Annuity saves assets for other spouse when one is faced with extensive nursing home care. Long-term nursing home care is a necessity for nearly 1.4 million Americans, but it is an expensive necessity. A commonly held belief is that Medicare covers the cost of nursing home care; however, outside of skilled nursing care and rehabilitation,

If you sell your primary home/residence for a gain, it is not always taxable.  If you use the home as your main home for at least two out of the five years before the date of sale, the gain can be excluded up to $250,000 for individuals and $500,000 for married taxpayers. If the gain

In Chief Counsel Advice (CCA), IRS has concluded that a taxpayer’s failure to make the election under to treat all rental real estate activities as one activity doesn’t affect the application of the passive activity loss (PAL) real estate professional test. The implications of this are profound for  real estate professionals. The IRS used to disqualify

No bankruptcy exemption for inherited IRAs. A unanimous Supreme Court has held that inherited IRAs do not qualify for a bankruptcy exemption, i.e., they are not protected from creditors in bankruptcy. Under the Bankruptcy Code, a debtor may exempt amounts that are both (1) “retirement funds,” and (2) exempt from income tax under one of several

Same-sex couples who were married in a state that accepts same-sex marriages are allowed to file a joint return with the IRS. The ruling with the IRS for couples to file jointly include filing status, claiming personal and dependency exemptions, taking the standard deduction, employee benefits, contributing to an IRA and claiming the earning income

More enforcement of responsible person penalty likely. If an employer fails to properly pay over its payroll taxes, the IRS can seek to collect a trust fund recovery penalty equal to 100% of the unpaid taxes from a person who is responsible for collecting and paying over payroll taxes and who willfully fails to do so.

 S corporations now provide business owners with a unique opportunity to minimize earnings subject to both the recently imposed additional tax on net investment income and increased employment taxes. The two major pieces of tax reform legislation that went into effect in 2013, S corporations emerge as the entity of choice for many closely held

Baby boomers have a new retirement option     The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday unveiled new regulationsdesigned to bolster income security among retirees. These are making annuities eligible over later years to defer payments from them. The Obama administration is loosening restrictions on longevity annuities to make them compatible with 401(k) and

Louisiana requires contractors to apply for and receive a contractor’s license. If you do     residential work the minimum amount is $10,000 in your business. This is most easily solved with depositing 10,000 in a bank account and bringing a copy of the bank statement into us. It would be smart to set up

President Obama declared he wanted to set up another saving vehicle for people who were in low income groups and who did not have access to savings. This will be a myRAs. Aspects will include: … As little as $25 to open an account. … Add to savings through regular payroll direct deposit—$5 or more