Who’s afraid of the big, bad AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax)? Before recent tax reform took effect, you’d be afraid if your AMT liability was higher than your regular federal tax liability. (You’d have to pay the difference in additional taxes.) Now that tax reform is the law, you’ve got much less to fear from the onerous AMT. The bottom line? Changes in the law mean … [Read more...]
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Be Alert to Tax Rules That Destroy Mortgage Interest Deductions
If you don’t know how to play the IRS’s game, your mortgage deduction could be at risk. However, if you know your tax law (and we do!), you can mitigate and often eliminate the loss of your deductions. Want to keep the IRS at bay and save a bundle? Read my new article titled Tax Tips: Be Alert to Tax Rules That Destroy Mortgage Interest Deductions. Three ways our … [Read more...]
How coin, stamp, and baseball card collectors can keep the IRS happy
Are you a collector of coins, stamps, baseball cards, or other items? If the answer is “yes,” you should also start collecting some important tax information. For starters, you should know that your collecting activities will fall into one of four IRS-determined tax categories: Hobby Investment Trader Dealer Depending on how the IRS categorizes your collecting … [Read more...]
How independent contractors mistakenly paid as employees cut their tax bills
Are you paid commissions and taxed as an employee? If so, you could be a business owner under the common law classification system. “So what?” you might say. Well, we’ll tell you what, and it’s a lot! You are likely losing tens of thousands of dollars in business expense deductions each year. You may even think you are getting those deductions, without realizing that they … [Read more...]
The truth about home equity loans
There’s no place like home. And one way to extract value from this important asset is to take out a home equity loan. After all, interest rates on home loans and home-equity lines of credit are currently low. But, before you sign on the dotted line, you need to know how the tax law treats these loans. For example, you should learn… How much interest you can deduct What … [Read more...]