Now that 2012 has passed and you are starting to think about gathering the information to prepare your 2012 tax return, you may have noticed that you forgot to take your IRA required minimum distribution (RMD) for 2012.
As we reported earlier, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) extended the qualified charitable distribution (QCD) rules retroactively for 2012 and through 2013. Two special rules allow IRA owners to have a donation made before February 1, 2013 be treated as a 2012 QCD. Click to learn more about the new IRS guidance on QCDs.
The questions are rolling in, as consumers are trying to make sense of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Enjoy this week's Slott Report Mailbag!
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?
Year-end retirement planning is in full swing. We are less than a week away from Christmas and in two short weeks 2013 will be here. Financial advisors and their clients are working hard to develop a proactive plan to guard against rising taxes. Ed Slott has your answers on gifting, RMDs (required minimum distributions) and QCDs (qualified charitable distributions) in three year-end planning videos found below.
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.
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.
The end of the year is rapidly approaching. It is time to make sure that all required distributions are taken from retirement accounts. Who must take a required distribution? We explain below.
Many areas in the Northeast were declared federal disaster areas as a result of Hurricane Sandy. The IRS has provided help for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Some of the retirement plan initiatives the IRS has announced are explained below.
If you are thinking about making a charitable donation for this year, you might use money from your IRA to do so. If an IRA distribution is used to make a charitable donation, the IRA distribution will be taxed even though the money went to a charity for a worthy cause. If you are under age 59 ½ on the date of the distribution, you will also be subject to the IRS 10% early distribution penalty,
unless there’s an exception such as disability. We covered that exception in an answer to a question in last Thursday's mailbag. 
