Taxes

Thanks to a special tax code clause, you can surrender a variable annuity without paying income tax.

It depends. An individual who receives commissions can be treated in the same manner as an individual who receives straight salary. In that case, the employer would withhold taxes from the individual's compensation and remit the amount to the tax authorities on the individual's behalf.

Most tax preparation software does a good job. However, like any recipe, the end results are only as good as what goes into it. As such, whether you use tax preparation software or the services of a tax professional, you will want to ensure that you provide all the information and data necessary to ensure ...

An unrealized loss occurs when a stock decreases after an investor buys it, but he or she has yet to sell it. If a large loss remains unrealized, the investor is probably hoping the stock's fortunes will turn around and the stock's worth will increase past the price at which it was purchased.

Whether you file your return yourself, or have it done by a tax professional, you want to make sure you include all your deductible expenses and income on your return. Failure to do so may result in you having to pay more taxes than you should, or file an amended tax return, which means additional associated ...

How do you plan to spend your refund this year? We provide some smart suggestions.

At a very high income level (say from $300,000 plus per year), you may be able to contribute and deduct the $100,000 contribution each year, or possibly more. However, as you may already know, defined-benefit plans involve complex calculations and usually require the assistance of a competent plan administrator ...

The cost basis of any investment is the original value of an asset adjusted for stock splits, dividends and capital distributions. It is used to calculate the capital gain or loss on an investment for tax purposes. At the most basic level, the cost basis of an investment is just the total amount invested ...

These savings vehicles may be better than college saving funds for some families.

Most of us will shy away from doing our own tax returns, especially if it involves reporting capital gains or losses, education expenses or deducting interest paid on mortgages, and we prefer to have it done by tax experts.If you fall into this tax-return category, but you can't afford to get your taxes ...

Ignoring a big tax bill will only increase your pain. Fortunately, there are ways to diffuse the tax time bomb before it explodes.

Understanding the difference between tax deductions and credits is crucial, as the tax strategies that you adopt now can favor one over the other and yield substantially different tax savings.