Posts Tagged ‘Taxes’
Two Percent Can Go a Long Way
You may not have noticed it but your paycheck has increased by two percent (2%). The 2010 Tax Relief Act (H.R. 4853) extended some of the current tax rates and it also reduced the Social Security payroll tax by two percent for 2011. As unimpressive as 2% may sound, you can actually do quite a bit with it. Here are a few tips to make that little extra go a long way: Pay Off Those Credit Cards About 67% of the bankruptcy filings in the United States are directly linked to credit card debt. And it’s easy to see why when you really look at the numbers. The average credit card carries an interest rate of 14%. That means for every hundred dollars you put on your credit card, you’re actually spending $114.00. Take that extra two percent in your check and increase the amount you pay each month on your credit cards. You’ll pay them off that much faster and save a substantial ...
Estate Planning Trends to Watch Out For
The number of issues that can have an adverse effect on your estate plan can be overwhelming… Even the best laid plans can be rendered null and void by one piece of legislation. If you have an estate plan in place and you haven’t looked at it in a while, you could have provisions in place that are at best, pointless and at worst, can cost your estate a lot of money. Regardless of the value of your estate, you should at least have a will and you need to take steps to ensure that your will legally does what you intended. The best course of action is to maintain an ongoing relationship with a good estate planning attorney to make sure that you’re keeping all your paperwork in order and staying apprised of issues that can hurt you in the long run. Just to give you an idea of how quickly things can change, here are a few trends you need to keep your eye on: 1. State Tax Increases The federal government isn’t the only one that’s going broke. State governments are facing serious funding shortfalls ...
Idaho legal news by Snake River Law
- Not The End But A New Beginning May 4, 2012In the next two months, those words will ring out in high school graduation ceremonies all across the country. And if you have a high school senior in your home, then chances are that things are about to change dramatically, both for you and your high school senior. There are a few things that you […]admin
- QTIP Trusts April 20, 2012A QTIP trust, or Qualified Terminable Interest Property trust, is a special type of A/B trust. Have I lost you yet? Not to worry… keep reading! Let’s start at the beginning. An A/B trust is a marital trust system comprised of two trusts, an A trust and a B trust. The A trust is typically […]admin
- More About Your Estate Plan April 13, 2012The revocable living trust is the basic building block of most estate plans. It’s the tool that allows your estate to avoid the expense, time consumption, and uncertainty of probate court, and it is the tool that can hold just about any of your assets. While revocable living trusts are ubiquitous in the world of […]admin
- Election Year Antics February 8, 2012Welcome to politics in 2012! Did you sign up for what we’re getting in America? In many ways, nobody is happy with the landscape. Most of us—Independents, Democrats, and Republicans alike—are unhappy (or even disgusted) with politics in general. It’s at the point of being most disgruntled, however, that we need to pay the most […]admin
- Assets Without Physical Form November 8, 2011There’s been a lot written about estate planning in recent years. That’s partially because federal laws on the taxation of estates have changed a lot in the past few years, and they will be up for discussion by Congress again before the end of 2012. Anything being discussed by Congress gets a considerable amount of […]admin
- Professional Guidance Through a Complex Process October 18, 2011There is a widespread misconception that estate planning is simply a method of directing one’s assets to designated beneficiaries in the event of death. That’s simply too narrow of a view. Estate planning is necessary—crucial in fact–in the event that you become incapacitated or otherwise need a loved one to manage your finances. This can […]admin
- Three Reasons for Having a Living Trust October 5, 2011There are a multitude of reasons to have a living trust. We can’t begin to cover them all, but we will touch on three reasons very briefly here. Reason #1: Protecting Property for Certain Beneficiaries When most of us think about estate planning, we think about passing our property to our family and […]admin
- Estate Planning and Business Succession September 22, 2011Most people hear the words “Estate Planning” and automatically think about wills, trusts, tax issues, and probate. The reality is that estate planning is about much more than just figuring out how to pass on your hard-earned assets. We’ve written a lot about the ways that estate planning benefits families. Today we’re going to talk […]admin
- A Hypothetical, But It Does Happen August 4, 2011Today we’re going to discuss a situation that happens all the time. It’s a situation that almost nobody thinks about, unless you’re an estate planning attorney, but it does occur often enough to talk about. Consider the following hypothetical: A woman, let’s call her Elizabeth, has passed away. Elizabeth is survived by four adult sons. […]admin
- Beyond the Allocation of Assets July 14, 2011Estate planning is about much more than just deciding who gets what in the event of your death. It’s also about avoiding unnecessary taxes, and in the event that you have minor children, making sure that custody of your children doesn’t go to the state. Yes, you heard that correctly. It’s simply not the case […]admin
