Tax Efficient Investing

Tax Efficient Investing

Updated and expanded for 2012. It’s no surprise that taxes are going up next year. How much? No one really knows exactly, but at worst case Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will completely disappear. If Congress does not act, the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year. 2013 has been rightfully been called taxmageddon.

When Should You Hire Someone Else To Do Your Taxes?

Taxes

One of the things I hear a lot is this: I do my own taxes. And, to tell the truth, I did my own taxes for years as well. It didn’t seem to make sense to pay someone else to do what I, in all honesty, could do on my own. And, really, it wasn’t [...]

Sam Zell on the Zuckerberg Tax

Sam-Zell

Sam Zell, the real estate tycoon, was on CNBC this morning. Sam commented on the New York Times “Zuckerberg Tax” editorial. In case you aren’t aware; it’s been reported Mark Zuckerberg will owe $2 Billion in taxes, once Facebook goes public. The editorial states assets should be taxed mark to market to capture taxes “missed” [...]

What’s Wrong With Mitt Romney Paying 14% in Taxes?

mitt-romney

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney today released a summary of his 2010 taxes. He paid 14% (technically 13.9%) in taxes that year. The Wall Street Journal reports, the Romney family made $21.6 million, paid $3 million in federal taxes taxes, and also donated $3 million to charities.

Are Those Long Term Capital Gains, or Short Term Gains?

Taxes

One of the realities of our current tax system is that we are required to pay taxes when we log gains from our investments. So, if you sell a stock, you will need to pay taxes on the gains. The good news is that you don’t have to pay taxes on this type of income [...]

Perry Tax Plan: Choose Your Tax Rate

rick-perry

Nearly everyone agrees that something needs to be done about the current tax code. The current tax code is an unwieldy beast, riddled with loopholes and resulting in a significant number of Americans not paying taxes at all, as well as a large number of Americans not paying what they “should.”

What Does Netflix and Taxes Have In Common?

Netflix

Netflix (NFLX) has been a very successful DVD, and net streaming video service. Unfortunately Netflix didn’t follow the golden rule “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and screwed the pooch. Netflix announced last week they “unexpectedly” lost more subscribers than they anticipated. This caused their stock price to tank last week, and lost over [...]

Being “Green” Should Mean A Flat Tax

green_tech

Our government is pushing for many green technology initiatives. In this post, I’m not going to debate about if our government should be pushing green technology. What I am going to state is if our government truly wants our society to go green; it should remove our complex tax structure, and create a flat tax. [...]

All About Taxes

Taxes

While everyone is hurrying up to complete their taxes before April 18th, I thought I would give an interesting discussion on the topic. Tax Freedom Day occurred April 12th this year. So congratulations as you pay your taxes this year. More than likely you have earned enough this year to pay for your taxes for [...]