By Paul Palazzo, CFP®, COA
With people like Jules Robbins, it may be no wonder that New York State is looking to crack down on those who violate its tax laws, especially given its current fiscal problems. According to an article yesterday on Bloomberg Businessweek, the 83 year old New Yorker had opened a Swiss account through UBS in the name of a false company to avoid paying his taxes.
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The government wants more of your profits: should you sell before they need to be handed over?
By Andrew Altfest
It’s not unusual at this time of the year for taxes to be on our minds. In fact, you may be asking yourself, “How can I keep my taxes down?”
To help keep tax bills down, the normal course of action is to defer income and the taxes on it for as long as possible. This is true for long-term capital gains. Until you sell an appreciated security and realize a long-term capital gain, in effect there is an opportunity to have an interest-free loan from the government that produces greater wealth as the security appreciates further. Because you are in charge of when to sell a security, you get to choose when the government is paid. However, with the capital gains tax rate scheduled to move from 15% to 20% next year, the question is should a security be sold that would not have normally been sold this year to take advantage of the 15% rate while it’s still here? Read More…
By Dawn Brown, CFP®
It is said that in life, two things are certain: death and taxes. But this year—in an unexpected anomaly—death incurs no estate taxes. Surprisingly, Congress—perhaps too busy working on health care reform—failed to act by the end of last year to extend the estate tax into 2010. Many estate attorneys anticipated that the law would be extended because, as it stands, there is zero estate tax due if you die in 2010. However, there is a limited step-up in basis for those who inherit assets in 2010: An exemption of $3 million for spouses and $1.3 million for non-spouse inheritors. Assets in excess of these amounts are to be inherited at their original cost basis.
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