Taxes

Thanks to some positive feedback on my recent piece, I have decided to dig deeper into the Fair Tax Act of 2023. The Reader’s Digest version of the act is that it eliminates federal corporate and individual income tax, payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare, estate tax and gift tax. In their place

As the international tax community seeks revenue estimates from the OECD’s two-pillar tax reform project, some finance ministries are playing their cards close to the vest. In the United States, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly sought pillar 1 revenue information from the Treasury Department, only to be rebuffed each time. Why is Treasury reluctant to share

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about when to switch from survivor’s benefits to retirement benefits, survivor’s benefits amounts after taking spousal benefits and whether claims of taking full retirement benefits at 55 are credible. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc.

The news is filled with stories about conflicts between taxpayers and tax collectors. Just a few weeks ago a New York jury convicted the Trump Organization of criminal fraud for a 15-year scheme to help top executives dodge taxes. While that case is a linguistic no-brainer, we often struggle to properly describe those who aggressively

Sometime during the next two years — we don’t yet know when — the House of Representatives will be hosting a public orgy. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has promised to hold a floor vote on the FairTax Act of 2023 (H.R. 25). The promise was one of multiple concessions McCarthy made to the Freedom

In the past, you needed to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) around age 70.5. This year RMDs can be taken at age 73. For younger folks reading this post, the RMD age will rise to 75 on Jan 1, 2033. The taxes could be onerous regardless of when you will need to begin taking your

What’s a paragraph worth in a thousand pages of Congressional legislation? Quite possibly, your ability to save thousands of dollars more in your company’s retirement plan. The news regarding SECURE 2.0 broke earlier this week from the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA) when a staffer at the American Retirement Association discovered a major glitch

Many people wait until near the end of the year to consider whether to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. But traditional IRA owners should be alert throughout the year for good opportunities to convert all or part of an IRA. Many variables determine whether a conversion will pay off or not, and

Our economic attention currently is fixed on national policy, with growing risks from a debt limit deadlock and debates over inflation versus recession. But economic prosperity also depends on state, regional, and local policy, and now there’s a free guide to some of the best thinking in the field in the newest edition of the

Inflation is on the mind of everyone these days, even the tax authorities. At the start of every year, the IRS and the Social Security Administration adjust key numbers in federal tax-law provisions for inflation. Some of these modifications are crucial for employees, their paychecks, and their planning. However, the US federal tax code is