On January 2, 2013 President Barack Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) into law. Chances are this was pretty good news for you. Although the ATRA does create a new 39.6% tax bracket, this bracket is only expected to impact about 2% of all taxpayers. But just because your ordinary tax rate doesn’t increase in 2013 doesn’t mean you won’t pay more tax this year. In fact, most estimates show that anywhere between 75% and 80% of all taxpayers will pay more tax in 2013 than they did in 2012. Here’s a few reasons why that could be the case for you.
Congress finally got around to passing tax legislation for 2012 with the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. It revived qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) for two years – retroactively for 2012 and also for 2013. They had to tweak the rules, though, for 2012 since they did not renew the provision until 2013. What major tweak is in store?
The House of Representatives passed a previously-passed Senate bill (H.R. 8), a 157-page bill called the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. There are many retirement planning provisions included in the bill that kept the United States from plunging off the fiscal cliff (cue scary music, plus the equally-scary reality that another showdown over spending cuts and deficit reduction is looming on the horizon).
We have spent a great deal of online real estate on the financial aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the toll it took and continues to take on disaster relief efforts both structurally at shore points up and down the Jersey coast and into New York and financially on the tens of thousands who saw their homes, vehicles and personal belongings wash away with the "once-in-a-century" storm.
Most of the talk of the fiscal cliff focuses on the impending tax increases and budget cuts and the impact that they will have on businesses, governments, and, ultimately, on taxpayers. One of the ways that taxpayers will be affected is caused by the impact of the fiscal cliff on IRS.
Unless you've been locked in the cellar of a medieval castle since the November elections, you've likely heard about the fiscal cliff issue – the popular name given to the impending simultaneous tax increases and budget cuts. No doubt this raises concerns about how going over that cliff, if it happens, could affect you.
In the current debate over the upcoming fiscal cliff, limiting income tax deductions is being discussed as a way to increase federal tax revenue. Charities could be adversely affected. Click to find out out.
As you are now no doubt aware, there are any number of ways which you might pay more in taxes for 2013 than you will this year. One of those many ways is when you sell long-term capital gain property. Common types of capital gain property are stocks, bonds, mutual funds and real estate. To be considered “long-term,” you must have held the investment for more than one year.
Hurricane Sandy, also known as "Super-Storm Sandy," did considerable damage in the Northeast part of the United States. As a result, the IRS issued several news releases describing the postponement of certain tax-related deadlines for victims affected by Hurricane Sandy. These postponements also apply to IRA and other retirement plan deadlines. The relief applies to many counties in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.
The unified gift and estate tax exemption is scheduled to drop from $5,120,000 to $1,000,000 as of January 1, 2013. This has prompted IRA account owners, and some advisors, to consider gifting retirement assets to children and grandchildren. For Roth IRA owners this would seem to be an especially attractive strategy. Who wouldn’t want to move an income-tax-free asset that has no step up in basis out of their estate to their beneficiaries?
