TAXING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS Some taxpayers must include up to 85% of their social security benefits in taxable income, while others find that their benefits are not taxable at all. If social security is your only source of income, your benefits probably won’t be taxable. In fact, you may not even need to file a [...]
AVOIDING PENALTIES ON IRA WITHDRAWALS BEFORE AGE 59 ½ IRA owners can withdraw money from their account at any time and for any reason because the owner is in total control of this account. Most withdrawals from traditional IRAs will be at least partially taxable. To add insult to injury the taxable portion of a [...]
TAXING A CHILD’S INVESTMENT INCOME Some children who receive investment income are required to file a tax return and pay tax on at least a portion of that income (and possibly at the parents’ marginal tax rate). This is often referred to as the kiddie tax. The kiddie tax cannot be computed accurately until the [...]
COMPARING TAXABLE VERSUS TAX-EXEMPT INVESTMENT YIELDS With rising tax rates, some taxpayers are considering allocating at least a portion of their investments to tax-exempt investments. After all, interest earned on tax-exempt investments not only escapes ordinary income tax rates that can be as high as 39.6%, but also the 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT). [...]
LEASING PROPERTY TO A CLOSELY-HELD CORPORATION Shareholders of closely-held C corporations routinely lease real estate, equipment, and other property to their corporate entity. These leases can be held directly by the shareholder or through a separate entity, such as a partnership, LLC, or S corporation. Of course, the corporation could directly purchase the item or [...]
LIFETIME VERSUS TESTAMENTARY CONTRIBUTIONS Many taxpayers with charitable intentions struggle with the decisions of whether to donate property to charity during their lifetimes or to make a charitable bequest in their wills that will be fulfilled from property included in their estates (testamentary bequests). While taxpayers frequently base their choice between lifetime charitable gifts and [...]