exemption

Seven words you never want to hear at Christmas: “WHAT!!! YOU GOT ME A GIFT CARD?!?!?!?” On the other hand, if someone really wants a gift card, why fight the crowds and spend hours looking for the perfect gift? It’s easy and it will be easier to have a debt free Christmas if you know [...]

Up until about 10 years ago, there was one type of IRA, the traditional IRA which was deducted from your taxable income, grows tax deferred, and upon withdrawal, is taxed at whatever rate you find yourself. Its cousin, the Roth IRA is the mirror image, the money you put in is after tax money, but [...]

All inheritances are not taxable to the recipients; it’s the estate that must pay taxes, if any are due. In 2009, the amount excluded from any tax due is $3.5 million, and next year, the estate tax is repealed, no tax regardless of the estate size. Unfortunately, the repeal lasts only for 2010, and the [...]

In this article, I want to go through a few basic tax concepts that include Tax Brackets, Marginal Tax Rate, and Effective Tax Rate. Due to uniqueness of individual States, we will focus our attention to the Federal Income Tax System and the same concepts can be generally applied at the individual State Income Tax [...]

The following article contains information about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s officially released 2009 federal income tax brackets. You’ll need this information to prepare and file your 2009 tax return in early 2010. To the extent that the information in this article helps summarize the changes in Federal Income Tax, you should consult the official [...]

Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) is a type of Treasury securities that provides protection against inflation and real return.  I don’t know if TIPS is the best bond to buy or not, but I am beginning to think that it is after reading articles and books by Larry Swedroe over the years.  At the very least, [...]

This is the 11th issue of the Ask The Expert column by Larry Swedroe. You can see Larry’s full biography and important disclaimer below. If you are interested in having your question answered by Larry, please send me an email via the contact page.
Now, let’s get to the questions and answers (please note that the [...]

There has been a lot of talk about the economic stimulus package and tax rebate among the personal finance bloggers last week. Today, I am going to shift gear a little and start talking about income tax return. Traditionally, I use TaxCut to prepare my tax, but this year I am going to try TaxCut [...]