Pennsylvania law provides that the court shall not appoint as guardian of the estate of a minor the parent of the minor, except that a parent can be appointed as a co-guardian with another co-guardian. A guardian of the person is a sort of substitute parent. For so long as the ward (the minor child… Read More
Do you have minor children? Who will take care of the children if you die? This is the number one reason for you to make a will. Michael Jackson left a will in which he nominated his mother, Katherine Jackson, as guardian of his three children, Prince Michael Junior, aged 12, Paris Michael Katherine, 11,… Read More
Class C funds are like Class B funds except that the back-end load is lower than found in Class B shares (typically around one percent) and is eliminated in a much shorter time, typically a year. However, their management and 12 b-1 fees are higher than those of Class A shares. C shares tend to… Read More
Mutual Funds that have a “load,” that is a charge associated with investing in the fund, are generally sold in three classes: A, B and C. They differ in the commission the broker is paid by the buyer for the sale, when it is paid, and the size and duration of annual fees taken by… Read More
Here are your remaining tips on How to Choose a Tax Preparer: Make sure the tax preparer is accessible. Questions can arise at any time. Make sure you will be able to contact the tax preparer after the return has been filed, even after the April due date. Questions can arise several years after you… Read More
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” – Albert Einstein According to the IRS more than 80% of Americans use a tax preparer or tax software to prepare their income tax returns. As tax laws become more complicated, taxpayers need help from professionals to help prepare their returns. A taxpayer… Read More
On January 1, 2014 about 50 tax-reducing provisions expired. Tax extender bills to reinstate these provisions for 2014 have been sitting in Congress all year. On December 16, 2014, Congress finally passed the tax extenders bill. Here we are in December, and Congress has now acted to extend the expired provisions for one more year,… Read More
After identifying and adding up all available medical expenses and subtracting 7.5% of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), the next step is to add other itemized deductions from the categories we discussed last week. Here are the remaining categories: Gifts to charity. A charitable contribution is a donation or gift to, or for the use of,… Read More
For the past two weeks we’ve focused on medical expenses, especially for senior taxpayers, that are deductible and may well make a better tax result for those seniors to itemize their deductions instead of taking the standard deduction. Many senior taxpayers claim the standard deduction on their annual income tax return instead of itemizing deductions.… Read More
Many senior taxpayers claim the standard deduction on their annual income tax return instead of itemizing deductions. Often seniors pay little or no mortgage interest, and they usually don’t owe much for state and local income and property taxes. Most of the common itemized deductions don’t add up to much for seniors. Add to that… Read More