- Congress Avoids the Fiscal Cliff
- The Senate and the House have passed a last minute budget deal worked out between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans averting the so-called fiscal cliff.
- Don't Forget Your Minimum Required Distribution for 2012
- The IRS does not allow IRA owners to keep funds in a Traditional IRA indefinitely. Eventually, assets must be distributed and taxes paid. If there are no distributions, or if the distributions are not large enough, the IRA owner may have to pay a 50% penalty on the amount not distributed as required. Generally, required distributions begin in the year the IRA owner attains the age of 70½.
- Portability of a Deceased Spouse’s Estate Tax Exemption Explained.
- Estates of decedents who died from January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2012 may elect to transfer any unused exclusion to the surviving spouse. The amount received by the surviving spouse is called the deceased spousal unused exclusion (DSUE) amount. Making this election can have a profound effect on the taxation of the estate of the surviving spouse.
- Late Filing and Late Payment Penalty Abatement
- A little-known provision within the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) allows for the abatement of late filing and late payment penalties if a taxpayer was in compliance for the prior three years and had not previously had a penalty abated under this “first-time abate” provision. In a recent report, the Treasury Inspector General took the IRS to task for not publicizing and acting on this IRM policy. Abatement of the late filing and late payment penalties can result in some significant savings for taxpayers who are or have been subject to those penalties.
- Splitting Inherited IRAs before Year's End
- If you or others were the beneficiaries of an inherited IRA whose owner died in 2011, December 31, 2012 is an important deadline.
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