Interest rate cuts have an unequal impact on Americans. Getty For the first time since 2008, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates. They made this move Wednesday preemptively attempting to continue the U.S.’s record-long economic growth and to protect it from slowing growth overseas. The quarter-point decrease was expected, although whether it was even
Taxes
Things did not go well for Christopher Dufresne, son of famous psychic Sylvia Browne and himself a psychic, in the Tax Court decision that came out last week. Judge Kerrigan confirmed the IRS notices of deficiencies of over $500,000 and accuracy penalties that tack on another hundred thousand plus. You would have thought that he
Social Security may be one of your largest assets. What and when you collect will make a huge difference to your lifetime benefits. Today’s column addresses restricted applications, when the deeming provision is applied, the availability of divorced spousal benefits, unexpected payments from SSA and the earnings test. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics
Section 1031 is one of the few sections of the tax code everyone seems to know. It is even routinely used as a verb. Under 1031, if you exchange real estate for ‘like-kind’ real estate, gain is postponed until you sell your replacement property. Starting in 2018, swaps of Bitcoin for Ethereum, exchanges of private aircraft,
Shoppers at an outlet mall exit an Adidas store on May 21, 2019 in Los Angeles. Photo credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images The economic benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) seem to have petered out. The US economy grew robustly in late 2017, perhaps partly due to expectations for
Woodbridge, New Jersey – April 26, 2015: A replica of the Back to the Future DeLorean is shown at a local car show Getty My daughter asked for a pair of throwback Nike sneakers this week to match her ringer tees and scrunchies. Not to be outdone, my son wants a DeLorean. It feels like
College fund. Piggy bank with coins. Money for education. Getty 529 plans and custodial accounts are two of the most common ways to save for college, but they have distinctly different benefits for families. Understanding the differences between the two savings methods is essential to choosing the right one for you and your children, so
Recently, in Revenue Procedure 2019-32, the IRS provided a six-month extension for certain partnerships to file a superseding Form 1065 (its partnership return) and corresponding Schedules K-1 to each of its partners. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (the “BBA”) drastically changed the way that partnerships are audited, including partnership-level assessments; smaller partnerships, however, can
Getty On Monday, I gave a speech in front of the National Association for Enrolled Agents (NAEA) about challenges in the tax profession. One of the things that I talked about was the importance of following the rules. Today, a district court judge ruled against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on just that point: they
Government regulators believe that many financial advisors give bad advice about IRAs because the advisors have inherent conflicts. There has resulted in a stream of rules and regulations. The main concern of regulators is what happens to an individual’s 401(k) account after leaving a job. The regulators concluded that too many advisors recommended that the