- How the Health Care Law Will Impact Your Taxes
- There has been a great deal of media coverage related to the US Supreme Court upholding the Affordable Care Act, also known as the Health Care Law. The media coverage was generally political and failed to explain the details of how the law will impact individuals. If you are interested in political rhetoric as to whether it is a tax, penalty, or a forced purchase, look no further. The intent of this article is to explain how the Affordable Care Act will impact your pocketbook in 2013, when the healthcare taxes kick in, and in 2014, when the mandatory insurance requirement becomes effective. Here are the details for 2013:
- Should Investments Be Kept In A Safe Deposit Box?
- Whether it is a good idea or not to keep investments in a safe deposit box depends on the investment. Certainly, some investments definitely require this sort of protection. These would include investments such as rare coins, stamps, and similar collectables, gold and silver, and negotiable instruments, such as bearer bonds that can be cashed by anyone who possesses them. The cost of renting the box is justifiable for keeping these items safe.
- Family Courts Don't Always Pay Attention To Federal Tax Law
- All too often, family law courts make rulings that are contradictory to federal tax law, causing confusion and inequity in divorce actions since family court rulings cannot trump federal tax law.
- Will You Be Hit by the AMT in 2012?
- AMT is the acronym for Alternative Minimum Tax. It is a different (alternative), and generally punitive, method of computing income tax when either certain types of income receive preferential tax treatment or there are excessive deductions in certain categories. Congress originally implemented it to impose a minimum tax on higher-income taxpayers who were avoiding taxes through tax shelters and other legal means. However, years of inflation without corresponding adjustment to the AMT components have, each successive year, caused an increasing number of taxpayers to be subject to the AMT.
- Raising Cash in Tough Times
- A housing market that has not recovered from the big price drops that began several years ago, long-term unemployment, and a still wobbly economy mean tough times for cash-strapped individuals seeking to raise money for an immediate financial need. Compounding the misery is the fact that many people have locked away the lion's share of their savings in a tax-favored retirement vehicle, such as a company profit-sharing or 401(k) plan, IRA, SEP, SIMPLE IRA, or Roth IRA. And getting at that money in order to resolve a pressing financial crisis before 59 1/2 years of age is not easy and can be financially painful.
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