Increase your refund

Tax credits that increase your refund
There are credits that give you cash even when you owe no taxes—refundable credits. They have restrictions but you may qualify. 1. The Earned Income Tax Credit is for people earning less than $49,078 from wages, 2. Child and Dependent Care Credit is for expenses paid for the care of your qualifying children under age 13, or for a disabled spouse or dependent, 3. Child Tax Credit is for people who have a qualifying child. The maximum credit is $1,000 for each qualifying child. 4. Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, or Saver’s Credit, is designed to help low-to-moderate income workers save for retirement. Read how to claim: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=255095,00.html


Wealth Building is Like Brushing Your Teeth
Wealth is made by following a strategy as a habit. Some of the most successful investors have been those who invest regularly and reinvest dividends automatically. Unless you know how to pick the next Apple, you are better off buying a low-cost index fund of stocks. The secret to building wealth is letting compounding work. $250 a month has compounded to $115,000 in 15 years, 215,000 in 20, and $700,000 in 30 years. It was all habit like brushing my teeth. I just never sold. I wish I had started earlier. http://www.amazon.com/Building-Wealth-Like-Brushing-Teeth/dp/1470141469/

Can you deduct health insurance?
If you're self-employed and paying for medical, dental or long-term care insurance, there is a special tax deduction for some insurance premiums paid for you, your spouse, and your dependents. Take it on Form 1040, line 29 if you meet the guidelines. See http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p535.pdf or your preparer.

NY requires insurer to pay for lead testing for kids
New York requires Excellus BlueCross BlueShield process claims for routine childhood screenings for lead and provide refunds to consumers who paid for tests out-of-pocket after initially being denied. Lead can lead to brain damage but Excellus did not want to pay. This is an example of what GOP bills will do if passed.

CA to ban lobbyist expense in premium increases
Health care generated $35.7 million in lobbyist spending in 2011, more than any other industry in California , and Kaiser was the largest spender at $3.5 million, according to a California Healthline analysis of state records released today. A ballot initiative proposed by consumer advocates would prohibit insurance companies like Kaiser from passing on lobbying expenditures to policyholders as premium increases, the same way current law prohibits auto and homeowners insurers from passing on those costs.

MetLife fails Fed’s test for capital strength
MetLife Inc., the largest life insurer in the United States , was one of four bank holding companies that failed the Federal Reserve's stress test, the central bank announced March 13. But MetLife has fired back at the Fed, arguing the capital standards laid out by the stress test are inappropriate for insurance companies. Also failing were Citigroup Inc., Ally Financial Inc. and Suntrust Banks Inc., which all have insurance subsidiaries.The stress test, officially dubbed the 2012 Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, applied worst-case financial scenarios to 19 complex bank holding companies through the end of 2012. In failing the four financial institutions, the Fed rejected their capital management plans. Members shop for coverage and save. Term insurance costs less than a $1 a day for most under age 50 unless you use a name brand firm.

Is Home Value Protection right for you?
An insurance policy that protects homeowners from the impact of declining home prices. You can lock in your insured home value for up to 10 years. If home values appreciate, a homeowner can purchase a new insurance policy with a higher insured home value. For a typical Georgia home, monthly premiums are from $25 to $35 a month. A Home Value Protection claim requires two conditions:Your home must sell for less than the Protected Home Value; andLocal home values must have declined during the policy period, as measured by an independent home price index, the nationally recognized Case-Shiller® Home Price Index.The eligible claim is either the loss on the sale of your home (the Protected Home Value less the Sale Price), or the expected loss in home value as measured by the local home price index (the Protected Home Value multiplied by the percentage decline in the home price index), whichever is less. There is a deductible for the first two years and a Coverage Limit may apply. Sounds as if the protection is for the insurer. Your home value would have to decline with all others—a region-wide collapse like in 2006-8 for you to collect. Skip it unless you know your region will suffer a depression in the next 10 years.


Reagan advisor says taxes are very low compared to history and other countries.
Bruce Bartlett, former adviser to President Reagan, runs some numbers on taxes in the United States and finds federal taxes are at their lowest level in more than 60 years. TheCongressional Budget Office estimatedthat federal taxes would consume just 14.8 percent of G.D.P. this year. The last year in which revenues were lower was 1950, according to the Office of Management and Budget. The average federal income tax rate on the 400 richest people in America was 18.11 percent in 2008, according to the Internal Revenue Service, down from 26.38 percent when these data were first calculated in 1992. Among the top 400, 7.5 percent had an average tax rate of less than 10 percent, 25 percent paid between 10 and 15 percent, and 28 percent paid between 15 and 20 percent. 60% of corporations pay NO tax. The truth of the matter is that federal taxes in the United States are very low. There is no reason to believe that reducing them further will do anything to raise growth or reduce unemployment, Bartlett concluded.No wonder there is a deficit. We have 2 wars too. usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/040517/17edit.htm

Is a Target-Date fund in your 401k right for you?
These funds may be available to you in your 401k at work. They were created to make it easy to invest by letting you pick the date of your retirement as the criterion for how your money is invested. The reason is that if you are young, you have time to invest in stocks more heavily. This is perfect for some people because there is nothing else to decide. However, if your retirement plan charges excessive fees, it will greatly reduce how much you end up with in retirement. If you would have earned 11% a year but give up 1-2% in fees, you may end up with $500,000 by retirement. On the other hand, a low-cost fund will provide the same long-term investment profile on a tax-advantaged basis too. See amazon.com/The-New-American-Retirement-System/dp/1461030072/

Claim tax credit for your employees’ health care coverage
Small Business Health Care Tax Credit is only for small employers with fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees. Those employees must make an average wage of less than $50,000 a year. In addition, a small business owner must pay at least half of each employee's single (not family) health-insurance premium. If your small business qualifies, you can claim a credit up to 35% of the premiums you paid in 2011. That figure will go up to 50% in 2014 under ObamaCare.http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8941.pdf

USAA, Amazon.com, Costco, Virgin America, Apple, Trader Joe’s and Wegmans Among the Highest in Customer Loyalty in the 2012 Satmetrix®Net Promoter® Benchmark Study http://www.satmetrix.com/

SCAMS
How a Canadian insurer engineered a $400 million tax refund from a fake loss.
It is called a “borrow to hold” deal. The transaction was a sham, according to a tax expert. The beneficiary of our $400 million tax dollars is a Canadian insurance company, Fairfax. And the IRS is buying it! WOW http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/business/fairfax-financials-400-million-tax-break-revisited.html

Now Congressmen are fessing up. AIG got more of our money!!!!
Former members of a congressional panel that oversaw bailouts during the financial crisis blasted the Treasury Department on Monday for quietly granting a tax break worth billions to insurance giant American International Group. The tax break amounts to a “stealth bailout” on top of the $182 billion that AIG received from the government, and it unfairly helps AIG, its shareholders and executives, former oversight panel chair Elizabeth Warren and others said.This is socialism for the benefit of the powerful just like in Russia. You and I had to pay for these businessmen's bad decisions. Stockholders and managers are supposed to lose money not us. AIG's Greenberg did not go to jail.http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/markets/former-bailout-watchdogs-condemn-tax-break-for-aig-as-a-stealth-bailout/2012/03/12/gIQAJ54X7R_story.html

Goldman’s CEO got $54.4 million for making derivatives that helped sink America in 2008
Wall Street firms will do it again because the money is soooooooooooooo good. For instance, Goldman's CEO Blankfein 'earned' a total of $54.4 million in 2006. His bonus reflected the performance of Goldman Sachs, which reported record net earnings of $9.5 billion. This was the year they were making and selling those bad mortgage derivatives. Blankfein never went to jail. He and Goldman will do it again. That is more money than God makes. Rage grows over mortgage settlement with banksThere are 11 million homeowners who are currently underwater on their homes, according to CoreLogic. And it's also a mere sliver of the 3.5 million people who lost their homes to foreclosure over the past four years. Banks paid a small fine. NO CEO went to jail. This is justice in America in 2012.

Ameriprise brokers use client info illegally
A pair of Ameriprise Financial Inc. investment advisers and three of their friends and family members allegedly earned more than $1.8 million in illicit profits through trades based on inside information that an insurance company was planning to merge with a Japanese firm. http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20120313/FREE/120319962&dailycount=16&issuedate=20120315

IAN 41 Watchung Plaza, B242 Montclair, NJ 07042 973.746.2014http://www.insuranceadvisorsnetwork.com/Alerts available at http://dankeppel.blogspot.com/