George: Posted on Friday, January 15, 2021 11:48 AM
The tax
season this year – 2020 taxes filed in 2021 – will be unlike recent years for
many reasons. One major change is the almost certain delays you may expect in
connection with the preparation and filing of your taxes. The potential for
delay is based on several factors, most of which will be out of your control
but which you may want to understand and allow for this year.
First, we
have the substantial backlog at the IRS for 2019 returns that have NOT yet been
processed. Between individual returns and business returns, over ten million
are outstanding. |
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George: Posted on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 9:52 AM
There is no time like the present for investors to consider
their financial situations and planning and act to make changes under current
rules. With the national debt sky-high, the economy ravaged by COVID lockdowns and
everyone seemingly asking for funding of a wide variety of pet projects, the
one thing that seems certain is that the government will be squeezing more
revenue out of taxpayers. Make no mistake: this revenue seeking won’t simply
impact high income and wealthy taxpayers. Taxpayers at all levels of the
economy will be facing increased government demands not simply for income tax
but for increased taxes on services, on the sale and consumption of goods, on
ownership of real and intangible property and more. |
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George: Posted on Thursday, October 29, 2020 1:30 PM
A popular approach to investing is offered through the Robin
Hood app. This service allows an investor to participate in the market without
requiring any minimum investment and without charging any commission on the
trades by an investor. Available investment choices include stock, ETFs,
options, a number of ADRs, and even cryptocurrency. A margin account is also
available, subject to meeting the regulatory requirement of a $2,000 minimum. The
Robin Hood service is offered as a web platform or as a mobile app trading
platform. |
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George: Posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2020 3:33 PM
Not
every product or service sells itself and those offering most products and
services devote substantial effort and funding to ensure that the desired sales
happen. In the financial industry, a firm’s offering of incentives to its sales
employees to push particular products has (rightly) come under fire and
increasing regulation to the point that many incentive programs have been
terminated or at least significantly limited. One
reason for the change is that although the firm compensates those salespeople,
the funds for that compensation ultimately come from the customers. |
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George: Posted on Friday, September 25, 2020 9:20 AM
Most
IRA owners have named one or more primary beneficiaries to the account in the event
of the owner’s death. Oftentimes successor beneficiaries are also named to
ensure the funds pass as desired where the primary beneficiary has died as well.
The beneficiaries will be required to take distributions as specified in the
tax code and pay the associated taxes, though they may also take additional
distributions as desired. The distributed funds are not protected from the
beneficiary’s creditors and a spendthrift may quickly exhaust the IRA. |
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George: Posted on Monday, September 14, 2020 2:50 PM
As the pandemic
with its related restrictions and uncertainties drags along, we are seeing more
clients changing their near-term plans and goals. Initially, many of us simply deferred
activities, presumably for a few months while the pandemic (hopefully) ran its
course. Now, with no clear end to the pandemic nor any return to something
approaching normalcy in sight, people are making significant changes to their
plans. These changes are wide ranging and appear to have affected different age
groups in markedly different ways. |
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George: Posted on Saturday, August 22, 2020 4:15 PM
After all the
hype and noise about Form CRS, which was first required to be issued this
summer, it appears that the intended audience – investment clients – are
generally uninterested in the new disclosures and not engaged in the process of
asking questions of their advisers. Research shows that almost no-one who
received the new form, among the tens of thousands of clients who did, raised
any issue or question with their advisor regarding Form CRS and its use. Not
surprisingly, this logically fits in with the response of clients to required
disclosures generally: adding a few new pages with a somewhat different
approach to the pile does not engender interest in persons already overwhelmed
with information and fine print (much of it irrelevant and/or confusing). |
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George: Posted on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 1:01 PM
A feature of many 401(k) plans (as well as 403(b) and 457 plans) is the
ability of the plan participant to take a loan from the plan to assist in
meeting near term goals. This is particularly effective where there is no other
desirable source of funds and the participant has stable employment. Such a
loan can be a real benefit in times like the present where the pandemic has
caused stress and change from what used to be normal.
The primary reason for considering this source of funding is the
ability to avoid having the loan treated as a taxable distribution from the
plan and so not subject to either regular income taxation or to the ten percent
penalty assessed on early distributions for those younger than age 59½. |
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George: Posted on Monday, July 27, 2020 8:58 AM
The question of what happens with one’s assets at death is a major
aspect of planning for many of us. Necessarily, that planning must address the
possibility of death being earlier or later than what normally might be
expected and so directions should be in place to meet any eventuality. Of
course, the beauty of the planning is that in most cases we can revisit the
plan and update as circumstances change and time passes.
That brings us to those who have invested in qualified retirement plans
and who have children who are presently minors. |
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George: Posted on Saturday, July 11, 2020 12:00 PM
In this rather unusual year, it is important that you do not forget to
file your Federal Income Tax return this week. Many, many taxpayers took
advantage of the IRS postponing the due date for the 2019 tax returns by 91
days to July 15, 2020. This step was taken in response to some of the confusion
and uncertainties surrounding the pandemic and was meant to be a help to
taxpayers but not an excuse from the obligation of filing and paying tax.
Of course, taxpayers may still request an extension to the filing of
their returns until October 15, 2020, provided of course that the taxpayer pays
the amount due by July 15, 2020. |
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