Are you confused as to the question of how to deal with your incentive stock options? Or are you worried about owing a large amount of tax on options that you have not even exercised and do not have the cash to pay for it? Well, luckily, if you manage your affairs well and take on board some simple advice, you will be able to avoid owing too much tax on your stock options, and also postpone paying it until you have the cash to do so. In most cases, if you have a large amount of money tied up in stock options, then you should probably get some professional advice. This article is only intended to give you an idea of the steps that can be taken when tax planning with stock options.

First of all, you do not have to pay any tax owed immediately, if you do exercise your stock options. This is the case so long as you do not sell the stock you receive. If you exercise an option to buy some shares, then so long as you do not sell that stock, you do not have to pay any tax at that time.

The second piece of good news is that you can end up only paying 15% tax on the options when you do sell. This will apply if you hold on to the stocks for long enough to qualify for a long-term capital gain.

So things are starting to sound a lot better on stock options taxation. By postponing the tax owed until you sell the shares, you can avoid the hardship of having a tax fall due without any money coming in to pay for it. It is similar to the cases in the past where people received valuable paintings or other works of art in a will, and then immediately had to sell the painting in order to pay the tax that was owed on the inheritance. Also, 15% is quite a low rate of tax and it should also be remembered that this is the highest rate that can be payable on a long-term capital gain.

For more information, consult a qualified financial advisor.

Check out http://www.trading-futures.org for articles about eminis futures trading and commodity futures trading.

When you want to sell your property, you are probably looking for someone who can qualify for a bank mortgage to buy your home, right?

Of course, you have to pay off your mortgage…or do you?

Assuming you are successful in finding a buyer, the costs of the sale will probably wipe out your equity, or profit on the sale.

The National Association of Realtors estimates that the average home sells for approximately 9% less than the asking price.

Take out 2%-3% for the seller paid closing costs, approximately 3% for the on-going costs of mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance and repairs for the 90-150 days between listing and closing, and you have lost at least 14% of the value of your home to the costs of selling!

Imagine having to subtract another 6% for the realtor!

And, if you are the average homeowner, you have less than 25% equity in your home to start with, according to the National Association of Mortgage Bankers.

Do the math and you will see that you will walk away from the sale of your home with virtually nothing, unless�

For every property for sale, including yours, there exits a market of “Phantom Buyers.”

These are people who would love to buy a house like yours, but who cannot or will not qualify for a bank mortgage.

They may be self-employed business people, small business owners, or foreign nationals. They do not want to have to show tax returns, financial statements or assets. And yes, there may be others in this category with bad credit resulting from a personal or business reversal.

What they all have in common is that, in most cases; they have plenty of cash and the income to support the monthly payments necessary to finance the purchase of your house.

When you offer your home on terms that meet their needs, with seller financing, these Phantom Buyers will gladly pay you 20-30% more than the fair market value of your home.

You will double or triple your profit from the sale!

However, there is only one way to be able to sell your home with seller financing to someone else without them having to get a new mortgage to replace yours.

You must place the title to your home into a properly structured land trust, then you sell it with seller financing to one of the Phantom Buyers.

Remember, you will Not need money to pay off your mortgage! This will certainly limit, if not eliminate the need for substantial amounts of cash at the closing.

The new buyer usually pays you a substantial down payment, perhaps even the total amount of equity you have in the house, then makes payments on the balance; if any of your equity, and takes over the payments on your mortgage.

You could even decide to take a sail boat, a Mercedes Benz or any other valuable item as all or part of the down payment. You are the Bank, you make the rules!

The term of the deal can be anything mutually agreeable, from a year or two to 20 years or more.

Incidentally, you can probably add a point or two to the interest rate on the balance you are owed, providing you with a care free, passive income for as long as the buyer is paying your mortgage.

For example, your mortgage is $200,000 at 6%. There is also $50,000 of your equity the buyer still owes. You require him to make payments to you at the rate of 8%. You are now receiving 2% on $250,000 or $5,000 per year, passive income with No land lording headaches!

The situation is similar to financing a car through the bank. The “owner” of the car uses it as he pleases. The only thing he does not have is the title to the car. The bank holds it until it is paid off. If the car gets banged up in an accident, the buyer does not expect the bank to fix it, even though the bank is the true “owner” of the car.

Your buyer has all the rights and benefits of home ownership, including the tax write offs for the mortgage interest, real estate taxes, etc. The only thing he does not have, is the title, which is held by the trustee of the land trust.

Bottom line?

You have sold your house for the fair market value or higher
You have 100% or most of your original equity at closing
You will receive a steady passive income for years
You will receive another cash infusion when the new owner gets his own mortgage or when he sells the property.

It is not unusual for you to make two or three times more profit than you would have walked away with in a sale to a “normal” buyer:

You get upfront cash
You get positive cash flow every month
You receive cash profit when your buyer cashes you out
Your equity increases as the mortgage is paid down
You can write off the depreciation from your taxes

All this with no more tenant, toilet or trash problems!

If your new buyer fails to keep the property up or fails to make his payments, you notify the trustee and he is evicted, with no costly or time consuming foreclosure needed.

You simply find another “Phantom Buyer” with another down payment and start over.

The land trust is a little known device used by wealthy property owners for hundreds of years to protect their assets and provide complete privacy for their property dealings.

Oh, almost forgot. Since this is not a “Sale”, (the title remains in the name of the trustee) you do not pay any transfer tax, real estate taxes do not go up as the property is not reassessed and you do not have to pay any income tax on your gains!

Especially important if you are selling an investment property.

Bill Young is a real estate investor and educator. To learn more about land trusts, read Bill’s article at http://MotivatedSellersOnline.com/LandTrust To find a land trust specialist in your area: http://301url.com/FindTrust

What’s the difference between death and taxes?

Death doesn’t change every time Congress meets. But taxes certainly did in 1997, and the Taxpayer Relief Act of that year made a dramatic difference in the tax liability of those who sell their own homes. As it stands today, almost no one will owe any federal tax on profit made from the sale of a principal residence (defined by the IRS simply as the place you live most of the time.). To qualify, you must have owned and occupied the house as your main home for at least two of the five years before you sell.

And that’s about it..

It won’t matter how old you are when you sell.

It won’t matter if you once used the old one-time $125,000 over-55 exclusion.

It won’t matter whether you buy a replacement home or not.

It won’t even matter if you’ve used this new exclusion on another main home in the past, as long as it was more than two years before the current sale.
A single owner can take up to $250,000 gain free of any federal tax ever.

A married couple filing jointly can take up to $500,000. Even if only one of them owns the property, the full $500,000 is available if the non-owner spouse occupied the property for the required two years.

The exclusion can include postponed profit on previous homes, rolled over under the old pre-1997 rules. This new tax break can be used over again on the sale of another principal residence, as often as every two years.

You can even use part of the exclusion if you were in the house less than the full two years, if your move is required by one of three reasons: job transfer, health reasons, or some other unforeseen circumstance acceptable to the IRS.

So few home sales will require federal tax payments these days that in most cases your sale won’t even be reported to the IRS by the person in charge of the closing.

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Whenever you own a piece of land, you will be taxed for it. Whether it is commercial property or residential property, there is still a tax to pay, whether it is for a village, town, city, county, or state. Most residential private property taxes are handled on the local level, going no higher than the county. Depending on the nature of the business, it may be handled by a variety of entities, including state and federal agencies. Each specific area and state has its own way of levying property taxes.

This article is intended as real estate for beginners and will focus on property taxes as they relate to residential private property. Your Credit Union financial advisor can also provide a good deal of valuable information; call today to schedule your free consultation.

How property taxes are used. Each locale uses the revenue earned from property taxes for different purposes. It can be anything from road repairs and utility upkeep to firefighter salaries and emergency response. Most areas, however, use the money received from property taxes for school districts. Taxes are levied and then distributed to schools in a district according to the amount of money received from property taxes. This often puts homeowners in a bind, as most of them want quality education for children, but are reluctant to vote to pass measures that will result in a property tax increase.

How property taxes are determined. Before buying a home, it is important for real estate beginners to understand how the amount you pay in property taxes is decided upon. Everyone pays a different amount, depending upon how much a home is worth. The tax rate for an area is the same throughout that area, but due to varying home values, the property tax you pay may be a little higher or lower than your neighbors.

If the property tax rate in your area is 9 percent, and your home is assessed at 250,000 dollars, your yearly property tax would be 22,500 dollars. If your neighbor’s home were only assessed at 235,000 dollars, he or she would pay 21,150 dollars in taxes per year. Many areas have specified periods of time required for a new assessment. Most places require a new assessment every five to seven years. This means that your taxes could go up or down as your property value changes.

What goes into a property assessment? There are some guidelines assessors use when determining the value of your home. By being acquainted with these, you will be more likely to understand why your home has been given a certain value. Here are the most common benchmarks taken into consideration when determining a home’s value.

� Sale price of similar properties in the area: the assessor will know how much other homes in your immediate area are selling for, and will assess your house to reflect the value of the neighborhood.

� Property’s historical value: records of the property’s value through the years will help the assessor determine whether the home’s value keeps with current trends, and whether the home increases in value over time as a general rule.

� Cost of replacing the property: it is possible to determine how much the materials to replace the property, or to add improvements to increase value, would cost. This can figure into the value of the property.

� Potential value of the property if it is used to make money: many people use their property as income through rental or sale, and this value can be used to help the assessor decide how much he or she should value your property for.

Disputing an assessment. Because home values are subjective, it is possible to dispute a value. You can speak with neighbors and realtors to discover what homes in the area are valued at. Recent home buyers and sellers can give you a good idea of what others are paying in property taxes. Visit your tax board or the local tax assessment office to find out what the procedures are for dispute an assessment you feel is unfair.

Paying your property taxes. As a real estate beginner, you want to be sure that you are paying the taxes on your property. There are a number of ways to do this, including paying to the tax commission quarterly or yearly. However, the simplest way to pay your taxes is to have them integrated into your home loan. They can be added to your monthly mortgage payment, making it a relatively hassle-free way to make sure everything is taken care of.

With a little savvy, even a real estate beginner can have a good handle on what it takes to get a fair value assessment and know the ins and outs of paying property taxes.

Nicole Soltau is the President and Founder of CreditUnionRate.com.
The Leading Credit Union Directory.
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So how do you find the best foreclosures. Its not easy as the business is very competitive, especially in this current crazy real estate boom.
Firstly you must be methodical as well as diverse. Deals are all over the place. It is recommended you specialize in an area that you are familar with.

Secondly how do you find inventory?. There are many companies that offer foreclosure lists. You will find them on the web or through a title company. Be careful to locate fresh leads. In other words you need fresh daily leads on Defaulted and Trustee sale properties. If you purchase information that is outdated you may not succeed as the property may sell, be re-instated or refinanced prior to your endeavors to contact the current owner.

Thirdly, defaults, these are loan defaulted properties. The owners of the properties have not paid in 3 months and have been notified that their property could be sold at public auction if they do not re-instate their loan. You are endeavoring to purchase the property prior to Trustee sale. Once you have located a property, made contact with the owner you now need to contact your escrow and/or title company for comparable sales and vesting information. It is important that not only you know what the property is worth BUT more importantly you are going to speak with the OWNER.Vesting will tell you this vital info. After you have satisfied yourself that a possible purchase exists you may request a prelimanry title report that will give you all the information on outstanding loans , liens ,judgements and court actions against the property
Fourthly. How to make contact with the owner. This can be done via mailers, phone calls and the most important,DOOR KNOCK.
Meeting the owner is the beginning of the ‘close’. This is where they will begin to trust you. NO TRUST NO DEAL. Your offer must be a combination of price, accommodation,(helping to move them on), empathy, immediate assistance to support their dire needs. You will see the true picture by the DOOR KNOCK’.

Fifth. The DEAL. So you have come this far WOW, You have made entry into the house, inspected and the seller likes you and wants to do business, the deal is fair, the docs are ready to sign. You have previously contacted your escrow/title company and/or attorney and they have guaranteed that you have all the right docs ready to be notarized. RIGHT! CONGRATULATIONS your in the real estate foreclosure business.

A final tip, make sure the seller /client MOVES OUT,
the old saying ‘POSSESSION IS 9/10ths of the law’ still holds. Have the escorw company hold funds until the property is vacant.

When the movers truck is full, house empty, seller off the property and you have the keys. Release the funds. NOW YOU REALLY OWN THE HOUSE.
Sixth.Trustee Sale properties. If the owner has not re-instated the property prior to the trustee sale date (5 days prior to sale in California) then the property will sell at the nominated court house steps on the date and time posted by the trustee. If you are successful in being the highest bidder you will receive a Grant Deed to the property. This is a popular hassle free way to buy foreclosures as you do not have to deal with the owners and possible associated problems. But of course if ITS EASIER THEN EVERYONE WILL BE AT THE TRUSTEE SALE.

Good luck

For further Info and advise go to; http://www.homeowneresaa.org.614

Peter M Smyth ,a licensed Californian Real Estate and Mortgage Broker. Peter has been involved in the real estate, mortgage lending and distressed property sale business for over 20 years.
He has successfully purchased & sold propeties on four continents. Australia, Asia, Europe and North America
email bigboythai@hotmail.com for advise and business opportunity.

Understand the tax consequences of flipping houses, rehabbing houses, and how to defer taxes with the 1031 Exchange before you get into real estate investing. Problems arise when real estate investors don’t follow federal and state tax laws. This is why you need professional advice. Although I am not a tax advisor, here are some common mistakes beginning real estate investors make by not understanding tax liabilities:

Flipping Houses

The reason flipping houses is a mistake for some beginners is that they don’t know the income tax consequences. One problem with flipping houses, or selling too many properties too quickly, the IRS could say that your real estate business is your trade, subject to ordinary income and self-employment taxes.

Self-employment tax, a social security and Medicare tax primarily for individuals who work for themselves, is similar to the social security and Medicare taxes withheld from the paycheck of most employees. The self-employment tax rate costs you 15.3% of your profits. (However, this may provide retirement benefits.)

Rehabbing Houses

Another common mistake that beginning investors make is selling a property after holding it for almost a year. Some rehabbers work part time on a fixer and take six months to get the house ready. Add on two months to sell with a 60 day closing, and they’re up to ten months. To take advantage of the low 15% capital-gains tax rate, you must keep the investment property for at least a year before selling. If you sell before a year, your tax rate, the usual capital gains rate of 35%, could eat up a significant amount of your profits.

If you’re rehabbing houses, be patient. You could save thousands in taxes by holding your property just a few more weeks.

1031 Exchange

However, the Internal Revenue Code provides real estate investors away to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely. Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code provides a tax-free exchange. Also known as a “like-kind” exchange, this code allows you to sell a business or investment property and defer capital-gains taxes by immediately reinvesting the gains into a similar piece of property. The key, replacing a business or investment with similar property, means that no gain gets paid to the investor. Any profit taken out of escrow gets taxed. This means that beginning investors might take out a portion of the profit after they carefully explore their tax liabilities. In other words, talk to an accountant and find out what your tax would be according to your current usual income. Many business owners take advantage of this because they have many business deductions.

The big mistake beginning real estate investors make doing a 1031 tax-free exchange, taking possession of the profits, voids the tax deferment. You must declare the sale of your property to be a part of a 1031 exchange before you sell the property. Then you have the money placed in a trust account held by an intermediary until you purchase the new investment property. You have 45 days to identify a replacement property and 180 days to close on the new investment. You can’t purchase a primary residence or a vacation home with funds from an investment property and defer taxes in a 1031 exchange.

The best advice for beginning real estate investors:
Talk to an accountant.

Would you be better off making extra money, even if you must pay taxes?

� 2005 Jeanette J. Fisher.

Jeanette Fisher teaches beginning real estate investors her system to make more money fixing houses with Design Psychology. For a free ebook “Design Psychology for Selling Houses,” see http://doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/

Purchase Agreements - Buyer/Seller

The following information in the document is geared to those who are purchasing or selling - renting or leasing existing structures. When it comes to purchasing or selling land, buildings etc. which can be built upon or added to, obviously there is a great deal more information which is required.

The “all-important” budget

I honestly wish I had a dollar for every time I had to go over this with a client. It often amazes me just how little we do not take into account.

So you are getting married and your parents and future in-law’s decide to get together and purchase an apartment for you and your spouse. Great! Congratulations! Mazal Tov! They tell you your budget is $250,000 - and not one penny more. And even that is pushing the limit.

So with a big smile and a heavy pocket you call an agent and tell them your budget is $250,000. Guess what? That is NOT your budget. That is how much money you have to spend on the purchase of an apartment. That is NOT how much you can buy the property for. Why? Because you conveniently left out,
lawyer fees, agent fees, and any other miscellaneous fees that you have not taken into account. That is assuming that for $250,000 you will find the exact apartment you want in the neighborhood you want all painted and ready for you to move into it! What about changes or improvements? And if you are buying on paper what of escalating and hidden costs? What happens if it is not ready on time?

Each case is different. When you are asked what your budget is,
you MUST become aware of the other “incidentals”. If the $250K is all you have, then your budget should be realistically below that amount depending on the property you wish to purchase.

Rule of thumb: If you think that the “incidentals” will cost $15,000 make that amount $18,000. Always round UP, never down. If you follow that simple rule you will at worst never be sent into a tizzy by some cost not figured in and at best find yourself with some extra cash in your bank account to do some desired change to a bedroom or buy some new furniture.

Tabu & Arnona

The Israel Land Registry registers all land and property in the name of the owner. This is something that the lawyer takes care of and is an integral and critical part of the process of owning a property. When you purchase a property the final step is usually registering that property in your name. Without such registration, legally, the property does not belong to you. (Tabu is a term and institution which was first imposed during the 19th Century by the Ottoman empire which ruled Israel at the time. It was the first attempt in modern times to register all land owners in Israel. This system still exists today. Simply put, Tabu grants the individual the right to own land (including apartments.)

However, there are cases that the Tabu is impossible. Certain properties in Jerusalem are owned by the Church, and leased to the government for ninety-nine years. Thus, Tabu is often impossible in these properties and there is a legal mechanism that protects you as the owner. However, you should be aware if the property you wish to purchase is one that is “church-owned and then leased land”.

There are other instances, each specialized, where registration in Tabu may be delayed for months. These are things which must be discussed with your lawyer and only your lawyer can offer you proper advice in this matter.

The one important thing of the Tabu, is that it lists the size of the property. This is crucial! The amount of meters listed in the Tabu is the legal size of the property you are purchasing or selling. (Below you will learn just how important this is.)

Arnona is the “city tax”. The important thing again about this document is that it too lists the exact meters of the property with some caveats. It does not include any open areas, such as porches and gardens. In Israel, we pay city tax, or the Arnona, only on an enclosed area. (There are other computations made in regard to storage rooms etc.) This is for the agent to show and explain to you depending upon the property.

Many people walk into view an apartment and ask the owner how big it is. The owner says 110 meters. But in Tabu or Arnona (see below) the apartment is listed as 86 meters. Okay, perhaps the missing meters can be found on open porches or in the garden. And perhaps, just perhaps, the owner has exaggerated or never really knew just how big the property was.

It should be noted that there is usually a discrepancy of a few meters between Tabu and Arnona. This is to be expected. However anything over ten meters should require an explanation that makes sense. Again this is also up to the lawyer to make sure that what you are purchasing is what you have seen.

Be careful. Be prepared. Be informed.

Ted W. Gross owns Virgin Earth, a real estate brokerage firm in Jerusalem, Israel. Virgin Earth represents residential and commercial real estate all over Israel. The web site for Virgin Earth is: http://www.virginisrael.com. Virgin Earth also maintains an RSS Feed on its current properties which can be found on most pages in the web site of Virgin Earth. Ted Gross can be reached at: virginearth@gmail.com Ted Gross is also a published author and maintains a web site for his works. This can be found at: http://www.virginisrael.com/twg/iw.html

Higher taxes on top of a high LTV can destroy your cash flow.

Over the past couple of years, I have been concerned that rising property tax rates will eventually threaten the livelihood of rental property owners.

As if to partially confirm this, I have recently been contacted by two different investors who are victims of property tax hikes that took them from a positive to a negative cash flow.

In both cases we are talking about a doubling of the property tax bill in one single year.

I personally experienced a near tripling of taxes on a rental property. My per month cost for taxes went from an initial estimate of $54.17 at the time of purchase to $125 per month the following year.

The fact is no single entity on the face of the earth can affect your real estate investments the way that government can. Governments can add a significant cost of doing business via rising tax rates.

It can change the rules in the middle of the game, force you to pay up or else, and only government, (especially local government), has the power to affect every single property owner in a given city, or county. Even bankruptcy won’t rescue you from the clutches of the tax man.

The general rule of thumb for residential property investing is that you should never exceed 80% financing on your income property. You should plan for higher taxes and keep your LTV at a reasonable level. While there are 90% and even 95% loans out there for investors, it can be dangerous to take out such loans as the risk of negative cash flow is much higher.

Most investors and even home owners, should be very cautious about refinancing residential properties to pull additional cash out. A higher loan amount, combined with a large tax assessment could put you in the red overnight.

If your strategy is to buy and hold, be very cautious about exceeding an 80% Loan To Value. Over-financing can cost you a whole years profits to compensate for a two month vacancy.

If your rent rates have to be artificially high in order to cover loan payments and taxes, you may not be able to find a suitable tenant. Few investors can handle the financial strain of vacancies and negative cash flow for long periods of time.

The issues facing our cities and counties in the 21st century are complex and appear to be beyond the knowledge and expertise of most local politicians. We must find new ways to manage the costs of government services in order to insure a supply of affordable housing in the years to come. Increasing property taxes has traditionally been a local governments answer to every budgeting need. If this continues, it could put investors in many cities out of business, and ruin the small investor’s ability to provide affordable housing.

For now, keeping lots of equity in your properties is the only real way you have to protect yourself from negative cash flow caused by rising property taxes. While it is exciting to think about taking tens of thousands of dollars out of your properties to use for “tax free income”, smart investors are very conservative here, and prefer to keep lots of equity for a rainy day.

Donna Robinson is a real estate investor, author, and consultant located in Atlanta Georgia. You may read more of her articles on her website at http://www.RealEstateInvestorHelp.com or you may contact her by email at drobinson@reihelp.com or call 404 542-9903.

The Telephone Excise Tax Refund (TETR) is a one-time payment available on your 2006 federal income tax return. It is designed to refund previously collected long distance telephone taxes. Individuals, businesses and tax-exempt organizations are eligible to request it. Over 159 million filers are eligible to request the refund.

Individuals taxpayers have a choice, they can take the standard refund amount between $30 to $60 (based upon their exemptions on their 2006 return OR they can locate old bills and use the actual amount.

Even if you don’t have to file a return, you can still request the refund. Details can be found at the IRS web site.

If you are filing a Schedule C, E, or F you may be eligible to use a special formula that reads like this: The refund is capped at 2 percent of the total telephone expenses for businesses and tax-exempt organizations with 250 or fewer employees (this covers over 99 percent of all businesses in America). The refund is capped at 1 percent for those with more than 250 employees.

IRS provided this example of computing the Telephone Excise Tax Refund (TETR): If a business has an April 2006 telephone bill of $1,000, which includes federal telephone excise tax of $28, the tax percentage is 2.8 percent. If the September 2006 bill is $1,100 including federal telephone excise tax of $16.50, the tax percentage is 1.5 percent. The business’ long-distance excise tax percentage is 1.3 percent (2.8 percent for April minus 1.5 percent for September). The business multiplies 1.3 percent by its total phone expenses over the 41-month period to arrive at the amount of its refund. If this business had more than 250 employees, its refund would be limited to 1 percent of its total phone expenses for the period. If the business had 250 or fewer employees, the 2-percent cap would apply and would not limit the amount of the refund

This refund is the most wide-reaching in IRS history. For sure tax software companies are gearing up to include this refund in the 2006 software programs. For those choosing the standard method to compute this refund, there will be an additional line right on your 2006 tax return for the refund

How do some people seem to always pay less tax or get a bigger tax refund than anyone else, while you try everything possible, just to break even? What if you could find a way to get 20%, 30% or even 50% more money on your tax refund, how much money would that be? Hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars.

If you could learn just one thing that would help you to get more money back at tax time, this is it. Learn how to use more Federal tax deductions and tax credits when you prepare your taxes. When you learn how to find and use the over 350 tax deductions and credits that are available to every taxpayer, you get more money back at tax refund time.

Here are just a few of the over 350 free tax deductions and credits available to you:

• Home mortgage interest, real estate taxes, property taxes
• Earned income credit, child tax credit, child care credit
• Energy tax credits
• State and local income taxes
• Charitable contributions
• Home office deduction
• Medical and dental expenses

You could spend a bundle paying a tax accountant to find every tax deduction and credit, but you no longer have to. I’ll show you how you can use tax deductions and credits to give you a triple digit increase in your income tax refund.

Just one tax credit can get you an extra $500

You’ve practiced energy conservation and purchased energy efficient windows and insulation for your house. You can transform this into an (energy tax credit) on your income tax. This is a true tax credit not just a deduction, in other words you can slice up to $500 off of your tax bill or add it to your refund. You can take the energy tax credit on:

• Home improvements: windows, high efficiency heating and cooling devices, metal roofs, heat pumps and boilers
• Efficient cars: gas and electric, diesel, alternative fuel and fuel cells
• Solar energy: solar heaters, photovoltaic systems and fuel cells

Luckily for all of us, there are now free tools on the Internet, to help find more income tax deductions and credits than ever before. This year when tax time rolls around, try searching for those overlooked tax deductions, and make your tax refund bigger than ever!

Property taxes are a major expense, often forgotten when buying a home. They can cost you thousands of dollars per year. But property taxes are not the same for like properties or owners.

Property taxes provide much of the revenue for local and state governments. When property values go up, property tax collections also go up, which means that there are additional dollars for public services and schools — and even tax refunds. If property values decline, the government programs are short and there is pressure to raise your taxes to make up for the deficits.

How much you pay in property taxes depends on the value of your home and local policies. In most cases, the property value is established by the government assessor. Once the value is set the tax rate is applied. For example, if the tax rate is $1.50 for each $100 of value, then a $100,000 home would have an annual tax bill of $1,500 or $125 each month.

You should ask some questions about property taxes when looking to buy a home, including:

-What value is used to assess the property taxes? You might think that the current market value would be used, but that’s not always the case. In many areas, circuit breaker programs limit the amount to which you can be taxed. Another approach is to apply the tax rate on a portion of the assessed value and not the full worth of the property.

-What are the current owners paying in property taxes? Is this consistent with neighboring properties of equal size and condition. If it is different, why?

-How will property taxes affect your ability to get a mortgage? Lenders look at many different measures to qualify you for a mortgage. One of the most important is the percentage of the monthly income in relation to the amount spent each month for mortgage interest, principal, property taxes and insurance, also called your PITI. Lower property tax bills free up more money for other parts of the PITI.

-Has the tax bill been appealed. Values by tax assessors can be questioned if the owners feel that the estimates are too high — for example, if the math was wrong or an incorrect schedule was applied. Local assessment offices can help you with your appeal.

-Are you or the current owners eligible to an exemption?

-Can property taxes be deferred?

-What are the income tax benefits of property tax payments?

- Will the sale trigger a different tax bill than the current one?

-How often are assessments made?

Martin Lukac, represents http://www.RateEmpire.com, a finance web-company specializing in real estate/mortgage market. We specialize in daily updates, rate predictions, mortgage rates and more. Find low home loan mortgage interest rates from hundreds of mortgage companies! Visit http://www.RateEmpire.com today.

How to estimate your Federal income tax refund or return for free

Perhaps you want to know how much your tax refund will be, or maybe how much money you might owe come tax time. If you want to find out, the fastest way to do it is by using an online Federal income tax refund - return estimator.

To estimate your taxes

The best way is to select a website that has a tax estimator and that you know has a great reputation for helping people with their tax returns. Start by creating a user account on that website. Don’t worry, it’s free. Now you can use their tax preparation software to estimate your tax. Depending on your situation, this will take 30 minutes or less.

This may take a few minutes, but I assure you, it will be worth the effort. You will know the value of this as soon you see the tax return calculator do its magic. Once you start to see the way the the tax estimator works, you will begin to come up with ways to use the income tax estimator to your advantage.

This is by far the best way I’ve found for increasing the amount of my Federal income tax refund

Next time you sit down to work on your tax return or refund, try going to an online tax filing website. You’ll find the tax estimating software to be a great tool for increasing your tax refund amount, increasing your tax deductions, and will also increase your knowledge about saving money at tax time.

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Apartment buildings with more than six units in Cook County are generally designated as Class 3 properties, and they’re assessed at 26% of market value (as estimated by the Cook County Assessor).

But Class 9 properties are assessed at a lower 16% assessment level for a period of ten years. And that’s means significantly lower property taxes for owners of buildings designated Class 9.

For example, an seven-unit worth $300,000 (by the Assessor’s measure) would normally have an annual tax bill of somewhere in the neighborhood of $12,500. Under Class 9, a building with similar value would owe around $7,700 in property taxes�an annual savings of 38%.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

Not so fast. Just like any other government incentive program, there are strings attached to qualifying. Read on…

Get Ready to Rehab

First, Class 9 is only for new construction or older properties about to undergo major rehabilitation. Rehab costs must amount to at least $6.00 per square foot in 2005 (goes up to $7.00/sf in 2006 and $8.00/sf in 2007). So, for a 10,000 square foot apartment building, you’d have to spend at least $60,000 to qualify. And you must apply before you start the work.

The good news is that most projects make a building eligible, including electrical, plumbing, roofing, and windows.

Get Ready for Paperwork

First and foremost, Class 9 is an affordable housing incentive, designed to encourage building owners to keep rents affordable to seniors, low income renters and working families. Depending on who you normally rent to, you may already have the tenant demographics needed to satisfy Class 9’s requirements. But, under the program, you must designate 35% of units as Class 9 units…

…And document tenant income for those units, showing that the household earns no more than 80% of the area’s median income.

Maximum rents for each unit type are set by the county, and in 2005 are:

Studio/Efficiency $745
1 BR $804
2 BR $965
3BR $1,116
4BR $1,251
Get Ready for Commitment

Not only must you commit to documenting tenants’ income every year, it’s important to know that the Class 9 designation runs with the building for ten years. So, if you plan to sell any time within that timeframe, give some thought to whether the affordable housing restriction will be attractive to investors looking at your property and area.

If an investor later buys your property and needs to get rid of Class 9, he’ll be required to repay all the tax savings from previous three years. Chances are, he’ll know about this requirement at the time of sale and look for a discount in price to cover that penalty.

Class 9 is a great cost reduction tool for multifamily owners citywide, just make sure it fits your investment objectives today and tomorrow.

� 2005 Rozilyn Bryant, All rights reserved. You are free
to use material from the Apartment Profits eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including a live web site link. Please also notify me by email where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

“By Roz Bryant, Agent4Investors.com and KELLER WILLIAMS Realty. Please visit Roz’s web site at http://www.agent4investors.com for additional real estate articles and resources for Chicago apartment building investors.” (Make sure the link is live if placed in an eZine or in a web site.)

Want to know how you can calculate your Federal income tax refund or return for free?

Maybe you’re wondering how much your tax refund will be, or you might want to know if you’re going to owe money at tax time. If you would like to find out, then I suggest using an online Federal income tax refund - return calculator.

To calculate your tax refund or return, you must first find a website that has tax calculating software that’s free to use. Start by creating a user account at the website you have selected. Now you’ll be able to use their tax preparation program to calculate your taxes. Depending on your situation, this should take about 30 minutes or less to complete.

You will be asked to enter information as you go, such as marital status, income, and deductions. Soon you will see the tax calculator at work, as you enter your income and deduction information. After your taxes have been calculated, it’s time for a review. If you’ve missed a deduction, you can enter it in and put the calculator to work again.

This is the best method I’ve found for figuring my tax refund in advance

This year, when you’re ready to start your Federal tax return, think about using an online income tax calculator to figure your tax refund, or money owed. You’ll like seeing your refund amount being displayed as you go. You might even be alerted to a tax deduction you’ve missed, which means, more tax savings for you!

Learning how to maximize your tax refund, can pay you big money at tax time. With the help of a tax deduction maximizer you can increase your Federal Tax refund by 15%, 25% or even 50%.

How does a deduction maximizer work to increase my tax refund?

Tax deductions and credits are what enables you to reduce the amount of tax you pay, or to get a larger tax refund. You may be tempted to settle for standard tax deductions and credits, and wind up paying the IRS more than you should. The deduction maximizer will alert you to overlooked tax deductions and credits you may qualify for.

Here are a few of the over 350 free tax deductions and credits available to you:

• Home mortgage interest, real estate taxes, property taxes
• Education expenses
• Earned income credit, child tax credit, child care credit
• Energy tax credits
• State and local income taxes
• Charitable contributions
• Home office deduction
• Medical and dental expenses

You could spend a lot of money, paying a tax accountant to find these overlooked tax deductions and credits, but you no longer have to. There are tools on the internet that can help you can master the skill of finding tax deductions and credits, and achieve a triple or even quadruple digit increase in your income tax refund. Many taxpayers settle for the standard deduction rather than exploring the many tax deductions available to them. Before you settle for the standard tax deductions, take a few minutes to explore the over 350 Federal tax deductions and credits.

It’s a great way to fatten your income tax refund!

You probably spent a good bit of time getting disciplined to save money for your home purchase. You need to carry this financial discipline through the escrow period or you could run into problems.

Budget for Closing Costs - Property Taxes, Legal Fees and Such

When you decided it was time to purchase a home, you went through a number of steps to get your finances in order. You probably reviewed your credit report, cut down on credit card balances and reigned in your spending. A monthly budget was probably also an item you stuck to, probably with some aggravation. Once you have an offer for a home accepted, it is important that you keep budgeting for the closing costs associated with the purchase. Here are a couple of odd little fees that can show up and drive you nuts if you are not careful.

Being required to pay property taxes can be a nasty little surprise. After all, you do not even own the home yet! The requirement, however, comes because of the nature of how property taxes are paid. They are not paid every month, so the seller has prepaid the taxes beyond the period they will own the home. They will want that money back! You can negotiate this point as part of the purchase, but you need to be aware it is out there.

In some states, it is a legal requirement that you have a lawyer represent you in a real estate transaction. This requirement primarily exists in the East. Regardless, attorneys are expensive and you need to have money set aside to pay their fees. In truth, retaining a lawyer is a good idea since they tend to sniff out any questionable issues in the transaction. Fees can run you from a couple hundred bucks to thousands of dollars.

In addition to the above, there are a lot of small fees associated with closing. They can run from several hundred dollars paid to the escrow company to $20 or so for notary fees and so on. If you do not keep an eye out, they can add up quickly to a few thousand dollars.

Closing on a home can be aggravating with all the costs you have to pay. It will all be worth it when you walk into your new home the first time.

Sergio Haros is with Great Western Mortgage - San Diego home loans provided by San Diego Mortgage Brokers. Great Western Mortgage is a San Diego mortgage company providing San Diego mortgages, San Diego home equity loan and San Diego mortgage solutions.

What could be better than getting an advance on your tax refund from the good ole IRS? Well, you better give some thought to the fees you are paying for that advance.

America is a capitalist country and home to many creative people. You can even find them in the field of tax preparation, a bland area if ever there was. The interesting service in this case refers to loans being made by tax preparers in concert with banks to taxpayers. There is nothing inherently wrong or illegal with such loans, but it is a case of buyer beware. The fees can be atrocious.

The loans at the heart of this article are called a couple of different things. The most direct name is a tax refund loan. A less direct name is a “pay stub” loan, in reference to the use of paycheck stub information to figure out how much money to loan you. While these loans are fine and dandy, they can come with some atrocious fees.

Short term loans are inherently expensive. Why? The financing party doesn’t have a lot of time to watch interest accumulate and collect it as would be the case for a home mortgage. Instead, they need to find a way to make money on the loan quickly. They do it with fees. In the pay stub loan business, the fees often equate to 10 percent or more of the loan. That is a pretty high percentage for loaning you money for a couple of months.

Before I go any farther, it is important to understand there is nothing wrong with lenders doing this. They have every right to make money and every right to charge you fees. The burden is on you to determine whether you really need that money now. If you do, then why don’t you go ahead and file your taxes early? I know that is a shocking idea, but there is nothing prohibiting you from doing so. The IRS will now wire you the refund, so you shouldn’t have to wait to long for your mulla.

At the end of the day, it is your decision as to whether you want to take a loan against your taxes. Some will and some will not. Whatever your decision, just make sure you go in with your eyes open to the fees.

Mortgage Interest Tip:

As you probably know, mortgage interest is generally fully tax deductible. For example, being in the 28% federal tax bracket has the effect of lowering your borrowing costs by almost a third. The part of this equation that most people don’t consider is a “Move Up” home loan where you’re going from a 200,000 loan at 7% interest (approx $14,000 in interest deduction) to a $300,000 loan at 7% interest. (approx 21,000 in interest deduction) That extra $7,000 can usually be deducted right off of your income for the home interest deduction.

This applies to a “Move Down” bome purchase or a lower mortgage amount. Both are fine, just figure in the extra loss in home interest deduction when making that decision.

In the early years of a loan, much of the monthly payment is interest, so these savings can really add up. Tax savings are real dollars, so don’t forget to take this benefit into consideration as you make decisions regarding your mortgage financing. There are other things in a mortgage refinance or purchase that may provide additional tax deductions. Points when used to pay down the interest rate of the loan are generally deductible.

If you have additional finance or real estate questions, you can contact steve at steve@mrhomeloan.com and ask your specific question or call using the phone number listed below.

Steve Hoogenakker is a mortgage and finance provider that collects valuable information for people and offers most of it at no cost as a public service. He has different websites with thousands of articles to view and download. Steve would be happy to speak with you about you about your financing needs or questions.Here are some links to get that information:
http://www.mrhomeloan.com/articles/index1.html or http://www.homeseller.pro You can also reach steve at steve@mrhomeloan.com or reach Steve or Bob by phone at 612-363-1279. ATM Mortgage and MrHomeLoan.
This article has been submitted to Ezine Articles

Which tax form should you file to get the largest tax refund, the 1040EZ short form or the 1040A long form? Well, that depends. Let’s take a closer look.

When it comes to filling out tax forms the 104EZ is the easiest to complete, but it doesn’t offer you as many chances to use tax deductions and credits to cut your tax bill. When you use the form 1040A you have more opportunities to increase your tax refund amount.

Everybody wants to get their taxes done as easy and fast as possible, but you could be missing out on valuable tax credits and deductions. Taking the EZ route might save a little time, but you’ll probably end up paying more taxes than you have to.

Here is one way you can use an income tax refund estimator to decide whether you should file a 1040EZ short form or a 1040A long form.

When you decide to prepare and file your taxes online you usually have the option of figuring your taxes both ways, 1040A or 1040EZ. This option allows the computer to make the calculations both ways, to see which one results in a lower tax bill for you. This in effect becomes your personal income tax refund estimator.

Whichever you decide, taking the time to look at your taxes both ways can really help to give you a bigger tax refund this year. The computer will do all calculations and the paperwork, so, you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

Location - Once the holy grail only for real estate investors is fast becoming the mantra for every stock, bond, and mutual fund investor. Experts and studies now recognize managing asset location is second only to asset allocation in determining the success of your investment returns.

Importance of Asset Location:
Asset location is a cornerstone to success for a simple reason. Taxable accounts differ from tax-deferred accounts {401(k), IRA and similar retirement}. Taxable accounts require you to pay income tax on every dividend and capital gain generated by your investments. This tax substantially reduces the amount of reinvestment and annual investment growth. On the other hand, retirement accounts defer taxes allowing returns to compound without penalty and at a substantially faster rate. Asset location refers to the optimal placement of securities between taxable and tax-deferred accounts. Good choices reward investors with long-term compounding and significantly higher returns. Poor choices, or more commonly, no choice, leads to below average results.

The effects are striking. Investors lose up to 20% of their after-tax returns by mislocating investments in the wrong type of account. So says a recent study from three finance professors Robert Dammon and Chester S. Spatt, of Carnegie Mellon University, and Harold H. Zhang of the University of North Carolina. The professors analyzed two asset classes, stocks and bonds, to determine suitability for investing within tax-deferred accounts. Their conclusion? Investors should keep equities in taxable accounts and bonds in tax-deferred accounts, to the greatest extent possible. Young investors stand the most to gain by following such advice. Three of the most powerful elements of investing — dividends, deferred taxes, and compounding interest - combine for a staggering effect to retirement income.

Unfortunately, the typical investor never takes advantage of all three benefits. A recent Federal Reserve survey shows Americans invest their taxable and tax-deferred accounts with identical securities. People focus on individual accounts rather than their entire portfolio. They ignore the benefits of allocating investments among different accounts and wind up with several accounts all holding the exact same thing. To their detriment, nearly half of all investors own bonds in taxable accounts and stocks in tax-deferred accounts.

Why asset location works:
Tax efficiency is more important than ever. Two recent changes have driven asset location strategy. Last year’s tax cut, the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, slashed top tax rates on dividends from 35% to 15%. Those same dividends, however, would be taxed at the ordinary rate (up to 35%) when withdrawn from a retirement account. The new law further cut taxes on capital gains from 20% to 15%. Since most equity investments generate returns from both dividends and capital gains, investors realize lower tax bills when holding stocks or equity mutual funds within a taxable account.

Similarly, fixed-income investments (e.g. bonds) and real estate trusts generate a regular flow of cash. These interest payments are subject to the same ordinary income tax rates of up to 35%. A tax-deferred retirement account provides investors with the best possible shelter for such securities and their resulting profits.

Which investment goes where?
Fortunately, your asset location strategy can be relatively simple. Place highly taxed assets in the tax-deferred accounts first. Anything left over can go into the taxable accounts. From the academic study, the professors concluded with three general rules to help with the decision process. First, locate taxable bonds, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and related mutual funds into tax-deferred accounts. Second, locate stocks and equity mutual funds into taxable accounts - even if you are an active trader and generate substantial short-term gains. Third, never buy a municipal bond until you completely fill tax-deferred accounts with taxable bonds or REITs. The combination of compounding and deferring taxes on the higher yields of corporate bonds is. If all this sounds a little overwhelming, just consult the table below.

Table 1: Asset Locations for High Returns and Minimal Taxes.

TAXABLE ACCOUNTS
— Stocks
— Tax-free or tax-deferred bonds (munis, treasuries, and savings bonds)
— Mutual funds investing in stocks or tax-advantaged bonds

TAX-DEFERRED ACCOUNTS (traditional IRAs, 401(k)s, and deferred annuities)
— Taxable bonds (corporates, zeroes, TIPS, and high yields)
— REITS (Real Estate Investment Trusts)
— Mutual funds investing in taxable bonds or REITS

Two exceptions are worth noting. First, qualified distributions from Roth IRAs are tax free. Generally speaking, place assets with the greatest potential for returns inside a Roth. Second, if a 401(k) or IRA holds all (or nearly all) your investment money, throw this article away and focus only on asset allocation.

Summary:
You, as an informed investor, can take control over taxes and related expenses to your investment returns. Allocate your investments to reduce risk and increase returns. Locate your investments by managing all your accounts to minimize the tax drag on your financial returns.

Tim Olson

TheAssetAdvisor.com

Mr. Olson is the editor of The Asset Advisor, a financial investment service providing proven strategies for no-load mutual fund investors. He brings 26 years of education and experience from Stanford University, Ernst & Young financial consulting, personal wealth management, and venture capital investing.

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Wouldn’t it be nice to know how much your income tax refund will be. It’s like having money in the bank. Well, almost… Now, there’s a simple way to estimate your tax refund and it won’t cost you a dime.

I’m about to show you how you can estimate your Federal IRS income tax refund or return in advance, for free!

How to estimate your income tax refund

Forget about using pen, paper and a calculator, we’re going to estimate your taxes with the help of the Internet. Using an online tax refund estimator, we can get this done in about 10-15 minutes. The tax refund estimator will need to gather information about you, to make an estimate. All you have to do is make simple entries.

Here is how and what you’ll be asked:

Screen 1. Your filing status, age, your children and other dependents.

Screen 2. Earnings, gross wages and self employment income.

Screen 3. Any investment income such as interest, dividends and capital gains.

Screen 4. Any other income such as rental, royalty , partnerships, trusts, tax refunds, alimony, unemployment, social security and any other income.

Screen 5. Ira and education expenses such as Ira contributions, student loan interest, college tuition and expenses.

Screen 6. Expenses, business and work related, self employed health insurance, moving, Keogh and other.

Screen 7. Deductions and personal expenses such as medical, real estate, mortgage interest, home equity loan, charitable contributions, alimony you paid, child care, gambling losses, theft and other.

Screen 8. Miscellaneous tax items. These tax items apply to relatively few people. AMT and other misc.

Screen 9. Withholding, Federal income tax withheld, State income tax withheld and future withholding if before end of tax year.

Screen 10. Tax payments you have made or will make for this year.

And now what you’ve been waiting for. The Results! That’s it, you’ll know how much your tax refund will be, so you can make important financial decisions.

Receiving an earlier refund is not guaranteed to all who file their taxes early. Signed into law in December, the 2006 Tax Relief and Health Care Act extend certain tax deductions past their previous expiration dates.

This is bad news for early filers who qualify for those deductions, because they will receive their return later than they expected.

Even though it’s only a small percentage, those people who file for state and local sales tax deductions, higher education tuition and fees deductions, and the $250 educator expense deductions are most affected, said the IRS.

Those three deductions were claimed by only 930,000 filers by Feb. 1 last year.

In 2006, 11.2 million people filed for sales tax deduction, 4.7 million filed for the tuition and fees deduction, and 3.5 million filed for the educator expense deduction.

Sadly, most people tend to wait until February to file their tax returns.

Filing electronically cuts down on time and paperwork, and decreases the possibility of making a mistake. However, while e-filing is also easier and cheaper, the do-it-yourself e-filer must double check their math for errors.

It is also very important to compare your W2 to your last pay stub, and the number on this year’s return to the previous year’s return. One of the common mistakes usually made by taxpayers is have the wrong Social Security number on their tad return.

Whether you file yourself or have a professional file for you, always keep tax return-related records. Put everything in a file, Hammonds said. Organization is the key.

In the same way the extended deductions work, if you want to get interest on dividends, it is advisable that individuals who have brokerage accounts to wait until the first week of March to file Form 1099.

Please consult a tax professional or log on to the IRS website at irs.gov or by calling 1-1-800-829-3676 for more information

One among many ways you lose money in non-indexed mutual funds is the tax trap. You may have to pay taxes even when your mutual fund loses money! To many people this is painfully unexpected. Here is how this counter intuitive event occurs. By law, mutual funds do not pay taxes. Instead, they pass on those taxes to you, the shareholder in the mutual fund. If the fund manager sells a stock for more than it cost the fund a profit is generated. This profit is called a capital gain and it is taxable. Capital gains are taxed at your ordinary income tax rate which is between 28% and 38.6% for most investors if the fund held the stock for less than a year. If the stock was held for more than a year, in other words long term, the tax is 20%.

There are a couple of reasons why mutual funds pay taxes. If the fund does poorly investors will bail out. The mutual fund has to sell off stock to pay the investors who leave. Even if you are not one of the investors jumping ship you will still have to pay your portion of the capital gains tax.

Dividends are another reason that taxes come due. Dividends are taxed at the per-share earnings distributions that companies make out of their quarterly earnings. Many investors instruct their mutual fund to automatically reinvest their dividends. This means that the fund uses the money to buy more shares in your name. Even if you reinvest and never get a penny of the dividends, they are subject to tax, according to the IRS.

Another reason you may get a tax bill is due to high turnover. Turnover measures the frequency with which a fund manger buys and sells shares, sometimes in search of the next high-flying stock or undervalued stock on the verge of taking off. According to Lipper, the average fund in 2000 showed a turnover rate of 122%. This means that the entire portfolio changed between January and December, and 22% of the replacement shares changed as well.

This is the ultimate case of account churning! You simply have to understand that when you buy into a fund you are buying into a tax liability. The best way to avoid these taxes altogether is to restrict your purchases of mutual funds to your 401(k) and try to only buy indexed mutual funds such as the Vanguard 500 (FINX).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Scott Brown, Ph.D., a.k.a. “The Wallet Doctor”, is a successful futures trader, real estate investor, and stock investor. Dr. Brown holds a Ph.D. in finance from the University of South Carolina. His 1998 articles in Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities were prophetic in predicting an impending stock market crash. He has helped many people become profitable investors by teaching them to look out over many years to spot stocks that are low and primed for rise in the new bull market. His second article met with approval by Dr. Bob Shiller of Yale University. Dr. Shiller is the economist that Alan Greenspan most highly regards who coined the term “Irrational Exuberance.” In 1998 he shouted to the world to “get out” of the stock market but now he is shouting to everyone that it is time to “get in!” The Wallet Doctor is not only sought after for investment advice and coaching in stock investing but also in futures trading and real estate investing. Visit Dr. Brown’s site at http://www.BonanzaBase.com or sign up for his investment tips at http://www.WalletDoctor.com

A one-time only refund is being offered on federal tax returns this year for anyone who has had any kind of phone service since March 1, 2003. The Telephone Excise Tax refund reimburses taxpayers on a tax paid for long distance telephone use, whether they used a land line or a cell phone.

The tax had been in existence for over a century on all long distance calls. The tax was based on how far away the call was that you were making; the further the distance of the call from your location, the greater the tax.

Telephone companies no longer take distance into account in calling charges, and the tax is obsolete. The federal government is offering a one-time refund over a 41-month period.

Individuals have the option of being refunded the actual amount paid, if they retained their telephone bills, or taking the standard refund. Those choosing the actual amount paid must include form 8913 Credit for Federal Telephone Excise Tax Paid with their return. Federal returns have an additional line for taxpayers who are claiming the standard refund.

The standard refund is based on the number of exemptions claimed on the 2006 income tax return. A $30 refund for a single person, $40 for those claiming two exemptions, $50 for three exemptions, and $60 for those taxpayers claiming four or more exemptions. A new form, the 1040EZ-T, is specifically intended for those who would not otherwise file a tax return to request a refund of the Telephone Excise Tax.

Businesses and non-profit organizations are allowed to estimate their refund based on two months of telephone bills, utilizing a formula provided by the IRS. They also have the option of being refunded the actual amount paid.

The government ceased collecting the tax on August 1, 2006. Refunds are being offered on taxes paid for telephone service after February 28, 2003.

I am constantly amazed when I speak with people and they tell me they are still waiting for tax refund checks after six or twelve months. If you are in this position, you may be in for a surprise.

Still Waiting For Your Tax Refund?

Preparing and filing taxes is one of those things almost nobody likes to do. Much like spring cleaning, it is something to be done and then forgotten about. If you are due a tax refund, however, this can result in some problems. This is particularly true with the IRS.

Every year, the Internal Revenue Service reports that it cannot get refund checks to a large number of taxpayers. No, it does not try to hide this fact. It actually will publish news releases and contact media outlets to get the world out. This year, the IRS is trying to find almost 100,000 people that it has refund checks for. The total dollar figure for outstanding refunds is over $92 million dollars. That is almost a grand per person the IRS cannot find.

Why can’t the IRS find you? Well, there can be a variety of reasons. The most common is you have moved since filing your tax return, but did not tell the IRS. As a result, the IRS sent the refund check to your old address. Another situation that can arise occurs when a marriage happens and the IRS is not notified of any new address or name change. Contrary to what you may have heard, the IRS does not keep tabs on you every day. If you move, you have to let the agency know.

If you are still waiting for a tax refund check, you should get proactive. You can go to the IRS web site and use the “Where is my Refund?” link on the home page to find out the status of your refund. You can also pick up the phone and call the agency at 800-829-1954.

Listen, we all hate preparing and filing our taxes. If you have suffered through the process and generated a refund, don’t lose it. Take action and contact the IRS to get your money today.

The Roth IRA is the simplest, easiest, most effective tax-free savings plan imaginable. Not only do your earnings accrue on a tax-free basis, but withdrawals are free of taxes as well.

If you’re confused about the myriad of retirement plans that you have to choose from, let me make it easy for you. The Roth IRA is probably going to be your best bet, hands down. It’s more flexible than a 401(k) or a traditional IRA and it will probably allow you to accumulate more money for retirement.

I can think of one exception where the 401(k) may be better. If your employer matches your contributions, you probably want to contribute to a 401(k). But contribute to it only to the point that your employer matches your contribution. Beyond that, put your money in a Roth IRA. And even if your employer matches your 401(k) contribution, it is usually the case that you have to stay with the company for a certain number of years before you actually own your account. If you don’t plan to be there that long, then opt for the Roth IRA.

Maximum Contributions

For 2005, the contribution limit to a Roth IRA is $4,000 if you’re under age 50 and $4,500 if you’re 50 over. However, there are proposals before Congress to raise that limitation or remove the limitation altogether.

Income Ceiling

If you’re single and your adjusted gross income is higher than $95,000, or $150,000 if you’re married, the amount you can contribute to a Roth IRA begins to decrease. It reaches zero for incomes of $110,000 for single people and $160,000 for those who are married. But there are proposals to remove the ceiling, making all Americans eligible.

Tax Advantage

The big attraction to the Roth IRA is the tax break it gives you. If you contribute to a 401(k) or a traditional IRA, you get a tax deduction in the year of your contribution, which reduces your taxes for that year. And you won’t pay taxes on interest, dividends, or capital gains while you’re working. But you will pay taxes when you go to withdraw the money at retirement.

With a Roth, you don’t get the tax reduction on contributions, but after that it’s completely tax-free. You never pay taxes on interest, dividends, or capital gains — not while it’s growing, not when you make withdrawals. Never. That’s a huge benefit.

No Distribution Requirements

Remember that a 401(k) account and a traditional IRA are just tax-deferred, not tax-free. The government wants its money when you make withdrawals. So you are required to start making withdrawals at age 70 1/2. But since Roth IRAs are tax-free, the government doesn’t care how long you let it grow. So if you don’t need the money you can just keep letting your account grow, free of taxes, for as long as you want.

Early Withdrawals

Withdrawals from a traditional IRA or an employer-sponsored retirement plan before the age of 59 1/2 could led to taxes and penalties. That may not be true with a Roth IRA. You can withdraw the money that you contributed at any time without penalty. However, the earnings on your contribution may be subject to tax and penalties. So a Roth also has an advantage over other retirement plans if you plan to retire early since you can first remove your contributions without tax or penalty.

If you appreciate the tremendous advantages of tax-free savings and investing, the Roth IRA is hard to beat. Do you have one yet?

Copyright Larry Holmes

Larry Holmes invites you to visit http://www.smart-money-report.com/
Your common sense guide for financial and investment success.

You can utilize your tax refund for quite a few purposes - some irrelevant, some important. But using a tax refund for the payment of your debt is perhaps the wisest decision you can take wit it. Clear your debt now, and buy the new car later.

The typical American will get a refund of about $2200 this year. It is not at all an insignificant check and for many laborious individuals, it is nothing less than a windfall. It also means that the majority of tax payers are not enough sufficient money held from their salaries. Nonetheless, a check for about two thousand dollars is a good amount, and perhaps all individuals plan how to spend it even before they get it on hand.

Let’s say you have not spent additional cash on a refund application loan. Then you will probably get two weeks to wait before the refund makes an appearance in your mailbox or bank account. During those couple of weeks you will gain sufficient time to review how you can or should spend that money.

Do you know what you should do with that cash? You should use it to clear some debts.

Well, that’s not very glamorous when there is a plasma television to purchase, bring home a sport utility vehicle, or enjoy a holiday in Las Vegas. But in the long term, the debt clearance will be a better judgment than anything else.

If the payment of your debt is still making you frown, then there are other important avenues you can explore:

Use it for your mortgage - each extra cent your pay for your loan principal saves your money in interest in the future. When you velar away more money thus, the sooner you can get a full claim on your house.

Utilize it in the improvement of your home. Renovating a bathroom or a kitchen can be a very good idea because these redecorations can get the best return on the money spent when the house is sold. A fresh coat of paint or new countertops can give nay dated kitchen a modern look and this can be accomplished without spending thousands of dollars.

There are quite a few significant and wise things that you can accomplish with your tax refund that will go a ling way, than splurging it on some new gizmo or a holiday that will go away from memory in a couple of years. The first things to do with that money is clear away your debts, since it helps in the reduction of the amount of cash that you have to dish out each month in interest.

Taxpayers can either be small-time investors working in various sectors or big investors like businessmen who have a big source of income. The aim of both of them is to minimize tax payments. Tax planning entails investing in the right schemes at the right time.

You are a successful investor if you know what are the objectives of your tax planning, and you further go ahead realizing your objectives by carefully planning in the right schemes. Some of the common and most practical investment schemes include:

A. Not Very Famous Category of Investment among Investors.

1. Tax-saving mutual funds.

2. Bank Investment schemes.

These investment schemes are at extreme ends of the risk-return spectrum.

B. Very famous category of investment among investors.

1. Infrastructure bonds.

2. Private Investment schemes.

These investment schemes fall under the purview of fixed income instruments, and bypass the unnecessary tax burden.

Classification of Tax Paying Categories

Age is considered as the standard criteria for classification by the investment community. It is generally felt that low age yields maximum risk factors owing to less experience, whereas high age yields less risk, because one is more experienced.

Following are the broad categories of listing taxpayers according to their age:

A. 25-35 years of age - If you fall within this age group, then you are young, and may or may not be married, be with or without kids. If you are the only breadwinner of the family then getting insured is the most feasible option that you should think of. This is because if anything happens to you, your family will be in a comfortable position to sustain their living in your absence. A tax-saving mutual fund (ELSS) fits well into your risk profile and you can avail investing option of up to $10,000 limit. You can also invest in property on a home loan and get a tax benefit on the same under Section 199.

B. 35-45 years of age - At this age, tax-saving funds, having $ 10,000 limit (for claiming tax benefits), are a very practical option. This is the age where you plan for your future.

C. Over 45 years of age - At this age you are within the age of retirement, so your entire focus should be on pension policy. In addition, your investments need to be more retirement-oriented.

Thus, with this piece of information at your disposal, you can surely earn rich benefits by saving your income to the maximum.

Eunice Wallace writes for niched content sites like these:
Articulos Gratis and Spanish Articles and Natural Health.

I was making a presentation as part of a panel at a regional meeting of a contact center association a few weeks ago, when a fellow in the audience made an obscure point, and then followed it with a quick advertisement:

“I consult, too; I just wanted to mention that!” he declared to the group.

“How nice for you,” I recall thinking, and if you believe you’re actually going to earn anyone’s business by crowing like this, you’re deluded.

But his self-promotion is mild when compared to some that I’ve withstood while speaking from the platform and delivering seminars.

I’ve had people almost literally hijack the sessions by positioning themselves as competing experts. Repeatedly, they’ll confuse their fellow audience members by contradicting what I’m trying to teach them.

For the price of a cheap seminar admission, these blowhards believe that they can farm the people that I’ve so arduously (and often expensively) assembled, and it’s outrageous.

While there are some aversive communication techniques for discouraging them within the sessions, some of these souls are such committed thieves that they won’t take hints and shut up, so they must be dealt with more severity and finality.

I suggest, no matter where you’re working, that you take precautions and retain certain privileges so you can control your sessions.

(1) Always negotiate the right to boot out anyone who is overtly hostile towards you or anyone in the group, or who interferes with the learning process. This means, if you have a hijacker on your hands, you would say, “I’d like to discuss this with you at the break, so let’s hold your comment until then, ok?” Then, five or so minutes later, call a quick break, a short one, if necessary, and tell the person his excessive participation is hurting the session or is unduly self-serving. If he fails to be contrite and take a vow of silence, inquire: “May I ask you to leave with a full refund?” If he declines, say, “I insist,” with a smile.

(2) Contact “Security,” whether it’s the university police or the staff at the hotel that serve as bouncers. Of course, you want to cue them in advance that only RARELY will you have to invoke their services, but it can and does happen, so please be alert and be accessible.

(3) Make sure to make friends with others in the group that will come to your aid, if necessary, until Security arrives. Select one or two individuals before your sessions begin to chat with for a few minutes. Later, they’ll step up to help you if you’ve connected with them, and they’ll be less likely to join an all-out “mutiny.”

(4) Don’t take the threats to your sessions personally. As a faculty member at various universities I have received occasional notices from the counseling folks that remind teachers that at any given time, at least five percent of our classes would consist of people on the edge, undergoing huge life stresses, and these folks could become disruptive, or worse. We were asked to proactively identify them, under promise of anonymity.

(5) Know your limitations. I’ve been trained by the Navy in techniques for defusing hostile participants, and they’re useful, but I’m not Superman. It is better to act swiftly to get participants back on course when they veer off, and if you cannot, then make the decision to temporarily steer your program to the next port, where they can be disengaged.

There’s no way you’re going to act heroically in this sorry circumstance, and no matter what you do, your evaluations and “after-market” will probably be torpedoed.

All you can hope for is to retain a certain amount of decorum and salvage time so you can do what you’re supposed to do: instruct those that are there to learn.

HSAs have a “triple” tax advantage from a federal tax standpoint. Individuals receive full tax advantages for HSAs on their Federal Income Tax return (or through a salary reduction program in certain employer-sponsored settings) regardless of particular state’s tax treatment of HSAs.

An account beneficiary may take an above-the-line deduction (i.e. the amounts may be used to determine the individual’s adjusted gross income before any itemized or standard deductions are considered) for contributions made to an HSA during any month of the individual’s taxable year that the individual is eligible. The permitted deduction cannot exceed the sum of the “monthly limitations” for such months. In 2006, the monthly limitation for any month is 1/12th of the following amounts:

- For those with single coverage on the first day of the month, the lesser of the annual deductible under the HDHP or $2,700.

- For those with family coverage on the first day of the month, the lesser of the annual deductible under the HDHP or $5,450.

Funds in an HSA grow on a tax-deferred basis, and distributions from an HSA are tax-free so long as the funds are used for qualified (as defined by Section 213d of the IRC) health care expenses.

How does state tax treatment of HSAs differ from federal tax treatment?

HSAs (and the enabling legislation) are federal. As a federal program, each state decides whether to: a) comply with the federal guidelines, or; b) establish their own state guidelines regarding the tax treatment of HSAs. As a result, some income that may be tax-free at the federal level may not be tax-free at the state level.

Many states harmonize their tax treatment with the federal government. Those states include Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, New York, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Utah and Vermont.

Other states, however, treat HSAs differently from the federal government, at least for tax purposes. The following states have indicated that legislation must be passed at the state level before HSAs receive a tax benefit at the state level: California, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Washington DC, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Tennessee. New Hampshire and Tennessee do not tax income, but do tax dividends and interest. Alabama has not indicated their position regarding state-level tax benefits for HSAs.
Finally, some states are not affected by federal income tax guidance vis-�-vis HSAs: those states include Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

Kurt Stammberger is VP, Marketing at Healthia Inc. Healthia provides integrated comparison-shopping information on health care products and services, doctors and health insurance plans to empower the drive towards Consumer-Driven Health Care.