All posts by admin
Tax Breaks for Entrepreneurs
American identity is created in part by the idea of the self-made man or woman, and perhaps nowhere else in the world is the entrepreneurial spirit so enthusiastically celebrated. But as anybody who’s owned his or her own business will attest, being an entrepreneur isn’t for the faint of heart.
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Student Loans What They Mean for Your Taxes
If you’re a college or university student (or have been in the past), there’s a good chance that you procured a student loan to cover your tuition costs, and in the interest of taking good care of your finances, both present and future, you’ll want to be aware of what your student loan means to your taxes.
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Tax Residents and Non-Tax Residents How to Tell the Difference
When it comes to individuals subject to U.S. taxation, there are two classes: tax residents and non-tax residents. Immigrants to the U.S. frequently wonder about the technicalities of their status and what taxes, if any, apply to them.
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Why the U.S. Tax System is Dizzyingly Complex
“The tax code is 10 times the size of the Bible, with none of the good news,” once joked former U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, who pushed for extensive overhaul of the U.S. tax code during his time as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
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Congrats On Your New House! Common Tax Questions Answered
You did it! You found the perfect home, navigated the mortgage process, and now it’s all yours. And whether this is your first house or your fifth, you probably have some questions about what this new purchase will mean for your taxes. Let’s answer some of the most common ones. What is the mortgage interest deduction? Believe it or not, every penny of interest you pay on your mortgage is tax deductible! That means that if, say, $800 of your monthly mortgage payment goes to interest each month, you can deduct $800 x 12 for the year = a whopping
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The Boston Tea Party: The Fight for Fair Taxation
The Boston Tea Party and the riotous rebels behind it (the secret society known as the Sons of Liberty) has long been among the most highlighted and celebrated events of American history. The Sons of Liberty was a group created to protect the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. With the motto, “No taxation without representation,” the group began as an underground movement of men resisting what it maintained was Crown encroachment. Members spanned multiple colonies, including Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Virginia. A contentious relationship arose in
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Tax Breaks: Not Just for Tax Season
If you only think about taxes during the spring filing season, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities to save money all year long. Now that the 2017 deadline for filing your taxes has passed, you may want to start planning for the tax breaks that can pay off in the months ahead.
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DIY Mid-Year Tax Tune-Up
July 1 is the 182nd day of the year and it’s an ideal time to conduct a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) tax tune-up to ensure proper record-keeping practices will make tax filing easier, faster, and generate more tax deductions. Essentially, a mid-year DIY tax audit is an exercise in record-keeping and retention. The emphasis is on ensuring tax-related documents are being stored, and are available. Organizing tax records now can make filing easier and faster when April 15th of the next year rolls around.
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Why Should You File Your Own Taxes?
More often than not, it may make more sense for you to file your own taxes rather than turn things over to a pro. Here are some of the advantages to filing your own taxes.
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Federal Estate Tax: What is It, and Why Do We Have It?
For many people, the word estate can conjure rarified visions of mansions set amidst expansive lawns in exclusive communities, and when it comes to federal estate tax, those visions maybe somewhat accurate. The federal estate tax – tax levied on property bequeathed to heirs – does not affect 99% of Americans since only about 1% of Americans are even wealthy enough to be affected by it. Just how wealthy, you wonder? As of 2018, unless an estate’s value exceeds the exemption figure of $11.18 million per person (that’s $22.36 million per couple), it isn’t subject to federal estate taxes. The
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