The College Landscape After Tax Reform College students and their parents dodged a major bullet with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Initial drafts of the bill included the elimination of Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, the Lifetime Learning Credit, and the student loan interest deduction, along with the taxation of tuition waivers, which [...]
You must have been pleasantly surprised to find out you'd be getting a refund from the IRS — especially if it was a large sum. And while you may have considered this type of windfall a stroke of good fortune, is it really? The IRS issued over 112 million federal income tax refunds, averaging $2,895, [...]
What are the gift and estate tax rules after tax reform? The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law in December 2017, approximately doubled the federal gift and estate tax basic exclusion amount to $11.18 million in 2018 (adjusted for inflation in later years). After 2025, the exclusion is scheduled to revert to its [...]
Due Date Approaches for 2017 Federal Income Tax Returns Tax filing season is here again. If you haven't done so already, you'll want to start pulling things together — that includes getting your hands on a copy of your 2016 tax return and gathering W-2s, 1099s, and deduction records. You'll need these records whether you're [...]
Key Retirement and Tax Numbers for 2018 Every year, the Internal Revenue Service announces cost-of-living adjustments that affect contribution limits for retirement plans, thresholds for deductions and credits, and standard deduction and personal exemption amounts. Here are a few of the key adjustments for 2018.* Employer retirement plans Employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b), and [...]
Here are 10 things to consider as you weigh potential tax moves between now and the end of the year. 1. Set aside time to plan Effective planning requires that you have a good understanding of your current tax situation, as well as a reasonable estimate of how your circumstances might change next year. There's [...]
The IRS expects that more than 70% of taxpayers will receive a refund in 2017.¹ What you do with a tax refund is up to you, but here are some ideas that may make your refund twice as valuable. Double your savings Perhaps you'd like to use your tax refund to start an education fund [...]
Mutual Funds vs. ETFs Tip: Watch the Account Minimum. Mutual funds often have an account minimum. By contrast, an ETF has no account minimum; you can buy as many or as few shares as you wish. The growth of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been explosive. In 1998, there were only 29; at the end of [...]
Charitable Giving Charitable giving can play an important role in many estate plans. Philanthropy cannot only give you great personal satisfaction, it can also give you a current income tax deduction, let you avoid capital gains tax, and reduce the amount of taxes your estate may owe when you die. There are many ways to [...]
What If You Get Audited? Tip: The chance of being audited rises with income level. In 2014, only 0.6% of those with incomes under $200,000 were audited; 3.6% of those with incomes between $500,000 and $1 million were audited; and 16.2% of those with incomes over $10 million were audited. Source: Internal Revenue Service, 2015“Audit” is [...]
