Meeting your obligations and finding some opportunities. After you turn 70½, the IRS requires you to withdraw some of the money in your retirement savings accounts each year. These withdrawals are officially called Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs).1 While you never have to make withdrawals from a Roth IRA, you must take annual RMDs from traditional, [...]

Could it? Should it? The Capitol Hill debate continues. There is hope yet that this tax break will return in 2012. While a pair of bills designed to extend the payroll tax holiday stalled in the Senate on December 1, a bipartisan effort could take place to save the tax cut that amounts to roughly [...]

Rounding up the rankings of places to be (and not to be) financially. Do you live in one of the worst tax states for retirees? Are you fortunate enough to live in one of the best states to do business? Here is a roundup of the miscellaneous, fascinating rankings offered by leading magazines and websites. [...]

The IRS has nearly doubled its examinations of returns from the richest taxpayers. IRS audits are up nearly 8% for the wealthiest Americans. This spring, the Internal Revenue Service released the 2010 IRS Data Book. Journalists and tax professionals looked inside and noticed a couple of eyebrow-raising statistics: The IRS audited 18.4% of 2010 tax [...]

Some of these tax breaks may provide big savings. The Internal Revenue Code is around 700 pages thick – not as long as War and Peace or Remembrance of Things Past, but much drier reading. However, some very nice tax breaks may be found within its pages and amendments. Not all are well-known. Reducing America’s [...]