Taxes

Self-Employment Taxes: What You Need to Know

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This guest post comes from Michael, a contributing editor of the Dough Roller, a personal finance and investing blog, and Credit Card Offers IQ, a credit card review site. Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to be able to leave my 9-5 job and work on my own as a contractor. Setting my own […]

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Ask the Readers: Have You Filed Your Taxes Yet?

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Even though I have all of my W-2s, 1099s and other tax documents, I’ve been pushing off filing my taxes for this year. I’m not really sure why — probably just because I am super busy with work, life, etc. — but it’s one of those things where I keep telling myself to just take […]

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The Paper Documents You Actually Need to Keep

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In an age of online banking and bill pay, it’s easy and makes a ton of sense to go paperless, especially when it comes to the traditional bank and bill statements you’ve been getting in the mail for years. But for as many documents that we can store digitally, there are a few items that […]

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How to Cut the Federal Deficit

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I clipped a news article way back on August 11, 2005 when the Associated Press reported President Bush’s comments on a new transportation-spending bill. According to the article, “President Bush calls the massive $286.4 billion transportation spending bill he signed into law Wednesday a job creator.” The article goes on to describe the bill that […]

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The Right Way to Pay for Health Care

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The health care bill that finally passed the U.S. Senate has many differences from the bill that passed the House of Representatives, but both bills have additional taxes designed to close certain revenue shortages. In the House bill, some of the finance for expanding coverage to the millions without health care comes from an income […]

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What Will Your Tax Refund Look Like This Year?

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Now that we’re in 2010, tax time is around the corner. While there aren’t too many people who actually like to pay taxes, everyone likes to see if they’ll be getting a big (or any) refund come April 15. As employers prepare to send out W2s and 1099 statements, you can get a peek at […]

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Should the Estate Tax Be Permanently Eliminated?

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The Estate tax, a tax on the value of assets at death before ownership is transferred to heirs, has been subject to many pressures and changes over the years. Up until 1981, estate tax rates up to 70 percent were applied to the entire value of an estate with only a $50,000 exemption. Since the […]

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Weekend Linkage: Year End Moves, Tax Tips and Financial Setbacks

With December officially underway, everyone is taking a look at the year that was — and what they can do to finish off on the right step. Should you max out your Roth IRA? Does it make sense to cash in some losing stocks to write it off on your taxes? Are there any government […]

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Does Doing it Yourself Pay in the Long Run?

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One of the seldom discussed advantages of homeownership is the do-it-yourself opportunities it allows. Homeowners can do any of the maintenance and repair chores themselves, while renters pay for it in the cost of their monthly rent. Homeowners can provide untaxed labor that reduces their need for cash flow and income. I am unaware that […]

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Gambling on the Hope of Becoming Wealthy

In order to pay for health care proposals that extend coverage to 37 million people who are currently without coverage, House Democrats recently announced a plan to raise personal income tax rates up to 5.4% on incomes over $350,000. The Obama Administration is supporting a similar plan. In a recent article about the proposal in […]

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Weekend Linkage: Creating Wealth, FSAs and Your Home

Like a few weeks back, this Weekend Linkage has no theme, except that each story is interesting and should save (and make) you some money. That sounds pretty good. Maybe that’ll be the theme: saving and making money. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here are the stories. At MSN Money, tax […]

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Energy Efficient Tax Credits: Do Your Research First

Being a tax geek, excitement ran through my veins when my wife said we needed to buy a new water heater. That’s right, excitement! Our gas water heater was more than 20 years old and needed to be replaced. Knowing that there have been recent incentives to purchase energy efficient water heaters, I was all […]

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Will Taxing Health Care Benefits Pay for Reform?

The headline in the Washington Post reads “Tax on Health Benefits Weighed” with the subhead “Senator Calls Levy ‘Perhaps the Best Way’ to Pay for Overhaul.” The qualifier “perhaps”, in this case, means the best we can do given that a majority in Congress wants to avoid raising income tax rates at the top of […]

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