a brief overview of the five categories…