You can raise your net pay
Yes, it is possible to counteract the hike in payroll taxes. If you normally receive a tax refund each year, you have been paying for a $3.2 billion refund to GE in 2010. You can pay only what you owe each paycheck by raising your exemptions by one or two points. Use form W4: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf. You can recalculate your exemptions with p501:
Are you using these tax breaks? Use them before the GOP takes them away
Employer contributions toward workers' medical insurance premiums and medical care are not taxed: $181 billion.
Retirement plan contributions and earnings are not taxed: $165 billion.
Mortgage interest deduction: $101 billion.
Lower tax rates on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends: $84 billion.
Deduction for state and local taxes: $69 billion.
Deduction for charitable contributions: $46 billion.
Social Security and veterans' benefits are not taxed for lower-income filers: $45 billion.
Interest on tax-exempt state and local government bonds is not taxed: $26 billion.
When someone dies, the capital gains on their investments are not taxed: $24 billion.
Income from some life insurance products is not taxed: $23 billion.
The largest of all tax breaks: owning a business. For instance, GE paid no income taxes in 2010 and actually got a tax benefit of $3.2 BILLION.
Put the code to use for yourself: http://www.amazon.com/Only-little-people-pay-taxes/dp/1478222441/
Can you qualify for any of these tax credits?
Most of what we had in 2011 remains. Only high incomes had a change and most pay the AMT anyway. eFile starting January 30 using IRS approved sites. Take your credits:
Did you get a break on your insurance premiums?
Thirty-seven percent of Americans spent more on insurance over the past year while only 7% spent less, according to Bankrate.com. The only way to reduce your costs is to shop around. Members obtain 3 quotes on policies every 2-3 years because insurers don’t voluntarily cut your rates—We have to ask:http://www.amazon.com/Drop-Your-Insurance-Only-What/dp/1448623391/
Do you work from your home? Deduct $1,500 with no form!
The Internal Revenue Service decided that people who work from home or run a small business from home and have a “qualifying home office” can deduct up to $1,500 a year. That's based on an allowance of $5 per square foot of home office space on up to 300 square feet. This option — easier than filling out the current 43-line Form 8829 that requires burdensome estimates of allocated expenses, depreciation and carryovers of deductions not taken in previous years — will be available beginning in the 2013 tax year. About 3.4 million taxpayers claimed the home office deduction in 2010.
Regulators warn investors chasing yield and using leverage
FINRA has sent a letter to brokers warning them that customers can be hurt by these activities in the markets. A study of what happens to winning stocks after they climb shows that the winners lose money and the losers become winners. Buying winners is a loser’s game. Use a better way: http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Without-Wall-Street-Commissions/dp/1442168137
Safe public-employment jobs now at risk
Sixty-one key cities across America have emerged from the Great Recession with a gap of more than $217 billion between what they had promised their workers in pensions and retiree health care and what they had saved to pay that bill. Don’t rely on the government completely. Make your own tax-FREE Pension in a Box: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Pension-Box-tax-FREE-employer/dp/1481945157/
Flood insurance rates will rise on coast—no more free rides for water properties!
Many Coast residents will be paying higher flood insurance premiums soon. The increases, the result of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, will be based on individual circumstances, By August, subsidized flood insurance policies around the nation will be eliminated and rates based on risk will be implemented. FEMA plans to phase out grandfathering of insurance policies beginning in January 2014.
A policy's rates will then be based on a property's elevation and risk factors according to the flood zone maps for their areas.
Oceans are rising. In 2012, there were at least 3,527 monthly weather records for heat, rain and snow broken by extreme weather events that hit communities throughout the U.S.
Is your insurer trying to buy back your annuity?
The National Underwriter reports cash buyouts offered by variable annuity insurers for guaranteed living benefit or guaranteed death benefit riders may not be a good deal for us, the annuitant. The value for many annuitants exceeds the cash amount offered by the company. That makes sense since the insurers would not be willing to offer the buyouts if they were not in the company's best interest.
Just say no!
Wealthy do not let advisors tell them what to do
For the wealthiest investors, the more assets they have the less likely they are to cede control over investment decisions to advisors says a new report. Our members act like the wealthiest so they become wealth by NOT giving up 40% of their earnings to advisor fees: http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Without-Wall-Street-Commissions/dp/1442168137
"In every single time period and data point tested, low-cost funds beat high-cost funds." Morningstar study.
SCAMS “Deficits don’t matter” GOP leader Dick Cheney 2002
Banking excesses begin again with CDO derivatives and new bubble
Currently, the banks now tap into soaring demand for commercial real estate debt by selling collateralized debt obligations, securities not seen since the last boom. Sales of CDOs linked to everything from hotels to offices and shopping malls are poised to climb to as much as $10 billion this year, about 10 times the level of 2012, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.
The rebirth of commercial property CDOs comes as investors wager on a real estate recovery and as the Federal Reserve pushes down borrowing costs, encouraging bond buyers to seek higher-yielding debt. The securities package loans such as those for buildings with high vacancy rates that are considered riskier than those found in traditional commercial-mortgage backed securities, where surging investor demand has driven spreads to the narrowest in more than five years.
“Investors are willing to go further afield in their quest for yield,” Ed Shugrue comments. “With demand rich,Wall Street is scouring the cupboards to find anything with a cash flow that can be securitized.”
MetLife caught overcharging MA drivers
MetLife will pay at least $50,000 in penalties and refund an undetermined amount of money to customers to settle allegations it imposed costly surcharges on Massachusetts drivers who were found not at fault in auto accidents.
Insurers caught overcharging MA motorcyclists
More than $2.8 million in insurance refunds have gone back to Massachusetts motorcycle owners, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced today. Since 2010, 17 insurance companies have settled with the AG's Office resulting in more than $42.8 million in refunds to Massachusetts motorcycle owners.
We are paying for bank mortgage settlement too—rewarding bad behavior!
Banks will take a tax deduction for their bad behavior in causing the recession of 2007-12. We will pay more tax to make up for their deductions for crashing the system and no one stops it. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/business/paying-the-price-in-settlements-but-often-deducting-it.html?_r=1&
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