Is Mortgage Interest Tax Deductible?

Everything You Need to Be Considering For homeowners, a mortgage is an unfortunate fact of life. Whether you got a great deal on a property or not, the debt you take on still negatively impacts your financial situation. However, there are some upsides to shouldering a mortgage – primarily when it comes to your taxes. In some cases, any interest that you pay on your mortgage is tax deductible if you correctly itemize it on a tax return. Of course, this isn’t true for every situation, and ...

A Quick Checklist for Filing Your Taxes

Tax day is almost upon us yet again and we’re all hunkering down to get the job done — at least, we should be, right? Luckily, this year, you’ve got two extra days to file. Since April 15 lands on a Saturday this year, we have until April 17 to file. However, a few extra days doesn’t remove the hassle. Do you remember when you were young and your parents made you play with some neighborhood kid who you didn’t know and you really didn’t want to play? That’s kind of how taxes feel. We don’t like ...

The Importance of Writing off Your Company Vehicle

It’s tax time, and that means it is also time to understand and add up all of your deductions. Maximizing your company vehicle write-off is so important, and it is in your best interest to understand why. There are quite a few rules and regulations of course, but some are better known than others. Keep the following issues in mind when you are considering the tax deductions for your company vehicle: Usage: This might sound a bit obvious, but a lot of people run into problems with this one. I...

How to Reduce Your Property Taxes

Even though the real estate market is soft these days, which means property values are probably less than they could be, the decrease in what your property is worth might not to be reflected in how much you pay in property taxes. Property assessments for tax purposes are done on a regular basis, but generally not every year. Instead local governments do their assessments every few years, which means you may be paying more property tax than you really should because your home is worth less than i...

Tax Savings

Everyone Can Benefit from These Tax-Saving Measures It is only natural for people to always implement appropriate ways to minimize their expenses and increase their savings. So aside from the measures they do in keeping track of their daily expenses, they are also observing tax savings options each year. There are some investments available so that people can get tax savings in their daily lives. Because people always put their extra money or some percentage of their monthly income in the ban...

Online Tax Filing

Gone are the days when you have to go through the endless lines and beat the deadline for the filing of your tax dues. In today's advent of modern technology, online tax filing is the thing. By and large, this new process is convenient and easy as compared to the traditional means. Moreover, you get saved from the skyrocketing fees charged by the accountants in their effort of extending some aid to you. Another good news that is worth celebrating is that of the eFiling feature that is promoted b...

Tax Loss Harvesting

For many investors, tax loss harvesting is the single most important area for reducing taxes now and in the future. If properly applied, it can save you taxes and help you diversify your portfolio in ways you may not have considered. Loss harvesting is the process of selling securities at a loss to offset a capital-gains tax liability. (more…)

Top Ten Tax Deductions for Owning a Home

They say owning a home is the American dream, and borrowing to pay for one is a taxpayer's dream. Having recently purchased my first home, I was interested in the tax benefits now available to me. Here are the top ten: (more…)

Understanding Capital Gains Tax Rates

The advantage of capital gains, as opposed to ordinary income, is that the basic maximum tax rate on capital gains for property held for more than one year is currently 15 percent. In contrast, the top four ordinary income tax rates are all higher than this, with the top rate for 2005 through 2010 at 35 percent. The IRS taxes short-term and long-term gains differently. The "holding period" is the amount of time you held some security before you sold it. A short-term gain or short-term loss is a...

How Taxes Affect Your Returns

Last week I discussed why costs matter when investing. By considering taxes as an additional expense, you'll be able to make informed decisions that, all else being equal, can help your portfolio's returns over the long run. Research by Vanguard's Investment Counseling & Research group shows that taxes on dividends and capital gains can be a significant drag on a fund's overall performance—in many cases, the largest single drag. And that's particularly true for stock funds. (more…)