The Federal Tax Credits Blog

Archive for October, 2009

The short answer is that yes, you can contribute to both a 401K and an IRA, but the question is now how it all works, what are the rules, and should I really?

401Ks are employer sponsored retirement accounts. They typically have a company match, and traditionally the money invested in the accounts are taken from your paycheck before taxes. This means that in retirement when you withdraw from the account you pay taxes on this money then. You can start withdrawing from the account when you reach 59 and 1/2 years old, before then if you try to withdraw you’ll have to pay very heavy penalties and taxes.

IRAs are independent retirement accounts, meaning you set these up on your own. These have more options, the main types of accounts are Roth and traditional IRAs. A traditional account is similar to the 401K describe above with the money invested being before taxes, while Roth accounts take money from your paycheck after taxes, meaning you won’t have to pay taxes when you withdraw in retirement.

401Ks currently (as of 2009) have a contribution limit of $16,500, which a $5,000 catch up option for people over the age of 50 years old. IRAs have a contribution limit of $5,000, with a $1,000 catch up. While this may soon change, currently if you earn over $120,000 a year you cannot contribute to an IRA.

If you’re eligible to contribute to both a 401K and an IRA, should you? Well, contributing all this money is good for retirement, certainly. This money is also tax deductible, which may lower your tax bracket, which means you won’t have to pay as much in taxes. The downside is mainly that you won’t be able to use the money you invest until you turn 59 years and 6 months old, so you don’t want to invest any money that you will want to use any time soon.

Pletschet: New Decade’s Resolutions for every investor

Out with the old decade, blotched with wars, terrorism and financial collapse, and in with the new. So let me offer today and tomorrow some New Decade’s Resolutions regarding you and your money, steps that you should take and stumbles you should avoid in order to preserve capital for retirement.

Recovery: Making Work Pay – General – June 09

Question: Will or has Obama allowed Bush’s green tax credits to continue?

The money for solar, wind, new windows and doors, furnaces, insulation, etc. Are the tax credits for these still in effect, or did they end with Bush?

Answer: Someone who wants to remake America…I suspect even the good things Bush has done he will un-do and justify it by calling it change.

Feds’ tax credits and a little info take the fear out of furnace buying

The mechanical basement-dwelling monster that was the terror of The Old Man in “A Christmas Story” is one of the most important purchases you’ll make — and one of the longest-lasting.

Property Tour-525 E. Wildey St.-Fishtown Neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA

There is no need to ever be without knowledge if you have wikis. The wiki is a revolutionary way to share content and create communities for both an individual and a business.

What on earth is a wiki? If your answer is, “I don’t know,” then read on. Wikis have created a whole new world of information, and with them, you’ll never be without knowledge.

A wiki is collaborative website that allows users to contribute or edit content. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki software, launched his website WikiWikiWeb in 1995, inspired by the “Wiki Wiki” airport shuttle at the Honolulu International Airport (“wiki” is Hawaiian for “fast”). Cunningham originally described a wiki as, “the simplest online database that could possibly work.”

A wiki is basically a content management system. A CMS is a computer application used to create, edit, manage, and publish content in an organized way. Let’s say you had a newsletter that you update weekly. A CMS allows you to set up a template with a header, a logo, the date, etc, then a space where the content will go. This way, each week you do not have to recreate the newsletter from scratch, you can just update the content. A CMS can populate the date and other information automatically, publish it, file it, allow you to search it, edit it, and all sorts of other functions.

Most websites are designed using a CMS, and a great example of this a blog. You simply enter in your text, hit publish, and everything else is taken care of.

So a wiki is a web page (or pages) with this set up that specifically allows anyone to edit or add to the content. The most well-known wiki is the website Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” The advantage of a wiki is that two minds are great than one—it is a collaborative effort.

The most obvious benefit of a wiki is that they are a great source of free information. There are literally thousands of wikis out there, both public and private, large and small, general or very, very specific. Wikipedia is an example of a very large, public, general wiki. It provides great summaries, but if you wanted to know about Monopoly, you wouldn’t reference a wiki on Games, but on Monopoly specifically. In case you were wondering, a Monopoly wiki does exist, and great way to find a specific wiki is to look on a wiki farm—a single website hosting multiple wikis. Two of the most popular are Wikia and Wetpaint.

Wikis create and build communities and can benefit both the individual and more recently, businesses. The Monopoly wiki is a great example of how an individual can learn more about their topic of interest (history or fun facts), find information about related topics (Parker Brothers for example), and connect with other Monopoly fans.

Wiki can also benefit business, for example: Volacci is a small Austin-based internet marketing firm that specializes in natural search engine optimization. Initially based on the need to provide more customer support, they created a wiki for their clients. It includes information about the business, a glossary of terms, and frequently asked questions. It’s not only a valuable resource for clients, but since anyone can edit or add to it, clients can share information and give feedback. The wiki is another avenue for the company to communicate with clients and vice versa, and also connects clients to clients—creating an interactive community. (An added benefit is that this doubles as a search engine marketing strategy since they are providing relevant, frequently updated content related to their industry.)

While wiki may be a funny word, they are nothing to laugh at. In this “information age,” the wiki is a revolutionary way to share content and create communities. Individuals have been riding the wiki wave for some time, and businesses are beginning to catch it. In a world of wikis, you will never have to say, “I don’t know” again.

$8000 Home Buyer Tax Credit

People prefer to use more glass for back External doors, to allow the light to come in and also to bring in the colors of the fruits and flowers of the back garden into the house. External doors, especially the front doors of homes, are often equated to the heart of a home. The opening and closing of its front doors are the heartbeats of the house – its systole and diastole, which plot points on the graph of a home’s activity level. The front doors are the most prominent feature of homes from the entry-exit point of view, as well as from the visibility angle.

Because of the sacrosanct status given to External doors, their appearance is considered very important. Places of worship, especially ancient ones, had elaborate doors, huge in size, and intricately carved, or heavily ornate. Maybe people of those days saw the External doors of temples as something that separated the material world from the sacred ambience within. So they designed it to be almost like the doors of fortresses that literally barricaded one world from the other.

The duties of External doors are also as clear as the doors themselves. The doors are literally the watchmen of the entire house, however big or small the house is. The job of keeping the house safe and secure from the vagaries of the weather, as well as from human intruders, is vested in these doors. In smaller houses, the number of External doors could be just one, while with bigger ones it could be two, three, or four, based upon the size of the house.

While the duties of External doors, both the front ones and back ones, are typically the same, the front doors are obviously the more pampered ones, mainly because it is the more visible facet of a home. Owners of a home are generally fastidious in choosing the locking mechanism and door knockers and doorbell ringers and peephole pattern of the front doors. The color of the front External doors is also chosen to match the external colours of the home.

With the back External doors, the type of aesthetics that defines the front External doors could get a back seat. For many people, glazed doors are a popular choice for back doors. While glazed door with single, double, or triple glass panels, in square, rectangle, oval, or diamond patterns are popular for front doors also, lots of people choose to have back External doors more or less entirely of glass or at least mostly of glass. This is done for bringing in the light and colors of the outside into the home. To block the outside when necessary, Venetian blinds can be fitted into the glass.

Depending upon the place where you stay, the insulation of External doors is also important. Well insulated doors make the home energy efficient, and will reduce your energy bills. Wooden doors, whether oak, pine, or hardwood, do have some natural insulating properties. If you are choosing glazed External doors, glass with better insulation can be chosen to increase the energy efficiency of the door.

Tax payers can benefit from end-of-year spending

Tax Day is months away, but there are only a few days left in 2009 to take advantage of last-minute things that can help save money on 2009 taxes.

Angie’s List: Govt offering tax credit for new doors

Question: The IRS told us we had to file 10,000 repossession on our car as taxable income is this true,?

we had our car taken away in 2005, the finance company charged it off and put it on our credit, the IRS told us we have to put this on our 2009 taxes and amend it as taxable income how is this?

Answer: It’s correct. Here’s the logic.

The finance company loaned you money. But, after the repossession, the finance company recouped a small portion of the money it loaned you (i.e., $10,000 less than it loaned you), and recorded a loss on its books for $10,000.

According to the rules of accounting, if there was a $10,000 loss on the finance company’s books, somebody gained $10,000. (That was you.)

Congratulations! You now owe the IRS and possibly your state for $10,000 of taxable income.

Deadline nears for tax write-offs

2009 is drawing to a close and that means tax write offs must be filed by December 31 at midnight. Each write off you file could earn you more money on your tax return.

Tax Break for New Car Purchases and Tax Relief for Hardworking Americans with IRS Problems