The following information is reprinted with permission from Forefield, Inc. The year was 2001. The top marginal federal income tax bracket was 39.6%, and the tax rate that applied to most long-term capital gains was 20%. Then came the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, followed two years later by the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. By mid-2003, the top marginal tax rate was 35%, and the 20%

During preseason practices at a small college some years ago, I observed an unnerving phenomenon. Each morning at breakfast everyone would look around, taking a head count or otherwise attempt to figure out who was missing. Everyone knew that during the dead of night that something happened, people were somehow taken away – without a sound. The first signs were empty chairs at breakfast or an open space in front of a full locker. Rumor

Many people like to stand out in a crowd, to have something a little different that’s out of the ordinary. Whether it’s the car they drive, a certain attire, or even a favorite hobby – most people like to feel special – to have or do something unique that is just a little different from everyone else. Yet when it comes to IRS, there seems to be a consensus about just being a faceless part of the crowd.

So what’s to be done with the old family Clunker? It’s now ten years old and it has been around the world twice. From July through October of 2009 you could have turned that old heap into a $3,500 – $4,500 voucher towards the purchase of a new car. (Of course it had to be in drivable condition and been continuously insured.) Now it seems that no one wants to buy it. Through the process

Are health insurance premiums taking too big of a bite out of your budget? Do you wish you had better control over how you spend your health-care dollars? If so, you may be interested in an alternative to traditional health insurance called a health savings account (HSA). How does this health-care option work? An HSA is a tax-advantaged account that’s paired with a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). Let’s look at how an HSA works with

While this post contains difficult reading (I admit it!), it does provide important information for those subject to the Required Minimum Distribution rules. If these rules do not apply to you and you read this anyway, you probably should have been a CPA! Required minimum distributions, often referred to as RMDs, are amounts the federal government requires you to withdraw annually from traditional IRAs and employer-sponsored retirement plans after you reach age 70½ (or, in some