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As a spouse of a former marathon runner, I have learned that 6 to 9 months is the maximum for wear. I know it sounds like a short amount of time, and you are going to say you run less frequently, but the truth is the shoes get stiff after a short amount of time. The padding in the shoe looses the ab...

I believe "Private Number" means the caller has blocked their number from view.
"Unknown Caller" is someone calling from another service provider and the information has not be shared between providers.

Of course the gift can be tax free if your mother chooses to use some of her lifetime gift exemption. In 2013, under the provisions of the American Taxpayer Relief Act, the exemption increased to $5,250,000. In 2014 and future years, the exemption amount will continue to be indexed for inflation. Ho...

Harold wrote:Your "correction" was incorrect. Mine was a direct quote

My apologies, I missed the quote within the article. I quoted the title. Otherwise, I believe there is no disagreement.

$250 sound like a little too much to me, and I'm generous - see my post re wedding gifts.

I think $50-$100 is the right range. Especially since you currently pay $20 for the lawn work. A book sounds like a nice touch.

Miss Manners wrote: There is no such thing as an invoice for a wedding present. Close, but actually Miss Manners' article is entitled: " A wedding invitation is not an invoice ." I second the opinion that if you are going to attend the shower buy an actual gift. The whole unwrapping of th...

Current Asset Allocation Taxable (34%) - 11.5% Large Cap individual stocks (MMM, MO, AAPL, JNJ, KRFT, PM, PG, TGT, WMT) - 5.0% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Signal (VTSSX) - 16.6% Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (VXUS) - 1.4% Vanguard Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund Admiral (VWLUX) Roth I...

Is this a mistype? I opened 2 accounts, for my wife and I with $10,500 each @ Vanguard The ROTH IRA limit for 2013 is $5,500, so for the two of you it would be $11,000. Or maybe you contributed for 2013 & 2012? Target Retirement funds are perfect for ROTHs and 401ks. In the future, once you have...

Income wise, I'm the primary earner in our family at ~$64k (plus variable income on the side...maybe $12k or so). Wife makes around $22k a year in a retail job. Our monthly income loss will be $1300 or so (her current take home) at the most if she quits work altogether, which she doesn't expect or ...

Questions: 1.I just started a new job and wanted to get my 401K set up quickly. I just picked 5 funds based on past performance and spread the distribution evenly without much research or thinking(dumb I know). I’m thinking an AA of 85/15 going forward. Judging by the fund options posted any sugges...

Where does this notion come from that a ring purchase should represent a certain percentage of income? BFG Debeers Yes, there was an advertising campaign sometime in the 1980's that explicitly said two months salary. I tried to google for it, but alas it was before the internet age. BTW, no ring he...

How much "extra" money do you have to work with each month? How big is your emergency fund now? If I were about to loose a significant portion of my income I would want enough saved to cover that shortfall. How close are you? What amount of time is left on your mortgage? Although in the lo...

Welcome to the forum. :) Given the sums that we are talking about, I would just invest the money in a Target Date Fund. Then you will have no issue with making the minimum investment. Once you accumulate enough to purchase the individual funds in the correct proportions, you could break up your inve...

Here is a timely article: Loan Qualifications for Retirees.

I think there is some confusion. Many types of annuities are "single payment." He did say the annuity take 1.65% and he gets paid from that. He also said there was a 8.75% surrender charge. I know there's a death benefit, but not sure exactly what that is. I'm assuming this advisor is reco...

Given what I have learned about annuities, I would personally stay away from them, YMMV. Annuities are complex animals and I stick with the motto that one should only invest in something that one understands. The only type of annuity I would consider is a SPIA-Single Premium Immediate Annuity. For m...

Given that women generally outlive men they might choose the no beneficiary option... However my family's experience has been different. My in-laws set everything up assuming the wife would outlive the husband (he was 10 years older) and she predeceased him. At retirement there were no hints of heal...

It's good that you have no control over your father and how he spends his money, because it is his money, and he can spend it or throw it away as he sees fit. It is not your money, or "the children's future education money", it is his money. And it is not up to you to decide if he is bein...

You might want to look at this thread: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=115414&newpost=1681245

Others will chime in, but one thing stands out for me.

dpusa wrote:Combined nondeductible IRAs: $50k

Have you considered creating a Backdoor Roth IRA?

And per current IRS regs (things could change!), IF you return and make this home your primary residence for 2 or 3 years (out of the most recent 5), and you sell at a profit (it's already appreciated), then you could keep up to 250k (500k if married) in profits TAX FREE. If you are considering thi...

You can not deduct expenses on a rental property that is rented to a relative for less than fair market value. If you charge fair market rent your OK. See: http://www.rontaxcpa.com/showtip.php?newsid=139 Edit: I missed the part where the OP wants to reimburse the parents for the rent. That would be ...

cppoly wrote:If I paid off my entire student loan in full of $50k this year, would any of that be tax deductible? Aside from the interest...

Just the interest is deductible (Line 33, Form 1040).

Edit to add: See page 134 of Pub 17 for full explanation of Student Loan Interest Deduction.

As others have said, he should call the IRS immediately.
The number for Identity Theft is 1-800-908-4490.
They will tell him exactly what the IRS wants him to do. Obviously follow their instructions to the letter.

From Pub 590: Contributions must be made by due date . Contributions can be made to your traditional IRA for a year at any time during the year or by the due date for filing your return for that year, not including extensions. For most people, this means that contributions for 2012 must be made by A...

Yes it is a deductible expense. If you itemize you deduct the expense on schedule A in the "Job Expenses and Certain Miscellaneous Deductions" section. If you take the standard deduction there is no way to deduct the expense. The "Job Expenses and Certain Miscellaneous Deductions"...

From page 2 of Instructions for Form 5329: Distributions from a designated Roth account. If you received an early distribution from your designated Roth account, include on line 1 the amount of the distribution that you must include in your income. You will find this amount in box 2a of your 2012 Fo...

Did you received any confirmation that the CC payment was processed?
Have you checked your CC account online to see if the charge has been posted?

Thank you for your quick response. When you figure the amount of any capital loss carryover to the next year, you must take the current year's allowable deduction into account, whether or not you claimed it and whether or not you filed a return for the current year. Ahh, yes I've now found this on p...

From Pub 17, page 226:

AOC is up to $2,500 per eligible student.
Up to 40% of credit may be refundable.
Available only if the student had not completed the first 4 years of postsecondary education before 2012.
Available only for 4 tax years per eligible student.
...

Thanks for the replies. OK, I see where I made my mistake. If you have no income you do not use any of your Capital Loss Carryover. If I followed the worksheet correctly this time, two things stood out: One, Short-Term Gains are used first. Two, I noticed that income below the standard deduction (or...

From the Instructions for Schedule C: Line 1 Enter gross receipts from your trade or business. Include amounts you received in your trade or business that were properly shown on Forms 1099-MISC. If the total amounts that were reported in box 7 of Forms 1099-MISC are more than the total you are repor...

You have to fill out the "Capital Loss Carryover Worksheet" in the schedule D instructions. It does what it does, you don't get to make choices. Most likely it says you have to use the losses against any current years capital gains and then take another $3000 against other income. This is...

A $3 million balance in a tax-preferred account like an IRA would currently allow a saver to finance an annuity of $205,000 per year in retirement.

I'd like to know where they got the annuity quote. Seems high to me.

Sorry, since your parents are claiming your sister as a dependent she can not take the student loan interest deduction. Neither can your parents if the loan is your sister's legal obligation. As for the tax owed, this is what I got: your sister's taxable income is $11,749 - $950 = $10,799. ($950 is ...

I agree the amount of tax sounds high given the information we have. Also check that your sister is getting the deduction for student loan interest (line 18 on 1040A; line 33 on 1040). Although for the amount of income we are talking about ($529), her tax should be -0- even without the student loan ...

If you are renting to a family member at less than the fair market rental rate the house is considered your second home. If you are renting at a fair market rate you treat the rental as any other rental property. See this Example . Also because of your income level you will not be able to deduct pas...

An HH/H Bond's face value may include deferred (postponed) interest from an earlier bond. If it is carrying deferred interest, you will receive that interest as part of the bond's face value when you redeem that bond. So the HH Bond could have interest payable at redemption. Interest is income. Is ...

I now see from the not-so-old thread that the property used to be the OP's principle residence. This may fit Example 1 on page 15 of Pub 523, if the property meets the 2 yr out of 5 yr rule. However, if the property will have been rented out for 3 years or less the OP should heed Example 2 and consi...

Let me throw in another kicker. I will be living in the house from June 1st 2013 to July 1st 2014. Although, that is only one calendar year it overlaps considerable with both 2013 and 2014 tax years. Could this qualify as 2 years, thus eliminate the 25% taxes on recapture of depreciation and capita...

This would also work. The feds are quiet on how long a rental has to be a rental. Theoretically, you could sell the rental property, buy a house, say it's a rental, move in, make it your primary home and not have to pay depreciation or capital gains taxes. I think you always have to recapture depre...

To covert a property from non-qualified to qualified you will need to use the property as your principle residence for a minimum of two years out of the last five that you own it. So if you sell after one year you are not going to be able to claim qualified treatment for the property. Therefore you ...

You could have your wife complete the forms to open a new Roth IRA and overnight the forms with a check for the contribution.

I contacted Vanguard about how to add her to my account so we could open up an IRA under her name. The problem is, the form for adding users seems to require opening a new account with both of our names instead of modifying the existing account (which would require two forms to be sent in instead o...

In NY AFAIK, everyone over 59 1/2 is entitled to an exemption of up to $20,000 of pension/IRA/annuity income.
What is also allowed is an unlimited exemption for government pensions.
Perhaps the accountant is confusing the two issues.

Your accountant should be able to give you your options. If you can pay within 60 or 120 days you can do that. You simply request the extension of time. Interest and late payment penalty apply but there is not additional application or user fee. If you need more time you must complete form 9465 &quo...

Wow, that is strange. I'm sure that that is easily missed. Also it sounds like getting a corrected SSA-1099 for 2011 was not a simple matter.
Thanks for the further clarification.

Here is how a SSA-1099 is constructed (or is for my situation). They don't start with your benefit and then subtract the subtractions; they work from the bottom up. 1) Take what actually went into your bank 2) Take what went to medicare for Part B premiums 3) Take what went to medicare for Part D p...

Here is a good blog post on the issue: Are Investment management fees tax dedutible?
The same post was published as an article in Forbes.

See also http://www.kitces.com/blog/archives/424 ... ounts.html

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