Single taxpayers can exclude up to $250,000 of capital gains on the sale of a home, and married taxpayers filing jointly can exclude $500,000.
Taxpayers are eligible for the exclusion if they have owned and used a home as their main home for a period aggregating at least two years out of the five years prior to its date of sale. The exclusion is allowed each time that you sell a primary residence but no more than once every two …
To qualify for Social Security retirement benefits, you must generally have “40 quarters of coverage.” This means that you must have been working for 10 years and earning at least the minimum income (adjusted annually for inflation) required to receive a quarter of coverage.
For example, in 2017, you can receive one quarter of coverage for each $1,300 of earnings, up to the maximum of four quarters of credit per year. Thus, the maximum amount of income needed to earn …
Although the IRS typically allows people to gift no more than $14,000 a year (2017 figure) to another person without a federal gift tax, you can contribute up to $70,000 to a 529 plan in one year. A special tax law allows you to aggregate five years of the allowable $14,000 annual gift-tax exclusion (5 x $14,000 = $70,000) to jump-start a 529 plan.
While you will not be able to make any further gifts to the 529 plan for …
In the early days of 529 plans, once you selected an investment option within a college savings plan, you could not change that option. Only new contributions could be invested in different investment options.
Under current rules, however, the IRS allows you to change your investment options in a college savings plan once every calendar year.
For more information, see http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/intro529.htm.
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A consumer reporting company can report most accurate negative information for seven years and bankruptcy information for up to 10 years.
There is no time limit on reporting information about criminal convictions; information reported in response to your application for a job that pays more than $75,000 a year; and information reported because you’ve applied for more than $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance.
Information about a lawsuit or an unpaid judgment against you can be reported for seven …
No. You cannot split your refund between a direct deposit and a paper check. According to IRS tax refund procedures, you can either opt for the safety, security, and speed of direct deposit to one, two, or three different accounts, or you can request your refund via a paper check, but you cannot combine the two refund methods.
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You are talking about an IPO (initial public offering). You should be able to get information (e.g., company research) from a stockbroker. Also, visit an online search engine (e.g., Bing or Google), type in the company name, and see what information you get. If there is an address or toll-free telephone number for the company’s “shareholder relations” department, call it. As for purchasing an IPO stock, you may or may not be able to buy shares directly from the company. …
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guarantees that bank deposits up to $250,000 are safe. All of your single accounts at the same FDIC-insured bank are added together, and the total is insured for up to $250,000. For retirement savings accounts, the limit for FDIC insurance is also $250,000. All of your self-directed retirement savings accounts at the same insured bank are added together and the total is insured for up to $250,000.
This FDIC fact sheet explains the maximum …
A refund antipation loan or RAL is a method of receiving a Federal income tax refund sooner than it would come to the taxpayer from the IRS. Other common names for this type of transaction are: Fast Cash Refunds, Rapid Refunds, Express Money, and Instant Refunds.
All of these common names are misleading because they are not refunds; they are actually high interest loans.Taxpayers are paying high fees to borrow their own refund money. The IRS has become quite efficient …
Legislation went into effect July 1, 1999, requiring automatic termination of PMI when a homeowner has paid at least 20 percent of the home’s value for loans made after July 29, 1999. High-risk borrowers (such as those with poor credit histories and reduced documentation loans) may have to make PMI payments until they reach 50 percent equity. If you believe that you have reached the 20% home equity mark and your PMI payments have not been discontinued, speak to your …
