It is always a good time to enhance online security and know what to do if you are a victim of tax fraud. In recognition of “Identity Theft Awareness Week”, held February 3rd – 7th, we thought it was particularly timely to re-post this blog, originally posted Jan 25th, 2018.
As part of Congress’ year-end budget deal, the SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement) has been signed into law. The SECURE Act includes many changes that will affect retirement accounts starting in 2020. Below is a summary of some of the major changes:
There are important questions at certain ages that you should keep in mind on your journey. Your options for Retirement and Financial Planning need to be given very serious thought and examination. You need to identify your goals, explore your options, and test for the unexpected.
The penalty for not taking one’s Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from an IRA, according to the IRS, can be 50% of the amount that was not distributed. For example, if one is required to take $1,000 of RMD this year, failing to do so may cause a $500 tax bill.
1. Turning wealth into income – creating a total return strategy that produces a continuous paycheck just like you had when you were employed 2. Revising your investment strategy – which was successful for the accumulation phase but may not work as well now during the distribution phase 3. Protecting against new risks and concerns...
A 45-second read by Victor Cannillo: If you want to help a relative pay for college, you can pay the money to the college directly without incurring any gift taxes. However, you need to ask the school if this would affect the need-based aid eligibility of the student because each school handles this differently. For example, if the school views the money as a payment of the student’s account, then most likely it would not affect financial aid. But if the money is treated as a resource, then it will reduce the student’s aid “dollar-for dollar.”
Tax returns must be submitted by April 15th this year. Filing form 4868 will extend the due date up until October 15, 2019.
You will receive a form 1099-R if any money has been moved out of a retirement account. How much you will pay in taxes will depend on how the money is moved. You want to make sure any movement out of a retirement account is done properly, and the correct code is applied when you file your taxes. The code will appear in box 7 of the 1099-R.
New Jersey is certainly not known as a “tax-friendly” state. However, the garden state has a much lower threshold on medical-expense deductions than the federal government. New Jersey allows certain non-reimbursed medical expenses to be deducted after they exceed only 2% of your gross income.
You may have a stock in your brokerage account that has a very large gain since you originally purchased it. If you were to go and sell the stock, outside of a retirement account, you would pay taxes on the profit you made on the investment. This is called a “capital gain”.
If you are the owner of an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) you may be aware that at age 73 (or 75, depending on your birth year), you are required to withdraw a small portion of your account and pay taxes on the amount withdrawn.