Tag Archives: Taxation

The Mortgage Deduction

Today TaxMama® reads the Tax Prof Blog’s notes about who benefits from the mortgage deduction. According to an analysis reported in the NY Times, only 30% of Americans really benefit from this deduction. They are essentially in the “upper-middle and upper-income households.” Doesn’t that make you feel rich? What is the reality?  

10 Fun Tax Facts

  Today TaxMama® decides it’s time to have fun with taxes. Let’s play with some tax trivia and see if you know the answers?

Moving This Summer? Here are 10 Helpful Tax Tips

Courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service [TaxMama note: If you have any doubts about telling IRS about your move…read this story!] School’s out for the summer, and summer is a popular time for people to move – especially families with children. If you are moving to start a new job or even the same job […]

Tax-Free Rental Income

Today TaxMama® doesn’t have any interesting questions in the TaxQuips Forum. So let’s close this week with something interesting. I’m going to tell you how to collect rental income without paying any taxes at all.  

Ask TaxMama Issue 650 – Hot Dog!

 Dear Family, Can you believe it. This is the 650th issue. Ask TaxMama has been running for 12 ½ years. We’ve answered thousands of questions; solved innumerable tax problems; saved people millions of tax dollars over the years – and even improved the federal tax administration system and the tax profession a tiny bit. The […]

Contributed and Quit

Today TaxMama® hears from Sergey in the TaxQuips Forum, with this problem. “I started a new job with a 401k plan this year; but I had to quit after a few months. I accumulated some money in my 401k with this organization; and I want to take that money out now. Am I subject to […]

Ask TaxMama Issue 649 – Happy 13

Dear Family, Happy Friday the 13th! It will be a nice day – I’ll make sure of it. Since, it is my husband’s birthday. So, I’ll be devising delightfully cute ways to torment him. (His personal preference is to hide under the bed on his birthday…so anything I do to get him out from under […]

Ask TaxMama Issue 648 – 4th of July-ish

Lots of people are taking off early and getting ready for 4th of July in advance. Others are taking a long weekend next week – including my Lulu. Can you imagine – she’s off to a beach party for the 4th of July in a nice secluded cove. It actually looks really nifty. They seem […]

Ask TaxMama Issue 647 – Happy Summer

Dear Family,  Happy Summer! Yes, despite the fact that many of us in sunny climes start to celebrate summer on Memorial Day weekend, the planet didn’t recognize summer until this week.   Finally, this weekend, my mother’s 90th birthday party! I saw the album the girls put together. Lots of wonderful pictures! Lots. But, I think […]

Effective vs Actual Tax Rate

Today TaxMama® hears from KD in the TaxQuips Forum who is justifiably confused.  “I was looking over our tax return and was wondering why we are paying almost 50% effective tax rates on our income. I’m currently unemployed and my husband is an independent contractor. Our CPA included a chart with this year’s tax return. […]

Getting IRS Refunds after 3 years

Today TaxMama® hears from Lisa in the TaxQuips Forum who wants clarification. “Is there any way to amend an old tax return and receive a refund after the 3 year limit? I think you briefly touched on this in the CPE Link webinar last week.”

Adoption

Today TaxMama® hears from Hilde in the TaxQuips Forum with this question. “My son and daughter-in-law just adopted a special needs child from China. We know that there was a tax credit avail last year. Is there a tax credit for 2012? If yes, how much is the credit for? Some of the expenses were […]